Investigating Factors Negatively Influencing IT Value: the Role of Organizational Integration

Abstract

The literature has extensively debated over the potential organizational benefits of IT resources. Researchers agree on the fact that IT resources generate value under the moderating actions of contextual organizational factors. Several studies on organizational benefits of IT resources addressed the value generation process, fewer targets the role of organizational factors in such process. This paper analyses the evidences of three cases in which IT investments failed in delivering value to the organization, identified five organizational factors (specialisation, lack of formal communication, lack of formal ownership, different reporting lines, and lack of horizontal coordination mechanisms) antecedents of organizational integration, and a process that explains how slack IT resources increase the complexity of the IT infrastructure and worsens IT managerial capabilities in a vicious circle.