ABSTRACT
Information systems research and managerial practice have long emphasized the importance of alignment or fit between IS and business. It is widely acknowledged that organizations that align the strategies, priorities, processes, and structures of the IS function with those of the business can garner superior business value from their information systems/information technology (IS/IT). However, firms continue to find it difficult to achieve alignment, primarily because of insufficient top management awareness of IT, uncoordinated and isolated strategic and IS planning processes, ineffective or powerless IT departments, and barriers to implementation and use arising from political, financial, or technical constraints. What are the key themes and ideas in extant business-IS alignment research? Given developments in the current and emerging business and IT environments, what are the emerging, understudied, and less understood areas? This chapter synthesizes existing knowledge about business-IS alignment by reviewing the IS alignment literature. It further extends it to identify understudied alignment-related issues. In doing so, it suggests for researchers, important areas for future investigation, and for practitioners, a framework for driving, prioritizing, and shaping business-IS alignment efforts.
