Business IT Alignment A Practical Research Approach 2014 Journal of High Technology Management Research

Journal of High Technology Management Research 25 (2014) 132147
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of High Technology Management Research
Business-IT Alignment: A practical research approach

Suwatana Charoensuk a,, Winai Wongsurawat b, Do Ba Khang c
a
b
c
School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
College of Management, Mahidol University, 69 Vipawadee Rangsit Road Samsennai, Phayathai District, Bangkok 10400, Thailand
Faculty of Economics and Commerce, Hoa Sen University, 8 Nguyen Van Trang, D.1, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Available online 28 August 2014

Keywords:
Business-Information Technology Alignment
Strategic alignment
Hotel management
Information technology management
Strategic management
Structural Equation Modeling
a b s t r a c t
The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the impact of Business-Information Technology Alignment, or BIA, on organizations and to revisit the BIA antecedents by using data from hotel
sector of the service industry.
The research model was developed based on the literature and inputs from the hotel industry and
IT experts, using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique in data analysis, and data
from phone interviews that were conducted with both business and IT personnel from 3 to 5
star hotels in Thailand.
We found that Business-IT Alignment does have a positive relationship with organizational performance. Shared domain knowledge was found to have the highest relationship with BusinessIT Alignment while IT management sophistication had the least impact, but in a negative direction,
while organizational size was found to be a moderator. Other BIA antecedents were effective communication, IT operational and implementation success, and planning sophistication.
This study developed a model that integrates the alignment between the strategic and operational
levels which offers a holistic view of BIA, different from previous studies that considered only one
or the other level. Secondly, we cross verify the antecedents from the literature and actual practice
by interviewing experts in the industry. Finally, we revisited measurements and relationships
among the constructs so that the model is up-to-date and applicable to the current business
environment.
2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Business-Information Technology Alignment or BIA has been proven by many researchers to help organizations in a variety of
ways, such as by maximizing the return on Information Technology (IT) investment (Avison, Jones, Powell, & Wilson, 2004;
Kashanchi & Toland, 2006); helping to identify the true value of IT (Byrd, Lewis, & Bryan, 2006; Kohli & Devaraj, 2004; Tallon,
20078; Tallon & Kraemer, 2007); and helping to improve IT usage (Beimborn, Franke, Wagner, & Weitzel, 2007; Wagner,
Beimborn, Franke, & Weitzel, 2006). BIA was also found to moderate the relationship between IT investment and rm performance
(Byrd et al., 2006) which suggests that rms can increase their performance without necessarily increasing their IT investment but
by instead increasing the alignment between business and IT.
It is possible to assess the degree or level of alignment in order to make it more tangible. For example, Luftman (2000) assessed the
alignment processes in organizations and proposed an alignment maturity scale composed of these ve levels: the initial/ad hoc
Corresponding author at: 53/138, Moo 1, Banklang, Muang, Pathumthani 12000, Thailand. Tel.: + 66 81 843 2344; fax: + 66 2 95 95 365.
E-mail addresses: Suwatana.C@gmail.com (S. Charoensuk), winai.won@mahidol.ac.th (W. Wongsurawat), khang.doba@hoasen.edu.vn (D.B. Khang).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hitech.2014.07.002
1047-8310/ 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
S. Charoensuk et al. / Journal of High Technology Management Research 25 (2014) 132147
133
process; the committed process; the established focused process; the improved/managed process; and the optimized process. Weiss
and Anderson (2004) adapted Daft's (2001) model to an alignment value matrix that considered two axes: the level of integration
between business and IT, which represent the organizational management aspect; and the value that IT contributes to business,
which represents the system's complexity aspect. These two axes can reect the alignment prole of an organization, which consists
of the operational resource prole, the strategic resource prole, and the strategic weapon prole.
These two examples attempt to identify the level of BIA to show organizations what they should do to improve their alignment
(Luftman, 2000, p. 20) so as to obtain the optimal benets from BIA. Once the actual BIA level, or stage, has been identied, organizations can then decide whether to remain at the same alignment level or try to achieve a better alignment.
2. Problem statements and research objectives

To increase the alignment level, an organization must be able to rst identify, and then understand, the BIA enablers or antecedents. Only then will it be able to focus on the most critical items that can dramatically improve the BIA. An ability to recognize what
causes BIA can reduce the risk of alignment management failure, which is mostly caused by an inefcient management of the
organization's resources (Weiss & Anderson, 2004) and which in turn, wastes precious time and money from effort to resolve ITrelated problems (Chan, 2002).
This research study aims to clarify theoretical conicts in the literature and update the ndings regarding recent technology. The
key question that we aim answer is What are the antecedents of BIA as of today? This question is not new to this research area. However, the answer can change over time due to the continuous development of new technology and changes in the business environment. We revisited past ndings on BIA antecedents, as well as gathered new information from actual business practices so as to
formulate an appropriate model. To be sustainable, organizations need to be adaptable enough to respond to their current environment (Weiss & Anderson, 2004, p. 9). This is why a study on BIA antecedents can become a continuous study.
Based on the problem statement, we developed three research objectives. The rst one was to revisit the impact of BIA on organizational performance but consider it in the context of its current environment. The second objective was to identify the antecedents of
BIA, and then, the last one, was to verify the different impacts the antecedents had on BIA.
3. What's new in Business-IT Alignment research

Business-IT Alignment, or BIA, can be dened as applying information technology (IT) in an appropriate and timely way, in harmony with business strategies, goals and needs (Luftman, 2000, p. 3; Luftman, Papp, & Brier, 1999, p. 3). Alternately, it can also be
explained in terms of linkages between business and IT at the strategic or planning level, which is the degree to which the IT mission,
objectives, and plans support, and are supported by, the business mission, objectives, and plan. (Chan & Reich, 2007; Chung, Rainer, &
Lewis, 2003; Reich & Benbasat, 1996, p. 56; Reich & Benbasat, 2000, p. 82; Tan & Gallupe, 2006).
Despite the above denitions, BIA research varies in terms of focus and context. For example, alignment has been studied at the
strategic level (Cragg, King, & Hussin, 2002; Ke & Kalika, 2005; Luftman, 2000; Silva, Figueroa, & Gonzalez-Reinhart, 2007); at the
operational level (Beimborn, Schlosser, & Weitzel, 2009); at the IT project level (Jenkin & Chan, 2010); and by comparing the alignment between organizational structure and IT structure (Chan, 2002; Croteau, Solomon, Raymond, & Bergeron, 2001; Gordon &
Gordon, 2000).
Early studies on Business-IT Alignment tended to focus on the alignment between business strategies and IT strategies (Beimborn
et al., 2007). The reasons for going in this direction could come from the assumption that once the strategies were aligned, the structure would then follow. In addition, some case studies found that alignment at the strategic level was considered more important than
at the operational one because the management was expecting a greater return from the strategic level than from the operational
level (Chan, 2002).
For this study, Business-IT Alignment refers to an alignment between the whole business entity and IT entity from the strategic to
the operational levels. This BIA study focuses on how business and IT can be partnered in managerial practice throughout an
organization's operation. It shows how well people working in organizations can learn and share knowledge with each other, as
well as, be able to use it strategically. The synchronization between the strategic and operation levels does matter to an organization.
Bergeron, Raymond, and Rivard (2004) found that the organization that had no conict in the alignment among business strategies, IT
strategies, business operations and IT operations achieved a better performance. Once the strategic level is set well, the organization
also needs to follow this up at the operational level too. The strategy cannot be effective if it is not able to transform it into a real operation (Feurer, Chaharbaghi, Weber, & Wargin, 2000). Therefore, the ability to execute the strategies at the operational level should
be recognized as equal important. As a consequence, the evaluation of Business-IT Alignment in an organization should also contain
both strategic and operational levels.
This study, then, considers the alignment between business and IT strategies together in the so-called Strategic Business-IT Alignment, or Strategic BIA, together with the alignment between business and IT infrastructure and processes, or the so-called Operational Business-IT Alignment, or Operational BIA. There have been claims that research containing both levels does not yet exist
(Beimborn et al., 2007). This gap led to our research objective to develop a model that could include both Strategic BIA and Operational
BIA to represent the overall BIA of an organization and that could also identify the antecedents of BIA in order to demonstrate their
impact on an organization.
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4. Study approach
Our research used an empirical study approach. The service industry was selected as a target group for the study because its core
service requires a combination of both skilled personnel and effective technology in order to run a successful business. It therefore has
a good combination of human and technology resources, unlike the manufacturing industry which uses technology to replace human
skills in core processes. In the service industry, the role of IT systems is to increase service performance and operational efciency.
The hotel sector, as part of the service industry, was selected as a focus because IT is widely used in hotel operations and marketing.
For example, hotel customers use IT to reserve rooms from the internet, which allows customers to make bookings for their trip from
wherever they are. IT also helps the hotel keep track of customer information which enables staff to impress their customers with individualized attention and service, when the customer returns. IT is also used in the back ofce supply chain management, from pointof-sales to inventory control, allowing hotel staff to manage their food supplies once the customer places an order in a restaurant, for
example. That order, is then sent to the kitchen, and is then used to update an inventory stock list and nally, a purchase order is generated once the stock reaches a minimum level.
In the hotel business, IT (in terms of investment value) was found to improve organizational performance, in such ways as, for example, improving operational efciency, service quality, customer satisfaction, and market expansion (Chathoth, 2007; Daghfous &
Barkhi, 2009; Ham, Kim, & Joeong, 2005; Lam, Cho, & Qu, 2007; O'Connor & Murphy, 2004; Sahadev & Islam, 2005; Sigala, 2003;
Sigala, Airey, Jones, & Lockwood, 2004; Sirirak, Islam, & Khang, 2011). The alignment of IT with business strategies and operations
is recommended to provide optimal value to business (Sigala et al., 2004). The attempt to show why BIA is so important to the
hotel business is relatively new. Organizations will learn how they can obtain additional benets from the current IT environment
without further investing in IT, as well as, learning how they can apply the key factors to improve alignment in their organizations.
5. Research approach and results from literature review

The model was developed in 3 stages: literature review, interviews with experts, and a model formulation. In the literature review,
we summarized items which were proposed as BIA antecedents. Then, we conducted interviews with experts in hotel business and IT
during the model development. The objectives of these interviews were to obtain a better understanding of the business operation, to
understand how IT is applied in business, and to select the items that were relevant to the current environment. Finally, by consolidating information from these two sources, a research model was formulated.
Expert interviews targeted three groups of people: the business staff in operational units, IT staff, and IT solution providers. Respondents had to meet several criteria. First, they had to have been working in the hotel industry for at least 5 years (not necessary
at the same organization). Then they had to have worked at their current organization for at least 2 years and hold at least a
Table 1
A summary of BIA antecedents from literature and interviews.
No.
Antecedents from literature
Antecedents from expert

interviews
Related literature
1.
Shared domain knowledge
Reich and Benbasat (2000), Chan et al. (2006)
2.
3.
Communication between business and IT

Strategic planning processes or planning sophistication
Ability of people to understand

the other business unit
Communication
4.
IT management sophistication (managerial aspects),

IT governance tools
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
IT management sophistication (technical aspects)

IT Service Management (ITSM)
IT infrastructure exibility (connectivity)
IT infrastructure exibility (modularity)
IT infrastructure exibility
(IT personal competency)
IT success (prior IT success, successful IT history,
past implementation success, IT track record)
Business direction
Management support on IT
(This item is considered as part of IT management
sophistication for our study)
Organization size
Organizational structure
Technological structure
External environment uncertainty
Service mindedness of IT
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
Learning from past implementation,

Current IT solution
Management direction
Management leadership
Personal connection
Reich and Benbasat (2000)

Chan et al. (2006), Reich and Benbasat (2000),
Kearns and Sabherwal (20067)
Sabherwal and Kirs (1994) (This study found that this
item is related to BIA.);
Hussin et al. (2002)
(This study found that this item is not related to BIA.);
Beimborn et al. (2009) (The study found that this
item is related to Strategic BIA.)
Hussin et al. (2002)
Kashanchi and Toland (2006)
Chung et al. (2003)
Chung et al. (2003)
Chung et al. (2003)
Chan et al. (2006), Reich and Benbasat (2000)
Reich and Benbasat (2000)
Hussin et al. (2002) (The study found that this item is
not related to Strategic BIA.); Beimborn et al. (2009)
Chan et al. (2006)
Croteau et al. (2001)
Croteau et al. (2001)
Sabherwal and Kirs (1994), Chan et al. (2006)
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supervisory position or higher management job. The respondents also had to be involved in either strategic planning or the IT
planning of the organization. From a total of twelve interviews and a BIA literature review, we can summarize the ndings of BIA
antecedents in Table 1.
6. Model development
We examined each antecedent carefully based on discussions from the literature and expert interviews. Then, we narrowed down
the focus to only the ones that occurred within the organization (or internal factors), which made them applicable to the
organization's management. So the antecedent named external environment uncertainty was excluded from our consideration.
Six items were selected; three of them were common items cited in both expert interviews and the literature: shared domain knowledge, communication, and IT success. The other three were taken from the literature with conicting ndings: planning sophistication; organization size; and IT management sophistication.
To formulate the model, we reviewed each item's relationship with BIA from past studies and considered how they should be
treated in an organization. We also considered structural models from the literature that were applicable to our study. We followed
the Chan, Sabherwal, and Thatcher (2006) approach that included organizational performance as an end result of BIA. Finally, the
proposed model can be drawn as shown in Fig. 1.
Our research model is unique for several reasons. First, we integrated the strategic level alignment with the operational level alignment, by incorporating an alignment framework by Henderson and Venkatraman (1993). Most prior research studies have considered
alignment from either the strategic or the operational point of view, but not from both at the same time. Secondly, we examined the
BIA antecedents that were found in the literature and then tested theory against practice by interviewing expert respondents about
them. Thirdly, we revised the relationships between those antecedents with BIA, as well as their constructs, with theoretical evidence
to support the changes resulting to our proposed model. This helped us explain why ndings in the past sometimes had different results, and were sometimes different from our ndings.
The rest of this article is organized into four more sections: the next section describes each construct in the research model and
includes their relationships with BIA and their measurement items. The BIA is dened, including how to construct it and quantify
it. The renement of the constructs is explained next, which includes the empirical data collection methodology. Analysis of the results
follows, both the structural model and the measurement model, together with additional analysis of the constructs that includes
moderating effects. Finally, a summary discussion of the ndings is presented.
7. Construct details
Shared domain knowledge between the business and IT units can be simply explained as occurring when both units are learning to
understand each other, from each other. As a result, the business people know how to adopt the IT knowledge and vice versa. Nelson
and Cooprider (1996) dened shared domain knowledge as an understanding and appreciation among IS and line managers for the
technology and processes that affect their mutual performance.
Field surveys by Nath (1989), Teo and Ang (1999), and Luftman et al. (1999) found that shared domain knowledge was among the
top ve enablers for Business-IT Alignment. In addition, its relationship with BIA was also consistently proven in most studies,
Communication
H2
Shared Domain
Knowledge
IT Success
H1
H3
Business-IT
Alignment
H4
Organization
Size
H5
Planning
Sophistication
H6
IT Management
Sophistication
Fig. 1. Structural diagram of proposed model.

Based on the model by Chan et al. (2006).
H7
Performance
136
e.g., Reich and Benbasat (2000) and Chan et al. (2006). The challenge for this study was to nd out if it was still a BIA factor. And if so,
was it still an important one or not?
The evaluation of this construct reects the way IT understands the business side, the way business understands the IT side, how IT
appreciates the business's contribution to IT, how business appreciates the IT's contribution to business, how business participates in
key IT activities, and how IT participates in business activities.
H1. Shared domain knowledge is directly related to Business-IT Alignment.
Communication between business and IT was discussed in case studies by Reich and Benbasat (2000), as being one of the factors of
Business-IT Alignment. This was also consistent with this study's results from interviews with both business and IT personnel, who
mentioned it was a key driver of Business-IT Alignment. This in turn, corroborated the results from Al-Alawi, Al-Marzooqi, and
Mohammed (2007), whose study focused on the success factors of knowledge sharing, in which communication was cited as having
a positive relationship with knowledge sharing in an organization. Therefore, communication was proposed to have an indirect
relationship with Business-IT Alignment via the shared domain knowledge.
We further investigated how communication was evaluated in past studies and found that it was considered in terms of the communication channels available in an organization (Reich & Benbasat, 2000). However, even if multiple channels are available, this does
not necessarily guarantee that communication conveyed across units will be effective or of high quality. So we, then, considered communication in terms of the quality of communication between the business and IT units, which should include how communication is
processed when it is sent out and how it should be followed up.
We adapted a communication-quality framework proposed by Vos (2009), as a guideline, which highlighted six key aspects of
communication: communication policy, which must be clearly dened; transparency of the message, which is acknowledged by all
staff; accessibility of the message in the organization, which means anyone can have access to such a message; publicity of the message across the organization, or at least among related units; responsiveness of the message owner, who monitors the results once
communicated; interactive policy to involve staff to develop the communication policy; and, the last one was both effectiveness
and efciency of the communication.
H2. Communication is indirectly related to Business-IT Alignment via shared domain knowledge.
Success of IT: The past achievement of IT implementation was clearly found to have a relationship with BIA (Chan et al., 2006;
Reich & Benbasat, 2000; Teo & Ang, 1999). However, we revised this item because any past success is not meaningful if it does not
also include the organization's present IT achievement. This means IT should consistently and continuously maintain its credibility,
from the past and into the present. The criteria used to evaluate IT success were adapted from a study by Thomas and Fernndez
(2008) that identied the success factors of IT projects by looking at three aspects: the project management aspect, which is an ability
to manage IT projects within a budget and timeline; the technical aspect, which is an ability to deliver high quality work that meet user
requirements; and the business aspect, which is an ability to meet the business requirements.
H3. IT success is directly related to Business-IT Alignment.
Organization size refers to how large the organization is, which reects the complexity of management in the organization. There
have however, been conicting ndings, as Chan et al. (2006) found when they discovered that organization size is related to BIA in a
business organization, but not in an academic, or institutional, organization. Gutierrez, Orozco, and Serrano (2009) did not nd any
differences in terms of ranking of the factors for BIA between SMEs and large organizations.
In the literature on IT that includes an analysis on rm performance, organization size was generally treated as a control variable rather than direct independent variable (Bhatt & Grover, 2005; Chadee & Pang, 2008; Ravichandran & Lertwongsatien,
2005; Zhang, 2005). Based on this evidence, the organization size could have a different implication, for example, it can be treated as a moderator rather than a direct independent variable. To clarify the impact of organization size on BIA, we investigated it
by looking at it in two different ways: as an antecedent of BIA and as a moderator to the BIA. We formulated two hypotheses as
follows:
H 4.1. Organization size is directly related to Business-IT Alignment.
H 4.2. Organization size moderates the relationship between other antecedents and Business-IT Alignment.
Organization size is generally dened in terms of the number of employees in the organization. However, in the hotel business,
which is the sample for this study, an additional factor that also indicates the size of the organization, is the number of rooms there
are in a particular hotel (Sahadev & Islam, 2005).
IT sophistication has two implications in the IT research area. It can be applied to either or both managerial and technical sophistication (Hussin, King, & Cragg, 2002; Para & Sicotteb, 2001; Raymond, Pare, & Bergeron, 1995; Sabherwal & Kirs, 1994; Suraweera,
Cragg, & Mills, 2005). For this study, we emphasized only the managerial aspect because this focus considers the ability to improve the
managerial side by applying current technology.
Apart from revising the scope of IT sophistication, we also reconsidered how it should be evaluated. Among studies on IT management sophistication, such as the work of Gupta, Karimi, and Somers (1997), Karimi, Somers, and Gupta (2001), and Suraweera et al.
(2005), a study by Suraweera et al. (2005) was particularly suited to the context of this study because it conrmed three components
as key factors of IT management sophistication. They are: IT planning, such as the validity of the IT plan; the thoroughness and
137
competitiveness of the IT plan; the control or monitoring over the IT project, such as a control over IT direction, operation and resources; and nally, the leadership qualities of the IT leader, such as the ability to resolve issues and to inspire IT staff to achieve IT
objectives.
H5. IT management sophistication is directly related to Business-IT Alignment.
Planning sophistication can be dened as the strategic planning processes of the organization, which includes the sophistication
required to synchronize the business plan with the IT plan. It can be referred to as a well-dened and comprehensive planning process
between the business and IT units (Chan et al., 2006). Planning sophistication was found to be related to BIA in different ways in studies by Reich and Benbasat (2000), Chan et al. (2006), and Kearns and Sabherwal (20067).
We revised this item after a careful comparison with previous research in this area and found that the thoroughness and direction
that resulted from aligned planning between the business and IT units that involved both business and IT people during the development phase, was indeed a success factor for IT management (Lee-Partridge, Teo, & Lim, 2000; Yang, 1996). Based on this nding, we
concluded that planning sophistication should be related to BIA through IT management sophistication, instead of through shared
domain knowledge, as previously dened.
The whole planning process in this case can be said to have three key characteristics. The rst is timing, in the sense that both plans
should develop simultaneously. Secondly, the same group of people should participate in both areas of development. Thirdly, the
content of both plans should correspond with each other.
H6. Planning sophistication is indirectly related to Business-IT Alignment via IT management sophistication.
The performance of an organization generally refers to its revenue. However, we learned from the interviews with experts, that the
impact of IT, including BIA, on an organization, tends to be indirect, as opposed to direct. Respondents recognized IT's non-nancial
benets to the organization, for example, by improving work effectiveness, cost savings, competitiveness, and shortening customer
waiting time. This study, therefore, considered organizational performance in terms of these non-nancial aspects by applying four
measurements from Reijers and Mansar (2005) which are part of what is known as the Devils's Quadrangle. They measure time,
cost, quality, and exibility which can also be substituted for one another once operational decisions are required. For example,
high quality service incurred high costs, and fast service (the high speed of service delivery), sometimes reduced exibility.
H7. Business-IT Alignment is related to operational performance.
8. Business-IT Alignment
The construct of Business-IT Alignment was formulated based on the alignment framework proposed by Henderson and
Venkatraman (1993). BIA in this study contains two measurements: Strategic BIA and Operational BIA. Strategic BIA is an alignment
at the strategic level, derived from an alignment between business strategies and IT strategies, and the same approach is applied to the
Operational BIA. Details of the business strategies, IT strategies, business operations, and IT systems supporting the operations are explained as follows.
Business strategies of an organization consist of six dimensions (or attributes) based on the classication by Venkatraman (1989),
which is known as the Strategic Orientation of Business Enterprises. Each dimension represents characteristics of an organization:
aggressiveness, analysis, defensiveness, futurity, pro-activeness, and riskiness. However, each organization may have different degrees of emphasis for each dimension.
An organization's IT strategies should consist of four dimensions according to Sabherwal and Chan's (2001) framework: operational support systems; inter-organizational systems; market information systems; and strategic decision support systems.
Each business and IT strategic dimension contained a set of questions which were based on work by Sabherwal and Chan (2001)
and was adapted to suit the service industry. However, measurements from other related studies by Venkatraman (1989), Morgan
and Strong (2003), Chan, Huff, Barclay, and Copeland (1997), and Byrd et al. (2006) were also reviewed. For example, a verication
of business strategy on the futurity dimension involved a long-term budget plan and long-term business effectiveness. A verication
of IT strategy on a system's decision support system involved the ability to facilitate a strategic business plan, the ability to model possible future outcomes, and an ability to forecast business performance indicators. A more detailed look at the measurement items can
be found in the Appendix A section at the end of this article.
The business operation units in this study are specic to the hotel business, and can be classied into front and back ofce operations. The front ofce operation units consist of the front desk and reservations; food & beverage services; conference and
banqueting; leisure operations; marketing and sales; and guest accommodation. The back ofce operation units are food & beverage
production; housekeeping; human resource management; accounting and nancial control. The measurement of each business operation unit is based on the critical factors for each unit as identied by Brotherton and Shaw (1996). In order to come up with measurements that suit the hotel business environment in Thailand, the success factors of each business unit were veried with business
people during the pilot survey and one factor was selected.
As a result, an IT system that supports business operations must be able to fulll the success factors of the business operations to
demonstrate its alignment. For example, a key success factor for front ofce operation is an ability to operate accurately and effectively, so the associated IT support systems must be able to help the business operate accurately and effectively accordingly. All questions
for each business operation unit and the associated IT operational support can be found in the Appendix A section.
138
9. Alignment method
The moderation method was used to evaluate the degree of Strategic BIA and Operational BIA. The moderation method quanties
the alignment of two items from the interaction between the two. The moderation score is, then, calculated from the cross product, or
by multiplying the score of each item. In this case the total score for the business strategies and the total score for the IT strategies were
multiplied to obtain the moderation score for the Strategic BIA. The same technique was applied to quantify the Operational BIA score.
10. Construct renement
A pilot survey was conducted to ensure that the constructs and their measurements were valid and reliable for this study. In addition, another objective was to select the preferred measurements, which would be the ones that have more than one choice, such as,
critical success factors of the business operations. Further, wording and terminology were also rened to ensure that the words and
terminology used for the study would sound natural to the people in the hotel business.
The pilot survey involved face-to-face interviews based on a questionnaire that was designed for the nal survey. Apart from answering the scripted questions, interviewees were asked to give opinions on the validity of the measurements, appropriate words to
be used, and to offer suggestions for a preferred measurement for use in the current business setting. Two people were interviewed
from each hotel, one from the business side and the other one from IT. Eight hotels were targeted in the pilot survey, which produced
16 interviews. Results from this pilot survey were also included in the data analysis.
11. Data collection
The study's target group was hotels located anywhere in Thailand. The list of hotels was obtained from the Tourism Authority of
Thailand's (TAT) website (www.tourismthailand.org) and was downloaded in March 2011. To obtain reliable responses, the hotels
that intensively used IT systems in their operations were the target population. Sahadev and Islam (2005) found that factors of technology adoption in the hotel business included the following: hotel class; scope of hotel activities; size of the market where hotel is
located; and percentage of customers from high internet penetration countries.
This study applied the hotel class factor to identify the target group. The four- and ve-star hotels which are in the group of high
class hotels are the most likely to rely on intensive use of IT systems in their operations. For three-star hotels, it is more difcult to
determine IT capability, since this group is ranked in between the high-end and low-end hotels. Additional criteria were then applied
to act as a lter to identify the three-star hotels. Firstly, all three-star chain hotels, regardless of sizes, are included in the target group
because there is a tendency for these hotels to invest in IT systems to support their operations, since there were multiple locations. As a
result, they gained bargaining power with their IT suppliers.
Secondly, any three-star hotels with more than 100 rooms were included in the target group. Even though the size of the hotel
(based on number of rooms) was not found to have a signicant relationship with IT adoption in the hotel business, it was a way
to eliminate the low potential for IT adoption from the target group.
The data was collected by conducting an interview via telephone. This method is a better approach than mailing a survey questionnaire because it does not take as much time for the respondent to answer the questions, the quality of response is better, and it is easier
and more efcient to reach the targeted, and therefore, qualied respondents.
The questions were classied into two sets based on the content, which was either IT related or business related. The IT related
questions were for interviews with IT people while the business related questions were for the business people. All interviewees
had to hold at least a supervisory position, or be a part of higher management.
12. Data analysis
The nal survey was conducted between July and September 2011. Each hotel in the target group was contacted through a phone
call and asked to participate in a survey. Any hotel that did not pick up the phone after three attempts (on different days) was excluded. Any hotel that declined to participate after three attempts (i.e. after asking different people) was also excluded. Once the survey
team had received all responses, they were veried to identify any conicting responses and missing data. For the questionnaires that
contained incomplete answers, respondents were re-interviewed between January and February 2012. Both pilot and nal surveys
were conducted in the Thai language. From a total population of 833 hotels, 312 usable responses were obtained which is equal to
a response rate of 37%.
13. Model verication
The verication of the model with the sampling data consists of two parts: the structural model and the measurement model. The
objective of verifying the structural model was to prove that the data set t well with the proposed model. For this study, a Structural
Equation Modeling approach that applied a maximum likelihood estimation method was used to examine those ts. The measurement model was veried to prove the reliability and validity.
In addition, the structural model was veried in two steps: the typical model t; and the moderation effect of the control variable,
or organization size.

0.866*
Communication
Shared Domain
Knowledge
0.590*
IT Success
0.376*
0.872*
Business-IT
Alignment
0.057**
0.975*
Organization
Size
Strategic
BIA
139
Performance
0.588*
Operational
BIA
-0.354*
Planning
Sophistication
0.659*
IT Management
Sophistication
Numbers shown are standardized estimation

* p-value <0.001
** p-value= 0.094
Fig. 2. Analysis results of structural model.
14. Fitting of the structural model

Once the proposed model was run with the sample data, the results from the analysis satised the model tting criteria. The results
of the absolute t indices CMIN/df (2.371), SRMR (0.1898), GFI (0.670), AGFI (0.645), and CFI (0.867) indicate an acceptable t. All
parsimony t indices were greater than 0.60 which indicate a good t. A conicting result was found with the RMSEA index. While
RMSEA index value is 0.066 which means we can possibly accept the model, its p-value is less than 0.05 which contradicts to the
RMSEA (to accept the value of RMSEA, its p-value should be greater than 0.05). Kline (2005) explained that a contradictory result between a RMSEA index and its p-value can happen when the data comes from a small sample size. However, from the overall results of
the t indices, it can be concluded as an acceptable t.
15. Path analysis of structural model

Regarding the results of the path analysis of the structural model (Fig. 2), we expected that each relationship would be statistically
signicant (p-value b 0.001) and that its standardized regression weight would have to be more than 0.500 to demonstrate a strong
relationship (Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, & Tatham, 2006). The results from our analysis found that the relationship between organizational size and BIA was insignicant (p-value = 0.121) and the relationship was very weak (standardized regression weight =
0.057) so hypothesis 4.1 was not supported. The remaining paths had signicant relationships with BIA which means that H1H3
and H5H7 were supported.
16. Moderating effect from organization size

The next step was to investigate the moderation effect from organization size on BIA (hypothesis 4.2). One way to conduct this
analysis is to use a multiple group analysis technique in SEM. To test the organization size as a moderator or control variable, the construct organization size would be removed from the analysis model and the data would be categorized into groups. In this case the
data was divided into two groups: small-to-medium hotels and large hotels. Then the model was run twice with a different parameter
constraint setting, rstly as an unconstrained model and secondly as a fully constrained model. Then a chi-square test was conducted to test the differences between the two. The results showed that the differences between two groups were statistically significant (see Table 2), meaning that the moderating effect from organization size caused the difference between the unconstrained
model and the constrained model. Hence, hypothesis 4.2 was supported.
Table 2
Difference test at a model level.
Difference test at a model level
Chi-square
Degrees of freedom
p-Value
Results at 90% condence
Unconstrained model
Fully constrained model
Difference with unconstrained model
6654.558
6768.555
113.997
3395
3456
61
0.000
Signicant difference
140
Communication
Shared Domain
Knowledge
IT Success
Performance
Business-IT
Alignment
Planning
Sophistication
IT Management
Sophistication
Organization
Size
Fig. 3. Resulting model.
Once we examined the difference between the unconstrained model and the path constrained model in which we set a
constraint one part at a time, we found that organization size moderated two paths: the relationship between planning sophistication and IT management sophistication; and the relationship between IT management sophistication and Business-IT
Alignment.
17. Conclusion for the structural model

Results from the model's analysis show that ve items were conrmed as BIA antecedents: shared domain knowledge; communication; planning sophistication; IT success; and IT management sophistication. Shared domain knowledge had the strongest relationship with BIA. The relationship between planning sophistication and IT management sophistication; and the
relationship between IT management sophistication and BIA were moderated by organization size. The resulting model is
shown in Fig. 3.
18. Measurement model

A verication of the convergent validity was conducted to ensure a high correlation for the measurement. Results in Table 3 demonstrated that all the average variance extract (AVE) values of all constructs were greater than 0.50 and all construct reliability (CR)
values were greater than 0.60 which satised the convergent validity (Hair et al., 2006). The result of discriminant validity in Table 4
showed that three variables did not satisfy the requirement: IT Success, Communication, and Business-IT Alignment. This means that
some measurements from those variables were similar. Attempts to resolve this issue were explored, such as by eliminating some
measurements that had a low factor loading from the Exploratory Factor Analysis; then, by regrouping some measurements to
form a second-order factor; and then again by narrowing down the sample to a particular subgroup, and nally, by removing the outlier observations. The best approach that we found was to form the second-order factors for IT Success and Communication. In this
Table 3
Construct reliability (CR) and average variance extract (AVE) of the proposed model.
Business-IT Alignment
Planning sophistication
Organization size
IT success
IT management sophistication
Performance
Communication
CR
AVE
MSV
ASV
0.742
0.980
0.963
0.927
0.950
0.981
0.966
0.952
0.610
0.941
0.928
0.718
0.905
0.944
0.876
0.740
0.726
0.424
0.057
0.826
0.826
0.740
0.726
0.794
0.388
0.211
0.047
0.494
0.476
0.392
0.221
0.457
141
Business-IT alignment
0.781
0.322 0.970
Organization size
0.226 0.178 0.963
IT success
0.736 0.542 0.235 0.847
0.812 0.497 0.218 0.909 0.952
0.480 0.651 0.219 0.835 0.740 0.972
Communication
Performance
IT success
Organization size
Business-IT alignment
Table 4
Discriminant validity of proposed model.
Performance
0.852 0.207 0.193 0.500 0.528 0.239 0.936
Communication
0.633 0.576 0.238 0.891 0.851 0.860 0.391 0.860
Remarks:
The diagonal cells are the value of the square root of variance extracted from each
construct.
The off-diagonal cells are the absolute value of correlation between each pair of constructs.
way, the original intention for the development of the constructs can be maintained. The results of discriminant validity after forming
second order factors showed an overall improvement.
19. Discussion
19.1. Summary of ndings
The key research objective is to update the BIA antecedents for the current business and technology environment. We then
narrowed the scope down to 3 specic objectives: (1) to identify the antecedents of BIA from the strategic to the operational levels
in an organization; (2) to determine the different impacts that each antecedent has on BIA; and (3) to determine the impact that
BIA has on a rm's operational performance. We developed a theoretical model based on a combination of past studies and additional
updates from industry experts. What makes our research unique is that it considers alignment in an organization from a higher level
(Strategic BIA) to a lower level (Operational BIA). The resultant model (Fig. 2) will be used in the following discussion to show it fulll
all three objectives.
For the rst and the second objectives, our empirical data conrmed three direct factors that affected BIA, sequencing them from
the highest to lowest impact as follows: shared domain knowledge between business and IT (standardized regression weight =
0.590); success of IT operation from past to present (standardized regression weight = 0.376); and IT management sophistication
(standardized regression weight = 0.354).
The nding that shared domain knowledge had the highest impact on BIA is consistent with past studies. In addition, we found
that communication effectiveness strongly promotes shared domain knowledge (standardized regression weight = 0.866). This suggested that the relationship between communication and shared domain knowledge affects BIA, and it can be implied that when the
shared domain knowledge between the IT and business units is supported by effective communication, the degree of alignment in an
organization will be enhanced.
The second direct factor that affects alignment is the success of the IT operation from the past to the present. While previous
ndings considered only the past success of IT, our study extended it to include its current success. This result still conrmed
that both past and present successes of IT promote the alignment. This nding suggests that when the results of IT operations
satisfy the business needs consistently from past to present, trust and condence in IT will increase the alignment in an
organization.
The third direct factor that affects alignment is the IT management's abilities, in terms of planning, leadership, and
controlling/monitoring of the IT unit. Our nding showed that this factor had a negative impact, which could spark debate
among some researchers. We revisited the model, constructs, data, and related literature, then, reran the model all over again
to ensure the surprising results were correct. The construct was developed carefully from the literature, with a specic focus
on IT management. We emphasized the importance of distinguishing between IT sophistication at the managerial level
from the technical side, while previous researchers had not made a distinction between the two. In terms of measurement,
we explored the literature specic to IT management sophistication. Among the 56 common components found in most of
142
the literature, we used the three key components that had been empirically proven as components of IT management. We
are condent that this nding makes a signicant and unique contribution to this research area. The negative relationship
between IT management and BIA can be explained by recognizing that if IT management is dominant in an organization, it
will decrease the alignment between business and IT. This is because it could decrease exibility within the business
operation.
IT management is inuenced by the degree of planning sophistication between the business and IT units (standardized regression
weight = 0.659). Previous studies on BIA modeled planning sophistication as a factor that affected shared domain knowledge (Chan
et al., 2006). We did try to replicate this approach with our data, but the non-signicant results indicated the model was not an ideal
t.
We also found that organization size acted as a moderating factor in the model instead of as a BIA antecedent. Originally
we proposed it as one of the BIA antecedents. However, when the results showed a weak relationship value (standardized
regression weight is 0.057), we further examined it as a moderator, as suggested from the result of previous studies in the
literature (as explained in the Construct details section). Organization size has a moderating effect on two paths: rst,
between planning sophistication and IT management; and then, between IT management and BIA. The size of the organization
can determine how an organization conducts the overall planning between the business and IT plan, and when managing the
IT unit.
For the third research objective, our nding is consistent with past studies that showed that Business-IT Alignment does have a
positive impact on organizational performance (with standardized regression weight equal to 0.857). However, there could be an argument against our study for applying a qualitative measurement to performance, since personal judgments of a performance could
lead to biased responses. We, then, also explored performance quantitatively by using the occupancy rate (or room utilization) and
included this question in our interviews with respondents. The value of the occupancy rate was used as a percentage so that it
could be compared across different sizes of hotels. The results conrmed similar ndings to those that came from the model that measured performance qualitatively.
Finally, apart from the above three objectives, once we considered the differences between different levels of alignment, we found
that the alignment at the strategic level dominated alignment in the organization, even though we had already taken an Operational
BIA into our consideration. It can be seen that the BIA constructs contain the Strategic BIA with a standardized regression weight 0.975
and the Operational BIA with a standardized regression weight 0.588. It can be implied that the Strategic BIA represents the overall
alignment of an organization.
20. Practical implications

Our research results conrm that the BIA continues to improve organizational performance from past to present. The
ndings from our study should prompt practitioners to recognize that there is an alignment from the strategic to the operational
levels and that both these alignments form the organizational alignment. The strategic alignment dominates the overall
alignment, and this is useful to the practitioner, since it suggests that an organization should initiate the alignment from the
strategic level.
To overcome the challenges to achieving a high degree of alignment, our research results suggest that the factor that has the
highest impact on alignment is shared domain knowledge.
This means that an organization should emphasize the importance of knowledge sharing between business and IT units to promote alignment. The results further suggest that effective communication increases the level of knowledge sharing and understanding
across units.
The second key factor that affects alignment is the outcome of the IT operation from past to present in terms of serving the business
objectives, meeting user requirements, delivering good quality work, and managing timelines and budgets. This nding is consistent
with past studies, however, we further emphasize that it is not only the past record of IT success that increases the alignment but also
the present outcome. In practice, organizations should ensure that the IT unit consistently delivers results that satisfy the business
needs.
The last two ndings that call attention to researchers are the results that show that strong IT management can decrease the
level of alignment. This means that the IT management should not be granted the power to dominate the business unit.
Organizations must aim for a good balance between the business domain and the IT domain. While business people concentrate
on managing the business and use IT as a tool to achieve their business goals, the IT unit needs to ensure that it serves business
needs, as well as, manages the IT unit. The domination of business could make IT lose an opportunity to demonstrate its ability
while the domination of IT could limit business exibility. The ability to balance both domains to support each other helps the
organization improve its performance in both nancial and non-nancial aspects. In addition, the success of the IT unit's
management depends on how well business and IT arrange their organizational plans or the degree of their planning sophistication.
For practitioners, this means that organizations should develop both business and IT plans together to ensure that both plans support
each other.
Finally, our ndings showed that the size of the organization does matter when applying the alignment model in practice. The degree of the alignment relationship is higher in larger organizations when compared to the smaller ones. In practice, this means that the
management of large organizations needs to devote more effort and resources to pursue the alignment due to the size of their
organizations.
143
21. Research limitations

The limitation of this research is that, rstly, the research model was developed specically for the hotel sector. Generalizations from the results and the model are therefore specic to the hotel business. The two constructs that are unique to this sector
are the dimensions of business operations and performance in operational aspects. Before our model can be applied to other industries, the measurements must be revised to suit other industries. Secondly, we considered only internal factors of BIA so that
an organization can manage. Although some external factors (e.g. changes in the economic environment) may affect organizational strategies and BIA accordingly, this was not the focus of our study. Finally, our study was based on organizations with single IT units that supported the whole organization. Organizations that allowed each business unit to manage its own IT system
were not included in this study.
22. Implication for future research
Our study has lled a gap left open from previous researches by considering the alignment at both strategic and operational levels,
and by lling this gap, we have offered a more comprehensive alignment model. We have empirically proven the questions regarding
the factors that affect alignment and the alignment impact. Future research could further explore the following questions raised by our
research results and limitations.
Firstly, a comparison study is recommended. For example, the simplest approach with the least modication to our research
model would be to apply it to the same industry but compare results across countries or regions. On the other hand, a comparison study across industries would require modications to some measurements to suit those industries. A comparison group
should have different business environments or technology environments, such as, by comparing industries that employ
technically skilled people (such as, people working for telecommunications providers, mobile phone providers) and traditional
businesses (retail, services, nance, etc.). Alternately, since our ndings show that organizational size is a moderator of alignment, a comparison study among different sizes of rms would be another simple approach that could expand upon the results
from our study.
Secondly, a study on BIA in an organization that has a different form of IT governance, especially in the distribution of IT management/governance, may very well differ depending on the specic business and technical contexts of a particular industry. Differences
in IT governance, a continual evolution of technology over time, and the ability of people to adapt to constantly changing environments could pose an intriguing challenge for further exploration.
Thirdly, our ndings on the negative relationship between IT management sophistication and alignment may inspire
some debates among researchers. While this result may be unexpected in theory, it is indeed a very real possibility in
practice. Since we re-examined the model and data many times prior to presenting this paper, we are condent in this result.
Researchers are welcome to verify this with a different data set or to remodel the IT management in a new uni-dimensional
construct. Our study was not able to do it because this requires an additional survey apart from the data that we currently
have.
Finally, a case study approach that observed the development of alignment in an organization over time in consecutive years
would be able to show the emergence of the alignment of an organization and organizational behavior.
23. Conclusion
This study examined Business-IT Alignment by identifying what is required to bring about alignment, and looking at the
effect of these causes of alignment in the hotel industry. This study makes two key contributions. Firstly, in terms of a
theoretical contribution, it recognizes the value of a Business-IT Alignment at both strategic and operational levels. It
also covered all four components of Henderson and Venkatraman's (1993) Strategic Alignment Model, which is usually
only partially applied to studies in this area (Hussin et al., 2002). The intention of this approach is to emphasize how
practitioners can use the alignment at the strategic level to affect the operational level so as to obtain optimum benets.
The ndings support our hypothesis that the full scope of Business-IT Alignment has a positive impact on operational
performance.
Secondly, from a practical perspective, this study offers much more than just helping organizations realize and appreciate the benets of BIA. The ultimate goal is to increase the IT value by applying the BIA appropriately, to obtain optimal
benets as soon as possible. Since the value of BIA is intangible, it is not immediately obvious. This study has proven
that there are benets and BIA's antecedents can be managed by an organization. When an organization achieves a good
alignment, it will not only be able to gain benets from the IT system and improve performance, but it will also be better
able to manage people in business and IT to make sure staff in both units are ready for new technology that will arise in the
future.
Acknowledgment
We would like to extend a sincere thank you to Prof. Y.E. Chan, at Queen's University, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, for kindly providing valuable suggestions for this research study.
144
Appendix A. Constructs and their measurements
No.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8a.
8b.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
21.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
Measurement
Shared domain knowledge - IT sharing with business
IT staff understand the nature of business and their needs.
IT staff are informed about key business operational issues or activities.
IT staff participate in key business operational issues or activities.
IT staff appreciate the value that business provided to IT.
Shared domain knowledge - Business sharing with IT
Business managers understand the nature of IT and IT staff needs.
Business staff understand the nature of IT and IT staff needs.
Business staff are informed about or participated in key IT operational issues or activities related to business.
Business staff appreciate the IT contribution to business in terms of increasing the productivity/efciency of day-to-day operations.
Business managers appreciate the IT contribution to business in terms of increasing managerial efciency.
Communication
Communication policy: communication between business and IT is clearly dened in organization.
Transparency: staff acknowledge the policy and are able to apply them at work.
Accessibility: communication messages can be accessed by, or can reach the intended people.
Publicity: communication messages are shared across organizational units or at least related units.
Responsiveness: communication is regularly monitored and followed up on for progress.
Interactive policy: staff are involved in communication policy.
Effectiveness and efciency of communication: organization ensures the effectiveness of communication by providing, for example, the
communication plan, advice, and training to staff, facilitate open meetings, etc.
IT operation and implementation success
Project is nished on-time.
Project can be managed within the budget according to plan.
System delivery meets requirements of users.
A good quality system is delivered.
Results of IT projects meet business objectives.
Contents: both business plan and IT plans are connected to each other (business plan also reects IT plan, IT plan also reects business plan).
Timing of plan development: business plan and IT plans develop together at the same time.
People involved: business executives and IT executives participate in each other's planning sessions.
IT management sophistication - IT planning
The validity of IT plan.
The currency of IT plan.
The ability to serve the business objectives of IT plan.
The latest technology applied in IT plan.
The recognition of IT plan from business side.
Detailed IT plan.
The thoroughness of IT plan.
The competitive advantage to business from IT plan.
IT management sophistication - IT leadership
Top management shows leadership on IT issues.
Top management takes leading role in addressing IT as a critical success.
The leadership of IT management.
The leadership to achieve IT objectives by creating the vision for IT staff.
The leadership to achieve IT objectives by inspiring IT staff.
The leadership to achieve IT objectives by guiding and directing IT staff.
The leadership on IT training.
IT management sophistication - IT control/monitoring
The control of IT projects and activities.
The control of IT systems.
The control of IT resources.
The control of IT security and access.
The control of IT direction and development.
The control of IT operations.
The control of IT procurement.
Organization size
Number of rooms.
Number of staff.
Performance
Occupancy rate by percentage (or room utilization).
Performance - Cost performance aspect
Human resource costs.
Inventory costs.
Operational costs.
Performance - Quality of products/services aspect
Service quality.
Information quality.

60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.
101.
102.
103.
104.
105.
106.
107.
108.
109.
110.
111.
112.
113.
114.
115.
116.
117.
Quality of facilities.
Performance - Flexibility of operational aspect
Product and service combination exibility.
Volume exibility.
Functional exibility.
Performance - Response times of operations/services aspect
Speed of response to customer.
Operational time (process end-to-end time).
Overall responses.
Business strategic dimensions - Defensiveness
Developing strong relationships with suppliers/business partners.
Developing strong relationships with customers.
Optimizing coordination across departments and/or product line.
Constantly driving to improve operational efciency.
Business strategic dimensions - Analysis
Being number-oriented and analytical in operations.
Requiring detailed, factual information to support day-to-day analysis.
Developing comprehensive analyses of each business opportunity or challenges.
Business strategic dimensions - Risk aversion
Decisions generally follow tried and true approach.
Conservatively-oriented.
Mode of operation is less risky than that of competitors.
Business strategic dimensions - Proactiveness
Increase organizational capacity (i.e. prepared to handle a greater volume of business) before competitors.
Quick to introduce various products and/or services to the market.
Adopt innovations early.
Business strategic dimensions - Futurity
Target long-term business effectiveness.
Long-term budget plan.
Business strategic dimensions - Aggressiveness
Sacrice protability to gain market share.
Seek market share position at the expense of cash ow.
Cutting prices to increase market share.
IT strategies - Strategic decision support systems
The IT systems facilitate strategic business planning.
The IT systems help to model possible future outcomes of alternative courses of action.
The IT systems can be used to forecast key indicators of business performance.
IT strategies - Operational support systems
The IT systems are able to improve the day-to-day business operation.
The IT systems can support coordination across functions.
The IT systems are able to support day-to-day decision making.
The IT systems enable business to analyze present business situation.
The IT systems provide sufciently detailed information to support prudent decision making.
The IT systems can support detailed analysis for major business decisions.
IT strategies - Inter-organizational systems
The IT systems enable organization to develop stronger links with suppliers.
The IT systems enhance the ability to negotiate with suppliers.
The IT systems enhance the ability to negotiate with customers.
The IT systems enable organization to develop stronger links with customers.
IT strategies - Marketing information systems
The IT systems assist in setting prices relative to the competition.
The IT systems help to introduce new products and/or services in the markets.
The IT systems help to monitor changes in our market share.
The IT systems can facilitate rapid price adjustment.
Business operation units
The business unit can operate accurate and efcient reservation system.
The business unit provides a high quality food and beverage services to customers.
The business unit can present customer with competitive price based on the services, facilities, package, and exibility.
The business unit provides high quality facilities and services to customers, such as, equipment for sport and tness, spa, and business center.
The business unit applies effective market intelligence and has up-to-date customer database.
The business unit provides consistent accommodation quality to satisfy customer requirements, such as, room facilities, quality of items provided to
room, and cleanliness
The business unit produces a consistent quality of food from kitchen management to supplier management.
The business unit operates clearly planned maintenance program.
The business unit operates effective recruitment and selection procedure.
The business unit applies effective revenue control procedures.
IT supporting business operation units
The IT systems assist the business to operate an accurate and efcient reservation system.
The IT systems make it easier for staff to be efcient, such as, mobile order taking and tracking food orders
The IT systems give tools to business to offer customers products or services at competitive price.
IT systems create access to quality tools to help business serve customers, such as, IT facility in business center, booking scheduling for spa, and IT
network connection services (WiFi) around the hotel
The IT systems provide the technological tools that marketing and sales need to operate efciently.
The IT systems provide tools to business to manage their facilities, track room maintenance, evaluate customer satisfaction, etc.
145
146
118. The IT systems support production operations from end-to-end, such as, from placing orders to the kitchen to what ingredients are needed to produce
each order, automatic stock update.
119. The IT systems help to schedule the cleaning status of room after guests check out.
120. The IT systems support the business with tools to manage the recruitment processes.
121. The IT systems support the business to perform effective revenue control.
Verication
122. The validity of business strategies.
123. Internal alignment between business strategies and business operations.
124. The validity of IT strategies.
125. IT operates to serve business objectives.
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Suwatana Charoensuk is a doctoral student at the School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied
Statistics, a Master of Science degree in Information Technology, and a Master of Science degree in Management. She has worked as a consultant for an international
consulting company that specialized in systems implementation and IT master plan development. The inspiration to pursue this research came directly from her experience as an IT consultant, when the alignment between business and IT was often raised as an issue with her clients in Thailand's public and private sectors.
Winai Wongsurawat is an assistant professor at the College of Management, Mahidol University, Thailand. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and Science degree in Economics
and Mathematical & Computational Sciences from Stanford University, USA, and a Ph.D. in Managerial Economics and Strategy from the Kellogg School of Management,
Northwestern University, USA. He has published many articles on economics and education in major journals. He has also worked as a consultant at NERA Economic
Consulting (New York, USA), and as an assistant professor at the School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.
Do Ba Khang is currently Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Commerce, Hoa Sen University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and a visiting faculty at the School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. He holds a Master of Science degree in Mathematics, another in Industrial Engineering and Management, and a
Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Management. His research interests include quantitative methods, service operations and project management. Over the last 20
years, he has taught at postgraduate and executive levels. He also provides consulting services in capacity building for various multinational and national companies,
government agencies, and international and nongovernmental organizations.

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Journal of High Technology Management Research 25 (2014) 132147

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of High Technology Management Research

Business-IT Alignment: A practical research approach

Available online 28 August 2014

S. Charoensuk et al. / Journal of High Technology Management Research 25 (2014) 132147

2. Problem statements and research objectives

3. What's new in Business-IT Alignment research

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5. Research approach and results from literature review

Antecedents from literature

Antecedents from expert

Shared domain knowledge

Reich and Benbasat (2000), Chan et al. (2006)

Communication between business and IT

Ability of people to understand

IT management sophistication (managerial aspects),

IT management sophistication (technical aspects)

External environment uncertainty

Learning from past implementation,

Reich and Benbasat (2000)

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Fig. 1. Structural diagram of proposed model.

S. Charoensuk et al. / Journal of High Technology Management Research 25 (2014) 132147

S. Charoensuk et al. / Journal of High Technology Management Research 25 (2014) 132147

S. Charoensuk et al. / Journal of High Technology Management Research 25 (2014) 132147

S. Charoensuk et al. / Journal of High Technology Management Research 25 (2014) 132147

Numbers shown are standardized estimation

Fig. 2. Analysis results of structural model.

14. Fitting of the structural model

15. Path analysis of structural model

16. Moderating effect from organization size

Results at 90% condence

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Fig. 3. Resulting model.

17. Conclusion for the structural model

18. Measurement model

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0.226 0.178 0.963

0.736 0.542 0.235 0.847

Shared domain knowledge

0.812 0.497 0.218 0.909 0.952

0.480 0.651 0.219 0.835 0.740 0.972

Shared domain knowledge

0.852 0.207 0.193 0.500 0.528 0.239 0.936

0.633 0.576 0.238 0.891 0.851 0.860 0.391 0.860

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20. Practical implications

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21. Research limitations

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Appendix A. Constructs and their measurements

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S. Charoensuk et al. / Journal of High Technology Management Research 25 (2014) 132147

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