Information Systems Planning Research and Strategy as Practice: Toward a Theory-Driven Agenda

Firms are forced to re-examine the strategy as the growth of complexity in business environment has led to new competitive challenges and requirements. It is essential, though, that the IS strategy should be aligned with business strategy in order to be a source of sustainable competitive advantage and this is the reason why many companies have spent their resources to increase that advantage by examining their internal processes. The purpose of this paper is to explore the SISP process and highlight the potential benefits from SISP implementation and alignment between business and IT strategy. Furthermore, it explores the significant challenges associated with SISP implementation. It provides an insight into better and further understanding of the SISP process, the benefits, and the implementation issues. Such research will help academics provide a more accurate understanding of the role of alignment in the SISP process, and help executives in organizations realize the potential for IT strategies to implement them in increasing the competitive advantage. The practical contribution of this paper is that it provides guidelines to IT executives regarding the IT strategies that can implement to increase firm performance and business competitiveness.