Is SAM still alive? A bibliometric and interpretive mapping of the strategic alignment research field
Introduction
Merali et al. (2012) identify four priorities for change in the strategic information systems (SIS) research domain: “conceptualisation of the SIS Domain as a Complex Adaptive System for the co-evolution of Physical and Social Technologies; the adoption of the network paradigm; access to a science of networks; and adoption of Complexity Science as an articulation device within SIS and across disciplines” (p. 125). Through a bibliographic and interpretive approach to the strategic alignment field, the present study identifies a fifth priority: the need for renewed awareness and revision of the assumptions and premises on which many concepts and models of the SIS field are currently being built.
Robert Solow’s memorable words “you can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics” (1987), have had a significant and enduring1 impact on the information systems (IS) community (Carr, 2003, Seddon, 2014). This statement has been subsequently named “the productivity paradox” (Brynjolfsson, 1993); it suggests a lack of positive correlation between an organization’s information technology (IT) investments and its productivity. The literature extended this more broadly to the firm’s performance (Melville et al., 2004) as well as to its ability to develop a competitive advantage through value creation (Kohli and Devaraj, 2003). In his 2003 article, Nicholas Carr voiced skepticism regarding IT value, implying that organizations cannot obtain a competitive advantage from IT. Moreover, other authors claimed that organizations appear to over-invest in IT instead of focusing on the business itself (Anderson et al., 2003). A number of authors “largely resolved” the productivity paradox (Gregor et al., 2006: p. 250) by suggesting that it was mainly caused by measurement issues and analytical bias as well as mismanagement (Brynjolfsson and Hitt, 1996). Accordingly, researchers reoriented their focus: instead of attempting to prove the importance of IS for organizations, they focused on the necessity of optimizing IS management within organizations (Reix and Rowe, 2002). Moreover, such scholars began to develop theoretical frameworks and models aimed at helping managers efficiently manage IS.
The Strategic Alignment Model (SAM) is one such model, and to date has remained one of the most utilized models both in the literature and in corporations (Avison et al., 2004). It was first proposed by Henderson and Venkatraman, 1989, Henderson and Venkatraman, 1990 and popularized in 1993 in an article published in the IBM System Journal (hereafter referred to as “HV93”). Today, more than two decades later, HV93 is considered a seminal text, largely because SAM is at the source of one of the most active research areas in the field of Management Information Systems (MIS: Chan and Reich, 2007a, Chan and Reich, 2007b, Corrall, 2000, Earl, 1996, Labovitz and Rosansky, 1997), and because both business and IS practitioners consider strategic alignment to be a key issue (Luftman et al., 2006, Papp, 2001, Luftman et al., 1999, Tallon et al., 2000, Trainor, 2003).
Despite the rational prescriptions for managers that have come about as a result of this model, there is no lack of stories about failed change projects involving IT. Every year, organizations invest billions of dollars in IT, with a relatively low success rate (about 29% – See Chaos report, 2015 by the Standish group). Thus, another inconsistency has subsequently emerged: a lack of congruence between, on one hand, the intended purpose of the strategic alignment literature’s theoretical recommendations toward gaining competitive advantage and, on the other hand, the practical results witnessed in firms. This issue must be addressed and explained.
SAM is anchored to contingency theories, which have been severely criticized by authors from both the organizational field (Longenecker and Pringle, 1978, Mohr, 1971, Pennings, 1975, Schoonhoven, 1981) and the strategic management field (Leonard-Barton, 1992, Meyer et al., 1993). More than 20 years after SAM was first proposed, the time may have come to question its legacy and investigate the theoretical, philosophical and epistemological bases on which the strategic alignment literature that is anchored to SAM has been developing over the years.
To conduct the present research, we took an exploratory classic grounded theory (GT) approach (Glaser, 1978, Glaser and Strauss, 1967). In line with classic GT precepts, we did not have a precise research question when we started our research. Our original intention was to broadly investigate the structure of the field and how SAM was diffused and legitimated over the years. We used bibliometrics to do so and we found that our results guided us toward a possible explanation for the issue highlighted above, which is the disparity between the strategic alignment literature’s intended contribution and the apparent practical consequences of its application in organizations.
In a cumulative research tradition, such as MIS, research tends to cluster in informal networks within which similar problems are addressed in similar ways (De Solla Price, 1963). Within these networks, concepts and findings are exchanged, extended, tested, refined, and diffused (Culnan, 1986). All studies within a network are built upon other studies that they cite in their bibliographies; those citations, which they have in common, link them. In the present article, in order to analyze the combined logic of the literature built around HV93, we go beyond studying individual articles and, instead, study groups of articles, i.e. the network of articles mobilized through and around the original HV93 seminal article. Accordingly, using a bibliometric approach to highlight this network, and a qualitative approach to investigate it in depth, we examine SAM’s diffusion and legitimation through a retrospective study of the literature. We make use of tri-citation analysis (TCA: Marion, 2002, McCain and McCain, 2002, McCain, 2009), which has rarely been used in IS research. TCA is similar to co-citation analysis (CCA: Garfield, 1979, Small, 1973), yet it constrains the analysis by adding a third reference (in our case, HV93) that must be shared by the entire sample of references (Marion, 2002). We apply this method with data collected in 2011 (Phase 1) and 2014 (Phase 2) to identify several theoretical pillars in the strategic alignment literature. This allows us to reduce a field that includes over ten thousand references to a core set of articles within which we identify significant theoretical clusters. We then code the content of the texts in each cluster.
Hence, our reading and analysis of the literature is guided by bibliographic data and bibliometric analyses. We draw on two sets of data: (i) bibliographic data, i.e., quantitative data resulting from co-citation counts and (ii) the content of the texts highlighted by the statistical analyses of the bibliographic data. We show how the theoretical pillars used in the strategic alignment literature (identified through the TCA) appear based on the same premises and assumptions as SAM, which have been neither questioned nor challenged. Our results allow us to infer some possible explanation for IS implementation failure rates in organizations. We also highlight alternative premises and assumptions, which have begun to emerge in the literature over the last decade or so, and are aimed at improving these failure rates.
The paper is organized as follows. First, we propose a theoretical overview of our work. Then, we describe our methodology and results. Finally, we discuss our results before investigating the limitations and contributions of our work, as well as possible avenues for future research.
Section snippets
Theoretical overview
In this section, we present SAM from a historical and theoretical perspective, and the dissociation phenomenon (Jarzabkowski and Wilson, 2006) that informed the “core category” (Glaser, 1978) of the theory that emerged from our work: ‘dealing with the dissociation phenomenon’. Even though the literature around our core category was investigated after the first phase of our research was well under way and close to being completed, we present it ex ante in order to preview our major findings and
Methodology
In our work, we chose a classic grounded theory (GT) approach (Glaser and Strauss, 1967, Glaser, 1978) as it is particularly helpful in developing new perspectives on well-established theoretical research areas (Sousa and Hendriks, 2006). Also, and beyond its use as a qualitative method, GT has been more broadly recognized as a meta-theory of inductive research design (Walsh, 2015): A GT research design may include qualitative and quantitative data, methods and techniques. Both counting and
Results
In this section, we (1) compare the two sets of groups of articles, the invisible colleges, which emerged from the 2011 and 2014 databases and (2) explain our “main concern” (Glaser, 1978), i.e. the paradox highlighted in the introduction, through our core category (dealing with the dissociation phenomenon).
Discussion
The evolution of the intellectual core between 2011 and 2014 tends to illustrate the evolution of the field highlighted by Merali et al. (2012) between the 1980s and 1990s. However, the assumptions and premises remain unchanged. In this section, we show that SAM’s premises and assumptions have, however, been questioned in the IS literature and also in the broader management field, and highlight some emerging alternatives to help the field move forward.
Limitations, contributions, and future directions
The main limitation of our work is inherent in our method of analysis: CCA analysis is a retrospective analysis and not a prospective analysis of the literature. CCA and TCA focus on the most heavily cited articles and rely on a threshold; as such, it is clear that the number of citations is correlated to the age of a publication. Thus, our samples – based on heavily cited sources – create a bias favoring older studies (Gregoire et al., 2006), despite its being built on articles published
Conclusion
In the present work, we have uncovered the deep structure and the invisible colleges of the strategic alignment field anchored to HV93. Thus doing, we highlighted some possible significant explanations for the disparity between the intended contribution of the corresponding literature and the practical consequences of its application in organizations. Moreover, we proposed solutions and different possible approaches to address this issue.
In doing so, we have responded to the challenge of
References (181)
- et al.
Current paradigms in the international management field: an author co-citation analysis
Int. Bus. Rev.
(2005) - et al.
Using and validating the strategic alignment model
J. Strat. Inf. Syst.
(2004) Aligning information systems with business strategy
J. Strat. Inf. Syst.
(1992)- et al.
Ideal patterns of strategic alignment and business performance
Inf. Manage.
(2004) Crisis and foundations: an inquiry into the nature and limits of models and methods in the information systems discipline
J. Strat. Inf. Syst.
(1998)- et al.
The transformational dimension in the realization of business value from information technology
J. Strat. Inf. Syst.
(2006) - et al.
Actionable strategy knowledge: a practice perspective
Euro. Manage. J.
(2006) - et al.
The effect of strategic alignment on the use of IS-based resources for competitive advantage
J. Strat. Inf. Syst.
(2000) - et al.
Requirement for a cocitation similarity measure, with special reference to Pearson’s correlation coefficient
J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol.
(2003) - et al.
Strategic assets and organizational rent
Strat. Manage. J.
(1993)
The new productivity paradox
Commun. ACM
Power, rationality, and the art of living through socio-technical change
MIS Quart.
How strategic are strategic information systems?
Austral. J. Inf. Syst.
Information technology and corporate strategy: a research perspective
MIS Quart.
Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage
J. Manage.
Information technology and new organizational forms: choosing chaos over panaceas
Euro. J. Inf. Syst.
Mapping intellectual structure of a scientific subfield through author cocitations
J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci.
Understanding user responses to information technology: a coping model of user adaptation
MIS Quart.
The other side of acceptance: studying the direct and indirect effects of emotions on information technology use
MIS Quart.
Perspectives sur le phénomène de la transformation organisationnelle
Systèmes d’information & management
A resource-based perspective on information technology capability and firm performance: an empirical investigation
MIS Quart.
Histoire et mémoire de la pensée stratégique
La Revue des Sciences de Gestion
Key issues in information systems management: 1994–95 SIM Delphi results
MIS Quart.
Alignment of the IS functions with the enterprise: toward a model of antecedents
MIS Quart.
The productivity paradox of information technology
Commun. ACM
Paradox lost? Firm-level evidence on the returns to information systems spending
Manage. Sci.
The Law of the Markets
La scientométrie
Strategic alignment: a practitioner’s perspective
J. Enter. Inf. Manage.
IT doesn’t matter
Harv. Bus. Rev.
Why haven’t we mastered alignment?: the importance of the informal organization structure
MIS Quart. Execut.
IT alignment: what have we learned?
J. Inf. Technol.
IT alignment: an annotated bibliography
J. Inf. Technol.
Business strategic orientation, information systems strategic orientation, and strategic alignment
Inf. Syst. Res.
Information systems strategy: reconceptualization, measurement, and implications
MIS Quart.
From thinking to tinkering: The grassroots of strategic information systems
Inform. Soci.
Introduction: what does groupware mean for the organizations hosting it?
From Control to Drift: The Dynamics of Corporate Information Infrastructure
The labyrinths of information: Challenging the wisdom of systems
Strategic Management of Information Services: A Planning Handbook
Invisible Colleges: Diffusion of Knowledge in Scientific Communities
The intellectual development of management information systems, 1972–1982: a co-citation analysis
Manage. Sci.
Mapping the intellectual structure of MIS, 1980–1985: a co-citation analysis
MIS Quart.
Performing modularity: competing rules, performative struggles and the effect of organizational theories on the organization
Organ. Stud.
Integrating the content and process of strategic MIS planning with competitive strategy
Dec. Sci.
Process Innovation: Reengineering Work Through Information Technology
Big Science, Little Science
Cited by (63)
Stakeholder engagement in natural resources management: Where go from here?
2024, Journal of Cleaner ProductionToward an information systems alignment framework in the wake of exogenous shocks: Insights from a literature review
2022, International Journal of Information ManagementCitation Excerpt :Given the critical role of IS alignment to organisations’ survival in a time of organisational crises and transformation, it is imperative for researchers to explore IS alignment during this critical transitory period (Luftman et al., 2015). Renaud, Walsh, and Kalika (2016) call for a reconceptualisation of strategic alignment that is contemporaneous and closer to the evolving reality, highlighting the alignment theory-practice gap – i.e., difficulty of strategic alignment in practice despite its long history of research and multitude of models and frameworks. Ciborra (1997) attributes the theory-practice gap to a lack of focus on the motivations and challenges of alignment in practice.
When and why technology leadership enters the C-suite: An antecedents perspective on CIO presence
2022, Journal of Strategic Information SystemsDigital strategy aligning in SMEs: A dynamic capabilities perspective
2021, Journal of Strategic Information SystemsCitation Excerpt :Second, as SMEs are often key partners of large firms (Woldesenbet et al., 2012), examining digital strategy aligning in SMEs can also help IS scholars understand the balance and interactions between small and large organizations. While scholars disagree on whether IS strategy should adapt to business strategy, co-evolve with it (Peppard and Ward, 2004), or even challenge it (Chan and Reich, 2007), they largely agree that IS strategy alignment is desirable and has a positive impact on business performance (Renaud et al., 2016). However, aligning fixed IT assets with ever-changing business imperatives is a challenging endeavor (Galliers, 2004), meaning that alignment should be considered an ongoing process requiring continuous adjustments (Hirschheim and Sabherwal, 2001; Li et al., 2016) rather than an either-or state (Luftman, 2000).
Trends and patterns in sustainable entrepreneurship research: A bibliometric review and research agenda
2021, Journal of Business VenturingCitation Excerpt :To further help us refine our sample, we used two relational techniques to understand the relationships between authors and research streams: 1) Co-Citation Analysis of Reference (CCA-R), and 2) Bibliographic Coupling of Documents (BCA-D). CCA-R provides us with the ‘proximities’ of two references (e.g., Walsh and Renaud, 2017; Renaud et al., 2016; Córdoba et al., 2012; Raghuram et al., 2010). It allows us to identify the foundations of a field, explore relationships between authors or identify schools of thought by looking at the similarity of citations that have been discussed in the past (e.g. Belussi et al., 2019; Walsh and Kalika, 2018) – i.e. the more an article is cited, the more it influences the construction of a field (Maucuer and Renaud, 2019).