How IT Investments Help Hospitals Gain and Sustain Reputation in the Media: The Role of Signaling and Framing

Practice- and Policy-Oriented Abstract Understanding how IT investments help organizations to build and sustain reputation is of particular relevance for healthcare practitioners and policy makers because patients are often unable to assess the quality of care, relying instead on the reputation of health service providers in the media, such as newspapers. As information intermediaries, journalists detect, aggregate, and translate the weaker signals for quality, such as state-of-the-art IT, that a hospital emanates. Our analysis of 152 hospital organizations in England, complemented by interviews with healthcare journalists, shows that journalists write less negatively about hospitals when healthcare organizations’ IT equipment investments are high. This implies that investments in IT equipment can buffer hospitals from negative press, thereby helping them to gain and maintain a strong reputation in the media. Practitioners and policy makers may incorporate the reputational effect of IT when making investment decisions and further amplify such IT investment through press releases, corporate reports, and media interactions.

Antecedents Factors Affecting Alignment and Its Impact to Organizational Performance in Universities

Business and Information Technology (IT) alignment involves applying IT in an appropriate and timely way, in harmony with business strategies, goals and needs. Prior research argues that achieving alignment contributes immensely to ensuring that IT investments improve organisational performance. One important issue in business–IT alignment study is the absence of alignment. Findings indicate that there are many factors/variables that consistently enhance business-IT alignment. By identifying factors to achieve business-IT alignment, the problem on the absence of alignment could be addressed. Due to the complexity of business-IT alignment, there is possibility that successful alignment focuses on managing specific alignment dimension by investigating factors that encourage particular dimension. Past studies have shown the relationship between business-IT alignment and organizational performance. However, only few researchers tried to relate between the factors with organizational performance. Literature on alignment discovered that there seems to be confusion in clarifying the business-IT alignment concept. Based on this gap, this paper examines problem and issues on alignment, identify, analyze and discuss factors affecting alignment, then categorize the constructs identified into dimensions and propose a model for alignment in universities. The study contributes to the formation of a theoretical model influencing alignment dimension that has impact on organizational performance. The model is important to provide empirical evidence that confirms the importance of categorizing factors into dimensions in achieving business-IT alignment and their influence on universities’ performance.

An investigation into the principles for creating and evaluating effective business cases for complex IT investments

This study combines interviews and online Q-­‐sorting to investigate the principles for effectively creating and evaluating business cases for complex IT investments, such as enterprise information systems. Interviews with nine expert practitioners are analyzed to examine current practices and challenges with the process of creating and evaluating business cases for complex IT investments. An online Q-­‐sorting study using 19 expert practitioners is also analyzed to examine the relative importance of 32 principles for the effective creation and evaluation of business cases for complex IT investments. The findings indicate there are at least two different types of opinions on the most important principles for creating and evaluating the business cases. Furthermore, several principles that have not received much prior study were judged to be highly important such as the need to consider change management, strategic alignment, and the process of “socialization” of a business case for complex IT investments.

An investigation into the principles for creating and evaluating effective business cases for complex IT investments

This study combines interviews and online Q-­‐sorting to investigate the principles for effectively creating and evaluating business cases for complex IT investments, such as enterprise information systems. Interviews with nine expert practitioners are analyzed to examine current practices and challenges with the process of creating and evaluating business cases for complex IT investments. An online Q-­‐sorting study using 19 expert practitioners is also analyzed to examine the relative importance of 32 principles for the effective creation and evaluation of business cases for complex IT investments. The findings indicate there are at least two different types of opinions on the most important principles for creating and evaluating the business cases. Furthermore, several principles that have not received much prior study were judged to be highly important such as the need to consider change management, strategic alignment, and the process of “socialization” of a business case for complex IT investments.

Governing information technology (IT) investment: A contingency perspective on organization’s IT investment goals

Using contingency theory, we argue that there is not a uniform approach for companies to govern information technology (IT) investments. Rather, the level of governance over IT investments is contingent upon the organization’s goals for its IT investments. We find that Australian organizations with both operation- and market-focused IT investment goals (i.e. dual-focused IT goals) demonstrate higher IT investment governance (ITIG) levels than those with less focused IT goals. We also document that dual-IT-focused firms that do not implement high levels of ITIG underperform. Our study informs business executives, boards of directors, and other practitioners interested in governance implementations over IT investments. JEL Classification: M1

IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES’ INVESTMENTS ON THE PROFITABILITY OF TUNISIAN BANKS: PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

This study examines the relationship between Information Technology investment and the profitability of Tunisian banks, via static and dynamic panel regression models. Our study focused on 15 Tunisian banks for 19 years (2001-2019). To assess the profitability of these banks, three measures were used: two traditional accounting ratios and net interest margin. Our research has shown the importance of the role played by IT in Tunisian banks since IT investments improve their profitability. This finding contradicts the “Productivity Paradox” that high IT investments are not associated with better performance. Indeed, Tunisian banks are acting on their size to boost their performance, and the more the banks take the risk by granting more loans, the more profitable they are by increasing their Return on Assets. Finally, public banks are more profitable than private banks when considering their net interest margin. JEL Classification Codes: B21, C58, G21, G32, O32.

Maturity Models in Healthcare IS/IT Investments

There have been several major drivers for the information systems and information technology (IS/IT) investments in healthcare, such as: The ever-increasing burden from chronic disease with costs growing significantly faster, the recognition of the need for greatly improved quality and safety in healthcare delivery, the increasing amount of patient related information, the long live expectancy and the associated costs, more efficacy and efficiency in treatments, the need of better access to medical care among others. The Maturity Model (MM) approach is an instrument to assess and continually improve organizational processes. MM are based on the premise that entities (people, organizations, functional areas, or processes) evolve towards a more advanced maturity crossing several incremental stages. These models have been used to improve the processes in several health care areas. The use of a MM in healthcare has a great potential for improving information management in the sector. This chapter resumes some of the most important developments on this topic.

IT Resources as Risk Mitigators

The study of the effects of IT investments on firm's performance has been a critical issue for research since the late 1980s. Different financial models have been used to clarify the contribution of IT investments, e.g. options theory. Some researchers rely on market prices, while others measure the effect on financial ratios. This work aims to provide additional insights regarding the influence of IT resources on performance. To do that, a new measure of performance is proposed that goes beyond the well-accepted profit. Several new links between IT literature, organization theory and financial theory are elicited.

Impacto dos Investimentos em Tecnologia sobre a Rentabilidade do Setor Bancário Brasileiro

Purpose: To analyze the relationship between investments in technology and the profitability of the five largest Brazilian banks between 2009 and 2018.Theoretical framework: Through correlation analysis and panel data regression, the impact of technology investment on Return on Assets (ROA) was specifically assessed.Design/methodology/approach: Despite the growth in investment in banking technology, the level of disclosure by publicly traded companies in Brazil is still limited, with few details disclosed in corporate reports about the amounts invested, of the types investments made, the expected return and the returns already obtained with previous investments. This disclosure is influenced by factors such as company size and profitability.Findings: In the present study, a positive relationship was identified between investment in T.I and Return on Assets (ROA) of the banks analyzed and, therefore, the presence of a profitability paradox was not found.Originality/value: There was a positive relationship between investment in IT and performance. There was a significant positive correlation at 5% between IT investments and financial performance, given by the relationship between profit before depreciation and total sales. The regression analysis found that an increase in IT investments raised the company's financial performance (Beta = 0.204 and p 0.1). The increase in the share of IT investments in operating expenses increased the Return on Assets by 0.039 percentage points.Research, Practical Social implications: Gain knowledge in the management of banking organizations in order to guide in the decision-making about technological investments that should be made.