IT Consumerization and its Effects on IT Business Value, IT Capabilities, and the IT Function

IT consumerization is both a major opportunity and significant challenge for organizations. However, IS research has hardly discussed the implications for IT management so far. In this paper we address this topic by empirically identifying organizational themes for IT consumerization and conceptually exploring the direct and indirect effects on the business value of IT, IT capabilities, and the IT function. More specifically, based on two case studies, we identify eight organizational themes: consumer IT strategy, policy development and responsibilities, consideration of private life of employees, user involvement into IT-related processes, individualization, updated IT infrastructure, end user support, and data and system security. The contributions of this paper are (1) the identification of organizational themes for IT consumerization, (2) the proposed effects on the business value of IT, IT capabilities and the IT function, and (3) combining empirical insights into IT consumerization with managerial theories in the IS discipline.