IS Success Factors and IS Organizational Impact: Does Ownership Type Matter in Kuwait?

This research investigated the possible ownership type effect on the information systems (IS) success factors and IS impact on organizational performance in Kuwaiti organizations. Four IS success factors—IS strategy and resources, end user support, IS sophistication and IS organizational level & user involvement—and three IS organizational impact factors—improving work efficiency, improving decision making, and improving work effectiveness—were identified. Ownership type was found to affect the profiles of the IS success factors and IS organizational impact. Public organizations tend to commit less IS resources; their managers get less involved in IS strategy formulation, and their users get less involved in systems development. Yet, they tend to rate their IS organizational impact higher. This “IS expectation-performance gap” is further explained in the article, along with research implications, limitations, and future research.