Examining the Influence of External Stakeholders on IT Governance: Perceptions of IT Executives

Information Technology (IT) governance decisions usually involve several stakeholders with divergent claims. Past research on IT governance focused on internal stakeholders' responsibilities and roles in IT governance decisions. However, we don’t know much about external stakeholders’ place in IT governance. Based on stakeholder theory, a qualitative research approach is adopted to determine the importance of different external stakeholders in IT governance by examining how they are prioritized in this context. Results suggested that external stakeholders’ prioritization in IT governance context as perceived by IT executives vary according to IT decision domains. Moreover external stakeholders’ influence over IT decision domains may be direct or indirect depending on their active role in IT activities or on their relationship with the organization as a whole. Implications of results are discussed.