A Socio-Intellectual Framework Empirically Testing the Factors Affecting the Alignment between Business and IS Strategies

This study develops a conceptual framework of alignment between business and IS strategies. Bridging two dominant perspectives in alignment literature, it proposes an integrative framework of socio-intellectual alignment that fills the theoretical gap in business-IT alignment research. The socio-intellectual framework of alignment explains how the business-IT alignment can be accomplished socially and materially through strategic decisions and arrangements among people in an organization. This study provides implications for both decision-makers and scholars by suggesting an extended and balanced perspective on alignment mechanisms. The socio-intellectual alignment framework includes top management support, shared domain knowledge, and mutual trust as antecedents of alignment and IT impacts as consequences of alignment. This study explains how the alignment between business and IS strategies affects business performance in an organization by considering IT impact that mediates the social and intellectual dimensions of alignment.