A Conceptual Model to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Information Technology Governance

Information Technology (IT) solutions have become a key enabling tool in businesses. As the investment in IT continues to grow, there has been an ongoing debate on the need for a structured and evaluative approach to the effective governance of IT solutions. Achieving key IT Governance (ITG) outcomes is consistently ranked as one of the top concerns of management. Within the last decade, motivated by technological advancements, we have witnessed significant changes in the IT landscape. Previous studies about ITG seem to have concentrated predominantly on structure, processes, and mechanisms. The field appears to lack research on the current role and effectiveness of ITG. The paper reports on a systematic literature review of ITG. It proposes conceptual models to determine the role and effectiveness of ITG practices. The review was based on 121 relevant journal articles, conference papers, and industry (or professional bodies) published reports. The qualitative analysis of the eligible 75 articles was conducted in two stages. The first stage involved the identification of factors within a selected subset of articles. The second phase continued with the qualitative analysis of the remaining articles validating the identified factors. Based on the analysis of the final 75 (out of 171) sources, the paper proposes a conceptual model of ITG effectiveness that takes into consideration both internal and external influences. The paper contributes to the theory of ITG by proposing a conceptual model of three broad themes of influencers representing both practitioners’ and strategists’ views – including ITG maturity, strategic alignment of IT and business, and organisational performance influenced by IT. The paper recommends future studies guided by the proposed conceptual model to validate the model and extend the outcomes of this study.