Breaking the Myths of the IT Productivity Paradox

IT is the key enabler of digital economy. Appropriate usage of IT can provide a strategic competitive advantage to a firm in a dynamic competitive environment. However, there has been a continuing debate on whether IT can actually enhance the productivity of firms. This concept is called IT productivity paradox. In this study, we analyzed the causality among appropriate indicators to demonstrate the real impact of IT on productivity. The 12,100 sample data from 2011 were used for analysis. As expected, the results indicated that mobile device usage, website adoption, e-commerce, open source, cloud computing, and green computing positively influence IT productivity. This unprecedented large-scale analysis can provide clarification regarding the ambiguous causal mechanism between IT usage and productivity.