IT Business Alignment as Governance Tool for Firm-Internal Relationship Quality: A Longitudinal Case Study

Many business processes are relying on a smooth and flexible IT support. A major finding of IS research is that in order to generate value from IT the complementarities between IT and non-IT resources need to be understood and orchestrated. Especially, IT business alignment has been found to be a key driver of both, IT value and business process quality. But how to achieve alignment? We present the results of a longitudinal case study in a globally active firm from the aerospace industry that shows how a new CEO implemented better business processes by increasing alignment. The results show an enhancing relationship between business and IT resources and concretize key findings from the resource based view. Overall, the case contributes by indicating that business value accrues from a simultaneous change of IS and business practices that was enabled by an increase in the level of IT business alignment.