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Capturing Co-evolutionary Information Systems Alignment: Conceptualization and Scale Development
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Co-evolutionary approaches to business-IT alignment, such as Co-evolutionary information systems alignment (COISA), have gained attention from scholars and practitioners over the last decade. COISA is an organizational capability defined as continuously exercised alignment competencies, characterized by co-evolutionary interactions between heterogeneous IS stakeholders, in pursuit of a common interpretation and implementation of what it means to apply IT in an appropriate and timely way. In spite of some conceptual and empirical work on COISA, a validated operationalization for empirical measurements for science and practice is not available in the extant literature. We developed a measurement scale through acknowledged procedures, entailing a multivariate structural model consisting of specific facilitators leading to effective alignment competencies. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose such a scale.
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... Based on these empirical studies, the same authors have developed a COISA scale suited for quantitative works according to well-known scale development standards where they conceptualize COISA as a whole as an organizational capability (Walraven et al., 2021). We choose to apply this particular conceptualization of COISA because of its theoretical foundations in CAS (Walraven et al., 2018), its earlier empirical application in healthcare settings (Walraven et al., 2019(Walraven et al., , 2020 and the fact that its operationalization for quantitative studies has been developed already through rigorous standards (Walraven et al., 2021) In the next paragraph, we will further elaborate on this particular conceptualization. ...
... Based on these empirical studies, the same authors have developed a COISA scale suited for quantitative works according to well-known scale development standards where they conceptualize COISA as a whole as an organizational capability (Walraven et al., 2021). We choose to apply this particular conceptualization of COISA because of its theoretical foundations in CAS (Walraven et al., 2018), its earlier empirical application in healthcare settings (Walraven et al., 2019(Walraven et al., , 2020 and the fact that its operationalization for quantitative studies has been developed already through rigorous standards (Walraven et al., 2021) In the next paragraph, we will further elaborate on this particular conceptualization. ...
... We conceptualize COISA based on the work by Walraven et al. (2021). These authors define COISA as follows: "[…] an organizational capability defined as continuously exercised alignment competencies, characterized by co-evolutionary interactions between heterogeneous IS stakeholders, in pursuit of a common interpretation and implementation of what it means to apply IT in an appropriate and timely way" (Walraven et al., 2021, p. 6017). ...
Several studies have advocated for the value of co-evolutionary approaches to business-IT alignment in healthcare settings because they would be better suited to deal with complexity. However, empirical evidence supporting this premise is scarce and mainly based on qualitative works. We address this research gap by performing a survey among 85 Dutch healthcare organizations, looking into the effects of co-evolutionary information systems alignment (COISA) on organizational performance and the role of dynamic capabilities in this value path. We combine Necessary Condition Analysis and Partial Least Squares Modeling to see which aspects are indispensable and help further develop dynamic capabilities and performance. Our results confirm that COISA indeed positively influences healthcare organizations' organizational performance through dynamic capabilities. Furthermore, we demonstrate that alignment motivation and interconnections between heterogeneous IS stakeholders are indispensable, and show the seemingly higher importance of the operational and orchestrational alignment competencies and the sensing dimension of dynamic capabilities.
Co-evolutionary IS-alignment (COISA) is a relatively new approach to understanding business-IT align-ment (BITA) in complex environments. It is defined as continuously exercised alignment processes, characterized by co-evolutionary interactions between different IS stakeholders, in pursuit of a common interpretation and implementation of what it means to apply IT in an appropriate and timely way, in harmony with strategies, goals, and needs. This concept is well applicable in hospitals, given their many different stakeholders and quickly changing environments. For example, although hospitals heavily in-vest in advanced Electronic Medical Records (EMR), it remains unclear how EMR should align with the strategies, goals, and needs of hospitals and its stakeholders. Earlier work has shown that COISA may be a useful lens in revealing the manifestation of stakeholder interactions behind alignment during EMR implementations. However, it is insufficient only to assess the manifestation of COISA interactions, as this is no guarantee that these interactions are effective in pursuing alignment. Our study reveals facilitators of efficacious COISA interactions during EMR implementations, using theoretical insights on BITA, COISA and efficacious dynamics in complex organizations and empirical insights from a sin-gle case study and three focus groups. Our findings reconcile and complement existing knowledge, spe-cifically for EMR implementations.
Digitally induced complexity is all around us. Global digital infrastructure, social media, Internet of Things, robotic process automation, digital business platforms, algorithmic decision making, and other digitally enabled networks and ecosystems fuel complexity by fostering hyper-connections and mutual dependencies among human actors, organizations, structures, processes, and objects. Complexity affects human agencies and experiences in all dimensions including market and economic behaviors, political processes, entertainment, social interactions, etc. Individuals and organizations turn to digital technologies for exploiting emerging new opportunities in the digital world. They also turn to digitally-enabled solutions to cope with the wicked problems arising out of digitally-induced complexity. In the digital world, complexity and solutions based on digital technologies present new opportunities and challenges for information systems (IS) research. The purpose of this special issue is to foster the development of new IS theories on the causes, dynamics, and consequences of digitally-induced complexity in socio-technical systems. In this essay, we discuss the key concepts and methods of complexity science, and illustrate emerging new IS research challenges and opportunities in complex socio-technical systems. We also provide an overview of the five articles included in the special issue. These articles illustrate how IS researchers build on theories and methods from complexity science to study wicked problems arising out of digitally induced complexity. They also illustrate how IS researchers leverage the uniqueness of the IS context to generate new insights to contribute back to complexity science.
The notion of enterprise architecture (EA) and EA-based capabilities in IS literature has emerged as an important research domain. However, the conceptualizations of EA-based capabilities remain ambiguous, largely not validated and still lack a firm base in theory. This study, therefore, aims to rigorously conceptualize EA-based capabilities grounded in theory and puts forward the notion of dynamic enterprise architecture capabilities. These capabilities highlight the core areas in which organizations should infuse EA. The purpose of this study is to develop a reliable and valid measurement scale. This scale is validated using item-sorting analyses, expert reviews and an empirical study of 299 CIOs and enterprise architects. The outcomes support the validity and reliability of the scale. The dynamic enterprise architecture capabilities scale developed in this research contributes to theory development and the EA knowledge base. The scale may be used as an assessment or benchmarking tool in practice.
Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) are repositories of electronic medical histories of patients, main-tained over time. Hospital operations and EMRs typically become interdependent, due to the inclusion of medical workflow- and administrative process support as core functionalities. Hence, it is profoundly challenging to effectively enable complex, multi-stakeholder clinical processes, enhance patient care, and align EMRs with hospital strategies, goals, and needs. In this study, we build upon co-evolutionary IS-alignment (COISA) theories and argue that current approaches to business-IT alignment in hospitals should be reconceptualised, particularly regarding modern EMR implementations. In this effort, we respond to the call for more empirical research on business-IT co-evolution. We unfold how COISA manifests during EMR implementations using a multiple case study method. This method allows us to get a rich understanding of the complex social phenomena that emerge during EMR implementations. Outcomes show that COISA manifests in all three cases, involving different stakeholder groups, but in different localities and intensities. These findings suggest that COISA is a suitable framework to de-scribe and understand EMR implementations and that different configurations of interaction patterns can lead to comparable results. This understanding enables EMR practitioners to more effectively iden-tify improvement areas in dealing with internal and external complexity.
Many studies have investigated the effects of information technology (IT) in achieving organizational performance. However, despite substantial IT investments, organizations often fail to improve organizational performance using IT. This failure could be the result of a lack of Business-IT alignment. Recently , scholars and practitioners have adopted a complexity science approach to better address the many interwoven IT, organizational and environmental turbulence challenges. These efforts resulted in the emergence of the complexity-based concept of co-evolutionary IS/IT-alignment (COISA). COISA involves "the series of coevolutionary moves that makes IT aligned over time." However, the notion of COISA remains conceptual, and further operationalization in preparation for more empirical evidence seems appropriate. Therefore, this study aims to provide further clarification on the conceptualization of COISA in turbulent environments. We conducted a structured literature review using a theoretical foundation of Complex Adaptive Systems theory. In this effort, we developed a COISA model composed of five continuous alignment processes characterized by co-evolutionary moves toward alignment , situated in two organizational contexts. This model provides a basis for further empirical research on COISA.
Achieving Business/IT-alignment (BITA) and pursuing intended goals within organizations seems an intricate and poorly examined process. We argue that without proper theories concerning BITA, the ‘mapping’ of theoretical constructs onto empirical phenomena, is ambiguous. In this paper we synthesize a higher order nomological framework for BITA with a considerable degree of complexity, coherence and causality. We aim to extend and generalize previous work on BITA within the healthcare domain, drawing on principles of complexity science. Our framework explains how BITA is related to firm performance. Using this knowledge, organizations can define improvement activities that can be executed along five organizational dimensions that best meets a organizations’ current and future needs; done simultaneously and hence by an integrated management perspective. This work contributes to academia by using a modeling approach that overcomes acknowledged limitations of existing approaches. Doing so, the outcomes of this study also offer many opportunities for future research.
A growing body of information systems studies are examining the organizational impact of IT in terms of IT capabilities. Yet, despite more than a decade since the original conception of IT capabilities which largely builds on the Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm, the manner in which the notion is conceptualized and measured provides an increasingly limited understanding of how IT investments are leveraged to add value. This study builds on the Dynamic Capabilities View (DCV) of the firm which places emphasis on a firm's ability to react adequately and timely to external changes, and puts forth the notion of IT-enabled dynamic capabilities. IT-enabled dynamic capabilities are defined as a firm's abilities to leverage its IT resources and IT competencies, in combination with other organizational resources and capabilities, in order to address rapidly changing business environments. The purpose of this study is to better define the notion of IT-enabled dynamic capabilities and develop a valid, reliable measurement instrument. In addition to the definition and operationalization of IT-enabled dynamic capabilities, this study explores the relationship of the construct with other measures of IT capabilities as well as the association with competitive performance.
Business IT Alignment is considered an enduring topic in academic and practitioners’ literature. The interest in the subject is justified by the link, demonstrated by several studies, between alignment and corporate performances. However, alignment research has not yet been translated into practices, theoretically demonstrated in literature and applied to companies. The interpretation of alignment as a function of independent factors and the underestimation of the complex nature of alignment process are considered key barriers in alignment achievement. The present study is based on a multi-case study analysis carried out in two companies that implemented alignment processes. We conceptualise alignment as a co-evolution process and derive four mechanisms and three types of parameters and explain their role in alignment implementation. The contribution is theoretical, since we analyse and describe mechanisms and factors that govern alignment, and for the practitioners, since knowledge of these mechanisms is precondition for an effective alignment implementation.
Social networks can be a vital mechanism for users to adapt to changes induced by new IT systems in organizations. However, we do not adequately understand the effect of social networks on post-adoption IT use. Drawing on coping theory and the social network literature, we develop a cognitive-affective-behavioral classification of user adaptation and identify seeking-network closure and giving-network closure as key network characteristics pertinent to post-adoption IT use. Thereafter, we establish a theoretical link from seeking-network closure and giving-network closure to post-adoption IT use through the underlying mechanisms of user adaptation. We operationalize the research model using a field survey of a newly implemented electronic medical record system in a hospital in Northeast China, where we collected network data and objective system logs of 104 doctors. We found that seeking-network closure was positively associated with cognitive adaptation but negatively associated with affective adaptation and behavioral adaptation, whereas giving-network closure was negatively associated with cognitive adaptation but positively associated with affective adaptation and behavioral adaptation. Moreover, cognitive adaptation and affective adaptation were determinants of post-adoption IT use, but behavioral adaptation was not. We discuss our study’s theoretical and practical contributions. © 2017, Association for Information Systems. All rights reserved.