Maximizing the positive influence of IT for improving organizational performance Jacques Bulchand-Gidumal ⇑ , Santiago Melián-González 1 University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism, Campus Universitario de Tafira, 35017 Las Palmas de G.C., Spain article info Article history: Received 24 September 2010 Received in revised form 6 September 2011 Accepted 19 September 2011 Available online 14 October 2011 Keywords: IT performance Firm performance IT resources IT strategic planning Resource-based view of the firm Universities Spain Value chain abstract In the analysis of whether information technology (IT) has an impact on organizational per- formance, focus is usually placed on the relationship between an organization’s invest- ments in IT and that organization’s performance. Therefore, it is standard to devote special attention to the size and complexity of the organization, to the investments in other organizational resources that may affect the performance of IT, and to the manner in which the two variables are measured. However, one area that has not been well explored is the manner in which the relationship between investments in IT and organizational perfor- mance develops. In this article, we show empirically that the planning and management of IT influence the organization’s endowment of resources (physical and human), which consequently has positive effects on each of the IT-related areas usually found in organiza- tions (applications, reliable and secure systems and communications, and training and sup- port). In turn, the functioning of these areas influences the impact of IT on the organization, which then has positive effects on organizational performance. We have used data corre- sponding to IT management in Spanish universities, as well as independent rankings that are useful for evaluating their performance. Ó 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The academic body that studies information technology (IT) has spent years debating the so-called ‘‘productivity para- dox’’, that is, whether investment in IT corresponds to an adequate improvement in organizational performance. Since Solow (1987) stated that ‘‘we see computers everywhere except in the productivity statistics’’, a statement that came to be called the productivity paradox, a significant number of articles have attempted to explain the reasons behind this paradox. These explanations can be divided into two broad groups. On the one hand, some studies refer to methodological issues, such as the manner in which investment in IT, productivity, and even organizational performance are measured (Griliches, 1995; Hitt and Brynjolfsson, 1996; Brynjolfsson, 1998; Schreyer, 1998; Kholi and Devaraj, 2003). This type of reasoning fits perfectly in today’s world, which faces a change of paradigm with few antecedents in the history of mankind (Castells, 2010) that necessitates methodological adaptation. On the other hand, there are explanations regarding contextual variables that may act as moderators of the relationship between investment in IT and organizational performance. These include firm size (e.g., the larger the organization, the high- er the performance that IT can offer: Kobelsky et al., 2008); the complexity of the firm (e.g., the greater the complexity, the higher the performance that IT can offer: Kobelsky et al., 2008; Fernández Menéndez et al., 2009); and investments in com- plementary assets that enable organizations to take maximum advantage of IT (Brynjolfsson, 2003). 0963-8687/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jsis.2011.09.004 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 928458958; fax: +34 928451022. E-mail addresses: jbulchand@dede.ulpgc.es (J. Bulchand-Gidumal), smelian@dede.ulpgc.es (S. Melián-González). 1 Tel.: +34 928451784; fax: +34 928451022. Journal of Strategic Information Systems 20 (2011) 461–478 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Strategic Information Systems journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jsis