How Different Types of IS Assets Account for Synergy-Enabled Value in Multi-Unit Firms: Mapping of Critical Success Factors and Key Performance Indicators

摘要

Rooted in a longstanding tradition, research and practice strives to determine how to derive business value from IT investments. This applies particularly to the neglected research area of multi-unit firms, where there is still a high potential to enhance IT synergies. Our study addresses important research gaps in IT business value research. First, we investigate how different of types of IS assets, i.e., infrastructural, transactional, and strategic IS, account for cross-unit synergies to create business value. Second, we map critical success factors and key performance indicators of this value creation process in order to open the "grey box" in IT business value research. An explorative multiple-case study methodology with five case sites is applied. Our results reveal that these different types of IS assets account for a different degree of cost and value synergies, support diverse critical success factors, and require distinct measurement approaches in the form of KPIs.