Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 29, Number 2
Spring 1998

Strategic Information Systems Planning: Planning System Dimensions, Internal Coalignment, and Implications for Planning Effectiveness

Albert H. Segars
Department of Management, The Kenan-Flagler Business School, CB# 3490, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3490, email: al_segars@unc.edu

Varun Grover and James T.C. Teng
Department of Management Science, College of Business Administration, The University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29210

Abstract: Improving strategic information systems planning (SISP) remains a critical concern of both practitioners and academics. To date, a rather large number of studies have examined or proposed analytical techniques, frameworks, and tools for developing strategic plans. As a direct consequence of this emphasis, methodologies have often become the basis for characterizing the entire process of SISP within the information systems literature. Recent theoretical work suggests that such characterizations are unnecessarily narrow and that planning activities within organizations can be more accurately conceptualized as systems of behaviors, agendas, or process dimensions. Working within this contemporary theoretical perspective, the findings of this study suggest that SISP can be operationalized along distinct dimensions of comprehensiveness (extent of solution search), formalization (rules and procedures to guide activities), focus (creativity or control), flow (top down, bottom up), participation (number and variety of planners), and consistency (frequency of planning cycles). Similar to previous theoretical work and case studies, higher order factor modeling of these dimensions suggests that planning systems that exhibit aspects of rationality (high comprehensiveness, high formalization, control focus, top-down flow), and adaptation (high participation, high consistency) are positively associated with planning effectiveness.

Subject Areas: MIS/DSS and Computer Systems, Strategic Planning, and Structural Equation Modeling.