Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 29, Number 4
Fall 1998
An Instrument for Assessing the Organizational Benefits of
IS Projects
Rajesh Mirani
Merrick School of Business, University of Baltimore, 11 W. Mt.
Royal Ave. - BC 404, Baltimore, MD 21201-5779, e-mail: rmirani@ubmail.ubalt.edu
Albert L. Lederer
425C Business and Economics Building, Decision Sciences and Information
Systems Area, School of Management, University of Kentucky, Lexington,
KY 40506-0034,
e-mail: lederer@ukcc.uky.edu
ABSTRACT. This paper reports the development of an
instrument to measure the organizational benefits of IS projects.
The basis for this instrument was a published framework that
suggests three categories of such benefits: strategic, informational,
and transactional. In a cross-sectional study of 178 IS projects
proposed and approved for development, this framework was operationalized
and empirically tested using the measurement model of LISREL.
The analysis culminated in the validation and refinement of the
these categories. The final instrument offers items under three
separate subdimensions of strategic benefits: competitive advantage,
alignment, and customer relations. Informational benefits are
similarly comprised of information access, information quality,
and information flexibility. Finally, transactional benefits
are also shown to be of three types: communications efficiency,
systems development efficiency, and business efficiency. Implications
of this multidimensional instrument for IS practitioners and
researchers are discussed.
Subject Areas: Information Management, Management Information
Systems, and Measurement. |