IT Governance-Based IT Strategy and Management

Domestic and global companies are increasingly using information and communication technologies as a means of delivering their strategic visions and thus maintaining a competitive advantage. The value of information assets has increased as firms’ asset base shifts from tangible to intangible properties, placing a premium on firms’ capacity to develop, manage and utilize their information assets. In this environment, companies aim to strengthen their business control over IT resources, maximizing performance through defining the responsibilities of all staff involved in IT resource management and processes. However, while most managers acknowledge the importance of managing IT assets within a framework of IT governance (ITG), only a small number of academic treatments deal with ITG, meaning that businesses often find themselves making their governance decisions in a vacuum. This chapter therefore aims to clarify the concept of ITG through conducting a literature review, suggesting some implications of this work for practitioners, and indicating directions for the future study of ITG.