An exploratory inquiry into the perceived effectiveness of a global information system

As globalization has driven and has also been driven by innovation in information technology (IT), an effective utilization of IT has become critical in improving global operations. In this paper, we report an exploratory inquiry into what factors influence the effectiveness of IT on coordinating international operations as perceived by managers at global firms. As an initial study, our research focuses on a specific set of variables which we propose are fundamental elements for determining the IT effectiveness in the global context, i.e. firm’s globalization level, IT application, and IT department dedication. We put forth two propositions: first, a global firm can enhance its IT effectiveness by advancing the IT application level; second, as its globalization level expands, the global firm must put in place a comparable amount of organizational support (measured by IT department dedication) for the global IT system if it wants to heighten IT performance by raising the IT application level. In order to verify the propositions, we collected survey data from 35 Korean firms, each of which operates on a global scale, doing operations in foreign countries through subsidiaries. Our analysis result led us to reach conclusions upholding the propositions.