ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND INFORMATION-SYSTEMS PLANNING - AN EMPIRICAL-STUDY

Information Systems (IS) planning has gained considerable interest amo ng researchers and practitioners in recent years because of the large investments that firms have made in IS and the increasingly strategic nature of the impact of information systems on organizational performa nce. Since IS planning is performed in an organizational context, char acteristics of the organization may have a significant influence on th e quality and effectiveness of the IS planning process. A research mod el is developed that links two major dimensions of IS planning-the qua lity of the planning process and planning effectiveness-with a set of eight organizational factors derived from contingency research in IS p lanning, strategic business planning, organizational studies, and tech nology innovation. The model is validated using data collected from a field survey of 249 senior IS executives. Canonical correlation analys is is used to test the research hypotheses and validate the model. The results of the study indicate that the two planning dimensions respec tively reflecting the ''means'' and ''ends'' of IS planning are equall y important. The results also indicate that planning resources, the in tended strategic impact of IS on future business operations, the quali ty of facilitation mechanisms, the quality of implementation mechanism s, and the quality of strategic business planning are significantly as sociated with the quality and effectiveness of IS planning. The implic ations of the results to further research and to managerial practice a re highlighted.