Dimensionality of the strategic grid framework: The construct and its measurement

The recent dramatic impact of information technology (IT) on organizational performance has necessitated appropriate strategies for managing this orga nizational resource. IT impacts firms in different ways, and management nee ds a clear and systematic understanding of both the current and future rele vance and impact of its IT before selecting management tools and approaches . The strategic grid framework, developed for the purpose of helping manage ment gain this understanding, is one of the most highly recognized and quot ed conceptual frameworks in information systems literature. Despite such re cognition, valid operational measures of this construct are not available f or use in empirical research studies. The research reported in this paper i s an attempt to develop and validate operational measures for the dimension s of the strategic grid, with the understanding that the availability of su ch measures will promote future empirical studies. Data for this study cons ist of the responses of 231 IS executives to a survey instrument. Operation al models of the grid dimensions are specified and the measurement properti es of the models are assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with in the LISREL framework. Measures resulting from the analysis are shown to meet the requirements of rigorous tests of measurement properties. The CFA results also show that the current portfolio dimension of the strategic gri d is unidimensional, while the future portfolio dimension has three factors : management support, differentiation, and enhancement.