Skip to main content

Barriers in Business-IT Alignment in the Banking Sector in a Developing Country: A Case Study of Commercial Banks in the Gambia

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Information Systems (EMCIS 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 381))

  • 2229 Accesses

Abstract

Business-IT Alignment (BITA) is still one of the top management concerns in many organizations due to its strategic benefits. Researchers have highlighted the importance of understanding the significance of BITA in improving organizational performance and gaining competitive advantage. BITA is a dynamic process, and organizations need to adjust it continuously. Moreover, there is still a need for new knowledge on the barriers in BITA in different organizations, like e.g., those from developing countries where were done a few research studies. Therefore, this research has focused on organizations from the banking sectors of The Gambia to identify the barriers in BITA. The research strategy used was survey research and the data was collected through semi-structured interviews combine with internal documents of the studied organizations and analyzed using thematic analysis. The study has identified in total 26 barriers in BITA from which eight are new barriers in BITA in the banking sector organizations of The Gambia. The results of the study contribute to BITA research and can help business and IT managers in attaining and sustaining business-IT alignment and improving their organizational performance.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Kappelman, L., Torres, R., McLean, E., Maurer, C., Johnson, V., Kim, K.: The 2018 SIM IT issues and trends study. MIS Q. Exec. 18(1), 51–84 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Luftman, J.N., Bullen, C.V., Liao, D., Nash, E., Neumann, C.: Managing the Information Technology Resource: Leadership in the Information Age. Pearson/Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Colton, T., Tallon, P., Sharma, R., Queiroz, M.: Strategic IT alignment: twenty five years on. J. Inf. Technol. 30(2), 91–100 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Belalcázar, A., Díaz, J., Ron, M., Molinari, L.: Towards a strategic resilience of applications through the NIST cybersecurity framework and the strategic alignment model (SAM). In: Proceedings of 2017 International Conference on Information Systems and Computer Science, pp. 181–187. IEEE (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Peppard, J., Ward, J.: The Strategic Management of Information Systems: Building a Digital Strategy, 4th edn. Wiley, Chichester (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Gutierrez, A., Orozco, J., Serrano, A., Serrano, A.: Using tactical and operational factors to assess strategic alignment: an SME study. In: Proceedings of European and Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems (EMCIS), pp. 23–33. Association for Information Systems (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  7. El-Mekawy, M., Rusu, L., Perjons, E., Sedvall, K.-J.: Strategic and tactical business-IT alignment barriers in organizations acting in Sweden. Int. J. IT/Bus. Align. Gov. 6(2), 31–55 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Hiekkanen, K., Pekkala, A., Collin, J.: Improving strategic alignment: a case study. Inf. Resour. Manag. J. 28(4), 19–37 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Gbangou, L.P., Rusu, L.: Factors hindering business-IT alignment in the banking sector of a developing country. Procedia Comput. Sci. 100, 280–288 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Wang, J., Rusu, L.: Factors hindering business-IT alignment in small and medium enterprises in China. Procedia Comput. Sci. 138, 425–432 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Jonathan, G.M., Abdul-Salaam, A., Oluwasanmi, O., Rusu, L.: Business-IT alignment barriers in a public organisation: the case of federal inland revenue service of Nigeria. Int. J. Innov. Digit. Econ. (IJIDE) 9(1), 1–13 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Chege, S., Nyamboga, C., Wanyembi, G.: The relationship between the business-IT alignment maturity and the business performance for the banking industry in Kenya. Int. J. Technol. Syst. 3(1), 1–22 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Luftman, J.: Competing in the Information Age: Align in the Sand, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, New York (2003)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  14. Luftman, J., Lyytinen, K., Zvi, T.B.: Enhancing the measurement of IT business alignment and its influence on company performance. J. Inf. Technol. 32(1), 26–46 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Parappallil, J.J., Zarvic, N., Thomas, O.: A context and content reflection on business-IT alignment research. Int. J. IT/Bus. Align. Gov. (IJITBAG) 3(2), 21–37 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Chan, Y.E., Reich, B.H.: IT alignment: what have we learned? J. Inf. Technol. 22(4), 297–315 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Kearns, G.S., Lederer, A.L.: A resource-based view of strategic IT alignment: how knowledge sharing creates competitive advantage. Decis. Sci. 34(1), 1–29 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Leonard, J., Seddon, P.: A meta-model of alignment. Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst. 31(11), 230–259 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Weiss, J.W., Anderson, D.: Aligning technology and business strategy: issues & frameworks, a field study of 15 companies. In: Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 1–10. IEEE (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Henderson, J.C., Venkatraman, H.: Strategic alignment: leveraging information technology for transforming organizations. IBM Syst. J. 32(1), 472–484 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Kurti, I., Barolli, E., Sevrani, K.: Critical success factors for business – IT alignment: a review of current research. Rom. Econ. Bus. Rev. 8(3), 79–97 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Wagner, H.-T., Weitzel, T.: How to achieve operational business-IT alignment: insights from a global aerospace firm. MIS Q. Exec. 11(1), 25–36 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Tarafdar, M., Qrunfleh, S.: IT-business alignment: a two-level analysis. Inf. Syst. Manag. 26(4), 338–349 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Tarafdar, M., Qrunfleh, S.: Examining tactical information technology-business alignment. J. Comput. Inf. Syst. 50(4), 107–116 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Luftman, J.: Assessing business-IT alignment maturity. Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst. 4(14), 1–51 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Denscombe, M.: The Good Research Guide: For Small-Scale Social Research Projects. Open University Press, Maidenhead (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Yin, R.: Case Study Research Design and Methods, 4th edn. Sage Publications Inc, Thousand Oaks (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Braun, V., Clarke, V.: Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qual. Res. Psychol. 3(2), 77–101 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Kanna, K.: How an ERP system helps align IT with business strategy. https://www.3i-infotech.com/erp-system-helps-align-business-strategy/. Accessed 15 May 2019

  30. Luftman, J., Brier, T.: Achieving and sustaining business-IT alignment. Calif. Manag. Rev. 42(1), 109–122 (1999)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Luftman, J., Lyytinen, K., Zvi, T.: Enhancing the measurement of information technology (IT) business alignment and its influence on company performance. J. Inf. Technol. 32(1), 26–46 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The first author of this paper had a Swedish Institute scholarship that gave him the opportunity and support to do this research work during his master studies at Stockholm University.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lazar Rusu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Jobarteh, E., Agrawal, N., Rusu, L. (2020). Barriers in Business-IT Alignment in the Banking Sector in a Developing Country: A Case Study of Commercial Banks in the Gambia. In: Themistocleous, M., Papadaki, M. (eds) Information Systems. EMCIS 2019. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 381. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44322-1_37

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44322-1_37

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-44321-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-44322-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics