Evaluating IT governance practices and business and IT outcomes: A quantitative exploratory study in Brazilian companies

Information technology (IT) governance is an important organizational ability to promote IT-business strategic alignment and IT value delivery to businesses. To implement IT governance, businesses can utilize a set of practices associated with decision-making structures, processes, and relational mechanisms; however, the specific contributions of these different practices remain poorly understood. This paper presents the results of a study that sought to (1) develop a measurement instrument for IT governance practices, and based on this instrument, (2) identify different organizational profiles in terms of IT governance practices, business results, and maturity. Quantitative data were collected from a sample 652 Brazilian companies. Factorial and clusters analyses were applied to develop a measurement instrument and identify the companies' profiles, respectively. IT governance maturity and the achievement of business and IT outcomes were compared. Based on this analysis, this study indicates how businesses can be successful in terms of IT governance practices, and it presents potential deficiencies based on organizations with lower IT and business results. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.