ICIS '00 Proceedings of the twenty first international conference on Information systems
Lines of advance in global information technology management: American/West European approach
Advanced topics in global information management
European Journal of Information Systems - Managing e-business transformation
The impact of information technology on the financial performance of diversified firms
Decision Support Systems - Special issue: Economics and information systems
Journal of Management Information Systems - Special issue: Impacts of information technology investment on organizational performance
Journal of Management Information Systems
International Journal of Electronic Commerce
The Journal of Strategic Information Systems
Telecommunications and Economic Activity: An Analysis of Granger Causality
Journal of Management Information Systems
Journal of Management Information Systems
Information Technology and Management
Journal of Management Information Systems
International Journal of Information Technology and Management
Journal of Management Information Systems
EDI-based and XML-based business-to-business integration: a statistical analysis
International Journal of Business Information Systems
The impact of information technology on the financial performance of diversified firms
Decision Support Systems - Special issue: Economics and information systems
Competitive Environment and the Relationship Between IT and Vertical Integration
Information Systems Research
Impacts of internal and interorganizational information systems on the outsourcing of manufacturing
The Journal of Strategic Information Systems
IT, productivity and organizational practices: large sample, establishment-level evidence
Information Technology and Management
Information Technology and Firm Boundaries: Impact on Firm Risk and Return Performance
Information Systems Research
Pricing e-service quality risk in financial services
Electronic Commerce Research and Applications
Differential effects of IT investments: Complementarity and effect of GDP level
International Journal of Information Management: The Journal for Information Professionals
Architecting Enterprises for IT-enabled Value Creation Part 1
International Journal of Green Computing
Architecting Enterprises for IT-Enabled Value Creation: Part 2
International Journal of Green Computing
Business-to-business integration and coordination costs
International Journal of Business Information Systems
Market Value Impacts of Information Technology Enabled Supply Chain Management Initiatives
Information Resources Management Journal
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This paper conducts an empirical analysis of the link between the scale and scope of the firm and information technology (IT) investments, emphasizing the role of IT in coordination and control. We extend the economic production function framework to include variables related to the boundaries of the firm, including related and unrelated diversification, vertical integration and growth options, and we estimate the resulting model on a data set based on annual surveys of IT spending by large U.S. firms, conducted by Computerworld during the period 1988-1992. Our results suggest that the level of IT investment is positively related to the degree of firm diversification, perhaps reflecting the greater need for coordination of assets within diversified firms. We further find that related diversification demands greater IT investment than unrelated diversification. Firms that are less vertically integrated have a higher level of IT investment. Finally, firms with fewer growth options in their investment opportunity set tend to have a higher IT investment, consistent with an agency perspective which predicts excessive IT investment by managers with "free" cash flow. Put together, these empirical relations between IT investments and firm characteristics help us better understand the role of IT in coordination and control and the choices firms make in information systems and strategy.