The adoption of centralized information resource policy entities: An empirical analysis (Herbert Simon)

This dissertation analyzed state-level centralized information resource policy entities whose primary function is to coordinate agency data processing activities in the management of information systems. Such entities are often mandated by law to control state agencies' information technologies. As technology has advanced, however, states have changed the way they use these entities. Specifically, state information resource policy entities have evolved into coordinating rather than controlling roles. Technological and organizational imperatives were explored to explain this shift.; Contingency Theory variations involving James Thompson's Intensive and Mediating technology models (1967) were used. In the empirical analysis, factors that were posited as determinants of mediating agency entities were the population of a state, a proxy for the number of transactions processed and the number of state employees. With Linear Probability, LOGIT and PROBIT, the results between models were in agreement, and the first group emerged as statistically significant. When a time period stratification of the samples was used, a governor's institutional power became statistically significant with a state's budget periodicity marginally so. State expenditures and intergovernmental transfers areas were also explored. The hypotheses were largely upheld and this suggests that central data processing agencies are variations of “Intensive” technology agencies and that centralized information resource policy entities are of the “Mediating” technology type.