| The linkage between strategy and information technology (IT) has received much attention in recent years. An excellent match between strategy and IT has been prescribed by many authors and researchers as an important recipe for higher organizational effectiveness and stronger competitive position. The primary objective of this research is to investigate the moderating effects of different attributes (or factors) of IT on the relationship between the strategy of an organization and its performance.;Strategy is conceived as a pattern or a stream of important decisions (Mintzberg, 1973). It was operationalized by using Miles and Snow's (1978) typology, which identifies four archetypes of strategic adaptation: defenders, analyzers, prospectors and reactors. Information technology (IT) was applied to mean any technology used for storing, processing and communicating information. It was characterized by a few factors that constitute the physical/technical, social/behavioral and structural/procedural aspects of technology.;The hypotheses, which conjecture a moderating effect of each factor under IT on the relationship between strategy and performance, were statistically tested by applying a cross-sectional field design. The data were collected from about 150 firms in the financial service industry in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (i.e., Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and United Arab Emirates). The measurements of variables in the study were mainly self reporting with minor variations. For example, strategy was measured by self typing using a paragraph approach, while the IT factors were measured by self reporting using multi-item questionnaires. Performance was measured using subjective methodologies to tap the firm's performance across three indicators: profitability, market share and return on assets.;The results revealed that different IT factors impact the relationship between strategy and performance differently. For example, use of IT in strategic planning, IT infrastructure, use of IT in operational control and organizational IT factors (e.g., top management involvement) have direct and significant relationships with organizational performance regardless of the type of strategy pursued. The type of control over IT activities, along with the level of IT standardization, was found to be a quasi moderator which has a significant interaction with strategy and at the same time relates significantly to strategy or performance. The use of IT networks was found to be a pure moderator having only a significant interaction with strategy. The quasi and pure moderators influence the form of the relationship between dependent and independent variables. Finally, the level of user support has no moderating effect on strategy-performance relationship. |
