| Since the sixties of the 20th century, information technology (IT) investment performance has been a hot topic of research. Although previous studies show that investment in information technology improves business performance, their conclusions are not consistent; the effect of IT investment is still controversial. The characteristics of the industries have been taken into consideration in research on IT investment performance, but these factors still do not help to explain the paradox of IT investment.This paper reviews the IT investment-related research, investigates the impact of IT investment on business performance by means of competition theory, value chain model, resource based theory, theories of knowledge and complementary theory and explores factors that may affect the effect of IT investment.165 listed agricultural companies were selected from 2005 to 2009 as samples to examine the relationship between IT investment and corporate performance and its influencing factors.Financial indicators and value indicators are to measure business performance, and hardware investment is used to measure information technology investment. The study shows that listed agricultural companies'IT investment plays a positive role in promoting the companies'performance. The increase in IT investment improves business performance. Meanwhile, the company size, growth, operational efficiency will have a positive effect on the performance promotion by IT investment, while debt levels will produce a negative effect. And state-owned listed companies'IT investment performance is much worse than that of non-state-owned listed companies.The research results show that investment in information technology can improve business performance, while firm size, growth, capital structure and other characteristics of companies have an important influence on the results. Therefore, IT investment needs to be carefully handled and based on company's needs. |
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