Tim Huygh

Adoption and Impact of IT Governance and Management Practices: A COBIT 5 Perspective

This paper empirically investigates how adoption of IT governance and management processes, as identified in the IT governance framework COBIT 5, relates to the level of IT-related goals achievement, which in turn associates to the level of enterprise goals achievement. Simultaneously, this research project provides an international benchmark on how organizations are currently adopting the governance and management processes as identified in COBIT 5. The findings suggest that organizations are best in adopting the “IT factory†related management processes and that implementation scores drop in management and governance processes when more business and board involvement is required. Additionally, there are significant differences in perceived implementation maturity of COBIT 5 processes between SMEs and larger organizations. Also, the data offers empirical evidence that the COBIT 5 processes have a positive association with enterprise value creation.

Exploring the Influence of Belgian and South-African Corporate Governance Codes on IT Governance Transparency

Building on prior research on how boards should provide stakeholder transparency by disclosing on how their organizations are governing their IT assets, this paper provides an exploratory insight in the contemporary state of IT governance transparency in Belgian and South African companies. Specifically, the influence of the national corporate governance code on IT governance transparency is investigated by comparing both groups of companies. Our findings show that South African firms tend to be more concerned with IT governance transparency than Belgian firms, given a comparable IT strategic role and ownership structure. This result could be expected, as the South African corporate governance code, King III, contains specific IT (governance)-related guidance, while the Belgian code Lippens does not. Accordingly, the case is made for including more (non-committal) IT (governance)-related guidance in national corporate governance codes.

Continuous Business Case Usage in the Context of a Strategic IT Enabled Investment at Rabobank

It has been argued that optimal value creation from IT enabled investments requires a business case that is used throughout the entire investment lifecycle, as opposed to an approach that terminates when the investment is formally approved. This approach requires a rational transformation in the perspective on business cases in which they need to become a living document that is frequently updated and matures along the investment. This study presents the business case process for a strategic IT enabled investment at Rabobank. The case site was specifically selected for being a high-performer in the area of continuous business case usage. This case study shows how a high-performer operating in an IT intensive industry makes use of a continuous business case approach during a strategic IT enabled investment and the benefits they perceive from it.

Exploring the Contemporary State of Information Technology Governance Transparency in Belgian Firms

ABSTRACT This article provides an exploratory insight in the contemporary state of IT governance transparency in Belgian firms. Our findings show that Belgian firms exhibit low IT governance disclosure rates in general. We also find preliminary evidence that IT governance disclosure is positively related to IT usage intensity for listed firms, and that listed firms tend to be more concerned with disclosing on their IT governance compared to non-listed firms, given a comparable level of IT usage intensity.

Exploring the Research Domain of IT Governance in the SME Context

This research aims to explore the research domain of IT governance in the SME context. To meet this objective, a small systematic literature review procedure is used. Results indicate that IT governance in the SME context has been researched previously, albeit not extensively. There seems to be consensus among authors that IT governance is important for SMEs as well as larger organizations. Additionally, many authors indicate that SME specificities will likely influence the nature and implementation of IT governance in the SME context. There also appears to be no great variety in research strategies used in this niche research domain. Regarding the contemporary state of IT governance in SMEs, authors seem to indicate that there is room for improvement. Finally, there is no published framework for IT governance that is tailored for SMEs, although the need for this is directly reported in the literature. This paper concludes by discussing some potential directions for future research, starting from the state-of-the-art of the research domain.