IT Alignment with Business Strategies in Healthcare Organizations: An Empirical Analysis (Survey‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Researchers have long believed that the proper alignment of IT strategies and business strategies will lead to superior business performance (e.g., Chan, Huff, Barclay, & Copeland, 1997; Evans & Neu, 2008; Reich & Benbasat, 1996; Sabherwal & Chan, 2001). Strategic IT alignment is defined as the degree to which the mission, objectives and plans contained in the business strategy are shared and supported by the IT strategy (Chan, Sabherwal, & Thatcher, 2006; Reich & Benbasat, 1996; Jarvenpaa & Ives, 1993; Sabherwal & Chan, 2001), and prior researchers have reported that business performance is contingent upon the alignment between the firm's IS strategy, business strategy, and organizational structure (Brown & Magill, 1994; Jarvenpaa & Ives, 1993). However, organizations typically change their business strategies as they perceive significant changes taking place in their environment. One particular business environment, the healthcare industry, has experienced significant changes in the last twenty years (Marlin, Huonker, & Hasbrouck, 2004). Accordingly, in this research we address an important yet unanswered question: Which combinations of IT and business-level strategies are best suited for optimizing performance in healthcare organizations?