Hi Tomi,

Thanks for the question. Dr. Winston T. Lin from University at Buffalo is an expert in this area, having many top publications regarding business and IT value from the perspective of different countries by applying econometric models. Data is secondary, but the findings are extremely helpful and insightful. Here's his profile link: http://mgt.buffalo.edu/faculty/academic/operations/faculty/mgtfewtl

Here are his selected publications:

Lin, W. T., and Chuang, C. H., "Investigating and Comparing the Dynamic Patterns of the Business Value of Information Technology Over Time," European Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 228 (July 2013), 249-261.

Chou, Y. C., Shao, B. B. M., and Lin, W. T., "Performance Evaluation of Production of IT Capital Goods Across OECD Countries: A Stochastic Frontier Approach to Malmquist Index,: Decision Support Systems, Vol. 54 (Decembrer 2012), 173-184.

Lin, W. T. and Chiang, C. Y., "The Impacts of Country Characteristics Upon the Value of Information Technology as Measured by Productive Efficiency," International Journal of Production Economics, Vol. 132 (July 2011), 13-33.

Lin, W. T., Chuang, C. H., and Choi, J. H., "A Partial Adjustment Approach to Evaluating and Measuring the Business Value of Information Technology," International Journal of Production Economics, Vol. 127 (Septembrer 2010), 158-172.

Chen, Y. H. and Lin, W. T., "Analyzing the Relationships between Information Technology, Inputs Substitution and National Characteristics Based on CES Stochastic Frontier Production Models," International Journal of Production Economics, Vol. 120 (August 2009), 552-569.

Lin, W. T., "The Business Value of Information Technology as Measured by Technical Efficiency: Evidence from Country-Level Data," Decision Support Systems, Vol. 46 (March 2009), 865-874.

Best regards,

Richard

Dear Richard,

Thank you very much for your valuable input and list of literature. I will certainly look up the articles mentioned in your comment. More importantly, based on your comment, I discovered that as an IS scientist I had not paid enough attention to economics and econometrics studies.

What I have found interesting in the analysis of my survey data is that investments into IT appear not as a leading indicator but a lagging indicator. They follow economic cycles (GDP growth, increase in productivity) with a lag. I have calculated three indices from the survey; IT-barometer index (8 indicators), IT deployment index (15 indicators) and IT management index (12 indicators), They all behave in the same way 

Kind Regards,

Tomi

Dear Tomi,

Indeed, IT value is really important to business. Based on your observation from the survey, I think such lag could indicate the risky factor of IT investment, but conclusion has to be drawn after proper data analysis. Also, Dr. Lin's papers intend to focus heavily on the econometric modeling with very good managerial implications. If you do find difficulties to understand or interpret the model, please ask me for help. If you cannot find any of those articles, I will be gladly to email them to you. If you require further assistance, Dr. Lin will help you.

I again appreciate your humble opinion on not paying much attention to economics studies. I believe that Dr. Lin used to be in the IS department but now in the Operations Management and Strategy.

Best regards,

Richard

Dear Leon,

Thank you sir for your kind response. I have followed the SIM surveys via MISQ executive through our library services for several years. I wish I could get similar amounts of responses as you do. That would increase the possibilities for through multi-variate statistical testing significantly. 

I'm currently in the middle of writing my final article this year and will fly to Hicss 2015 in early January. I'll look in detail into the SIM survey after that and will come back to you about possible collaboration. I feel honoured by your request. 

I'm planning to make our survey data open data to researchers some time during next year. 

Dear Richard,

I like your suggestion for the reason of my discovery about the lag.  

As our county is fairly small measured by the number of inhabitants (5,5 million) that offers some possibilities for research. For example, I know personally most of the CIOs working in the largest 100 companies and CIOs working in Ministries and other large public sector organizations. I have discussed the phenomenon of the lag in IT investments with many of them. During the recent years we have included survey questions about planned activities and realized activities in relation to the economic situation. Unfortunately I do not have those reported in English yet.

I'm not fully happy with the translation of our public IT barometer studies as they are just that, translations. I hope to have the time to complete the summary report over the past 6 years, which I started this fall.

Kind Regards, 

Tomi

Dear Tomi,

I have used indicators from WEF Global Information Technology Report, they are standardized across a large number of countries (the questions are answered locally) and this report is published annually. The data are freely downloadable at WEF´s website.

http://www.weforum.org/reports/global-information-technology-report-2014

http://www.weforum.org/global-information-technology-report-2014-data-platform

I have also used indicators from the Web index to compare across countries. But both are expert surveys.

http://thewebindex.org/

Best regards,

Thorhildur

I see that time is short for you Tomi, but I suggest at some point you follow up on the Standish Group CHAOS reports.  

Thank you very much for your contributions Thorhildur and Doug,

I have compared our data/results to those of World Economic Forum to the extent applicable and I have also used Standish Group's Chaos reports in presentations on our results regarding IT project performance.

The difference to WEF, IMD as well as to UN and Waseda eGovernment studies is that our IT barometer survey focuses on how survey respondents evaluate the deployment and management of IT - e.g. the impact of IT on the change in revenues, the significance of IT in customer service, the ability to meet IT projects'  business objectives, the existence of strategy or roadmap for the business use of social media and 250 other similar survey items -  rather than how big proportion of citizens have various devices, Internet connections or how part of (public) services are available electronically. 

Dear Tomi,

I also will consult with Dr. Lin and see what his insight is. By the way, this is a good discovery on IT spending lag.

Best regards,

Richard

Dear: Tommy,

Maybe you interest in this paper (attached), or Google book 

https://books.google.co.id/books?id=aVnhnRh2NWEC&pg=PA373&lpg=PA373&dq=repeated+studies+on+the+deployment+and+management+of+IT,+journal&source=bl&ots=ut5e8yYLBJ&sig=spc2OSjWB5TZTrJBxQe7g7TW92U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=92qLVPboFoHf8AXjuYDQAw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=repeated%20studies%20on%20the%20deployment%20and%20management%20of%20IT%2C%20journal&f=false

Regards

Hengky

I am not familiar with such repeated survey on the deployment and management of IT.

There are many studies where one has analyzed various IT strategies that are found relevant for improving productivity and profitability.

If you are interested in  such studies, you may find this of some value...

Thanks

Chapter Modern Manufacturing

I hope that this discussion will continue. At the same time I want to thank every one who has contributed so far.

It seems possible that the survey we have conducted in one fairly small developed economy is fairly unique. Our IT barometer survey asks business and IT executives/managers to express how they perceive the deployment of both traditional IT and emerging technologies. Topics covered are perceived benefits and other business impacts of IT, use of IT in various organizational activities, impact of economic situation on IT, success of IT projects, IT costs,  deployment and management of IT in relation to outsourcing, cloud services, eCommerce, social media, BYOD, data management and big data, IT risk management, innovation process IT, and IT management methods such as ITIL and COBIT.

So far, I have not written many articles about the data - situation I hope to be able to change in the future.  Six-year time-series data offers good potential for that. The first draft for a proper article (written together with two of my colleagues) will come out at the Hicss 2015 conference. That paper explores the impact of IT investment consistency on IT performance with a SEM model. Should you wish to receive that paper, please, either look at the conference documentation or drop me an email and ask for the paper ([email protected]) 

I'm also open for proposals should you be interested to cooperate with me.   

Good Morning,

Annually you have the CHAOS reports from the Standish Group. does help in some way?

Regards

Jorge