Hu, Qing

Aligning information technology (lT) strategy with business strategy has been one
of the top concerns of practitioners and scholars. Despite the documented positive effects
of strategic alignment on organizational success, only few organizations consider
themselves in alignment. Although numerous studies exist about IT-business alignment,
the empirical studies based on strong theories have been rare in the alignment literature.
This dissertation attempts to fulfill this gap by proposing and empirically validating a
comprehensive strategic alignment model. Drawing on prior literature, we identified five
antecedents of alignment; centralization, formalization , shared domain knowledge,
successful IT history and relationship management. We further hypothesized that the
effects of these antecedents are mediated by the drivers of alignment, which are conceptualized as the level of connection of lT and business planning and the level of
communication between IT and business managers. Furthermore, the proposed research
model investigated the moderating effects of goal commitment of business executives to
achieving and sustaining strategic alignment and environmental uncertainty. The results
showed that both drivers had significant effects on alignment, and the effect of
connection is about twice that of communications. Our findings also support for the
effects of all antecedents except centralization. Finally, we found partial support for the
effects of moderating variables. Overall, the main contribution of this dissertation is the
development and empirical validation of a comprehensive strategic alignment model with
considerations for antecedents and potential moderating effects, thus extending the
alignment literature by differentiating the effects of dimensions of environmental
uncertainty as well as introducing the goal commitment and IT unit structure constructs,
and providing prescriptive insight for managing IT-business strategic alignment.

The purpose of this study is to explore environmental and personal factors that may influence college undergraduates' decisions to pursue a major in information technology. These factors include self-efficacy, outcome expectations, personality traits, interest in computers, attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and perceived IT job availability. The paper develops and tests a theoretical model based on social cognitive theory and the theory of planned behavior, and also incorporates the five factor model of personality. The intent of this study is to extend the social cognitive theory and theory of planned behavior literatures by expanding their application to IT career choice issues and by including personality traits as additional factors. The latter addition also indicates a unique application of the five factor personality model, as it is rarely used in concert with self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and broad environmental factors such as job market demands. A multi-section survey was administered to college undergraduates at four large universities in the southeastern United States. Analysis of the data results showed that college undergraduates with positive attitudes towards the IT major and high perceived behavioral control regarding the IT major had a greater intention of pursuing IT. The study also found positive links between 1) computer self-efficacy and self-evaluating outcome expectations regarding an IT career, 2) computer self-efficacy and perceived behavioral control, and 3) self-evaluating outcome expectations and attitudes towards the IT major. In addition, personality traits moderated a number of model relationships. Finally, it was found that males were significantly more likely to choose IT than females and scored higher on computer self-efficacy, self-evaluating outcome expectations, attitudes towards the IT major, interest in computers, and perceived behavioral control. The results and contributions of the study are discussed and recommendations are made for future research.