【Topic】Reaping Information Technology Payoff: Does Corporate Governance Matter?

【Speaker】Sean Xin Xu

【Time】2007-4-9 14:30-16:00

【Venue】401, Weilun Building

【Language】Chinese

【Organizer】Department of Management Science and Engineering

【Backgound Information】

Prior studies have reported mixed findings on the impact of corporate IT investment on firm performance. This study investigates the role of corporate governance, an important management control system, in the IT investment-firm performance relationship in the Taiwanese high-tech industries. Two specific corporate governance factors, i.e., boardindependence and foreign ownership, are explored across firms with different sizes and in industries whose degrees of competitiveness run a wide gamut. Our results show a strong effect of board independence on the IT investment-firm performance relationship, especially when competition intensifies. Furthermore, we find that the association between foreign ownership and firm performance is negative but not significant. Yet, foreign ownership is a significant moderator for small firms, suggesting that foreign investors may bring IT expertise to help small firms reap the benefits of using IT.

Sean Xin XU is an assistant professor of information systems at theSchoolofBusinessand Management, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He received his Ph.D. from theUniversityofCalifornia,Irvine. His current research interests include information technology diffusion, corporate governance and information technology impacts, andinterorganizational systems and organizational governance structure. His work has been published in Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Journal of MIS, and European Journal of Information Systems. He was the recipient, with his coauthors, of two Best Paper Awards at the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), 2002 and 2003, and a BestPaper Award (International Track) at the 2004 Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS). He was the winner of an international doctoral research competition sponsored by SAP Inc. and the eBusinessResearchCenterat thePennStateUniversity.