Cover -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- List of Abbreviations -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 Problem Statement -- 1.2 Research Objective -- 1.3 Research Design -- 1.4 Study Organisation -- 2. Theoretical Foundations -- 2.1 Information Technology -- 2.1.1 Terminology -- 2.1.2 The Emergence and Management of Corporate IT -- 2.2 IT and Business Performance -- 2.2.1 The Notion of Value -- 2.2.2 The Resource-Based View as a Theoretical Lens -- 2.2.2.1 The market-based perspective -- 2.2.2.2 The resource-based perspective -- 2.2.2.3 Summary and choice of the RBV as a theoretical frame -- 2.2.3 Extensions of the Resource-Based View -- 2.2.3.1 Dynamic capabilities -- 2.2.3.2 Knowledge-based view, knowledge specificity and absorptive capacity -- 2.2.3.3 Complementarities, synergies and relatedness -- 2.2.4 IT Business Value -- 2.2.4.1 A unified view on IT business value research -- 2.2.4.2 IT as a valuable resource -- 2.2.4.3 Business processes and complementary organisational resources as a key to IT-driven performance increases -- 2.2.4.4 IT as a possible source of sustained competitive advantage -- 2.2.4.5 Summary -- 2.2.5 Business Performance -- 2.2.6 Summary -- 2.3 Previous Work on IT Governance -- 2.3.1 Corporate Governance -- 2.3.1.1 Origins of corporate governance -- 2.3.1.2 The shareholder value concept in North America and the UK -- 2.3.1.3 The stakeholder concept at the example of Germany -- 2.3.1.4 Approximation of the two concepts in light of corporate risks -- 2.3.2 Defining IT Governance -- 2.3.3 IT Governance Structures -- 2.3.3.1 Basic IT governance structures -- 2.3.3.2 Expanded IT governance structures -- 2.3.3.3 Summary -- 2.3.4 IT Governance Contingency Analyses -- 2.3.4.1 Contingency theory -- 2.3.4.2 Contingency analyses for uniform ITG structures.

2.3.4.3 Contingency analyses for non-uniform ITG structures -- 2.3.4.4 Summary -- 2.3.5 Contemporary IT Governance Frameworks -- 2.3.5.1 IT governance archetypes -- 2.3.5.2 IT governance structures, processes and relational mechanisms -- 2.3.6 IT Governance Impact Analyses -- 2.3.7 Summary -- 2.4 Preliminary Research Framework -- 3. Research Design -- 3.1 Ontological and Epistemological Stance -- 3.2 Research Strategy -- 3.3 Case Study Design -- 3.4 Case Sampling Procedure -- 3.5 Data Collection and Analysis -- 3.6 Summary -- 4. Empirical Exploration and Theory Building -- 4.1 Data Selection and Analysis -- 4.2 Proposed Explanatory Model -- 4.3 The Impact of IT Governance -- 4.3.1 Infrastructure and Applications -- 4.3.1.1 Consolidation of IT infrastructure - empirical observations -- 4.3.1.2 Harmonisation of the IT application landscape - empirical observations -- 4.3.1.3 IT relatedness and IT governance maturity -deduction and refinement of constructs -- 4.3.1.4 Theoretical positioning of Proposition P1a -- 4.3.2 Business Processes -- 4.3.2.1 Harmonisation of business processes - empirical observations -- 4.3.2.2 Business process relatedness and IT governance maturity - deduction and refinement of constructs -- 4.3.2.3 Theoretical positioning of Proposition P1b and Proposition P2 -- 4.4 Performance Effects of Relatedness -- 4.4.1 IT Relatedness -- 4.4.1.1 The positive impact of IT relatedness - empirical observations -- 4.4.1.2 Theoretical positioning of Proposition P3a -- 4.4.2 Business Process Relatedness -- 4.4.2.1 The positive impact of business process relatedness -empirical observations -- 4.4.2.2 Theoretical positioning of Proposition P3b -- 4.4.3 Interacting Effects between IT Relatedness and Business Process Relatedness.

4.4.3.1 The positive impact of interacting effects between IT relatedness and business process relatedness - empirical observations -- 4.5 Moderating Effect of Absorptive Capacity -- 4.5.1.1 The moderating effect of the absorptive capacity of the IT department -empirical observations -- 4.5.1.2 Theoretical positioning of Proposition P5a and Proposition P5b -- 4.6 Summary -- 5. Empirical Substantiation and Theory Corroboration -- 5.1 Data Selection and Analysis -- 5.2 Single-Case Analysis -- 5.2.1 OMEGA -- 5.2.2 PSI -- 5.2.3 CHI -- 5.2.4 PHI -- 5.2.5 YPSILON -- 5.2.6 TAU -- 5.2.7 SIGMA -- 5.2.8 RHO -- 5.2.9 PI -- 5.2.10 OMIKRON -- 5.2.11 Summary -- 5.3 Cross-Case Analysis -- 5.3.1 The Impact of IT Governance -- 5.3.1.1 The impact of IT governance maturity on IT relatedness -- 5.3.1.2 The impact of IT governance maturity on business process relatedness -- 5.3.1.3 The moderating effect of IT relatedness -- 5.3.2 Performance Effects of Relatedness -- 5.3.2.1 The impact of IT relatedness on business performance -- 5.3.2.2 The impact of business process relatedness on business performance -- 5.3.3 Interacting Effects between IT Relatedness and Business Process Relatedness -- 5.3.4 Moderating Role of Absorptive Capacity -- 5.3.4.1 The moderating role of the absorptive capacity of the IT department inrelation to the impact of ITG maturity on IT relatedness -- 5.3.4.2 The moderating role of the absorptive capacity of the IT department inrelation to the impact of ITG maturity on business process relatedness -- 5.3.5 Summary -- 6. Discussion of Findings -- 6.1 Theoretical Implications -- 6.2 Managerial Implications -- 6.3 Limitations and Future Research -- 7. Summary and Conclusion -- Appendix -- 1. Attributes Used to Assess the Case Studies(based on Dubé and Paré 2003) -- 2. Interview Guidelines -- 2.1 Exploratory Phase -- 2.2 Corroborative Phase.

3. Coding Scheme for the Corroborative Phase -- 4. Assessment of Constructs for the Corroborative Phase -- 4.1 OMEGA -- 4.2 PSI -- 4.3 CHI -- 4.4 PHI -- 4.5 YPSILON -- 4.6 TAU -- 4.7 SIGMA -- 4.8 RHO -- 4.9 PI -- 4.10 OMIKRON -- Bibliography.