IT investment decision making – the role of intangible benefits

Sammanfattning: Investments evaluation has been considerably studied by academics. Researchers argue that decisions are based on the least expensive investment because of the commoditization of Information Technology (IT) (Carr, 2003). Nevertheless, evaluating an investment strictly from a financial perspective may be problematic because it disregards other benefits that enhance organizational performance (Lin et al., 2005). For this reason, the research has focused on the analysis of the decision making process in order to trace the importance of the overall benefits of an IT investment. In order to better analyze the decision making process, a theoretical framework was synthesized. This framework can be used to assess the organizational objectives which can be broken down to strategic, tactical, operational and financial considerations. Next, the actual benefits of the investment can be examined and categorized to strategic, informational and transactional dimensions. This assessment allows the effective evaluation of an IT investment in order to reach its justification. The theoretical framework was later evaluated by interviews which were conducted with senior managers. Interestingly, the research has shown that several benefits are considered during the decision making process of the investment. These benefits are important to the final decision and overcome certain financial restrictions. Out of these benefits, customer relations and business efficiency are the ones that influence most the decision making process. However, the environmental dimension can also be added to the benefits assessment level in order to fully complement the research’s framework.