IT governance matter: A structured literature review

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to critically explore information technology governance (ITG) context, its consequences, its various aspects, its determinants, disclosure, maturity, and challenges. There are some motivations that urge the researchers to carry out this study. First, the review of prior relevant literature reveals a limited number of studies addressing the IT governance context, its consequences, its various aspects, its determinants, and challenges. Second, very little is known about the potential implications of IT governance within the business and how it is significant to the decision-makers (e.g., shareholders, board of directors, executives, etc.). Finally, little research employs the structured literature review (SLR) approach to critically discuss and analyze the IT governance context with its various aspects. The systematic and structured literature review has been employed for a critical analysis of the previous studies on IT governance. It is found that effective ITG has a positive impact on the firm performance in consistent with Altemimi and Zakaria (2017), Hulme (2012). Additionally, it is concluded that there is a positive association between ITG, the trustworthiness and the level of financial disclosure agreeing with (Raghupathi, 2007; Ali & Green, 2007). It is also concluded that the level of ITG disclosure is higher within firms in Europe (67%) than in the US (49%) complementing with Joshi et al. (2013). The adoption of the SLR methodology enables this paper to derive unbiased empirical insights and critique into the current ITG research and to identify possible directions for future ITG research, which may possibly be of interest to the academics, regulators, and professional bodies (e.g., shareholders, board of directors, executives, etc.).