The influence of information technology diffusion and business process change on perceived productivity: The IS executive's perspective

A hallmark of the emerging 'information age' is the dramatic rise in expenditures by modern business enterprises on information technologies (IT). On account of these investments, senior managers anticipate gains in productivity, which are commensurate with the cost of modern IT and Information Systems. While the evolving capabilities of emerging TT are evident, the association between technological diffusion and increased productivity has not been readily demonstrated in terms of corporate repositioning or scholarly research findings. One possible source of this paradox is the absence or presence of Business Process Redesign in positioning the organization to assimilate and leverage technological innovation. This study empirically examines the nature and magnitude of relationships between IT diffusion, perceived productivity improvement, and process redesign. The findings suggest that process redesign and IT have a complex relationship with productivity, and that these can be represented by a mediating or moderating model for different technologies. The data, while exploratory, do suggest alternate ways to examine the productivity paradox. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.