Managing Costs and Performance of Information Technology in a Group Context - Current Challenges for Multinational Enterprises

Over the past few decades, the importance of IT has increased year after year for the majority of businesses. Popular inorganic growth and consolidation strategies have led to the formation of business group organizations. The resulting organizational structure is characterized by a systematic delegation of duties between the core entity and the business entities. Such organizational structures represent a challenging environment for the group-wide management of IT costs and performance. The management of costs and performance of IT, also known as IT evaluation, describes the discipline of ensuring the effective and efficient use of IT resources. The aim of this paper is to analyze the current situation regarding IT evaluation in business groups as well as to identify current challenges within this specific area. Seven multinational business groups will provide the basis for the following multiple case study.