Baseline Mechanisms for Enterprise Governance of IT in SMEs

Information Technology (IT) has become fundamental for most organizations since it is vital to their sustainability, development and success. This pervasive use led organizations to a critical dependency on IT. Despite the benefits, it exposes organizations to several risks. Hence, a significant focus on Enterprise Governance of IT (EGIT) is required. EGIT involve the definition and implementation of processes, structures and relational mechanisms to support the business/IT alignment and the creation of business value from IT investments. These mechanisms act as a mean to direct and operationalize IT-related decision-making. However, identifying the appropriate mechanisms is a complex task since there are internal and external contingency factors that influence the design and implementation of EGIT. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are considered key elements to promote economic growth, job creation, social integration and innovation. The use of IT in these organizations can imply severe consequences on survival and growth in highly competitive markets, becoming critical in this globalization era. Several studies were developed to investigate and identify EGIT mechanisms in different contingencies but very few focused on the organization' size criterion. However, SMEs have particular characteristics that require further investigation. Therefore, our goal in this research is to evaluate EGIT mechanisms in a SME's context and identify a baseline of mechanisms for SMEs using semi-structured interviews with IT experts that have experience in SMEs. The article ends by presenting contributions, limitations and future work.