A framework for enterprise architecture effectiveness

Since Japanese firms have recently been forced to innovate their business models due to several factors, such as global operations, e-business, and Merger & Acquisition, they are need to have flexible business information systems to adapt to their industry changes. Historically, the biggest challenge facing to firms is "adaptation" to any environment. The flexibility of business information systems to create business values has been discussed for a long time as one of critical problems among Information Technology (IT) communities. One of potential solutions is Enterprise Architecture, which first started with e-Government. However, the effectiveness of Enterprise Architecture is still highly uncertain and little research evidence establishes the benefits of architecture or helps firms assess their architecture. The purpose of this paper is to clarify problems when firms confront e-business system implementation from an Enterprise Architecture viewpoint, and to propose an analytical framework in terms of Enterprise Architecture effectiveness while discussing the relation with Governance, and other relevant factors.