Dimensionality of the strategic grid framework: The construct and its measurement

The recent dramatic impact of information technology (IT) on organizational performance has necessitated appropriate strategies for managing this organizational resource. IT impacts firms in different ways, and management needs a clear and systematic understanding of both the current and future relevance and impact of its IT before selecting management tools and approaches. The strategic grid framework, developed for the purpose of helping management gain this understanding, is one of the most highly recognized and quoted conceptual frameworks in information systems literature. Despite such recognition, valid operational measures of this construct are not available for use in empirical research studies. The research reported in this paper is an attempt to develop and validate operational measures for the dimensions of the strategic grid, with the understanding that the availability of such measures will promote future empirical studies. Data for this study consist of the responses of 231 IS executives to a survey instrument. Operational models of the grid dimensions are specified and the measurement properties of the models are assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) within the LISREL framework. Measures resulting from the analysis are shown to meet the requirements of rigorous tests of measurement properties. The CFA results also show that the current portfolio dimension of the strategic grid is unidimensional, while the future portfolio dimension has three factors: management support, differentiation, and enhancement.