An IT strategy development framework for small and medium enterprises

We design and evaluate an IT strategy development framework for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The framework’s objective is to provide a theoretically grounded, empirically validated, uncomplicated, and accessible framework to develop an IT strategy for an SME. The framework is a social artifact whose purpose is to guide the design of two other artifacts: an IT strategy process and an IT strategy plan. We rely on design science research, combined with action research, to design, apply, evaluate, and refine the framework in a specific SME in the sales industry. People responsible for managing the IT in an SME can use the framework to design or refine their IT strategy, in order to make better-informed IT strategy decisions, to improve the utilization of their SME’s usually scarce IT resources, and ultimately increase their IT’s business value contribution. We also gain an enhanced understanding of IT strategies’ role in SMEs and provide methodological implications for social artifact design.