Rui Bi

The Impact of IT‑Business Alignment on SME Performance: The Mediating Effects of Strategic Collaboration, Coordination, and Responsiveness

Introduction

The impact of it‑business alignment on sme performance: the mediating effects of strategic collaboration, coordination, and responsiveness. Discover how IT-business alignment drives SME performance, mediated by strategic collaboration, coordination, and responsiveness. Insights from Australian SMEs for business success.

Abstract

The alignment between information technology (IT) and business strategy is regarded as an ongoing issue for information systems (IS) researchers and practitioners. Although prior studies suggest the enabling role of IT‑business alignment on firm performance, our understanding of the processes through which such gains are achieved in the small‑to‑medium enterprise (SME) context still remains unclear. Moreover, there is limited research exporing how SMEs employ the alignment between IT and business strategy to work closely with their business partners in order to achieve business competences. In order to address these research gaps, this study investigates whether and how IT‑business alignment enables SMEs to achieve performance goals through developing strategic business activities effectively and efficiently. Using structural equation modelling analyses of survey responses collected from 211 Australian high growth SMEs, we find positive, significant, and impactful linkages between IT‑business alignment, strategic collaboration, coordination, responsiveness, and SME performance. The results also show that strategic collaboration, coordination, and responsiveness fully mediate the relationship between IT‑business alignment and SME performance. This study contributes to the IS research by providing empirically‑supported explanations for the critical role of IT‑business alignment in SME success. More significantly, through investigating the effect of IT‑business alignment at the inter‑mediate business process level, this research provides new insights to understand the underlying influential mechanisms of IT‑business alignment in the SME context. These findings have important implications for SME business managers.

Review

This paper addresses a crucial and enduring issue in information systems research: the impact of IT-business alignment on firm performance, specifically within the under-researched context of Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs). By focusing on the mediating roles of strategic collaboration, coordination, and responsiveness, the study aims to clarify *how* alignment translates into performance gains, particularly in an environment where resource constraints and agility are paramount. The use of Structural Equation Modeling on data from 211 Australian high-growth SMEs provides a robust quantitative approach to explore these complex relationships. The core finding—that strategic collaboration, coordination, and responsiveness fully mediate the alignment-performance linkage—is a significant revelation that promises both theoretical and practical insights. The study makes several commendable contributions to the literature. It effectively fills a critical gap by elucidating the specific mechanisms through which IT-business alignment enhances SME performance, moving beyond a simplistic direct effect. The identification of strategic collaboration, coordination, and responsiveness as full mediators offers a nuanced understanding of the "black box" between alignment and success, particularly emphasizing inter-mediate business process levels. This empirical validation significantly strengthens the theoretical framework surrounding IT-business alignment in the SME context. Furthermore, by focusing on high-growth Australian SMEs, the research provides valuable, context-specific insights into a segment of the economy vital for innovation and job creation. While offering valuable insights, the abstract also hints at potential avenues for future research. The focus on Australian high-growth SMEs, while providing contextual specificity, might limit the generalizability of findings to SMEs in different national contexts, industry sectors, or at varying stages of growth or maturity. Given that the study employs survey data and SEM, it is likely cross-sectional, which, while capable of identifying strong associations, typically limits the ability to infer definitive causality. Future longitudinal research could strengthen the causal claims implied by the "impact" terminology. Nonetheless, the findings offer immediate and critical implications for SME managers, underscoring that effective IT-business alignment is not an end in itself, but a crucial enabler for fostering strategic collaboration, improving coordination, and enhancing responsiveness, ultimately leading to superior business performance.

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