Following a successful 'strategic IS planning' mini track at last years AMCIS this track welcomes research papers which consider the critical issues relating to e-business strategic planning paradigms.

Overview

A number of authors have identified various factor (i.e., senior management support, IT function assessment, etc) for successful congruence between IS and the business but there has been little comment on how such changes can be accommodated particularly in an e-business context (Dutta, 1996; Earl, 1996; Earl & Sampler, 1998; Horner & Benbasat, 1996, Burn and Barnett, 1999).

There is also little consensus with regard to the approach which should be used to achieve this strategic congruence and indeed some scepticism that there is a universal "best" planning approach (Hackney, 1996; Yetton, 1997; Burn, 1997; Sauer & Burn, 1997; Hackney et al, 1999). These researchers suggest that it is inappropriate to assume that strategic alignment will automatically improve the chances of IS effectiveness and improved organisational performance.

The phenomenal growth of e-business has now placed the focus clearly on IT-intensive value innovation (El Sawy et al, 1999) and evaluation of value returns (Farbey et al, 1999). The lack of evidence supporting such return calls into question the original planning processes and suggests a new paradigm is required recognising the value of e-knowledge and its incorporation into all strategic planning activities within the organisation.

Possible Topics may include the following:

• Succesful strategies for e-business
• New paradigms for e-business Planning
• Planning for e-knowledge (e-commerce + knowledge management)
• Organisational strategy research
• E-business complexity frameworks
• Assumptions for e-business planning
• Theories of strategic planning for e-commerce systems (SPECS)

Ray Hackney
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
<r.hackney@mmu.ac.uk>

Janice Burn
Edith Cowan University, Australia
<j.burn@ecu.edu.au>

Gurpreet Dhillon
University of Nevada, USA
<dhillon@nevada.edu>