Issues of international information systems management: a perspective of affiliates

As business competition becomes global, international information systems (IIS) management presents a significant challenge to multinational corporations and their affiliates. However, very few empirical studies have been conducted to investigate the management of IIS and the issues that confront the IS executives of such corporations. In this study, we perform a three-round Delphi study to identify, rank and evaluate the twenty most significant IIS issues of affiliates. The ratings of these issues suggest that technology infrastructure concerns, rather than planning and management concerns, have a larger impact on the IS operations of foreign affiliates. This study also reports on statistical analyses to differentiate the impact of different industries, respondents, IS structures and international involvement of affiliates on IIS issues ratings. The results indicate that respondents of IS and non-IS executives and affiliates of different international involvement levels have different views on the ratings of IIS issues. Our study also confirms that IIS issues can significantly impact the strategic, tactical and operational IS decisions of affiliates. These findings allow some important implications to be drawn for both practitioners and researchers dealing with IIS issues.