Research on alignment between business strategy and information technology (IT) strategy has generated extensive insights over the last three decades. That research has focused primarily on the fit between business and IT strategies, while cross-domain alignment, i.e., alignment between business strategy and IT infrastructure components, has received far less attention. Further, previous studies have focused on the implications of alignment for firm performance while the effects of cross-domain alignment on business unit performance in multi-business organizations (MBOs) are yet to be examined. This issue is important as IT infrastructures are evolving rapidly. Specifically, MBOs are increasingly turning to corporate IT platforms to support a common set of shared IT needs, while still allowing individual business units to manage unique aspects of their own IT needs through local IT applications. Extending prior research, this study proposes that performance of business units in MBOs is influenced by two complementary forms of cross-domain alignment, viz., alignment between the corporate IT platform and the corporate business strategy, and alignment between the business unit’s portfolio of IT applications and its business strategy. Using data from a global survey of 120 organizations, we find evidence that complementarity between these two forms of cross-domain alignment creates a joint positive effect on business unit performance. We also find that this effect varies with the extent of process digitization within business units. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

在过去的三十年中，有关业务战略与信息技术（IT）战略之间一致性的研究已经获得了广泛的见识。该研究主要集中于业务和IT战略之间的契合度，而跨域一致性（即业务战略和IT基础结构组件之间的一致性）受到的关注则很少。此外，先前的研究集中于一致性对公司绩效的影响，而跨域一致性对多业务组织（MBO）中业务部门绩效的影响尚待研究。随着IT基础架构的快速发展，此问题非常重要。具体来说，MBO越来越多地转向企业IT平台来满足一组共同的共享IT需求，同时仍允许各个业务部门通过本地IT应用程序管理其自身IT需求的独特方面。在扩展先前研究的基础上，本研究提出，MBO中业务部门的绩效受到跨域一致性的两种互补形式的影响，即公司IT平台与公司业务战略之间的一致性以及业务部门IT组合之间的一致性。应用程序及其业务策略。使用来自全球120个组织的调查数据，我们发现证据表明这两种形式的跨域一致性之间的互补性对业务部门的绩效产生了共同的积极影响。我们还发现，这种影响随业务部门内流程数字化程度的变化而变化。讨论了对理论和实践的影响。