Shadow IT describes covert/hidden IT systems that are managed by business entities themselves. Additionally, there are also overt forms in practice, so-called Business-managed IT, which share most of the characteristics of Shadow IT. To better understand this phenomenon, we interviewed 29 executive IT managers about positive and negative cases of Shadow IT and Business-managed IT. By applying qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), we derived four conditions that characterize these cases: Aligned, local, simple, and volatile. The results show that there are three sufficient configurations of conditions that lead to a positive outcome; one of them even encompasses Shadow IT. The most important solution indicates that IT systems managed by business entities are viewed as being positive if they are aligned with the IT department and limited to local requirements. This allows to balance local responsiveness to changing requirements and global standardization. In contrast, IT systems that are not aligned and permanent (and either organization-wide or simple) are consistently considered as negative. Our study is the first empirical quantitative–qualitative study to shed light on the success and failure of Shadow IT and Business-managed IT.

中文翻译：

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从影子IT到业务管理的IT：定性的比较分析，以确定业务实体成功管理IT的配置

Shadow IT描述了由业务实体本身管理的隐蔽/隐藏IT系统。此外，实践中还存在一些公开的形式，即所谓的“业务管理的IT”，它们具有Shadow IT的大多数特征。为了更好地理解这种现象，我们就影子IT和业务管理IT的正面和负面案例采访了29位执行IT经理。通过应用定性比较分析（QCA），我们得出了表征这些情况的四个条件：对齐，局部，简单和易变。结果表明，存在三种足以导致积极结果的条件配置。其中之一甚至包括Shadow IT。最重要的解决方案表明，如果业务实体管理的IT系统与IT部门保持一致并且仅限于本地要求，则它们被认为是积极的。这可以平衡本地对不断变化的需求和全球标准化的响应。相比之下，不一致和永久性（以及整个组织范围内或简单的）IT系统始终被认为是负面的。我们的研究是第一个通过实证定量-定性研究来阐明Shadow IT和业务管理IT的成功与失败。