Linking IT investment with IT usage

Using longitudinal data collected from 77 medium to large organizations 1977 to 1990, an empirical study was conducted to examine the relationship between information technology (IT) investment and subsequent IT usage. It was found that there was a strong positive relationship between IT investment and IT usage, and it was discovered that there exist other factors which affect this relationship significantly. Further study revealed that organizations which were obtaining high usage from their IT investments were investing in equipment as opposed to people, on development as opposed to end-user services, and were able to develop end run systems (on a per capita basis) much more inexpensively than other organizations. These results offer a possible explanation for the phenomenon of organizations making equivalent investment in IT but achieving very different results.<>