Strategic Information Management: What, How, and Why Now?

Abstract

The unprecedented access to information and increasingly complex and rapidly evolving environments organization face today have presented a gap in literature that addresses how organizations should strategically manage information and respond to their environment to ensure competitive advantages and improved business performance. The paper introduces the concept of strategic information management to address this gap and provide researchers and managers alike with an approach that effectively incorporates and synthesise the wide range of existing perspectives and dimensions in a new and integrated manner. Through a literature review, the paper develops a conceptualisation of strategic information management that clarifies existing concepts and provides new insight. It is suggested that the main contribution involves a shift in perspective from the resource- and content-based view on information and strategy to the practice-based view, as well as a shift from the rational approach to the behavioural approach. Furthermore, the paper suggests an adjusted process model to provide a comprehensive framework that captures the key perspectives and practices of strategic information management. The paper does not provide a complete and all-embracing conceptualisation of strategic information management but takes the first steps towards a comprehensive understanding.