Business-IT alignment improvement in co-creation value networks: design of a reference model-based support

Prior research has not adequately addressed business-IT alignment (BITA) improvement, especially in a business network situation of a co-creation value network (VN). In a VN setting, IT is regarded as a major facilitator of actors’ collaboration to realize their joint objectives, i.e. to deliver seamless customer experience through providing mass-customized integrated solutions. To effectively use IT, a sufficient degree of BITA for key capabilities of a VN is required. Furthermore, BITA as a moving target should be improved continuously over time. In this paper, BITA improvement in a VN setting is studied. We focus on BITA improvement for the key capabilities of a VN and design support for it. To this end, we adopt a dynamic capability perspective due to its ability to explain how organizations can improve their operational capabilities and processes to adjust to a changing environment. We design a reference model-based approach that enhances the ‘business process management’ dynamic capability of a VN by enabling co-development of business processes with their supporting ITbased systems. This co-development facilitates BITA improvement. This paper presents the research process of the design of our support. As a proof of concept, the results for one of the key capabilities of a VN (i.e., customer understanding) is presented and discussed