Abstract
Research argues that a major reason for IT project failure is the lack of top management support. However, obtaining top management support is often considered outside the IT project team's control. In this paper, we investigate how IT project teams can obtain such support. We find that creating and mobilizing social capital through repeated interaction with top managers and their confidants helps a project obtain top management support. Also, a failure to use social capital to engage top management can cause a decrease in their support. We demonstrate these points through a natural experiment of the support of three division heads and their corresponding divisions in the implementation of an enterprise system. We demonstrate how and why top management support may be obtained by (1) building social capital and (2) mobilizing existing social capital--directly with top management or indirectly with individuals with influence on top management.
Recommended Citation
Liu, G. H., Wang, E. T., & Chua, C. E. (2015). Leveraging Social Capital to Obtain Top Management Support in Complex, Cross-Functional It Projects. Journal of the Association of Information Systems, 16(8), pp. 707-737. Association for Information Systems (AIS).
Department(s)
Business and Information Technology
Keywords and Phrases
Case study; IT project; Project management; Social capital; Top management support
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1536-9323; 1558-3457
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2015 Association for Information Systems (AIS), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Aug 2015
