Information systems management issues: An openness and resources perspective

Numerous informational studies to identify Information Systems (IS) management issues in various countries have taken place worldwide. It has been found that the ranking of the IS management issues varies from one country to another. Also, it has been observed that the attention paid in IS literature to conceptual studies that study the similarities and differences of key IS management issues across countries, is very limited and has not been empirically supported.; This dissertation is not only an informational study that examines the current ranking of IS management issues in the United States (US) and Saudi Arabia, but it also introduces a framework that attempts to explain why the ranking of IS management issues varies from one country to another. Further, this study empirically supports the framework.; This framework involves two dimensions. The first dimension is resources, the level of availability of resources that a country can use to increase the level of its development. The second dimension is openness, the environment that affects the usage of the available resources.; The data of this dissertation were collected through a field survey. A questionnaire was developed to obtain the opinions of IS managers about the extent to which IS management issues are important, as well as the opinions of IS managers about the extent to which framework factors affect the ranking of issues facing IS managers. We found that IS management issues in the US and Saudi Arabia are ranked differently. Further, the orientations of the IS management issues in the US and Saudi Arabia were found to be strategic and operational, respectively. Based on the data collected about the level of the resources and the degree of openness in the US and Saudi Arabia, it has been found that the framework proposed in this dissertation explains the similarities and differences in the orientations toward key IS management issues in both countries.