Information Technology Governance: Reflections on the Past and Future Directions

This study investigates the extant literature concerned with Information Technology Governance (ITG), published in leading accounting and management information systems journals, in the period 2005 to 2017. While recent research into ITG has taken a more holistic organizational perspective, the essence remains people, product, processes, and performance. Our review reveals ITG's increasingly dual role in improving organizational capability and performance, as well as controlling and monitoring outcomes. Findings show that ITG is concerned with both governing of IT and governing through IT, presaging a more defined connection between ITG's five focus areas and Corporate Governance. Other new themes include ITG's role in improving outcomes in intra-and inter-organizational relationships, embryonic efforts to distill a theory of ITG, and emerging scenarios where the evolving role of IT in business activities is creating profound organizational implications and consequently new avenues for ITG.