Homework for strategic planning

As a PhD student, you will ultimately produce new knowledge that will aid future scholars and practitioners.  This research begins with identification of a problem, which you will either attempt to solve, more fully define, better understand, or otherwise expand to enhance the body of knowledge in the study of IT.

To this point in the course, you have reviewed strategies, successes, and failures related to IT in at least 9 different firms. Synthesize this knowledge into a concise “problem statement,” which begins with the phrase “An unsolved problem in the field of IT strategic management that could be addressed by additional research is…” Follow up with 2-3 paragraphs that support the existence of the problem and its negative effects on its stakeholders. 

Some things to keep in mind:

• A problem is something that is going wrong and it causes negative effectson stakeholders such as researchers, professionals, or the public.
• The mere existence of some negative-sounding condition (e.g., a “lack” of something) doesn’t constitute a problem.  There must be some negative effectsas a result of this condition.
• A problem is not a goal (e.g., “An unsolved problem is … better using information resources.”).
• A problem is not a question (e.g., “An unsolved problem is … how to determine what information resources are underutilized”).

Support your response and all factual assertions with appropriate scholarly or industry sources with proper citations in APA format.  Remember that opinions are fine but they must be rooted in facts.  Do not approach this as a journal entry filled with your stream-of-thoughts.  Do thorough reading on the topic before responding and use what you’ve read as evidence to support what you post.  Do not use Wikipedia or similar sites.  Do not use blog posts unless they are official publications of the relevant companies or their employees (e.g., Mark Zuckerberg’s blog would be an appropriate source for information about Facebook).

Note – Attached Text Book