Despite the fact that SISP is a cornerstone of the information system discipline (Gable, 2010), very little
attention has been given to its success based on the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) in strategic
management field. Generally, literature mirrors significantly little effort to recommend a framework for
understanding the relationship between “IS capabilities” and “SISP success” in particular. To be clearer,
the question is what kind of skills and abilities, knowledge, and qualification or capacity is needed for
organizations to have a successful plan for strategic information systems? And, what conditions affect this
relationship? To fill this gap in the IS field, this paper aims to establish a conceptual model by providing a
contingency model to investigate this relationship. The researchers believe that the aim to build a model
for SISP success based on RBV perspective is important because this new perspective will be helpful for
gaining a superior assessment and better understanding of SISP.
Additionally, if organizations understand the capabilities required for IS success by developing and
leveraging them, they can use their IS investment more competitive and more effective. However, the
success of SISP cannot solely be predicted from IS capabilities, and there might be other factors that
affect this relationship. The SISP context is comprised of variables that exhibit environmental and
organizational attributes and outside conditions may influence the process and, consequently, the success
of SISP (e.g., organization’s IT importance, organizational structure, and environmental uncertainty).
Lederer and Salmela (1996) have divided environment construct into two part of internal and external.
Organization size, structure, culture, managerial style, IS role, maturity, and IS planning goals were
among the attributes of the internal environment. On the other side, the external environment included
economic stability of the industry and country, business sector information intensity and changing in
market forces and trends. Wade and Hulland (2004) introduce external environment (that mostly refers to
environmental uncertainty) and internal influences (organizational culture, and organizational structure)
and top management support as main contextual factors in IS studies. Based on a contingency model, the
above-mentioned factors shaped the moderating factors of this study that are entitled “organizational and
environmental influences.” Consequently, the research model that will be tested by empirical research
(Figure 5) is as follows: