In order to test our hypotheses it was necessary to determine if there were groups of firms with clear differences in their degree of alignment. The cluster analysis technique is often used to produce clusters or groups of highly similar entities based on some specified variables. In this case, cluster analysis was used to identify similar
groups based on the nineteen measures of AIS alignment using the moderation approach. This technique has the advantage of identifying similarity without imposing a specific model. In particular, because this technique splits the population into groups, it was relatively easy to compare and contrast the effect of the moderation approach. Measurement issues also encouraged analysis by types of firms rather than using correlation and regression
analysis (Hussin et al. 2002). Importantly, several measures were dichotomous or categorical. Furthermore, it seemed possible that some ratio variables could have non-linear relationships with alignment. Therefore, there was more chance of some relationships being identified using cluster analysis
In order to test our hypotheses it was necessary to determine if there were groups of firms with clear differences in their degree of alignment. The cluster analysis technique is often used to produce clusters or groups of highly similar entities based on some specified variables. In this case, cluster analysis was used to identify similargroups based on the nineteen measures of AIS alignment using the moderation approach. This technique has the advantage of identifying similarity without imposing a specific model. In particular, because this technique splits the population into groups, it was relatively easy to compare and contrast the effect of the moderation approach. Measurement issues also encouraged analysis by types of firms rather than using correlation and regressionanalysis (Hussin et al. 2002). Importantly, several measures were dichotomous or categorical. Furthermore, it seemed possible that some ratio variables could have non-linear relationships with alignment. Therefore, there was more chance of some relationships being identified using cluster analysis
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