Exploring the relationship between information technology, infrastructure and business process re‐engineering

Business process redesign (BPR) is a management technique to radically transform organizations for dramatic improvement. Information technology (IT) plays a critical role in BPR. The present study examines the links between IT infrastructure and BPR. The moderating effects of industry type, and information intensity of the firm are also analyzed. Data for the study were gathered through a survey of Fortune 500 US firms at divisional levels. Out of 1,200 questionnaires mailed to Fortune 500 firm‐divisions, 124 responses were received. Out of 124 firm‐divisions 73 firm‐divisions were found to be adopting BPR techniques; 39 firm‐divisions were found to be adopting incremental improvement approaches. The rest of the responses were incomplete and could not be used. For data analysis, therefore, only 73 firm‐divisions were considered. The results of the study support the hypotheses that network infrastructure affects the dimensions of BPR (process improvement thrust, and customer focus), but data integration was not found to be significantly affecting the BPR dimensions. The moderating effect of industry type was found to be significantly affecting the relationship between network infrastructure and BPR dimensions. Other relationships were not found to be significant.