7. Conclusion
Through a review of 30 years of alignment research, we proposed and examined unique relationships between alignment: intellectual and operational; firm performance: customer benefit, productivity, and financial performance; and context constructs: governance structure and social alignment. We found that intellectual alignment influences operational alignment, the alignment types have unique relationships with the different performance types, and social alignment influences intellectual alignment but may not influence operational alignment. This study provides a number of implications for future research. First, researchers should not treat alignment or performance monolithically but need to specify the dimensions of alignment and firm performance examined in the study; failure to do this could obscure important relationships in the understanding of alignment and its impact on firm performance as our research offers a more nuanced configuration of the alignment–performance constructs. Second, dynamic alignment needs to be evaluated empirically, particularly given the ever-changing nature of business. Finally, researchers need to examine the conditions under which social alignment influences the different alignment types because this study shows that social alignment may not influence operational alignment.
