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Research on Shadow IT is facing a conceptual dilemma in cases where previously “covert” systems developed by business entities (individual users, business workgroups, or business units) are integrated in the organizational IT management. These systems become visible, are therefore not “in the shadows” anymore, and subsequently do not fit to existing definitions of Shadow IT. Practice shows that some information systems share characteristics of Shadow IT, but are created openly in alignment with the IT department. This paper therefore proposes the term “Business- managed IT” to describe “overt” information systems developed or managed by business entities. We distinguish Business- managed IT from Shadow IT by illustrating case vignettes. Accordingly, our contribution is to suggest a concept and its delineation against other concepts. In this way, IS researchers interested in IT originated from or maintained by business entities can construct theories with a wider scope of application that are at the same time more specific to practical problems. In addition, value-laden terminology is complemented by a vocabulary that values potentially innovative developments by business entities more adequately. From a practical point of view, the distinction can be used to discuss the distribution of task responsibilities for information systems.
Today, information technology (IT) is not anymore solely deployed and maintained by the IT organization, but also by business units. IT deployed or managed by business units is called Shadow IT (without alignment with the IT organization) or Business-managed IT (in alignment or a split responsibility model with the IT organization), contrasting “classical” IT. However, the responsibility for deployed IT might change over time. Therefore, this paper conceptualizes the progression of the responsibility for IT as a trajectory through initialization, potential transitions, and discontinuance. The paper illustrates this conceptual framework using four exemplary case vignettes of IT instances. Empirical findings of the case vignettes determine indications when employees initialize an IT instance as Shadow IT, Business-managed IT, or IT-managed systems and reasons why the responsibility for an IT instance changes over time. The results suggest that scholars and practitioners should add a temporal dimension to the governance of IT instances.