The National Science Foundation awarded Bentley University a three-year grant totaling $376,471 on behalf of Professor M. Lynne Markus for the project entitled "The Performance Effects of Administrative Innovations-IT Organizational Design Changes in U.S. State Governments," beginning July 1, 2010. 

The research will focus on innovations in organizing and managing information technology (IT) services in U.S. State governments, including structural reorganizations (centralization of IT personnel from various agencies under the leadership of a State Chief Information Officer, for example); and new IT investment policies and procurement practices.

"We are interested in the reasons for, and consequences of these innovations, and also how they come about," Markus explains. "The kinds of innovations we are interested in are believed -- based on experience in the business sector -- to reduce the costs and increase the benefits of investing in information technology. This is especially important today, given ongoing poor economic conditions, which have reduced tax revenues and put strong pressures on States to operate more effectively."

Markus, the John W. Poduska, Sr. Professor of Information and Process Management at Bentley is a prolific and award-winning researcher.  She will work with Bentley PhD candidate Dax D. Jacobson and PhD student Quang "Neo" Bui, as well as Bentley students at the masters and undergraduate level.

The research is expected to help identify "best practice" in IT management in State government by identifying other States's practices and which approaches are most successful under which circumstances. In addition, it will add to the academic research community in two areas: innovations in organizing their contributions to organizational performance; and the management of IT.