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This article highlights the importance and complexity of creating cultural assets (e.g. corporate norms, shared perceptions) in a global economy. We examine the relationship of the business environment and the gender subcultures on social‐related information technology (IT) issues by comparing the attitudes towards information ethics among Kuwaiti business students and Kuwaiti business practitioners. We find that attitudes towards information ethics issues differ depending on type of respondent and gender. However, the effect of type of respondent depends on gender. Cultural idiosyncrasies of the Middle East are partly helpful in explaining our results. An implication of our results is that cultural assets such as corporate norms and shared perceptions are not easily shaped and require a sustained commitment and investment to overcome the competing influence of forces such as national culture and gender effects.

Aims to demonstrate the importance of reporting IS management constructs rather than reporting and ranking the individual management issues; determine whether the ratings of IS management factors differ across organizational and personal variables; and benchmark the position of Kuwait's results on dimensionality and determinants of IS management issues with that of other previous studies.

This field study considered only the opinions of the highest ranked executives of the IS functions within their organizations. A seven‐page structured interview guide was used for data collection. Principal component factor analysis was performed on the issue ratings in order to determine underlying IS management factors. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to further assess how well the factors fit the issue data and to test the fit of the resulting factor model. Finally, t‐tests were performed to test whether the differences between factors were significant in order to demonstrate the discriminatory value of reporting IS management factor areas rather than individual issues.

The key IS management factors identified by IS managers are the effective management of IS resources such as data, networks and applications; and managers' knowledge of IS. This study also found that most situational variables including nationality are not associated with differences in IS management factor ratings. Thus, the survey results are consistent across different types of organizations and respondents. The exception is organization size and IS department size. Size differences can lead to different opinions on the relative importance of various IS management factors.

To demonstrate the importance of reporting IS management factors (constructs) as a benchmarking framework rather than reporting and ranking the individual management issues, and to use the derived conceptual benchmarking model to determine whether the ratings of IS management factors differ across organizational and personal variables.

Presents first an overview of a case study exploring the information systems/information technology (IS/IT) outsourcing phenomenon in the public sector of Kuwait where the data collection for this study was carried out. The primary data on IS/IT outsourcing practices were collected by means of survey questionnaire and semi‐structured interviews supported by organisational documentation. Several public sector institutions, including the Ministry of Public Health, participated in the investigation. Second, this paper seeks to develop a conceptual contingency model for the successful implementation of IS/IT outsourcing arrangements in the context of Kuwait. The model addresses many interacting variables, from national culture and social factors through contractual issues. Argues that it is necessary to take account of all these variables to ensure successful implementation of IS/IT outsourcing arrangements. The study findings suggest that there will be an increasing utilisation of IS/IT outsourcing services in the public sector of Kuwait, particularly at its main component, the public health care sector.