European Online Journal of Natural and Social Sciences 2013; www.european-science.

com
Vol.2, No.3 Special Issue on Accounting and Management.
ISSN 1805-3602

The Effect of IT (Information Technology) on Financial Performance of the

Banks Listed in Tehran Stock Exchange

Morteza Sadeghimanesh1*, Abbas Samadi2

1
Department of Management, Malayer Branch, Islamic Azad University, Malayer, Iran
*Email: morteza_sadeghimanesh@yahoo.com
2
Public Administration, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran

Abstract
The aim of the present study is to study the effect of information technology on the financial
performance of the banks listed on Tehran Stock Exchange. For this purpose, 183 of the staff
experts of information technology and finance departments of the banks listed on Tehran Stock
Exchange have been selected as research sample by using simple random sampling method and
responded to the questionnaire. In the end, the obtained data from these questionnaires were
analyzed by using two-variable linear regression test and the results indicated that information
technology dimensions including IT knowledge, IT operations and IT infrastructures have
significant effect (p<0.01) on financial performance of the banks listed on Tehran Stock Exchange.
The results from Friedman’s test also indicated that infrastructures of information technology (with
average rating = 2.24) has the first rank, information technology knowledge (with average rating =
2.04) has the second rank and information technology operations (with average rating= 1.72) has the
third rank.
Keywords: Infrastructure, knowledge, information technology operations, banks listed on
Tehran Stock Exchange.

Introduction
Recent advances in the fields of information and technology as well as knowledge
management have empowered so many industries in the line of acquiring, sharing and using
information (Fu et al., 2010). However, it has been claimed that it is possible for the information
technology to have vague and unclear effects on various dimensions of Supply Chain Management
and have disappointing consequences of the executed investments in information technology which
causes serious challenge for the vital role of information technology in firms’ performance. With the
support of information technology organizations can move Synchronous to the market needs toward
ahead and manage their resources in a responsive way (Kim, 2007).
Growing trend of the information technology development requires accurate and scientific
planning for its social uses. Considering the weak economic situation in so many developing
countries, the necessity of giving attention to its economic uses is a special subject that has attracted
the attention of experts and executives in development programs. On one hand, considering the role
of the return on investment index in financial decision makings, the financial efficiency of
information technology is an important subject that can have an effective role in the attitude and
inclination of the economic agencies for its development (Khodada Hossieni, 2006).
Todays, investment level in information technology industry has increased considerably that
these investments in 2003 have been three times of any other type of investments (Adkinson et al.,
2004). Since the guiding light of the private sector in choosing the options is generally risk and
return of an investment, certainly there is the expectation of very high levels of returns from
information technology equipments that such level of investment has been developed in this
phenomenon.
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In general, summarization information technology can be considered as the electronic

convergence point of data process and Telecommunication. This convergence point have two
dimensions: first removal of the distances and hence placement of the previously separated
computers in one World Wide Web, and second computerization of the telecommunication systems
that create new capacities in transmitting audio and video. This two dimensional convergence
provides human with new tools and instruments for gathering, storing, processing, organizing,
transmitting and displaying information (Mellat-Parast & Lester, 2007).
The achieved advances in the field of information technology directly can be considered as a
result of the recent advances of microelectronic. It is because the achieved scientific and
corresponding results with technology in the domain of transistors, Semiconductors, integrated
circuits and chips have been such that play the role of an adhesive that connect different departments
of an organization together. This factor is like an arrow in the quiver of the management and at the
same time is the instrument for controlling and innovation. Information technology today uses
electronic circuits for processing information. Information technology is a replacement or
supplement for physical capabilities of humans and this is considerable in comparison to the
mechanical technology that has been replaced the physical capabilities of human. Some believe that
information technology only can be applied on activities that are categorized under “data
processing” and “information archiving”, while some others believe that any other kind of
application and use of electronic equipment such as robots in production automation is to be
considered as information technology. Another logical view is that the information technology
concept contains those applications and instances that to some extent include electronic data
processing (Borgman et al., 2007).
Growing trend of the information technology development requires accurate and scientific
planning for its social uses. Considering the weak economic situation in so many developing
countries, the necessity of giving attention to its economic uses is a special subject that has attracted
the attention of experts and executives in development programs. On one hand, considering the role
of the return on investment index in financial decision makings, the financial efficiency of
information technology is an important subject that can have an effective role in the attitude and
inclination of the economic agencies for its development. Investment in information technology both
for managers and economic investors and for researchers has a significant importance. Considering
the existing Paradox in productivity, evaluation of factors that prevents some agencies from doing
business regarding this type of investment has attracted the attention of researchers, executives and
investments of this technology (Lim et al., 2004). In studying the relationship between information
technology and productivity, especially financial performance of agencies, some has confirmed this
relationship and some also have doubted it or even rejected it (Wang et al., 2008) that among the
reasons we can mention mismanagement, distribution of profit, time gaps, measurement errors, topic
characteristics, research structure and sample characteristics including economic development (Fathi
et al., 2007).
Therefore, considering the effect of information technology on financial performance of the
banks listed on Tehran Stock Exchange and the originality of the topic and the personal interest, the
research seeks to study the effect of information technology on financial performance of the banks
listed in Tehran Stock Exchange as the main research problem. Therefore, considering the above
mentioned as well as the vital importance of the Stock Exchange of Tehran city, studying the effect
of information technology on financial performance of the banks listed in Tehran Stock Exchange
appears to be necessary and somehow we can claim that there are some concerns regarding it and
also due to lack of existence of such a study in the environment of such organizations, the researcher

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 Morteza Sadeghimanesh, Abbas Samadi

has tried to study the effect of information technology on financial performance of the banks listed
on Tehran Stock Exchange. In the following the literature of the research will be presented.

Theoretical background and research conceptual model

Information technology
Information is like the blood which is circulating in the body of an organization and gives
life to it. Information can feed the decision making process regarding the structure, technology and
innovation and also information is like the life vessel that connects an organization to the suppliers
of raw materials and customers. Information technology development such as computers and
telecommunication devices has transformed the nature of so many office tasks and works. The
networks of work from home and becoming automated have made possible the minimization of
some departments and reducing the number of employees in an organization. From these
phenomena (information technology) it can be deduced that large organizations become smaller and
inclination toward more flexibile and smaller organization become stronger (Damianides, 2004).
Of course, at first, accepting this is not easy for the managers of organizations and treating
information equal as resources such as human resources, raw material, financial resources is not
possible and easy. Even for so many of the managers at the executive level also, considering an
intangible element as the main source of the vital facilities is so much difficult. However, if we will
look at this correctly, we can see that how these intangible elements increases productivity and
profitability in every organization and affect the optimization of decision making of strategic
manager. Information can play an important role in the life and survival of every organization. In
fact, information is the instrument and tool that makes possible the better and more appropriate use
of the tangible resources of an organization for the management. Information often is not managers
in an effective way in an organization and in spite of the fact that in so many organizations,
information has been integrated into advanced technology and automated complex systems for M. I.
S. services (Management Information System) and office automation (OA) System are used on an
extensive level, still no comprehensive study has been conducted regarding the issue of management
of these systems and information service centers and the way and level of application of these
technologies and management of information resources.
The first step for using information technology can be considered as the managers’
awareness from its potential value. Like the management principles that a more active role of
managers facilitated the application of its principles, with valuing the role of information in an
organization we will become more aware of the application of information technologies and the role
it has and can have in management decisions and strategies and how to utilize it (DeHaes &
Grembergen, 2009).
Information technology is an integral and fundamental part for supporting, maintaining and
growing a business. With this knowledge, companies are making huge investments in the field of
information technology. Gartner (2010) reports that in spite of the Rapidly declining economy,
currently the expenses made on information technology at the global level in 2010 reaches 3.4
Trillion that comparing to 2009 which has an increase of 4.6%, while a large part of the made
investment on information technology don’t’ have a guarantee of high return. Standish Group
(2006) reports that around 67% of all the information technology projects have been unsuccessful or
face problem and challenge in justifying the made investments. Companies make large and huge
investments on information technology and have high reliance on it and put themselves at high
levels of risks. Hence, organizations should constantly review and protect their information
technology assets against disasters and risks.

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Special Issue on Accounting and Management

During recent decade information technology management has attracted the attention of the
researchers and practitioners in this field and this topic has been categorized under the topic of firm
management (Korac-Kakabadse & Kakabadse, 2001; Lainhart, 2000). In spite of the increasing
importance of information technology management in companies, the focus of the most of the
studies of information technology managment has been mainly on the following:
Management of information technology;
Relationship between information technology management and its determining
factors;
Relationship between information technology management and its effects
The research method used in the present study uses the systematic research of the literature
for conceptualizing an effective framework of information technology management adopted from
Bryman’s approach (2008).

Financial performance
Key financial performance indices includes four ratio of financial ratios including Return on
Working Capital or Return on Asset (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), Return on Sales (ROS) and
Operating Expenses/Operating Incomes (OE/OI).
Return on Equity (ROE): The profit secured for the owners of a business unit is named as
Return on Equity. This ratio is calculated in the following way:
Return on Equity (ROE) = net profit / Average equity.
Return on Assets (ROA): Productive assets have fundamental role in obtaining profit, the
more the assets are used with higher efficiency the business unit will have higher profitability.
Regardless that the assets have been procured from borrowed funds or investment of the owners,
perform the relevant duties in a similar way. Therefore, the return on assets should be calculated
before deducting interests. In case the interest expense will not be deducted the Income tax expense
also should not be deducted. It is because tax is calculated based on the earnings after interest.
Therefore, for measuring the return on asset “Earnings before Interest & Tax “(EBIT) are usually
used.
Return on Asset (ROA) = earnings before interest and tax / Average total assets
This ratio should that every one Rial produces n Rial earnings that from it interest and tax
should be paid (Shabahang, 2005).
Return on Sales (ROS): Profit from the average sales income is called as the return on sales
or sales margins that is calculated as a percentage of net sales income as per the following
(Shabahang, 2005).
Return on Sales (ROS) = net profit / net sales income.
Operating Expenses/Operating Incomes (OE/OI): Expense refers to the outgaining flow of
the assets or other uses of income or creating debt during a period which is undertaken for producing
and devlivering goods, delivering services or performing other activities in line with executing the
main and continuous operation of the business unit; in other word, expense refers to a reduction in
assets or increase in gross debts that are identified and measure as per the Accepted Accounting
Principles are resulted from that group of the activities of the business unit that can change the
equity. Operating expenses in total refer to those expenses that are resulted from the company
operations and operating incomes are also those incomes that are obtained through company’s
operations, either capital operation or non-capital.
(OE/OI) ratio = operating expenses / operating incomes
This ratio which is obtained from dividing operating expenses to operating incomes is an
index for evaluating that how much of the expenses of the company is covered by its operating
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 Morteza Sadeghimanesh, Abbas Samadi

incomes; also, this ratio is used as a key index epically in banking industry or for determining how a
certain organization can cover its expenses and therefore has an efficient method for its costing
(Akbari, 2004).

Interpretation and application of financial ratios

In addition to the presented financial ratios above, other ratios can be calculated as well or
these ratios can be also calculated in different ways.
In some cases, a little number of financial ratios will be enough for decision making
regarding a business unit, however, what is more important than calculating them is interpreting
them. Financial analysts with evaluating and assessing financial ratios can decide about the
necessity of further and more assessment in certain aspects and dimensions of a business unit.
General analysis of a business unit provides more information comparing to the analysis of each of
these financial ratios separately. Gaining a deep understanding of the meaning and the relationship
between financial ratios and the items mentioned in financial statements is also necessary. Gaining
this understanding requires sufficient experience in analyzing and interpreting financial statements.
In addition, even experienced analysts also cannot apply their skills equally about all the financial
statements. Each industry has its own specific characteristics that financial analyst should be
familiar with them and it is not possible for one analyst to understand all industries equally.
Financial statements interpreters for accessing their required information refer to different sources.
Information about new rules and regulations, technologies development, foreign relations and
economic situation of the county might be related to the studies and analyses of a certain firm. In
case of necessity, interpreters can directly refer to the companies who have studies this information
and can ask their questions. Financial statements interpreters also have a role in creating accounting
changes and transformation. For example, in some countries the changes in financial statements,
before being requested by financial interpreters insistently, was not a mandatory part of financial
statements (Pérez-López & Alegre, 2012).
Considering the aforementioned and also the aim of the present research which is to study
the effect of information technology on financial performance of the banks listed on Tehran Stock
Exchange, the variables studied in the study in the form of the research conceptual model have been
presented in figure 1:

IT
Capital
Knowledg Manageme

IT Information Financial Asset

Operatio Technology Performance Quality

Liquidity
Volume
IT
Infrastruct

Figure 1. Research conceptual model (Pérez-López & Alegre, 2012)

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Methodology
The present research is an applied research from aim point of view, and from methodology
point of view, it is a descriptive – correlation research and is a survey research from the point of
view of implementation.
Research population and sample
The population of the present research include all the staff experts of information technology
(IT) and finance departments of the banks listed on Tehran Stock Exchange that are a total number
of 348 persons. For determining the required sample size, the simple random sampling method was
used that the number of required sample for this study considering this method is equal to 183
individuals that has been studied.
Data collection instrument
In the present research for studying the effect of information technology on financial
performance of the banks listed on Tehran Stock Exchange the standard questionnaire adopted from
Pérez-López & Alegre (2012) was used. The content validity of this questionnaire was approved and
confirmed by three experts in this field and its reliability was also tested by using Cronbach’s alpha
test, which is equal to 0.75 for information technology variable, and it is equal to 0.79 for financial
performance.

Research findings
The findings of the research indicate that 25.14% of people under study are female and
74.86% are male that from them 1.64% have associate degree and lower, 62.84% have bachelor
degree, 33.33% have master degree and 2.19% have PhD and higher. From the point of view of
work experience, 7.10% of the individuals have a work experience of 1 to 5 years, 26.23% have 6 to
10 years of work experience, 46.45% have 11 to 15 years of work experience, 12.02% have 16 to 20
years of work experience and 8.20% have more than 20 years of work experience.
For testing the research hypotheses, two-variable linear regression test was used. Table 1
indicates the results

Table 1. Results of the effect of variables on financial performance of banks

Variable R2 adj. Beta F P
IT Knowledge 0.27 0.52 66.924 0.00
IT Operations 0.46 0.68 158.908 0.00
IT Infrastructures 0.22 0.47 52.237 0.00

Table 2. The results of ranking the effective factors on financial performance

Variable Average rate Rank
IT knowledge 2.04 2
IT operations 1.72 3
IT infrastructures 2.24 1
Chi-Square 27.399
df 2
Sig. .000

The results of two-variable linear regression test show that the dimensions of information
technology including IT knowledge, IT operations and IT infrastructures have significant effect
(p<0.01) on the financial performance of the banks listed on Tehran Stock Exchange. In order to
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 Morteza Sadeghimanesh, Abbas Samadi

study and rank the effective factors on financial performance of the banks, the Friedman’s test was
used according to table 2.
The results of the Friedman’s test show that, among the effective factors on financial
performance of the banks listed on Tehran Stock Exchange in terms of rank, there is a significant
difference (p<0.01). It means that IT infrastructures (with average rating = 2.24) have the first rank,
IT knowledge (with average rating = 2.04) has the second rank and IT operations (with average
rating = 1.72) have the third rank.

Conclusion
Todays, information technology (IT) has turned into a significant factor in future
development of financial services industry and especially the banking industry. The transformations
occurred in IT and telecommunication significantly has contributed to the growth and profitability of
financial institutions around the world. Also, on the other hand, the banking industry is among the
fabrics that due to some reasons, these intangible resources can sought more in it and achieve their
strategic importance. In the current century using IT in banking is comprehensive and necessary.
Today, considering the fact that data are stored electronically in data bases, at the time of facing
with any problem which results in the failure of IT systems a limited number of banks can quickly
present accurate information regarding their customers’ bank accounts (Spremic et al., 2008).
One of the most important information sources for measuring financial performance of
commercial firms is their financial statements. Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Statement are two
of the main financial statement that is used in analyzing the financial performance of commercial
firms. The figure representing the financial performance of the business unit in these statements are
so much in details and lengthy. Hence, for making use of this information it is necessary to analyze
then in the form of understandable information which are related to each other and limited as much
as possible. Financial ratios are among the most important tools that based on them the existing
information in financial statements is summarized and analyzable. In measuring the financial
performance of an organization on the basis of these financial ratios, the targeted values of these
ratios are determined and then they are compared with actual values.
As per the definition, financial performance is an extent to which a firm has managed to
achieve the targeted financial ratios that the results of the present study indicate that the dimensions
of information technology including IT knowledge, IT operations and IT infrastructures have a
significant effect (p<0.01) on financial performance of the banks listed in Tehran Stock Exchange
that for improving these processes, in the following section a few practical recommendations are
provided:
 It is recommended to establish an official department of Management Information Systems.
 Using Computer systems for analyzing customer and market information is recommended.
 It is recommended that the technical support staff of the bank try to constantly improve their
knowledge and awareness in the field of computer systems.
 Improving the technical expertise of bank personnel in the field of computer is
recommended.
 The bank personnel are recommended to be updated about new computer innovations.
 The constant use of Decision Support Systems is recommended.
 Innovative methods should be established for collection customer data and information from
online sources.
 For improving and making the infrastructures strong the use of professional software
programs are recommended.

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Special Issue on Accounting and Management

 It is recommended that that bank members would be connected through a computer network
to each other all the time.

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