AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

The 9/11 attacks made profound impacts on corporate America. This thesis focuses on the strategy changes of information technology systems in private corporations, and the economic impacts on the information technology industry as a result of the changes of the private corporations after the 9/11 attacks. A two-chase research design is presented. In research phase one, a series of interviews were conducted with the chief information officers and the information technology decision makers from large private corporations, in order to investigate the common success factors and lessons learned from recovery activities after the 9/11 attacks. Research phase two aims to test the hypothesis that the awareness of the importance of the business continuity and its efforts to ensure the critical business functions in large private corporations after the 9/11 attacks resulted in positive economic impacts on the Business Continuity Industry (BCI). A definition of the BCI is presented and a total of five business growth indicators are used to determine the BCI's economic performance compared to the overall IT industry after the 9/11 attacks. Data was collected through the DataStream application to retrieve the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) information. A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Science of the George Washington University in Partial Satisfaction of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Science