Abstract The alignment of business and information technology (IT ; Strategies is an important and Enduring theoretical challenge for the information SYSTEMS discipline , remaining a top issue in practice over the past 20 years . Multi- business organizations ( MEOS ) present a particular alignment challenge ECALISE BUSINESS Strategies are developEd at the corporate level, within individual Strategic business units and across the corporate investment cycle. In contrast , the extant literature implicitly assumes that IT Strategy is aligned with a single business Strategy at a single point in time . This paper draws on resource- based theory and path dependence to model functional , Structural , and temporal IT Strategic alignment in MEDS . Drawing on Makadok's theory of profit , we Show how Each form of alignment creates value through the three Strategic drivers of competence , governance , and flexibility , respectively . WE illustrate the model with examples from a case Study on the Commonwealth Bank of Australia . WE also Explore the model's implications for existing IT alignment models , providing alternative theoretical Explanations for how IT alignment creates value