Towards A Systemic View Of Organizational Dynamic IT Capability: An Empirical Assessment

Abstract

In an increasingly complex world characterized by hyper-competition and turbulence, an organization's ability to sustain its competitive advantages depends not only on how it acquires its capabilities, but also on how it orchestrates the relationships among them. While the resource based view of the firm and the literature on dynamic capabilities have provided strategic insights to the successful deployment and expeditious management of scarce resources, there is very little research on dynamic capabilities from an IT perspective. In particular, there is no common understanding of what the phrase "dynamic IT capability" means or how it can be achieved. This study draws on the rich body of knowledge in the strategic management and IT fields and bases its assertions on the intellectual foundations in general systems theory, organizational cybernetics and the information processing theory of organizations, to: define the construct of organizational dynamic IT capability; offer greater clarity on the relationship among the various constructs; offer a clarity between what constitutes 'resources' and what constitutes 'capabilities' and their relationship (i.e.How do they all fit?); and answer practitioner questions such as, "How do I know I have dynamic capability?" To address these pertinent questions, an instrument was developed. Data were collected from senior IT manager, including CIOs across several industries. The results provide excellent support for the reliability of the instrument and the validity for the model of Dynamic IT capability. All the hypothesis were supported, except the relationship between Dynamic IT outsourcing management with Dynamic IT human resource management, and Dynamic IT human resource management with Dynamic IT strategy planning. Thereafter, discussion on the results and implications for research and practitioner are presented.