The Impact of Information Technology Infrastructure Flexibility on Firm Performance : An Empirical Study of Jordanian Public Shareholding Firms

Abstract

Most of the Information Systems (IS) research considered Information Technology (IT) as infrastructure flexibility construct in terms of connectivity, compatibility, modularity, and IT personnel competency. Chanopas et al. (2006) expanded the construct by adding other five elements; namely scalability, continuity, rapidity, facility, and modernity. Indeed, since no research validates Chanopas et al.’s (2006) study, which was the first describing a new framework represents IT infrastructure flexibility. The current research aims at examining their investigation on the nine variables that reflect the construct. In addition, as research has neglected the association between IT infrastructure flexibility and firm performance besides some researchers calls (e.g. Chanopas et al., 2006; Tanriverdi, 2006; Fink and Neumann, 2009; Zhang et al., 2009; Bhatt et al., 2010) who emphasised that very little theoretical and practical research occurs on studying the relationships among IT infrastructure flexibility, IT-based competitive advantage, and firm performance. This paper is the first that empirically tested the associations among them. Several statistical techniques were conducted on data collected from a sample of 98 firms. Empirical results did not find a direct relationship between IT infrastructure flexibility and firm performance. However, causal links were founded between IT infrastructure flexibility and IT-based competitive advantage; and IT-based competitive advantage and firm performance. The conclusions of the current study are provided, and areas for further research are also addressed.