Information Technology Infrastructure Flexibility Research Articles

Antecedent Strategic Alignment and Its Effect on Business Resilience

The Covid-19 pandemic, which has been around for about 2 years, has impacted all sectors, especially the economic and industrial sectors. For SMEs, the Covid-19 pandemic is a challenge for cost and financial disruptions, activity disruptions, and existence difficulties. Many companies and SMEs have experienced bankruptcy and were unable to survive amid the Covid- 19 pandemic outbreak. Therefore, this research was established to propose antecedent strategic alignment that can build business resilience. In this study, the unit of analysis is SMEs in Sleman, Yogyakarta. The sample in this study was 94 SMEs. The analysis outcome of this study indicates that communication between business management and information technology management, strategic information system planning, information technology infrastructure flexibility, and environmental uncertainty have an effect and can become an antecedent of strategic alignment and in the end, strategic alignment has an effect on business resilience in a positive and significant way. The findings are interesting because it turns out that during the Covid-19 pandemic, strategic alignment can be a predictor of business resilience. Where business resilience has the nature of proactive anticipation before turbulence, adaptive when turbulence occurs, and reactive after turbulence occurs. And this is also the novelty of this research.

The Impact of Information Technology Infrastructure Flexibility and Behavioral Biases on Investment Decision Making

Understanding the effects of information technology infrastructure flexibility (ITIF) and behavioural biases on investment decisions will help investors make more informed choices. Due to a lack of investment and decision-maker biases, Iraqi universities' IT infrastructure is not well developed, resulting in low performance. However, few studies look into the causes of this phenomenon. This study aimed to investigate the impact of ITIF and behavioural biases on investment decision making and their impact on organisations' performance. A total of 209 valid responses from decision-makers in private universities of the Republic of Iraq are analyzed. A set of statistical analyzes are performed with SmartPLS software. The results show that there is a significant impact of ITIF factors and behavioural biases on investment decision making. Also, investment decision making influences organizational performance. The research confirms the significance of ITIF and behavioural biases as critical indicators of organizational strategic decision making.

Understanding the link between IS capabilities and cost performance in services: the mediating role of supplier integration

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the link between information systems (IS) capabilities, supplier integration and cost performance in the service context. Specifically, it empirically investigates how supplier integration meditates the relationship between three dimensions of IS capabilities and cost performance in service firms.Design/methodology/approachA survey of 156 UK service firms was conducted and the data analyzed to determine the role of supplier integration in mediating the effects of IS capabilities on firms' cost performance. The research model was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM), and the neural network model was used to rank the relative influence of significant predictors obtained from SEM.FindingsThe results confirmed that supplier integration fully mediates the effects of information technology (IT) for supply chain activities and flexible IT infrastructure on cost performance and partially mediates the effect of operations manager's IT knowledge on cost performance. The results showed that operations manager's IT knowledge is the strongest predictor of supplier integration.Originality/valueThis study takes a step toward quelling concerns about the business value of IS, contributing to the development and validation of the measurement of IS capabilities in the service operations context. Additionally, it adds to the emerging body of literature linking supplier integration to the operational performance of service firms.

Critical success factors in implementing flexible IT infrastructure in the Malaysian construction industry

Improved IT products and services are continually being introduced around the world. However, although an increasingly common approach in many industries, little is known of the characteristics of flexible IT infrastructure associated with its successful construction industry implementation. To rectify this situation, this study aimed to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) involved in the delivery of Information Technology Infrastructure Flexibility (ITIF) to the construction industry. An initial list of 38 potential factors divided into technical, people, and management dimensions and associated elements were identified by literature review and preliminary interviews with seven Malaysian companies representing a variety of construction industry participants and IT experts. This was followed by a main study comprising a questionnaire survey of 211 construction industry practitioners in Malaysia. Eighteen critical factors contributing to successful ITIF delivery are identified. Of these, two CSFs of hybrid skill and willingness to change appear to be unique to the Malaysian construction industry. Further research is recommended to assess the opinions of a wider variety of experienced practitioners to validate the findings and its applicability in the Malaysian context and beyond.

The effects of IT infrastructure integration and flexibility on supply chain capabilities and organizational performance: An empirical study of the electronics industry in Taiwan

In recent years, rapid development of information technology (IT) has forced companies to integrate tightly with their supply chain partners, enabling efficient information sharing between supply chain members and improving supply chain efficiency, in order to make their supply chain more flexible and efficient. IT therefore plays a critical role in supply chains. How to achieve higher organizational performance through IT in a complex and uncertain supply chain environment has become an important issue. Even though many practitioners and scholars have taken multiple points of view to investigate the effects of IT infrastructure capability on firms’ performance, little research has explored cause-and-effect relationships from the perspective of supply chain capabilities. Based on a resource-based view of the firm, this study develops a research framework for investigating the mediating role of supply chain capabilities in the relationships between IT infrastructure flexibility, integration, and firms’ performance. Data for the study were collected from 270 companies in the Taiwanese electronics industry and the relationships proposed in the framework were tested using the Partial Least Squares method. The results indicate that IT infrastructure integration and flexibility indirectly and positively impact organizational performance through the mediating effect of supply chain capability, and the mediating effect is a full mediation. The findings provide empirical support to resourced-based IT studies, which propose mediating IT impacts on organizational performance. This study should be useful to practitioners who implement IT strategy.

Information technology and the supply chain integration: a business executives' context

Despite the abundance of research dealing with the impact of supply chain management on today's organisations, such research tended to emphasise discreet relationships. A cross-sectional sample of Portuguese organisations is used to test several hypotheses pertaining to organisational resources, competencies, different levels of supply chain integration and organisational performance. Based on the findings, the impact of information technology infrastructure flexibility exhibited mixed results on the constructs studied. Executive information technology competencies tended to positively influence the different types of supply chain integration. Internal integration was found to have a direct influence on organisational performance. Such internal integration is being encouraged by external entities including customers and suppliers. In this context, more integration might lead to more effective organisational performance. Therefore, it is concluded that organisations should integrate their resources, processes and in the process encourage effective utilisation of information.

Information technology and the supply chain integration: a business executives' context

Despite the abundance of research dealing with the impact of supply chain management on today's organisations, such research tended to emphasise discreet relationships. A cross-sectional sample of Portuguese organisations is used to test several hypotheses pertaining to organisational resources, competencies, different levels of supply chain integration and organisational performance. Based on the findings, the impact of information technology infrastructure flexibility exhibited mixed results on the constructs studied. Executive information technology competencies tended to positively influence the different types of supply chain integration. Internal integration was found to have a direct influence on organisational performance. Such internal integration is being encouraged by external entities including customers and suppliers. In this context, more integration might lead to more effective organisational performance. Therefore, it is concluded that organisations should integrate their resources, processes and in the process encourage effective utilisation of information.

Information Technology Infrastructure Flexibility: A Review from Previous Studies and Implications for Research

Information Technology Infrastructure Flexibility: A Review from Previous Studies and Implications for Research

Impact of Information Technology Infrastructure Flexibility on Mergers and Acquisitions

Although mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are a common strategy to reduce costs and pursue growth, the variance in returns from M&A is very high. This research examines how information technology (IT) infrastructure flexibility affects M&A. We use a combination of secondary as well as matched-pair survey data from 100 mid-size firms in Spain to investigate this relationship. The empirical analysis suggests that IT infrastructure flexibility affects M&A through two key pathways: (1) a flexible IT infrastructure facilitates the development of business flexibility that provides the responsiveness to seize M&A opportunities and make acquisitions, and (2) a flexible IT infrastructure facilitates the development of post-M&A IT integration capability that provides the control to integrate the IT and business resources of the acquired firm and realize the economic benefits from M&A.

An empirical examination of a mediated model of strategic information systems planning success

Based upon the strategic information systems planning (SISP) and contingency theories, a mediating model was developed to investigate the direct and indirect effects of top management support on SISP success. The model was tested using partial least squares analysis on a sample of 57 information systems executives from US organisations. Top management support was found to influence SISP success both directly and indirectly through the information systems plan usefulness, but not through the information technology (IT) infrastructure flexibility. The former was found, as predicted, to be a significant mediator of the effects of top management support on SISP success. By contrast, IT infrastructure flexibility was not found to be a significant mediator.

A Conceptual Framework on IT Infrastructure Flexibility as Determinant of Strategic Utilization of Information Systems

The strategic benefits of computer based information systems have been well documented in the literature. In the same light, researchers have also unveiled various factors that promote strategic uses of computer based information systems. Among the identified factor is information technology infrastructure flexibility (ITIF). However, previous studies focusing on the contribution of information technology infrastructure flexibility towards strategic uses of information systems is limited in terms of scope and coverage. Defining information technology infrastructure flexibility as the composite relationship of Human IT Infrastructure, Technical IT Infrastructure and Process IT Infrastructure, this proposes a conceptual framework linking ITIF towards strategic use of information systems.

The Impact of IT Capabilities on Firm Performance: The Mediating Roles of Absorptive Capacity and Supply Chain Agility

Researchers and practitioners regard information technology (IT) as a competitive tool. However, current knowledge on IT capability mechanisms that affect firm performance remains unclear. Based on the dynamic capabilities perspective and the view of a hierarchy of capabilities, this article proposes a model to examine how IT capabilities (i.e., flexible IT infrastructure and IT assimilation) affect firm performance through absorptive capacity and supply chain agility in the supply chain context. Survey data show that absorptive capacity and supply chain agility fully mediate the influences of IT capabilities on firm performance. In addition to the direct effects, absorptive capacity also has indirect effects on firm performance by shaping supply chain agility. We conclude with implications and suggestions for future research.

Impact of Information Technology Infrastructure Flexibility on the Competitive Advantage of Small and Medium Sized-Enterprises

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of information technology infrastructure flexibility (ITIF) on competitive advantage (CA) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For this purpose, this paper conducted multivariate analysis of covariance by using ITIF as an independent variable and four dependent variables for CA: production cost, fast and reliable delivery, product quality, and flexibility of product design, which are also essential factors in IT buying decision making for organizations. The results of this study show that having a flexible IT infrastructure positively influences all four variables of CA. Moreover, the result of the univariate analysis indicates that the SMEs’ highest benefit of having ITIF is the improvement of product quality and an increased flexibility of product design. These results emphasize the importance of ITIF for SMEs and cloud computing, as a means for achieving this flexibility.

Assessing inter-organizational innovation performance through relational governance and dynamic capabilities in supply chains

Purpose– This paper aims to examine the factors influencing innovation performance and implementation in inter-organizational relationships.Design/methodology/approach– A novel research model comprises five research hypotheses with four constructs, including information technology infrastructure flexibility, institutional orientation, dynamic capabilities and innovation performance. The hypotheses are tested on data collected from 260 of the top 1,000 Taiwanese manufacturing firms in 2011 listed byBusiness Weeklyin Taiwan, using structural equation modeling.Findings– The study provides insight into how supply chain members should reinforce their dynamic capabilities and relational and institutional view of relational governance so as to improve their value-based relationships and in turn enhance innovation performance.Research limitations/implications– The empirical study is conducted on supply chains, with data collected from Taiwan's manufacturing firms. With the research model developed, cross-industrial studies can be conducted to investigate whether differences exist in relation to the inter-relationship effects that affect inter-organizational innovation performance.Practical implications– The study provides useful insights into how supply chain members should reinforce their value-based relationships by focusing on activities that would enhance information technology infrastructure flexibility and institutional orientation, and improve activities that would reinforce the activities of dynamic capabilities, in order to achieve the competitive advantage of inter-organizational innovation performance.Originality/value– The novel research model developed may serve as a starting point for future theoretical and empirical research and measures for describing and modeling the role of value-based relationships from the relational and institutional view of relational governance and dynamic capabilities, which is not dealt with in previous studies.

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

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.

The impact of IT capabilities on firm performance: The mediating roles of absorptive capacity and supply chain agility

Researchers and practitioners regard information technology (IT) as a competitive tool. However, current knowledge on IT capability mechanisms that affect firm performance remains unclear. Based on the dynamic capabilities perspective and the view of a hierarchy of capabilities, this article proposes a model to examine how IT capabilities (i.e., flexible IT infrastructure and IT assimilation) affect firm performance through absorptive capacity and supply chain agility in the supply chain context. Survey data show that absorptive capacity and supply chain agility fully mediate the influences of IT capabilities on firm performance. In addition to the direct effects, absorptive capacity also has indirect effects on firm performance by shaping supply chain agility. We conclude with implications and suggestions for future research.

Facilitating enterprise application integration adoption: An empirical analysis of UK local government authorities

local government authorities (LGAs) are organised around operational structures with business processes spanning within departments and across other government organisations. In such an organisational setting, the harmonisation of Information Technology (IT) operations, integration of cross-departmental processes and the underlying Information Systems (IS) signifies a challenge in delivering integrated services. This paper attempts to explore enterprise application integration (EAI) adoption in the UK local government authorities (LGAs). Despite the hype of EAI adoption in private domain, its application in LGAs is inadequate as there is a lack of adoption models/frameworks that can be used by the public sector. The context of the study is to consider the transformation of IT infrastructure management and operations with EAI technologies. The empirical findings, generated through a detailed case analysis, manifestly exemplify that EAI predominantly acts as a ‘back-office’ technology that facilitates operations by developing a flexible and maintainable integrated IT infrastructure. Our proposed framework is believed to be imperative and unique as it provides a more systematic way to examine the adoption of integration technologies, extends the established norms for EAI adoption by utilising a prioritisation technique to classify the importance of factors. The contribution of the research extends the literature on EAI and identifies theoretical and practical opportunities that facilitate LGAs in their decision-making process to produce more robust proposals for EAI adoption.

Exploratory Study on Alignment Between IT and Business Strategies

Interaction and linkages between business and information technology (IT) strategies remain a primary concern among executives. This study aims to gain an in depth understanding of how companies achieve alignment and the policy framework that underlies the efforts, particularly those that are associated with the most dominant factor that contributes to the establishment of strategic alignment, namely IT infrastructure flexibility. For that purpose, the study explored four companies engaged in the field of oil, electricity, and communication by adopting interpretive case study. Data were gathered using triangulation methods via field interviews, artifacts, document analysis, as well as direct observation. The textual data were elaborated by an intentional analysis in order to guide the study in exploring the phenomenon. The study identified elements that reflect IT infrastructure flexibilities namely connectivity, compatibility, modularity, IT staff knowledge and skills, and integration. Those elements cover both technical and behavioral dimensions of a company’s components that need to be included in the consideration during the planning phase

Service-Oriented Architecture as A Driver of Service Innovation in Newly Emerging Service Systems An Exploratory View

Innovation in services can be regarded as an inter-play of service concepts, service delivery practices, client interfaces, and service delivery technologies. Furthermore, innovations in services are increasingly brought to the market by networks of firms, selected for their unique capabilities and operated in a coordinated manner, referred to as a service system or service value network (SVN). Bringing such service innovations to market by a network of firms requires extensive coordination and integration of data, information/knowledge and processes, while ensuring strategic alignment of partnering firms. In this research we examine how Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), and its effect on Information Technology Infrastructure Flexibility (ITIF), may act as a potential enabler for recently identified organizational drivers of services innovation in a service system, namely Collaborative Architecture Management (CAM) and Collaborative Organizational Infrastructure (COI). A preliminary qualitative study of a Telco and its partners in the Middle East validates the dynamic capabilities at play in our proposed research model.

Complementarities Between Product Design Modularity and IT Infrastructure Flexibility in IT-Enabled Supply Chains

As contemporary firms become reliant on networks of supply chain partners, their performance increasingly depends on their supply chains' ability to be responsive to changing markets. This research addresses the theoretically neglected question of how and why the interplay between product design modularity and information technology (IT) infrastructure flexibility influences supply chain performance. We develop two key ideas. First, product design modularity enhances performance because it increases supply chain responsiveness, a critical mediating explanatory concept. Second, product design modularity and IT infrastructure flexibility are complementary design choices: Increasing one increases the benefits of increasing the other. We propose a mediated-moderation relationship; IT infrastructure flexibility enhances performance by strengthening the influence of product design modularity on supply chain responsiveness. Tests using primary and archival data from 102 firms provide strong support for both ideas. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.