Understanding the Performance Impact of Enterprise Architecture Management

Enterprise architecture management (EAM) is becoming a widely accepted management approach deemed to improve, among others, the long-term development of organizations’ IT and the performance of corporate IT functions. Profound EAM often requires a significant amount of financial and human resources. Therefore, practitioners and researchers alike aim to understand the mechanisms that lead to the desired benefits. However, the way in which EAM generates value is not yet sufficiently understood and the related research lacks a theoretical foundation. We argue that the resource-based theory (RBT) is well suited to explain the influence of EAM on the performance of corporate IT functions and present a framework that helps elucidate this impact. We report on a single case study that we conducted at a large professional service firm. The empirical results identify a first set of causal relationships between the theoretical framework’s elements. The study\u27s findings make it possible for practitioners to better understand the performance impacts of EAM. This work is part of ongoing exploratory research aimed at explaining the mechanisms through which EAM affects firm performance within a testable theory

Toward Understanding Enterprise Architecture Management’s Role in Strategic Change: Antecedents, Processes, Outcomes

As organizations face accelerated economic dynamics, it isincreasingly important to improve the capability of reacting agileto changes in the marketplace. This requires implementing andadapting internal structures in a timely manner and ensuringbusiness-IT coordination throughout the process. Enterprisearchitecture management (EAM) is frequently proposed as a meanto arrive at organizational forms that allow for timelyreconfiguration and to guide strategy-aligned change. Thisexplorative study seeks to contribute to an overall understandingof EAM’s application in strategic change processes. It is based onan in-depth content analysis of existing research in the field.Specifically, it identifies common EAM practices that have beensuggested for application throughout the planning andimplementation of strategic change. Furthermore, it revealsantecedents and outcomes of this application. The articlediscusses these findings in detail and summarizes the results in apreliminary process model of applying EAM for agile strategicchange