Exploring determinants influencing a service-oriented enterprise strategy: An executive management view

Due to the convergence of rapid business developments and digitization challenges firms need to become more agile. A service-oriented enterprise (SOE) strategy is an approach that decomposes an enterprise into business services that are modular, accessible, and interoperable, in which parts can be provided in-house, or outsourced to the market. The SOE concept has mainly been approached from a technological view and little is known about what type of strategic SOE determinants are relevant. A firm’s strategy to implement an SOE requires top management support. Therefore, insights at executive level are a prerequisite to identify strategic business directions. We conducted a literature review and a qualitative case study amongst eleven firms at executive level in various industries. Business services, business processes, and enabling technology were found in the literature as key determinants influencing a firm’s SOE strategy. Subsequently, the interviews at executive level identified that organizational readiness, knowledge and skills, and governance also affect the SOE strategy of firms. We suggest that a holistic view is required to study the complexity of an SOE. By using an executive view we contribute to IS and business literature as strategic SOE determinants become more explicit.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Information and Communication Technolog