The Sources of Innovation: Evidence from Case Studies among IT Service Providers

Creating and adopting innovations is important for the development of firms and whole economies. Several theoretic approaches are therefore dealing with innovation adoption and diffusion and the motivation of firms to innovate. Diffusion of Innovation theory explains the effect of innovation characteristics on innovation adoption and diffusion, the Resource-based View of the Firm focuses on the use of slack resources and their influence on innovation while the Behavioral Theory of the Firm predicts problemistic search as motivation for innovative maneuvers. This paper investigates how the use of slack resources and problemistic search differentially impact the effect of innovation characteristics on innovation adoption of IT service providers. The results indicate that firms’ different motivations to innovate differentially moderate the effect of innovation characteristics on innovation adoption

The Role of Alignment and IS Usage for Business Process Performance: An Empirical Survey among German Banks

There is still a lack of coherent theoretical explanations for why and how IT Business alignment (ITBA) influences process outcomes. This study draws on the knowledge-based theory to develop and test a process-level model that links different types of alignment and IS usage to process outcomes. While prior research has mostly focused on strategic alignment, we posit that the implementation of strategies into an operational process also is important to achieve beneficial outcomes. Therefore, we investigate the impact of ITBA on performance at a process-level of analysis. Additionally, we propose that business-internal alignment is an important construct contributing to the explanation of performance. Furthermore, we include IS usage and business skills to encompass further essential resources of the business process. Testing the model using data from 136 banks shows that ITBA and business-internal alignment have direct and positive effects on performance at the process level. Furthermore, IS usage and business skills proved to have significant effects on process performance. Overall, the result contribute to the IT value creation debate by empirically showing the effect of alignment and IS usage on a process level and by revealing the role of businessinternal alignment

ERP Implementation Sucess, Innovation and Social Networks: Linking the Tertius Lungens Approach to Performance

ERP system deployments can result in improvements in firm performance through automation, informational, and transformational effects. Nevertheless many implementations are not successful. Employing a social network approach this study investigates the role of the IT unit in exchanging and combining knowledge focusing on the planning phase. Drawing on prior research dealing with social capital and network position this paper investigates the network position of the IT unit using the approaches of tertius gaudens (the third who enjoys) and of tertius iungens (the third who joins) to improve our understanding of why ERP implementations succeed or fail. The model is tested employing a case study in a manufacturing firm of the aerospace industry. It is shown that a tertius iungens orientation may improve the probability of successfully implementing an ERP system

Online Communities and Dynamic Capabilities: A Cross-Case Examination of Sensing, Seizing, and Reconfiguration

Strategy researchers have long been concerned with the sources of competitive advantage, i.e., why some firms’ performance is superior over others. One argument to answer this question is provided by the dynamic capability view which posits that some firms are better at adapting to a changing business environment than others. This study scrutinizes online communities and their interplay with dynamic capabilities. We present evidence which shows that organizations may use online communities to sense and shape opportunities and threats, to seize opportunities, and to reconfigure the enterprise’s intangible and tangible assets, thus helping their host organizations adapt to a changing business environment. In doing so, the paper bridges the strategy and the information systems literature and provides novel empirical insights into the strategic use of information technology

Applying Importance-Performance Analysis To IT Outsourcing: A Survey Among Financial Institutions

What is the importance of specific control and contractual mechanisms for IT outsourcing relationship quality and outsourcing success? Employing a survey among financial institutions and applying Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) known from marketing research, we analyse the relative importance of Service Level Agreements, control and contractual mechanisms for relationship quality and outsourcing success. Results show that, consistent with prior research, IT outsourcing relationship quality is positively related to outsourcing success. Extending prior research we show that outsourcing contract quality in general is most important for relationship quality, followed by control mechanisms and the characteristics of Service Level Agreements. We contribute to theory by revealing the differential importance of specific control and contractual factors for relationship quality and outsourcing success. Furthermore, we contribute to outsourcing practice by demonstrating the importance of specific measures in an IT outsourcing context and thus deliver direction for outsourcing management

The Role of Alignment for Strategic Information Systems: Extending the Resource Based Perspective of IT

The importance of strategic information systems (SIS) in the financial industry is documented in many studies. But still there is a virulent lack of frameworks to explain the profit impact of IT in general and to guide firms in exploiting the IT resource as a source of competitive advantage. By incorporating findings from the resource based view (RBV) and strategic alignment literature we elaborate key concepts potentially leading to a sustained competitive advantage (SCA). Supported by four case studies from the financial services industry, our findings suggest that the exploitation of SIS for achieving SCA requires IT business alignment based on organizational routines of cross-departmental interaction. These concepts are explicitly modeled and integrated into a formal model using microeconomic theory. Especially interactions between the IT and business domain are found to be a key success driver

The Impact of IT on Competitive Advantage

How can an organization establish an efficient IS resource? Over the years, the resource-based view (RBV) has provided important insights into the value creation by IT. Unfortunately, large parts of the literature suffer from broad and ambiguous constructs that are problematic to validate and difficult to concretely apply. Furthermore, the transmission from IT resources on one side to competitive advantage on the other is not yet sufficiently understood. Goal of this paper is to clarify some of the often used constructs and build a framework for the transmission from the endowment with resources to the achievement of competitive advantage. In this paper, we aim to contribute to this research strand in two ways. First, a model incorporating many isolated findings from the RBV is developed. Reflecting the need for a process view as proposed by large parts of the alignment and strategic management literature, this is integrated into a single process framework of analysis. Second, by augmenting a microeconomic production function incorporating organizational routines the transmission from IT resource to better business process performance is explicated, allowing simultaneous parameter sensitivity analysis and contributing to making the RBV applicable and open for empirical research