From Enterprise Architecture Management to Organizational Agility: The Mediating Role of IT Capabilities

Enterprise architecture (EA) has claimed to provide several benefits for organizations including improving organizational agility. Becoming more agile is an essential capability for organizations and a necessity to respond to the rapidly changing environment. The way these EA benefits are established is seen as complex and involves interconnections of multiple organizational facets. However, currently, there is a lack of empirical studies on EA and how it contributes to benefit realization. Moreover, empirically validated work on EA processes is even more scarce. This research addresses this gap and investigates the effect of an EA management approach on organizational agility. A conceptual model was developed proposing a mediation effect of IT capabilities on the relationship between enterprise architecture management and agility. A survey was performed among key EA stakeholders. Based on a sample of 110 responses, a partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis was performed to test the mediation model. The results indicate that the effect of enterprise architecture management on organizational agility is indeed mediated by IT capabilities. Finally, the present study discusses the implications of this research and provides suggestions for future research

Improving Agility Through Enterprise Architecture Management: The Mediating Role of Aligning Business and IT

The economic environment of contemporary organizations is becoming increasingly dynamic. Organizational agility fosters sustainable competitive advantage under these turbulent conditions. Prior research demonstrated that strategic IT alignment could enhance organizational agility. Many organizations implemented an enterprise architecture management (EAM) function to achieve benefits such as strategic IT alignment and agility. However, there is little research that explains the pathways between these focal concepts. Hence, we ground our work in the dynamic capabilities view and develop a conceptual model to explain how EAM investments lead to agility mediated by strategic IT alignment. We conducted survey research and collected a sample of 110 respondents. Based on this dataset, we performed a PLS-SEM and cluster analysis to test our model and associated hypotheses. Our results indicate that EAM enhances organizational agility. Strategic IT alignment mediates this effect. Lastly, our results showcase the complementary effect of conducting a PLS-SEM and cluster analysis

Enhanced digital transformation supporting capabilities through enterprise architecture management:A fsQCA perspective

The rapid development of novel, innovative digital technologies significantly impact organizations and their business ecosystem. Organizations must stay abreast of the latest developments and respond to them continuously to remain competitive. Many organizations make significant investments in enterprise architecture management (EAM) to manage the transformation of their complex information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) landscape and to guide their digital transformation. However, empirical research on EAM benefit realization is limited. This research conceptualized EAM as a particular type of dynamic managerial capability. Survey data (N = 110) was used in a set-theoretic approach (fsQCA) to identify EAM configurations that lead to a presence of technical IT capabilities and strategic IT alignment. The results indicate the importance of system changes induced by the EAM function itself to improve technical IT capabilities. Furthermore, setting up clear standards and rules, and developing and planning the migration to target architectures is particularly important to align business and IT in larger organizations. This research contributes to the academic knowledge base on EAM benefit realization and supports the needed reconceptualization and evolution of EA and EAM to better support organizations' digital transformations. Furthermore, the outcomes can help decision-makers justify and guide their EA investments while implementing a digital strategy