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1 – 10 of over 64000Elaheh Bigdeli, Mohammadreza Motadel, Abbas Toloie Eshlaghy and Reza Radfar
This paper aims to present a dynamic model based on casual relationships among the most important effective factors on business–IT alignment in Agile businesses by using…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a dynamic model based on casual relationships among the most important effective factors on business–IT alignment in Agile businesses by using system dynamics modeling approach.
Design/methodology/approach
To study the most important factors on agility and alignment, the data were collected by questionnaires filled by 201 experts and were analyzed by SPSS and PLS. Casual relationships among studied factors and efficiency coefficients of each factor were identified by fuzzy DEMATEL technique and analyzed by MATLAB and EXCELL. Finally, the dynamic model was plotted by VENSIM.
Findings
According to the results, only “learning IT capabilities” are the most important casual factor that has the highest influence on the other factors. “Business responding capabilities” take the highest effect from the system, and “business sensing capabilities” are in the next rank.
Practical implications
This study underpins effective IT deployment toward developing efficient IT capabilities to gain greater agility.
Originality/value
The dynamic capabilities view (DCV) has emerged as an influential theoretical and management framework in modern IS and agility researches. In this regard, we propose a conceptualization of dynamic capabilities in the form of an alignment model. Based on the dynamic capabilities, and on the alignment perspectives found in Henderson and Venkatraman’s seminal model, IT alignment is modeled as a process of reconfiguration of the firm’s IT and organizational resources, competencies and capabilities.
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Sukanya Panda and Santanu Kumar Rath
The purpose of this study underpins investigation of the impact of human IT capabilities (comprising business functions, interpersonal management and technology management…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study underpins investigation of the impact of human IT capabilities (comprising business functions, interpersonal management and technology management expertise) on organizational agility (in terms of sensing and responding agilities). The moderating influence of IT infrastructure spending on this human IT–agility linkage is also thoroughly investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
Primary data collected from 300 IT personnel working in various publicly owned banking groups functioning across India are used for this study and structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to assess the human IT–agility link.
Findings
The two-fold research findings highlight the following: first, human IT capabilities enable both the sensing and responding components of agility and second, firms need to focus on translating huge and impudent IT investments into building superior capabilities to effectively shape agility.
Originality/value
This study greatly contributes to the information system (IS) literature by examining human IT capability and agility in terms of second-order constructs and provides a more holistic and comprehensive understanding of this unique relationship. The study precisely investigates the manner in which distinct human IT capability dimensions interact with both types of agilities along with the moderating effect of IT spending on this linkage.
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The sense‐and‐respond model of adaptive enterprise design offers corporations a new management tool for achieving competitive advantage in times of constant unpredictable…
Abstract
The sense‐and‐respond model of adaptive enterprise design offers corporations a new management tool for achieving competitive advantage in times of constant unpredictable change. To implement the model corporations must adopt a radically different form of governance, institutionalize new norms of adaptive behavior; and translate their business and what it does into information symbols. This IBM senior manager has put together a set of principles of adaptive enterprise design based on his work with corporations that are learning the new governance concept of “context and coordination.”
Hsian-Ming Liu and Hsin-Feng Yang
The purpose of this paper is to propose that a firm could exploit the ties of interfirm network to access external network resources (NR) to assist its sensing and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose that a firm could exploit the ties of interfirm network to access external network resources (NR) to assist its sensing and responding capabilities for the variability of business environment, thereby leading to superior organizational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses the survey data collected from 260 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan to examine the causal effects of hypotheses testing. By adopting structural equation modeling technology, the direct and mediating effects among the NR, sensing capability (SC), responding capability (RC) and firm performance (FP) are explored.
Findings
The result of this paper shows that a firm’s NR and its organizational capabilities are critical antecedents of FP. Moreover, the mediating testing identifies NR and FP as being mediated by a firm’s organizational agility (OA) and RC.
Practical implications
The findings of this paper provide practical evidence that a SME could gain benefits and advantages from the joint effect of integrating NR and OA to compete with global conglomerates. Thus, a SME must put more effort into developing and maintaining its interfirm network and then figuring out its effect with its internal agility process in order to surmount unexpected changes, create advantages of the first-mover and innovation activities and boost the FP.
Originality/value
This paper combines external NR and internal OA and offers a practical strategy to a SME, creating a unique competitive advantage for further development in a dynamic business environment.
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Drawing on a network perspective on enterprise agility, the purpose of this paper is to explore whether firms with superior network structure not only may be better able…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on a network perspective on enterprise agility, the purpose of this paper is to explore whether firms with superior network structure not only may be better able to generate direct effect on firm performance, but whether a superior network structure may also help firms to create better firm agility and thus enhance their performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed a survey method and data were collected from 250 companies in Taiwan's glass industry. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) technology, it specified the measurement properties of survey instrument such as reliabilities and validities and then identified causal relation among latent constructs to examine causal effects of hypotheses testing.
Findings
The results show that a firm's agility capability and its network structure are a critical competitive strategy source of firm performance. Moreover, network structure also partially mediates the impact of enterprise agility on firm performance.
Research limitations/implications
Because the data were collected from a single industry and firm performance is evaluated by subjective managerial assessments, further research may be necessary by using the data involving multiple industries with objective performance indices for more meaningful and generalized results.
Practical implications
The findings confirm the importance of enterprise agility for contemporary firms in today's dynamic business environment. By reinforcing enterprise agility, firms could react better to unpredictable changes. In addition, firms also are suggested to put more effort into developing and maintaining their network structures, both as repositories of external resources and as boosters of enterprise agility.
Originality/value
The paper provides evidence regarding the impact of enterprise agility and network structure on firm performance.
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Haris Aslam, Constantin Blome, Samuel Roscoe and Tashfeen M. Azhar
This paper positions market sensing, supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability as a coherent cluster of dynamic supply chain capabilities. The purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper positions market sensing, supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability as a coherent cluster of dynamic supply chain capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to understand how dynamic supply chain capabilities interrelate and their effect on supply chain ambidexterity.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a survey of Pakistani manufacturing firms, a theoretically-derived model was tested in a structural equation model.
Findings
The results of the study show that a market-sensing capability is an antecedent of supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability. Furthermore, supply chain agility, directly, and supply chain adaptability, indirectly, affect supply chain ambidexterity. Supply chain agility, therefore, mediates the relationship between supply chain adaptability and supply chain ambidexterity.
Originality/value
The contribution of this study lies in: first, identifying dynamic capability clusters relevant for achieving supply chain ambidexterity; second, evaluating performance implications of dynamic capabilities in the supply chain, specifically supply chain agility and adaptability; and third, proposing a unique measurement of supply chain ambidexterity in the light supply chain theory, and empirically evaluating the relationship between dynamic capabilities and supply chain ambidexterity.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the various ways in which clinical executive directors and non‐clinical executive directors are interpreting and responding to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the various ways in which clinical executive directors and non‐clinical executive directors are interpreting and responding to the extensive reforms and restructuring in the UK health service.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws upon detailed research in two very large teaching hospital organizations in order to understand how actors crucial to the delivery of this vision are responding. Schedule‐structured interviews with executive directors were conducted, recorded, transcribed and coded.
Findings
The clinical and non‐clinical directors of these organizations engaged in a process of active sense‐making are found, which is leading to significant changes to the service and also changes to identity. The clinical directors are revealing a willingness to assume accountability for devolved profit centres in their service lines. The non‐clinical directors are supportive of this idea in broad terms but are cautious about releasing “too much” central control.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is based on just two case studies and the analyses are made through the perspectives of the executive teams in each case.
Practical implications
Changes to healthcare environments of this kind are occurring in many countries, but such is the extent and intensity of these changes in the UK that the government's aspiration is high – it sees this set of reforms leading to a peerless world class health service. The way in which the actors make sense of and navigate their way through the cross cutting principles and the layered reforms is a critical issue.
Originality/value
There have been few systematic studies of the practical reality involved in the enactment of profit centre and service line management initiatives in acute hospital settings and the ways these are understood and negotiated at executive team level.
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Pratim Datta, Jessica Ann Peck, Ipek Koparan and Cecile Nieuwenhuizen
While much has been debated about venture formation and demise, the behavioral dynamics of why entrepreneurs intend to continue and persevere post-startup have received…
Abstract
Purpose
While much has been debated about venture formation and demise, the behavioral dynamics of why entrepreneurs intend to continue and persevere post-startup have received scant attention and scrutiny. Building upon the rich tapestry of entrepreneurial cognition, the purpose of this paper is to forward entrepreneurial continuance logic as a theoretical framework to empirically investigate the antecedents, contingencies and mediators of entrepreneurial continuance.
Design/methodology/approach
Using observations from surveying 156 practicing entrepreneurs across the USA, UK, South Africa and India, this research offers interesting findings.
Findings
Results surface attitudinal tensions between the transactional attitudes of entrepreneurial climate, entrepreneurial responsiveness and calculative commitment and the relational attitudes of affective and normative continuance. Specifically, the authors find that affect is the strongest direct predictor of continuance intentions but only in the absence of entrepreneurial responsiveness behavior.
Research limitations/implications
Entrepreneurial responsiveness, rather than commitment, is found to be a core continuance constituent, traceable as a positive influence on continuance as a direct antecedent, a moderator and a mediator.
Practical implications
The research reveals that entrepreneurs willing to seize and adapt to a changing entrepreneurial landscape are more like to continue with their ventures, but not just driven by strict underpinnings of affect and norms but by a strong sense of economic rationality.
Social implications
Entrepreneurial continuance is an important behavioral phenomenon with substantial socio-economic consequences. Given the scant attention paid to entrepreneurial continuance – symptomatic of broader downstream effects of entrepreneurial survival and positive socio-economic spillovers, the authors embark on a systematic investigation of continuance intention as post-startup behavior.
Originality/value
The paper explains post-startup entrepreneurial behavior in several ways. First, while affective commitment, a relational attitude, still drives continuance intentions, calculative commitment, a transactional attitude, is a significant contender. Interestingly, the nature of contemporary entrepreneurship disregards continuance behavior based on norms. Second, entrepreneurial responsiveness needs to be cautiously examined in relationship to commitment and continuance. Entrepreneurial responsiveness, a transactional attitude, positively influences continuance; however, in the presence of a relational attitude such as affective commitment, the interplay reduces continuance intentions. Third, perceptions of entrepreneurial climate are found to trigger more opportunity-seeking behavior among entrepreneurs, which in turn increases an entrepreneur’s intention to continue.
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Bernard Marr and Stephen Parry
This paper provides an overview of Fujitsu’s sense and response approach towards performance management. It is demonstrated using a case example of call center performance…
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of Fujitsu’s sense and response approach towards performance management. It is demonstrated using a case example of call center performance as part of Fujitsu Services. Call centers (or contact centers) are often used as case examples of how not to measure and manage performance. An operational bias towards efficiency measures often fails to provide the customer focus needed and even has dysfunctional consequences. This case study demonstrates how Fujitsu moved away from the efficiency trap, and completely redesigned their performance management system to focus on their customer needs and the intangible drives of value creation. It will highlight the lessons learned, the pitfalls as well as the achievements.
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