Juggling Information Technology (IT) Exploration and Exploitation: A Proportional Balance View of IT Ambidexterity

Firms in the digital age often do not know whether they should focus on exploiting their existing information technology (IT) resources or focus on exploring novel IT resources. They are often told to maintain a perfect balance between IT exploitation and IT exploration. In this study, we show that firms do not need to have the same levels of IT exploitation and exploration simultaneously to improve organizational agility. IT ambidexterity can be achieved by proportional balance between IT exploitation and exploration without forcing the perfect balance between the two. With finite resources, the maximal agility is not associated the perfect balance between IT exploitation and exploration; instead, it is associated with the proportional balance between IT exploitation and exploration, and the optimal proportional balance could vary based on the firm’s total resources allocated for IT ambidexterity. Our findings on proportional balance between IT exploitation and exploration could profoundly influence how firms make IT investment decisions. Rather than pursuing a perfect balance between IT exploitation and IT exploration, firms should consider both their organizational characteristics and environmental conditions to identify optimal levels of proportional balance between the two.

Mobile Consumer Scanning Technology: A Replacement for Interorganizational Information Systems for Demand Information Learning in Supply Chains?

Recently, firms in supply chains have begun to deploy popular mobile apps (e.g., WeChat) into their supply chain practices to improve demand visibility. These efforts rely on consumers to scan the products they purchase using these apps, which we refer to as consumer scanning technology (CST). CST can be an alternative to the conventional interorganizational information technology (IOIT) that relies on collaboration between supply chain firms. This paper develops a theoretical model to examine the value of CST to learn supply chain (demand) information and the impact of CST on IOIT. Using an extensive simulation analysis based on real-world data from a manufacturer that has implemented a CST program, we show that the value of CST to a manufacturer can be substantial and provide insights into how market conditions affect the value.

A Systematic Literature Review on 30 Years of Empirical Research on Information Systems Business Value

Information Systems Business Value (ISBV) has been a key research topic for the IS research community. While the vast majority of ISBV research demonstrates the positive relationship between IS and firm performance, the fundamental question of the causal relationships between IS and business value remains partly unexplained. Moreover, researchers do not share a unified understanding of ISBV concepts. Therefore, this research intends to synthesize the past 30 years of empirical ISBV research, identify the gaps and shortcomings, conceptualize the ISBV concepts, and propose possibilities for further research that will widen the current narrowly shared ISBV bottom line. We aim to synthesize (1) different operationalization of concepts in existing ISBV research; (2) IS determinants, consequences, and the relations among the variables; (3) the role of contextual factors; and (4) the adopted theoretical views.

Efficiency or Innovation?

Considering the mixed arguments and uncertainty about the payoff of cloud computing, this paper empirically studies the long-term cloud computing impact on the financial performance, specifically from the perspective of efficiency and innovation. Taking 253 pairs of listed companies in China as the research sample, propensity score matching and difference in differences techniques combined with OLS regression are conducted to analyze a rolling 5-year panel data. The analysis results show that cloud computing adoption leads to years of financial performance decline followed by an upturn. The downward trend is more pronounced when it is adopted with innovation. This paper contributes to the existing literatures by leveraging archival performance data to verify the long-term business value and revealing the value realization difference between efficiency- and innovation-oriented cloud computing adoptions. The findings remind the managers to see the two sides of cloud computing and make rational adoption decisions, especially cloud-based innovation, according to their actual situations.

Team social media usage and intra-team competition and cooperation: a social information processing perspective

Purpose

This study aims to explore how team task-related social media usage (TSMU) and social-related social media usage (SSMU) affect employees' perceptions of intra-team cooperation and competition and further individual creativity.

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducted a questionnaire survey on enterprises in China that have implemented social media and obtained 348 useable questionnaires from 55 work teams.

Findings

The results revealed that employees' perceptions of intra-team cooperation and competition can promote employees' creativity. Employees' cooperation perception can be significantly positively affected by TSMU and SSMU, whereas employees' competition perception can be significantly positively affected by TSMU. Regarding congruence, the results indicated that the more balanced between TSMU and SSMU, the stronger the competition perception.

Practical implications

Managers should pay critical attention to the role of team social media usage (SMU) in shaping employees' perceptions of their team environments. They should realize the different outcomes and the joint effects of the different types of SMU.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the social media literature by explaining the impact of team SMU on employees' perceptions and evaluations of team environments based on the social information processing theory. The study presents the relationships among team SMU, employees' perceptions of cooperation and competition and employee creativity. Moreover, this study expands research on the trade-off of SMU by exploring the impact of balanced and imbalanced SMU in a work team.

The Return on Information Technology: Who Benefits Most?

Information and communication technology (ICT) has continuously reshaped the way in which businesses operate. Yet opinions among economists about the returns to ICT, especially at the aggregate level, are divided. We exploit business-to-business transaction panel data from ICT producers to construct ICT capital stocks for a large sample of Belgian firms. This allows us to estimate the returns to ICT at the firm level and to investigate how firm-level ICT investments affected aggregate gross domestic product and productivity. We find large returns to ICT—more precisely, a firm investing an additional euro in ICT—increases value added by 1 euro and 35 cents on average. This marginal product of ICT investment increases with firm size and varies across sectors. Although we find substantial returns to ICT at the firm level, returns are much lower at the aggregate level. This is due to underinvestment in ICT (ICT capital deepening is low) and because firms with especially high returns are underinvesting.

Information technology competency and organizational agility: roles of absorptive capacity and information intensity

Purpose

Scholars have examined the possible relationship between information technology (IT) and organizational agility. Although the general-level effect of IT is undisputed, empirical research on how different types of IT contribute to various aspects of organizational agility remains scarce. Therefore, this study aims to propose an integrated framework of internal capability and external environment to address this research gap.

Design/methodology/approach

This study investigates the potential mediating effects of absorptive capacity and the moderating effects of information intensity in the IT‒agility relationship. With a dataset comprising 165 organizations in China, this work provides empirical evidence that the effects of absorptive capacity and information intensity are multifaceted and nuanced, thereby revealing the latent mechanisms of IT competency and organizational agility.

Findings

Absorptive capacity partially mediates the effects of IT knowledge and IT operations on market capitalizing agility and fully mediates their effects on operational adjustment agility. However, no direct or indirect effects of IT objects are found on both types of organizational agility. Information intensity also positively moderates the effects of IT operations and IT objects on absorptive capacity. However, no significant moderation is found with regard to IT operations.

Originality/value

This study provides novel insights by demonstrating clearly the different mediating roles of absorptive capacity in the relationship among various types of IT competency and diverse aspects of organizational agility. This work also underscores the moderating role of information intensity in shaping absorptive capacity through IT competency.

Exploring patterns of organizational capability alignment: a contingency approach

Purpose

The purpose of the study is to investigate whether the alignment between organizational capabilities is idiosyncratic to an organization or a predictable pattern of alignments can be identified across organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey design is used to collect data from upper- and mid-level managers of organizations operating in the software industry. A total of 219 responses are used to test the study hypotheses. Partial least squares structural equation modeling and regression analysis are used for data analysis and hypotheses testing.

Findings

Results suggest that the alignment between strategic thinking and absorptive capacity is different for organizations with a prospector-type strategic orientation compared to organizations with other types (defenders and analyzers) of strategic orientations. The study also finds that the pattern of alignment holds for each dimension of absorptive capacity.

Originality/value

There is limited research on the alignment between the three types of organizational capabilities (metaphysical, dynamic and ordinary). This may have transcended from arguments that if organizational capabilities are truly idiosyncratic, they should not be expected to follow a predictable pattern of alignments across organizations. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to empirically investigate and provide evidence that the alignment between organizational capabilities is contingent on the strategic orientation of the organizations. The findings offer hope for the development of a generalizable theory of organizational capability alignment in organizations.