Open AccessThe Role of Business Intelligence and Communication Technologies in Organizational Agility: A Configurational Approach
Author(s) -
Youngki Park,
Omar A. El Sawy,
Peer C. Fiss
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of the association for information systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.877
H-Index - 78
ISSN - 1536-9323
DOI - 10.17705/1jais.00467
Subject(s) - qualitative comparative analysis , knowledge management , fuzzy set , organizational learning , set (abstract data type) , business , organizational studies , business intelligence , organizational performance , computer science , process management , management science , fuzzy logic , engineering , artificial intelligence , machine learning , programming language
This study examines the role that business intelligence (BI) and communication technologies play in how firms may achieve organizational sensing agility, decision making agility, and acting agility in different organizational and environmental contexts. Based on the information-processing view of organizations and dynamic capability theory, we suggest a configurational analytic framework that departs from the standard linear paradigm to examine how IT’s effect on agility is embedded in a configuration of organizational and environmental elements. In line with this approach, we use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to analyze field survey data from diverse industries. Our findings suggest equifinal pathways to organizational agility and the specific boundary conditions of our middle-range theory that determine what role BI and communication technologies play in organizations’ achieving organizational agility. We discuss implications for theory and practice and discuss future research avenues.