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

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Liang, Huigang; Wang, Nianxin; Xue, Yajiong
• 署名单位: University of Memphis; Jiangsu University of Science & Technology; University of North Carolina; East Carolina University
• 刊物名称: INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7047
• DOI: 10.1287/isre.2022.1105
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 1386-1402
• 关键词: organizational agility; business value; DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES; MANAGEMENT RESEARCH; firm performance; MEDIATING ROLE; RESOURCES; systems; alignment; CONSEQUENCES

摘要

The current information systems (IS) literature treats information technology (IT) ambidexterity as a single aggregated construct, assuming perfect balance or simultaneously strong IT exploration and exploitation. Taking a different perspective, we propose that IT ambidexterity can be achieved through a proportional balance between its two dimensions, and the optimal balance depends on the specific context. Based on matchedpair data from a field survey of business and IT executives, we find a three-way interaction among environmental dynamism, IT exploration, and IT exploitation such that IT ambidexterity matters only in dynamic environments. More important, through polynomial regression and response surface analysis, we find that the proportionally balanced, rather than the perfectly balanced, combinations of IT exploitation and exploration maximize organizational agility. We further demonstrate how the effect of proportional balance of IT ambidexterity varies in stable and dynamic environments. This study offers a novel understanding: IT exploration and IT exploitation do not need to be equally strong to improve agility, and their proportional balance associated with maximal agility varies across different levels of environmental dynamism. It improves the current knowledge of IT ambidexterity andmakes a significant contribution to IS strategy research and practice.