Abstract
As more and more companies are deploying, or plan to deploy, information systems, the organizational capabilities to effectively deploy information technologies to support and shape businesses become increasingly important. While many studies have focused on how to acquire state-of-the-art information technologies and on how to effectively utilize implemented information technologies, more studies are still needed to investigate how a company can successfully deploy acquired information technologies to support and shape businesses strategies and value chain activities. IT deployment capabilities are defined as the organizational capabilities to configure and reconfigure a company’s information system by adding new IT components or by adapting the existing information systems in order to make the whole information system available to support and shape businesses. This study identifies and investigates the three building blocks of IT deployment capabilities: strategic IT flexibility, business–IT partnership, and business–IT alignment. Using the resource-based view, we propose a framework to explain the relationship between IT deployment capabilities and competitive advantage. The research model is tested on data collected in China. Results show that strategic IT flexibility and business–IT partnership have direct impacts on competitive advantage, while business–IT alignment has an indirect impact on competitive advantage. The effect of business–IT alignment on competitive advantage is fully mediated by strategic IT flexibility and business–IT partnership. The results provide support for the relationship between IT deployment capabilities and competitive advantage. The study presents implications for how to develop IT deployment capabilities and how to generate business value from IT investment.
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Source: http://www.ccwresearch.com.cn/store/article_content.asp?articleId=20113&Columnid=394&view=# (Accessed on April 8, 2009)
Source: http://hy.gzntax.gov.cn/k//2008-7/750538.html; http://www.ccw.com.cn/work2/news/pinglun/htm2008/20080723_470192.htm (Accessed on April 8, 2009)
Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10844 (Accessed on April 8, 2009)
Source: http://www.ceocio.com.cn/12/93/318/434/34777.html (Accessed on April 8, 2009)
Source: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pM7LeHdSlp-RDll305frhXg (Accessed on April 8, 2009)
We use two methods to compute this correlation. First, we treat the two variables as observed variables and use the summated scale which is comprised of all measurement items (Grapentine 2000). In this case, the correlation is 0.366 (P < 0.01). Second, we treat the two variables as latent variables and use CFA in LISREL to compute the correlation. In this case, the correlation is 0.40 (P < 0.01). Both methods show that the correlation is significant at the 0.01 level.
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Acknowledgements
This research is partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants No. 70890080 and No. 70890081.
We thank the editors, guest editors, and reviewers for their constructive comments that have enabled the authors to improve this article. Previous drafts of this article were also presented at the 2007 Annual Meeting of China Association for Information Systems and the 2008 INFORMS Annual Meeting, respectively. We would like to thank all conference participants for their constructive comments and suggestions on previous drafts. Also, we are grateful for the comments of our colleague, Prof. Lih-Bin OH at Xi’an Jiaotong University. Finally, we are extremely grateful for Prof. Paul Pavlou at Temple University, since many ideas in this article arise from our previous discussions.
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Tian, J., Wang, K., Chen, Y. et al. From IT deployment capabilities to competitive advantage: An exploratory study in China. Inf Syst Front 12, 239–255 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-009-9182-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-009-9182-z