Systemic capabilities: the source of IT business value

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop, and explicate the significance of the need for a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value. Design/methodology/approach – Embracing a systems perspective, this paper examines the interrelationship between IT and other organisational factors at the organisational level and its impact on the business value of IT. As a result, a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value is developed. An example of enhancing IT business value through developing systemic capabilities is then used to test and demonstrate the value of this framework. Findings – The findings suggest that IT business value would be significantly enhanced when systemic capabilities are generated from the synergistic interrelations among IT and other organisational factors at the systems level, while the system’s human agents play a critical role in developing systemic capabilities by purposely configuring and reconfiguring organisational factors. Practical implications – The conceptual framework advanced provides the means to recognise the significance of the need for understanding IT business value systemically and dynamically. It encourages an organisation to focus on developing systemic capabilities by ensuring that IT and other organisational factors work together as a synergistic whole, better managing the role its human agents play in shaping the systems interrelations, and developing and redeveloping systemic capabilities by configuring its subsystems purposely with the changing business environment. Originality/value – This paper reveals the nature of systemic capabilities underpinned by a systems perspective. The resultant systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value can help us move away from pairwise resource complementarity to focusing on the whole system and its interrelations while responding to the changing business environment. It is hoped that the framework can help organisations delineate important IT investment considerations and the priorities that they must adopt to create superior IT business value.

Value co-creation through digital service capabilities: the role of human factors

“…The study also supports the finding of Carmeli and Tishler (2004a) that human factors are individual characteristics that affecting how individuals function in companies, and they may have diverse motivation, experiences and ability to manage relationships with other actors (Cao et al, 2016). This diversity has been discussed above, showing that some of the digital capabilities can be facilitated by, for example, experience and skills, when some of them are linked more on attitude and motivation.…”

“…Digital service capabilities experiences and ability to manage relationships with other actors (Cao et al, 2016). Human factors may enhance a company's dynamic capabilities, thereby contributing to the company's ability to create and reconfigure resources to meet shifting demands and attain a sustainable competitive advantage (Carmeli and Tishler, 2004a).…”

Understanding the Business Value of Social Information Systems – A Research Agenda

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Conceptual Framework for Modeling the Agile Marketing Capability

“…Scholars stress the presence of many types of ITCs, such as: IT skills and competencies on IT field (Bhatt & Grover, 2005) as IS functional capabilities (Ainin et al, 2015); New Product Development IT capabilities (Addas & Pinsonneault, 2016;Mauerhoefer et al, 2017); operational absorptive capacity capabilities (Setia and Patel, 2013); big data analytics capabilities (Gupta and George, 2016) or systematic capabilities (Cao et al, 2016).…”