Browse Theses

It is only when they are accompanied by the development of effective IT capabilities that IT investments produce operational improvements and possibly, sustained competitive advantage. However, while the importance of possessing these capabilities becomes increasingly more evident, it is less clear what the underlying mechanisms that enable their generation are—and also, whether they display a similar degree of effectiveness for companies that operate in different environmental settings.

The general purpose of this dissertation is to shed further light on this controversy and to further clarify whether and how the adoption of complex information technologies contribute to the generation of business value.

In the first section of this work we propose and test empirically a general model of IT-driven performance that, by using Enterprise Resource Planning systems as a representative example, explains why, through which mechanisms and under what environmental conditions the adoption of IT innovations may affect operational excellence. Drawing from the resource-based view of the firm we first identify dynamic capabilities (i.e. the ability to rapidly reconfigure organizational routines to address dynamic markets) as a key mechanism through which business organizations achieve operational effectiveness. Second, we observe that the adoption of an ERP system always interferes with the knowledge evolution cycle that support the genesis and the development of these capabilities and we examine how the structural properties of the system alter the characteristics of the adopter's organizational routines. Third we posit that the structural impact of ERP may be amplified or attenuated by two moderating factors: the attributes of the firm's bureaucracy and the degree of turbulence of the firm's operational environment. The analysis of a sample of ERP adopters worldwide supports our framework and it indicates that the changes in operational indicators of performance observed across adopters are best explained by modifications occurred in two antecedents of dynamic capabilities: process efficiency and process flexibility. The results also suggest that firms that operate in unstable environments and that display high degree of organizational rigidity exhibit lower returns to ERP adoption.

In a second section we examine how knowledge investments contribute to the development of IT capabilities. Our underlying research hypothesis is that, as knowledge and learning investments are important determinants of operational effectiveness and as IT systems play a paramount role in enabling these activities, IT implementation strategies that entail knowledge development efforts should be also designed to spouse the specific requirements of the firm's operational environment. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)