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Objective and main results

This article investigates the relationship between IT competencies and two types of organizational agility (adaptive and entrepreneurial). It shows that the impact of IT competencies depends on the level of environmental dynamism. The empirical context of the study is business-to-business electronic marketplaces.

Main findings:

• IT competencies enable entrepreneurial agility and adaptive agility, but only when environmental dynamism is low.
• There are facilitating effects of IT competencies on the relationship between entrepreneurial agility and firm performance, but only at lower levels of environmental dynamism.

Summary of practical implications

Managers should recognize and exploit that IT competencies are a source of agility, but also be aware that IT competencies can create rigidities when the degree of environmental dynamism increases.

Organizations should allocate resources for IT competencies only after they have developed a detailed understanding of the complex ways in which IT interacts with firm-specific and environmental factors.

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Tags

Operational flexibility Organizational capabilities IT capabilities Firm performance IT investments