An empirical analysis of business process agility: Examining the relationship of IT on business process agility and the effects of business process agility on process outcomes

Firms must be agile to compete in today's dynamic environment. Understanding how a firm's IT Infrastructure affects Business Process Agility and the effects of Business Process Agility on Process Outcomes allows management to focus IT investments for specific processes which can affect process outcomes.;In addition, Business Process Agility was used to test two theoretical models derived from the dynamic capabilities perspective. The first model posits IT as an enabler to agility whereas the second model posits IT as a complement to agility. The results of the study indicate that the data collected very strongly favors the first model in which IT is an enabler to Business Process Agility. Specifically, IT Infrastructure has a significant positive relationship with Business Process Agility and that Business Process Agility has a significant positive relationship with both Efficient Process Outcomes and Quality Process Outcomes.;This research contributes to the understanding of agility for both purchasing and order fulfillment processes. Secondly, this research contributes to an increased understanding of the dynamic capabilities perspective from a business process perspective. And thirdly, this research contributes to the method of testing structurally different theoretical models derived from similar theory.;A survey was conducted resulting in data collected from manufacturing industries and used to validate a second-order formative construct, Business Process Agility for two processes: order fulfillment and purchasing. Results of the construct validation for both processes indicate that four components form Business Process Agility: Reconfigurability, Responsiveness, Employee Adaptability, and Process-centric View.