Multi-dimensional IT Alignment And Its Impacts On Firm’s Agility

As the key to survival and prosperity in the turbulent business market environment,agility is receiving more and more attention from firms,and how to cultivate and develop agility has become an important issue for organizations.Although a large number of theoretical and empirical research has shown that the mutual adaptation and integration between business strategy and information technology(IT)strategy(i.e.,IT alignment)can enhance agility,there are also ongoing studies that confirm that this close alignment between IT strategy and business strategy can even hinder agility.In order to unravel this paradoxical relationship between IT alignment and agility,based on the dimensional view of alignment,scholars have divided IT alignment into two dimensions: intellectual alignment and social alignment and explored the impact mechanisms of multi-dimensional IT alignment on agility.Although this dimensional view can unravel the IT alignment-agility paradox to some extent,the existing research still has the following limitations.First,the complex and synergistic relationship between intellectual alignment and social alignment needs to be further explored.Second,the direct and boundary effects of multi-dimensional IT alignment on agility are still unclear.Third,agility also includes two key different dimensions,sensing and responding capabilities,and different dimensions of agility have different antecedents and should thus be treated discriminatively.Fourth,the complex dynamics of IT alignment itself indicate that the traditional deductive correlation-based approach only examines a simple net effect of IT alignment on agility and fails to capture the IT alignment’s nonlinear and asymmetric impacts.In order to further understand and manage the IT alignment-agility paradox and fill these research gaps,this thesis aims to investigate whether IT alignment enhances or impedes agility.Based on the existing studies,we divide IT alignment into intellectual alignment and social alignment and divide agility into sensing and responding capabilities,and apply a combination of static research methods such as quantitative analysis,qualitative comparative analysis,and dynamic research methods of computer modeling and simulation.On the basis of clarifying the dynamic evolution mechanisms between intellectual alignment and social alignment,we further explore the complex effects of multi-dimensional IT alignment on agility in different organizational and environmental contexts,identify the configurations that lead to high degrees of sensing capability and responding capability.The main conclusions and research contributions are shown below.(1)We explore the dynamic evolution mechanisms of multi-dimensional IT alignment.To explore the complex relationship between different dimensions of IT alignment,this thesis proposes to consider IT alignment as a dynamic evolution and emergence process from social alignment to intellectual alignment,constructs a dynamic evolution model of multi-dimensional IT alignment based on complex adaptive systems(CAS)theory,and conduct large-scale simulation experiments by applying the Net Logo programming tool.Results show that business managers and IT managers with high cognitive abilities in social alignment are able to apply the adjustment pattern of the ideal trajectory more often,thus achieving a high degree of intellectual alignment better and faster.Meanwhile,effective communication can offset their cognitive gap and deficiency.In addition,environmental dynamism enhances the degree of fluctuation of intellectual alignment.And this fluctuation degree becomes more pronounced in contexts where both business and IT managers are of low cognitive abilities.By applying computer modeling and simulation to explore the dynamic evolution process of multi-dimensional IT alignment,this thesis not only extends the application of CAS theory in IT alignment but also further reveals the dynamic evolution mechanisms and rules of multi-dimensional IT alignment.(2)We examine the direct impact of multi-dimensional IT alignment on firm’s agility and the moderating effect of environmental dynamism.To further clarify the boundary conditions of different dimensions of IT alignment affecting agility,this thesis constructs a research model of intellectual alignment,social alignment,organizational agility,environmental dynamism and firm performance.Data analysis and model estimation are performed on a matched-pair survey of 429 Chinese shipbuilding industry questionnaires by using the structural equation model.The results show that intellectual alignment has no significant effect on agility,while social alignment positively affects agility.Environmental dynamism negatively moderates the relationship between intellectual alignment and agility.The regression results after environmental dynamism grouping indicate that in a stable environment,both intellectual alignment and social alignment can enhance agility,while in a dynamic environment,intellectual alignment inhibits agility,and social alignment facilitates agility.These findings further reveal the IT alignment-agility paradox,broaden the research context,and provide the theoretical basis and research rationale for subsequent exploration of the impact of multi-dimensional IT alignment on agility in other different contexts.(3)We investigate the combined effects of multi-dimensional IT alignment on firm’s agility.To better understand the IT alignment-agility paradox at a more granular level,this thesis elaborates on the concepts and connotations of two key dimensions of agility and conceptualizes them as two independent constructs.Based on the configurational theory,we investigate how intellectual alignment,social alignment,environmental dynamism,organizational size and strategic orientation combine into multiple configurations to affect sensing capability and responding capability.fs QCA is applied to analyze the survey data from 135 dyads of business and IT executives from the Chinese shipbuilding industry.Results show that different equifinal pathways can be used to achieve high sensing capability and responding capability,in which intellectual alignment and social alignment have different synergistic effects(complementary or substitution)and play multifaceted roles(enabling or inhibiting)depending on the specific contexts.By exploring the combined impact of multi-dimensional IT alignment on multi-dimensional firm’s agility,this study not only expands the IT-enabled agility literature but also provides new insights into the IT alignment-agility paradox.(4)We explore the dynamic impacts of multi-dimensional IT alignment on firm’s agility.Finally,based on these empirical results,this thesis further explores the complex dynamic effects of intellectual alignment and social alignment on firm’s agility based on the NK model and the fitness landscape theory and considers the contextual effects of different organizational and environmental elements.Results show that there is no significant difference in the impact of low degrees of intellectual alignment on agility,while high degrees of intellectual alignment can help organizations achieve and maintain high levels of agility in the short term.The higher the degree of social alignment,the more it can help firms accurately identify the opportunities or threats in the external environments,thus bringing them higher levels of agility.In addition,the impacts of intellectual alignment and social alignment on firm’s agility varies significantly across different contexts of environmental dynamism,organizational size,and firm strategic orientation.This thesis not only enriches the existing research conclusions on the impact of multi-dimensional IT alignment on firm’s agility but also further deepens our understanding of the IT alignment-agility paradox.In summary,this thesis combines static research(quantitative analysis and qualitative comparative analysis)and dynamic research(multi-agent modeling and simulation analysis)approaches to explore the dynamic evolution process between intellectual alignment and social alignment and their complex impacts on agility,and verifies the rationality of the simulation model using empirical research results,which expands the research methodology in the field of IT alignment while enhancing the validity and credibility of the findings.By theoretically clarifying and confirming the complex dynamic effects of IT alignment on agility and further unraveling the IT alignment-agility paradox,our research conclusions can more effectively guide firms to balance the short-term benefits of IT alignment and the long-term potential of agility in IT application practice,help them clarify the core path of cultivating and developing agility,and ultimately enhance their competitive advantage.