Organizational Learning-oriented, It Capabilities And Business Performance Relationship

With the rapid development of information technology (IT) and broad use of Internet, The environment surrounding business organizations has changed drastically. Immense changes in the business operation and management have been caused by IT. The enterprises who expect to survive in the information age depend on its information technology capability (ITC). The information technology capability has been seen as the source of competitive advantage by many scholars. It is valuable to understand and explore the information technology capability of enterprises. According to the goal of this dissertation,we sought a better understanding of relationship between learning orientation (LO), ITC and enterprise performance (EP) in the context of Small and middle enterprises (SEMs) . After reviewing the past studies on the relevant field, our dissertation concluded the contributions and limitations of the existing research. Then a conceptual model involving LO, ITC and EP was developed.From the Resource-Based View (RBV) of the Firm, we focused on identifying the dimensions of ITC and validating an instrument for measuring the construct. On the basis of IT capability measurement, the following part examined the relationship between LO, ITC and EP by explaining how the three influence each other.In the dissertation, the method of questionnaire research was adopted to test the conceptual model. 200 questionnaires were sent out to firms in Zhejiang, Jiangshu, Fujian, Guangdong, Shanghai and some other areas. 145 questionnaires valid were collected. During the process of data processing, we mainly used exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), correlation analysis, multiple linear regression and analysis of variances to verify hypotheses in the model and analyzed our data by the software of SPSS and Vpls. According to the results of empirical study, we corrected and completed the former model.After theoretical exploration and quantitative analyses, there come to some important conclusions as following:1. Under Chinese background of IT, the IT capability of SMEs consists of four components, namely: IT architecture and routine, human IT resource, IT infrastructure and IT relationship assets. And we can use this instrument to measure the IT capability of SMEs. IT capability has significantly positive to EP. Furthermore, the four parts of IT capability show different effect on enterprise performance. 2. As one of the major factors that influence IT implementation, Learning orientation has a significantly positive effect on IT capability, all three factors Of LOxommitment to learning, shared vision and open-mindness show significantly positive to IT capability.3. organization learning orientation has a positive effect on EP. Among the three factors of learning orientation, the sub-constructs of shared vision and open-mindness show significantly positively effect on EP, while commitment to learning has not.4. IT capability plays a mediating role between organization learning orientation and enterprise performance partially. Furthermore, the effects of LO on marketing performance and financial performance were through the IT capability, while the effect of LO on innovation performance is partially through IT capability.Finally, The dissertation concluded with a discussion of major findings theoretical contributions, managerial implications, and limitations of the studies included Potential avenues for future research were also presented.