Towards a Flexible Information Technology Infrastructure: A Multidimensional Analysis

Researchers and practitioners have emphasized the potential strategic value of a firm's information technology (IT) infrastructure, which is largely determined by the ability to provide a flexible technological response to rapidly changing business needs. Among several approaches, a multidimensional approach that views IT infrastructure as composed of shared IT services (process infrastructure), formed through the integration of IT components (technical infrastructure) with IT knowledge and skills (human infrastructure), emerges as the broadest conceptual representation. This book adopts this approach and combines resource- and capability-oriented views of the firm to explore, conceptually and empirically, the organizational impacts of IT infrastructure flexibility in the context of Web-based environments. The book offers an explanation of how organizational inputs in the form of information technologies and systems are associated with strategic organizational outputs. The book examines the leveraging role of complementary human and process-related IT assets, thus advancing the understanding of how IT strategic value is created.