Managing External Information Sources in Digital Extended Enterprises: The Roles of IT Enabled Business Intelligence Competence and Network Structure Strength

Digital extended enterprises are faced with the dual challenge of managing intra-organizational information and monitoring information from the external environment. Survival requires the effective use of information and decision technologies to gather, manage, and exploit knowledge. It also entails the extensive sharing of information with business network partners through information linkages. This study examines the effects of IT-enabled business intelligence competence and business network structure strength on a firm’s exploratory, transformative, and exploitative learning processes, and their associated outcomes. Based on a survey dataset of 185 firms in Singapore, results suggest that IT-enabled business intelligence competence and the strength of business network structure positively influence organizational absorptive capacity. Next, increased absorptive capacity contributes to improving exploitative and explorative innovation competences, leading to higher firm performance. The findings provide managers and researchers with insights to understand the roles of business intelligence technologies and business network structure in managing external information sources.