Two Speeds of EAM - A Dynamic Capabilities Perspective

We discuss how enterprise architecture management (EAM) supports different types of enterprise transformation (ET), namely planned, proactive transformation on the one hand and emergent, reactive transformation on the other hand. We first conceptualize EAM as a dynamic capability to access the rich literature of the dynamic capabilities framework. Based on these theoretical foundations and observations from two case studies, we find that EAM can be configured both as a planned, structured capability to support proactive ET, as well as an improvisational, simple capability to support reactive ET under time pressure. We argue that an enterprise can simultaneously deploy both sets of EAM capabilities by identifying the core elements of EAM that are required for both capabilities as well as certain capability-specific extensions. We finally discuss governance and feedback mechanisms that help to balance the goals of flexibility and agility associated with dynamic and improvisational capabilities,