Beyond Flexible Information Systems: Why Business Agility Matters

Today, organizations need to act and perform in increasingly dynamic environments. Current research on flexibility of information systems aims to provide answers to this fact. Yet, we show that the concept of flexibility alone does not suffice to address this challenge. Therefore, this paper introduces the notion of business agility that extends the concept of flexibility and describes further necessary areas of research. We identify a perception gap which argues that current concepts of flexibility do not actively search for challenges or opportunities of change in the environment. Instead, flexibility is commonly perceived to be a rather passive characteristic. Based on this observation, our contribution introduces an exemplary instrument that addresses the identified perception gap and aids organizations in achieving higher degrees of business agility and thus, increases the capability of organizations to act and perform under uncertain conditions. The overall contribution of this paper is an extended perspective on the concept of flexibility, the identification of further necessary areas of research and the introduction of an instrument that addresses aspects of the identified issues.