Definition and Measurement of the Adaptive IT Capabilities Construct

Information technology (IT) can play a key role as a necessary, but not sufficient, source of value. Contemporary research on the strategic role of IT is more and more taking the increasing dynamic and volatile business environment with its increasing intensity of market competition, demand for shortening time to market and pressure of first mover advantage into account. Following this approach, the strategic value of IT can be regarded as an enabler of organizational change. In order to be able to produce value to firms, especially in turbulent environments, IT has not only to adapt itself to a firm’s continuously changing competitive environment, IT has furthermore to enable the adaptation of firms core competences. This study investigates IT’s ability to enable these adaptations by introducing and validating a concept of adaptive IT capability which measures the extent that IT enables the adaptations of firms core competences. The result of this study is a validated research instrument that can be utilized in future research to investigate its antecedent enabling capabilities (upstream factors) as well its effect on organizations and their performance (downstream factors).