Developing Routinized Information Processing Capabilities for Operational Agility: Insights from China

Operational agility, which reflects the agile practices at business process level, is increasingly deemed as a significant determinant of business success in a turbulent business environment. Despite its importance, how operational agility can be attained is not answered by existing research. Drawing on the classic organization theory— information processing view of firms, the main contribution of this study is that it provides a process model of developing routinized information processing capabilities for operational agility in a turbulent business environment which fulfills this theoretical gap. It indicates the significant roles played by IT-enabled information processing networks and organizational controls during the process. It also identifies three routinized information processing capabilities including information sensitivity, information fluidity, and information decomposability. This is achieved by conducting a case study of Haier, one of the largest producers of household appliances in China. This paper concludes with a discussion of potential theoretical and practical contributions.