Towards a Flexible Information Technology Infrastructure

Researchers and practitioners have emphasized the §potential strategic value of a firm's information §technology (IT) infrastructure, which is largely §determined by the ability to provide a flexible §technological response to rapidly changing business §needs. Among several approaches, a multidimensional §approach that views IT infrastructure as composed of §shared IT services (process infrastructure), formed §through the integration of IT components (technical §infrastructure) with IT knowledge and skills (human §infrastructure), emerges as the broadest conceptual §representation. This book adopts this approach and §combines resource- and capability-oriented views of §the firm to explore, conceptually and empirically, §the organizational impacts of IT infrastructure §flexibility in the context of Web-based §environments. The book offers an explanation of how §organizational inputs in the form of information §technologies and systems are associated with §strategic organizational outputs. The book examines §the leveraging role of complementary human and §process-related IT assets, thus advancing the §understanding of how IT strategic value is created.