The co-evolution of IT competence, organisational agility and entrepreneurial action: a case study of entrepreneurial e-tailers

Shan Wang, Youwei Wang and Norm Archer

International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations, 2018, vol. 18, issue 1, 1-29

Abstract: Due to the turbulent business environment, small and medium-sized e-commerce companies tend to adopt a strategic logic that requires the support and co-evolution of organisational agility capability and information technology (IT) competence. However, the characteristics of organisational agility and IT competence and their co-evolution mechanisms are largely unknown. Based on the Sambamurthy et al. (2003), theoretical framework about the strategic logic for firms in a turbulent business environment, we undertook a case study of ten entrepreneurial e-tailers (retailers selling primarily on the internet) on a third party Chinese e-commerce platform. From these firms we identified the characteristics and the evolutionary path of entrepreneurial actions, organisation agility and IT competence for small and medium-sized entrepreneurial actions, organisation agility and IT competence from the perspective of real options and adaptive learning. This research advances our current understanding of SME e-commerce firm strategic logic and required firm capabilities.

Keywords: entrepreneurial action; organisational agility; IT competence; adaptive co-evolution; real options; adaptive learning. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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