Ambidextrous IT capabilities and business process performance: an empirical analysis

Abstract

Purpose

In several studies, it has been found that organizational performance is affected by ambidextrous IT capabilities. Nevertheless, business processes are essential to the value generation conversion of IT investment into performance. In the literature, this focus on the impact of IT capabilities at the business process level is still under investigated. So, the purpose of this paper is to test the effects of explorative and exploitative business process IT capabilities on business process performances (BPP) and the positive moderator role of business process management (BPM) capabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

This analysis has been done through a quantitative study in the Italian hotel industry. An OLS regression analysis has been carried out on a sample of 404 firms.

Findings

The study identifies distinct effects related to exploration and exploitation and finds a moderating effect of BPM capabilities, explaining their positive impact on BPP.

Originality/value

The main purpose of the paper is to contribute to the area of business process management by demonstrating the importance of both explorative and exploitative IT capabilities for a business process as well as the managerial capabilities at the process level. Furthermore, this focus at the process level allows us to add original insights into research on ambidexterity by expanding existing works.

Citation

Ferraris, A., Monge, F. and Mueller, J. (2018), "Ambidextrous IT capabilities and business process performance: an empirical analysis", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 1077-1090. https://doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-07-2017-0201