Strategic Information Systems Planning As A Dynamic Capability: Insights From An Agent-Based Simulation Study

Strategic information systems planning (SISP) helps companies to align their IT systems with their business plans. It claims to enable companies to gain competitive advantages. The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm might help to understand how and why. Drawing on prior research we believe that strategic IT planning is a dynamic capability, enabling a firm to reconfigure its resource configuration as theorized by Eisenhardt and Martin. However, this assumption has not been tested sufficiently yet. Using an agent-based simulation (ABS), this study tests to what extent strategic IT planning as a dynamic capability enables a firm to gain competitive advantages. We model an industry of companies striving for competitive advantages by optimizing their IT resources using dynamic capabilities. Given our operationalization of Eisenhardt and Martin’s framework, we however cannot support the notion of SISP as a dynamic capability. Interestingly, companies in the simulation fail to realize competitive advantages because they do not anticipate competitors’ moves and environmental uncertainty, an aspect deserving more attention in the resource-based view. These results and further research it may encourage demonstrate the potential of ABS for refining theories.

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