Abstract

As business competition is getting faster and more complex, taking timely and sufficient competitive actions by holistically utilizing key organizational resources and capabilities is critical for a firm’s survival. By extending the awareness, motivation, and capability (AMC) framework of competitive dynamics with information technology (IT), we investigate context-specific configurational mechanisms that explicate the simultaneous interactions among a firm’s IT and AMC factors for creating competitive actions. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), a set-theoretic method, we empirically analyze field survey data from 189 manufacturing firms. Our analysis uncovers multiple equifinal configurations, revealing nuanced, interdependent relationships among IT infrastructure and applications, awareness, motivation, and operational excellence and innovation capabilities. These relationships are key to generating a high frequency of competitive actions across diverse organizational and environmental contingencies. Based on the findings, we develop theoretical propositions of configurational causal recipes—namely, automation, autonomy, innovation, and integration—that explain which IT-AMC factors matter, how they interrelate, and the ways in which IT factors complement or substitute AMC factors to drive competitive actions within specific contexts of environmental speed, uncertainty, and firm size. Through interviews with top managers of diverse manufacturing companies, we validate the suggested configurational recipes in contemporary business environments. Additionally, we discuss the potential of refining or specializing the recipes to account for the role of emerging digital technologies. Finally, we conclude with theoretical and practical implications of our findings.

DOI

10.17705/1jais.00965

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