Process Ambidexterity for IT Entrepreneurship

• Main Authors: Sonia D. Bot, Paul E. Renaud
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Carleton University 2012-08-01
• Series: Technology Innovation Management Review
• Subjects: business demand; business value chains; exploitation; exploration; IT; IT supply; process ambidexterity
• Online Access: http://timreview.ca/sites/default/files/article_PDF/BotRenaud_TIMReview_August2012.pdf

All firms use information technology (IT). Larger firms have information technology organizations whose business function is to supply and manage IT infrastructure and applications to support business needs for IT. While some firms have chosen to outsource the IT function, the majority rely on an internal IT organization that is focused on running the IT infrastructure and optimizing IT operations and applications by exploiting technology improvements over time. Most IT organizations have little capacity to carry out transformational initiatives because they are focused on incremental improvements needed to run the business. As the global economy contracts, growing cost pressure on firms escalates the need for the IT function to behave in a more entrepreneurial manner that accelerates the availability of new technological solutions to enhance productivity and lower cost of doing business. This article provides a process-based perspective for understanding and addressing an IT function’s ability to implement entrepreneurial practices that better align the IT function to business functions. This is done by developing the capability of process ambidexterity. Improving an IT organization’s entrepreneurial ability results in improved productivity, shorter time to market, and lower operational costs – as validated by recent practice with major firms in the USA. Developing process ambidexterity in the IT function benefits those who govern IT, the executives who lead IT, as well as their peers in the business functions that depend on IT.