IT Capabilities and Strategic Improvisation: A Multi-Method Investigation

Start-up organizations are disrupting previously stable industries with new business models. Existing organizations in these environments need to strategically improvise, that is develop the ability to rapidly seize opportunities, and without prior planning, creatively reconfigure their operational capabilities. As a dynamic capability, strategic improvisation (SI) requires three factors: real-time information, instantaneous communication and memory. We proposed that a well-developed information management capability (IMC), IT infrastructure flexibility (ITIF), and organizational memory (OM) facilitate SI. We analyzed results from a telephone survey of IT executives using two methods, variance based PLS and set-theoretic qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). These methods provide a more complete understanding of the complex relationships among SI and IT capabilities such as IMC and ITIF. PLS findings confirm their enabling roles. QCA findings further indicate that these IT capabilities and OM play different, complementary roles in SI. Implications for research and practice are presented.