Abstract
This research investigates technology flexibility, which is the technology
characteristic that allows or enables adjustments and other changes
to the business process. Technology flexibility has two dimensions,
structural and process flexibility, encompassing both the actual
technology application and the people and processes that support
it. The flexibility of technology that supports business processes
can greatly influence the organization's capacity for change. Existing
technology can present opportunities for or barriers to business
process flexibility through structural characteristics such as language,
platform and design. Technology can also indirectly affect flexibility
through the relationship between the technology maintenance organization
and the business process owners, change request processing, and
other response characteristics. These indirect effects reflect a
more organizational perspective of flexibility. This paper asks
the question, “what makes technology flexible?� This question
is addressed by developing and validating a measurement model of
technology flexibility. Constructs and definitions of technology
flexibility are developed by examining the concept of flexibility
in other disciplines, and the demands imposed on technology by business
processes. The purpose of building a measurement model is to show
validity for the constructs of technology flexibility. This paper
discusses the theory of technology flexibility, develops constructs
and determinants of this phenomenon, and proposes a methodology
for the validation and study of the flexibility of emerging technologies
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