Enterprise Architecture to Achieve Information Technology Flexibility and Enterprise Agility

Although enterprise architecture (EA) is a topic of significant interest among scholars and practitioners, limited empirical research exists examining EA in the context of routinization, use of standards, information technology (IT) flexibility, and enterprise agility. Specifically, the study’s purpose was to explore the routinization of EA and develop a better understanding of how the use of EA standards impact IT flexibility and enterprise agility. The current study used a theoretical lens that combined competence-based theory and diffusion of innovation theory to study the topic of EA. The overarching research question was To what extent do organizational factors such as EA routinization and use of enterprise architecture standards, enabled through the adoption of EA, lead to increases in IT flexibility and enterprise agility?.. The analysis from this study supported the findings that the EA routinization and the use of the EA standards constructs influence IT efficiency, and in turn, IT efficiency influences enterprise agility.