Impact of IT governance mechanisms on organizational agility and the role of top management support and IT ambidexterity

Organizations have increasingly relied on information technology (IT) to remain agile in today’s business environment. This study examines the antecedents of organizational agility by integrating top management support, IT governance mechanisms (i.e., structural, process-based, and relational governance), and IT ambidexterity (i.e., IT exploration and exploitation) into a research model. We test our model using statistical data collected from 326 firms in China. Our findings indicate that top management support positively influences structural, process-based, and relational governance. Results show that process-based and relational governance positively influence IT exploration and exploitation, whereas IT exploration and exploitation positively influence organizational agility. In addition, top management support positively impacts organizational agility through the dual mediation of process-based and relational governance and IT exploration and exploitation. We interpret and discuss these findings as well as their theoretical and practical implications.