Enterprise Systems and Organizational Agility: A Review of the Literature and Conceptual Framework <s> ES-enabled Sensing Capability <s> Discusses the notion that the ability to exploit external knowledge is crucial to a firm's innovative capabilities. In addition, it is argued that the ability to evaluate and use outside knowledge is largely a function of the level of prior related knowledge--i.e., absorptive capacity. Prior research has shown that firms that conduct their own research and development (R&D) are better able to use information from external sources. Therefore, it is possible that the absorptive capacity of a firm is created as a byproduct of the firm's R&D investment. A simple model of firm R&D intensity is constructed in a broader context of what applied economists call the three classes of industry-level determinants of R&D intensity: demand, appropriability, and technological opportunity conditions. Several predictions are made, including the notions that absorptive capacity does have a direct effect on R&D spending and spillovers will provide a positive incentive to conduct R&D. All hypotheses are tested using cross-sectional survey data on technological opportunity and appropriability conditions--collected over the period 1975 to 1977 for 1,719 business units--in the American manufacturing sector from Levin et al. (1983, 1987) and the Federal Trade Commission's Line of Business Program data on business unit sales, transfers, and R&D expenditures. Results confirm that firms are sensitive to the characteristics of the learning environment in which they operate and that absorptive capacity does appear to be a part of a firm's decisions regarding resource allocation for innovative activity. Results also suggest that, although the analysis showing a positive effect of spillovers in two industry groups do not represent a direct test of the model, positive absorption incentive associated with spillovers may be sufficiently strong in some cases to more than offset the negative appropribility incentive. (SFL) <s> BIB001 </s> Enterprise Systems and Organizational Agility: A Review of the Literature and Conceptual Framework <s> ES-enabled Sensing Capability <s> In recent years, academic and practitioner interest has focused on market orientation and factors that engender this orientation in organizations. However, much less attention has been devoted to developing a valid measure of market orientation. Here we define market orientation as the organizationwide generation of market intelligence pertaining to current and future needs of customers, dissemination of intelligence horizontally and vertically within the organization, and organization-wide action or responsiveness to market intelligence. The authors describe a procedure to develop a measure of the construct. Key features of the research methodology include several rounds of pretesting, a single-informant assessment, and a multi-informant (both marketing and nonmarketing executives) replication and extension. The multi-informant results indicate that the proposed 20-item market orientation scale (MARKOR) may be best represented by a factor structure that consists of one general market orientation factor, ... <s> BIB002 </s> Enterprise Systems and Organizational Agility: A Review of the Literature and Conceptual Framework <s> ES-enabled Sensing Capability <s> Agility is vital to the innovation and competitive performance of firms in contemporary business environments. Firms are increasingly relying on information technologies, including process, knowledge, and communication technologies, to enhance their agility. The purpose of this paper is to broaden understanding about the strategic role of IT by examining the nomological network of influences through which IT impacts firm performance. By drawing upon recent thinking in the strategy, entrepreneurship, and IT management literatures, this paper uses a multitheoretic lens to argue that information technology investments and capabilities influence firm performance through three significant organizational capabilities (agility, digital options, and entrepreneurial alertness) and strategic processes (capability-building, entrepreneurial action, and coevolutionary adaptation). We also propose that these dynamic capabilities and strategic processes impact the ability of firms to launch many and varied competitive actions and that, in turn, these competitive actions are a significant antecedent of firm performance. Through our theorizing, we draw attention to a significant and reframed role of IT as a digital options generator in contemporary firms. <s> BIB003 </s> Enterprise Systems and Organizational Agility: A Review of the Literature and Conceptual Framework <s> ES-enabled Sensing Capability <s> In turbulent environments, enterprise agility, that is, the ability of firms to sense environmental change and respond readily, is an important determinant of firm success. We define and deconstruct enterprise agility, delineate enterprise agility from similar concepts in the business research literature, explore the underlying capabilities that support enterprise agility, explicate the enabling role of information technology (IT) and digital options, and propose a method for measuring enterprise agility. The concepts in this paper are offered as foundational building blocks for the overall research program on enterprise agility and the enabling role of IT. <s> BIB004 </s> Enterprise Systems and Organizational Agility: A Review of the Literature and Conceptual Framework <s> ES-enabled Sensing Capability <s> Abstract Effective strategic planning demands that organizations develop an understanding of the forces shaping the situation by engaging the collective efforts and interpretive capabilities of various representatives of the organization. This study investigates the mechanisms by which such an understanding develops and, subsequently, shapes marketing strategy. Specifically, organizations are examined as sensemaking units stimulated by perceived environmental turbulence, cultural open-mindedness, and team functional diversity. These factors are modeled as determinants of an organization's sensemaking capability, which is comprised of communicative, interpretive, and analytical dimensions. This study argues that a developed sensemaking capability increases the potential range of strategic responses and, ultimately, enhances customer-based performance. The results from a sample of wholesale distributors suggest that organizations that maintain greater internal variety are better able to sense and respond to the environment. <s> BIB005
To conceptually ground the notion of ES-Enabled Sensing Capability (ESESC), we draw from the strategic management literature. In the strategic management literature, sensing capability is closely related to the market orientation and absorption capability BIB001 BIB002 BIB004 . Market orientation refers to a firm's ability to generate and use market intelligence about current and future customer needs BIB002 . Absorptive capacity refers to the ability to acquire, assimilate, transform, and apply knowledge BIB001 . Thus, sensing capability covers both market orientation and absorptive capability BIB004 . Sensing capability not only indicates the ability of an organization to sense current changes, but also to develop market foresight to anticipate changes in the future. Organizations that are able to anticipate changes in their business environment can quickly devise their responding actions ahead of their competitors. There are various ways of building sensing capability. BIB005 H7 multiple perspectives will have higher sensing capability and eventually become more agile. Furthermore, anticipatory capability, which refers to the ability to predict the way that the market is moving can be an essential dimension of sensing capabilities  . Overall, the development of sensing capability requires organizations to scan the business environment and capture business insights beyond the usual sources. Such capability can be developed by organizational technologies, processes, values, and norms that together generate knowledge about the future condition BIB003 ]. Based on the above logic, we postulate that ES, as valuable resources, can be deployed as one source of capability building mechanisms to either directly or indirectly enable sensing capability. We name this construct as ES-enabled sensing capability and define it as follows: