Organizational agility through outsourcing: Roles of IT alignment, cloud computing and knowledge transfer

This study introduces the concept of outsourcing appropriation based on adaptive structuration theory (AST) to explore how organizations attain IT-dependent organizational agility through outsourcing appropriation. It examines the mediating role of IT alignment and the moderating roles of the adoption of cloud computing and knowledge transfer. The proposed model was tested using survey data from a sample of 170 IT executives. Our results indicate that the consensus of appropriation (COA) and faithfulness of appropriation (FOA) are positively associated with IT-dependent organizational agility, and the relationships are partially mediated by IT alignment. When adoption of cloud computing is high, the positive relationship between IT alignment and IT-dependent organizational agility becomes stronger than when it is low. Interestingly, results also show that the moderating roles of the transfer of explicit knowledge and transfer of tacit knowledge in the relationship between outsourcing appropriation and IT-dependent organizational agility vary significantly. The transfer of explicit knowledge negatively moderates the relationship between COA and agility. The transfer of tacit knowledge positively moderates the relationship between FOA and agility. These findings deepen our understanding of how organizations gain IT-dependent organizational agility in the context of IT outsourcing. •How organizations attain IT-dependent organizational agility through outsourcing appropriation.•Roles of consensus of appropriation (COA) and faithfulness of appropriation (FOA) in organizational agility.•Mediating role of IT alignment.•Moderating roles of cloud computing and knowledge transfer.