Investigating the Potential of Service Oriented Architectures to Realize Dynamic Capabilities

The paradigm of service-oriented computing (SOC) has emerged as an architectural approach to flexibility and agility, not just in systems development but also in business process management. There is, however, a paucity of critical research assessing the strategic impact of SOA on the competitiveness of organizations. Some research literature in strategic management indicates that firms may gain a competitive advantage in rapidly changing market environments by concentrating on their dynamic capabilities - i.e., product flexibility and agility in organizational transformation in response to rapidly changing market conditions and customer requirements. The intent of this paper is to analyze the conduits through which service-oriented architectures (SOAs) may exert influence on dynamic capabilities within firms. The results could potentially assist in evaluating if and how the adoption of service-oriented architecture may help achieve key dynamic capabilities, giving the enterprise a competitive edge.