The Contingency Effect of Relational Competency on the Relationship between Information Technology Competency and Firm Performance

Abstract

Drawing upon the resource-based and relational view, this study examines how the three types of IT competencies (i.e., IT objects, IT operations, and IT knowledge) differentially affect firm performance and how such effects are moderated by interorganizational communication (IOC). We test the hypotheses of interest with data collected from 258 firms in China. The results of hierarchical regression analysis reveal that IT operations and IT knowledge significantly improve firm performance, while IT objects are found to be insignificant. In addition, the moderating effect of IOC on the relationship between the three types of IT competencies and firm performance varies across diffenent types of IT competencies. Specifically, IOC positively moderates the relationship between both IT operations and IT knowledge and firm performance. However, the moderating effect of IOC on the relationship between IT objects and firm performance is not significant.