How to decompress the Pressure - The moderating Effect of IT Flexibility on the negative Impact of Governmental Pressure on Business Agility

Abstract

In times of digital transformation banks need to behave agile and increase their speed in IT. At the same time, they are bound by an increasing number of regulatory rules at an increasing pace that force them to act carefully. Since governments frequently introduce new regulatory terms, especially in the finance sector, regulation is a changing phenomenon itself, which forces banks to adjust and change their systems constantly. To manage these challenges, we argue that successful businesses need to have a flexible IT architecture in place. This should enable them to update and reconfigure their systems in a cost effective and prompt manner. By doing this, they should be able to compensate for the regulatory pressure and remain agile. Based on an analysis of 119 survey results, we find that business agility is indeed lower for higher regulatory pressure and that this effect is mitigated by a flexible IT.