Impact of Information Technology Infrastructure Flexibility on the Competitive Advantage of Small and Medium Sized-Enterprises

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of information technology infrastructure flexibility (ITIF) on competitive advantage (CA) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For this purpose, this paper conducted multivariate analysis of covariance by using ITIF as an independent variable and four dependent variables for CA: production cost, fast and reliable delivery, product quality, and flexibility of product design, which are also essential factors in IT buying decision making for organizations. The results of this study show that having a flexible IT infrastructure positively influences all four variables of CA. Moreover, the result of the univariate analysis indicates that the SMEs ’ highest benefit of having ITIF is the improvement of product quality and an increased flexibility of product design. These results emphasize the importance of ITIF for SMEs and cloud computing, as a means for achieving this flexibility