Agility as a Performance within Digital Infrastructures

Existing research on organizational agility aims to explain how agility is achieved, but is often restrained by traditional conceptualizations of IT and agility. We address this by conceptualizing agility as a performance and relating it to the emerging stream of research on digital infrastructures (DI). To find out how this theoretical lens can help explain agility in organizations, we conduct a case study with a telecommunications company, aimed at identifying generative mechanisms enabling performances of agility. We find that using DI as a theoretical lens shifts the focus of research to performances within DI, enabling a more dynamic view of both IT and agility. We outline a theory of agility that marks a significant shift in the way agility is conceptualized and addresses calls for research in the areas of organizational agility and DI