  Dynamic capabilities theory emerged as a leading framework in the process of
value creation for firms. Its core notion complements the premise of the
resource-based view of the firm and is considered an important theoretical and
management framework in modern information systems research. However, despite
DCTs significant contributions, its strength and core focus are essentially in
its use for historical firm performance explanation. Furthermore, valuable
contributions have been made by several researchers in order to extend the DCT
to fit the constantly changing IT environments and other imperative drivers for
competitive performance. However, no DCT extension has been developed which
allows firms to integrally assess their current state of maturity in order to
derive imperative steps for further performance enhancements. In light of
empirical advancement, this paper aims to develop a strategic alignment model
for IT flexibility and dynamic capabilities and empirically validates proposed
hypotheses using correlation and regression analyses on a large data sample of
322 international firms. We conjecture that the combined synergetic effect of
the underlying dimensions of a firms IT flexibility architecture and dynamic
capabilities enables organizations to cope with changing environmental
conditions and drive competitive firm performance. Findings of this study
suggest that there is a significant positive relationship between the firms
degree of strategic alignment defined as the degree of balance between all
dimensions and competitive firm performance. Strategic alignment can,
therefore, be seen as an important condition that significantly influences a
firms competitive advantage in constantly changing environments. The proposed
framework helps firms assess and improve their maturity and alignment of IT
flexibility and dynamic capabilities.
