Thriving at the Top in the Digital Era: The Impact of ICT on TMT Agility

Top management teams (TMT) have been argued to thrive in an environment characterized by continuous change and uncertainty, where the classical office space has been partly – and in some cases even entirely – replaced by the virtual space. Given this increased need for connectivity, in this conceptual paper we shed light on the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in shaping the agility of TMTs. We extend recent TMT research to disentangle the concept of agility and provide novel insights into the nature of the relationship between ICT and TMT agility. In doing so, we emphasize the role of TMT-level and environmental-level contingencies in altering the interplay between the two constructs. We develop propositions suggesting that at best, the net effect of ICT on TMT agility is positive, while at worst the net effect is neutral, negative and positive effects canceling each other out.