Business and management scholars have always placed a strong emphasis on the study of capabilities. As digital technology moves from the back office to the forefront of digital innovation and transformation, organizations increasingly recognize the vital role of their digital‐related capabilities. Yet, despite the attention, substantial confusion remains in the cross‐disciplinary management and business literature, caused by conflating related, yet distinct, constructs: information technology (IT) capabilities, IT‐enabled capabilities and digital capabilities. Our objective in this article is twofold. First, we analyse the capability literature across business research areas to identify weaknesses, contradictions, controversies or inconsistencies regarding ‘IT’ and ‘digital’ constructs. We do so by conducting a theory‐driven critical review encompassing 360 studies in fields ranging from accounting to strategy. Second, our article advances a theoretical framework that clarifies the differences across IT capabilities, IT‐enabled capabilities and digital capabilities. It also provides solid ground for future inquiry by ensuring reliable knowledge accumulation while pointing research attention to unique and novel research questions.

中文翻译：

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解开“数字化”：对商业研究中信息技术能力、信息技术赋能能力和数字化能力的批判性回顾


商业和管理学者一直非常重视能力的研究。随着数字技术从后台转移到数字创新和转型的前沿，组织越来越认识到其数字相关能力的重要作用。然而，尽管受到关注，跨学科管理和商业文献中仍然存在大量混淆，这是由于将相关但不同的结构混为一谈：信息技术 （IT） 能力、IT 支持能力和数字能力。我们在本文中的目标有两个。首先，我们分析了商业研究领域的能力文献，以确定有关“IT”和“数字”结构的弱点、矛盾、争议或不一致之处。我们通过进行理论驱动的批判性审查来实现这一目标，其中包括从会计到战略等领域的 360 项研究。其次，我们的文章提出了一个理论框架，阐明了 IT 能力、IT 支持能力和数字能力之间的差异。它还通过确保可靠的知识积累，同时将研究注意力集中在独特和新颖的研究问题上，为未来的探究提供了坚实的基础。