Developing Enterprise Business Architecture for SMEs: A Strategic Tool for Resource Orchestration and Managing Dynamisms

Competing in a dynamic ecosystem, SMEs need a strategic tool for managing co-evolution with the dynamic market in order to create sustained value. Drawing from the specific SME characteristics operating in a collaborative network ecosystem of firms, this paper elicits the specific strategic management requirements that need to be satisfied by an Enterprise Business Architecture. Extensive exploratory literature review and semi-structured interviews are used to explicate the underlying drivers of SME requirements for business oriented architecture that need to be addressed by the requisite EBA framework. The paper finds that, the EBA framework must possess the capabilities to guide and assist the SMEs to adapt with the dynamic collaborative ecosystem of firms and sense, leverage and orchestrate the network of resources and ICT capabilities to create sustained value. This paper concludes with some guidelines for developing the business architecture-enabled journey toward creating sustained value within the said dynamic ecosystem.