Enterprise Architecture within the Process of Permanent Change

Institute of Technology and Business in České Budějovice, Faculty of Corporate Strategy, Department of Management, Okružní 517/10, 37001 České Budějovice, Czech Republic

Abstract

Permanent changes that happen within the external surroundings of an enterprise, respectively within the macro-environment, significantly influence its efficiency and behaviour. The framework for these changes is made up by Enterprise Architecture (EA). Impacts of these changes are distinct in both, the internal environment of an enterprise as well as in its mid-environment, being of dynamic nature, and their elimination is a basic assumption of keeping the enterprise's competitiveness. The article focuses on analysing the macro-environment factors' influence on the changes in enterprise EA from the perspective of their sector differentiation. Tests have been carried out both ways – for chosen macro-environment factors, as well as macro-environment areas as a whole. The research survey was carried out on a file of 456 enterprises from the whole of the Czech Republic, out of which the production and industry sectors included 187 enterprises, and the service sector 255 enterprises. Pearson's chi-quadrate test was used as a statistical method. At the same moment, macro-environment factor prediction was tested, respectively the importance attached by top managers to the individual macro-environment factors in the future. Research results have proven a significant sector differentiation from the perspective of macroenvironment factors' impact on EA, while a greater influence of these factors has been indicated mainly in the service sector. It may be assumed that top managers begin to prove a risk symptom caused by a change in the economic cycle.