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(Aghion et al., 2019). Therefore, research on AI in firms cannot stop at the question of
technology adoption alone, but must probe the organizational and strategic mechanisms
through which AI creates long-term value.
1.2. Research gap and the situation in Vietnam
In Vietnam, the National Strategy on Research, Development, and Application of
Artificial Intelligence through 2030, issued under Decision No. 127/QĐ-TTg (Prime
Minister of Vietnam, 2021), identifies AI as a breakthrough technology of major
importance for enhancing national competitive capability. At the enterprise level,
however, AI implementation still faces a major bottleneck in managerial mindset and
organizational capability. Many firms have only adopted AI in isolated areas such as
customer service, marketing, data analytics, or task automation, while their core
operating models and decision-making mechanisms remain largely unchanged. As a result,
even when firms invest in technology, value creation often remains limited to operational
improvement rather than strategic transformation.
The research gap, therefore, lies not merely in whether firms adopt AI, but in
explaining how AI is transformed from a technological tool into a strategic organizational
capability. The key question is how fragmented AI applications are integrated to support
strategic restructuring decisions, and how that restructuring process, in turn, stimulates
innovation and ultimately contributes to the formation of sustainable competitive
capability. The absence of a systematic analytical framework for this chain of relationships
makes firms prone to localized, short-term innovation focused on operational efficiency
rather than long-term strategic transformation (Krakowski et al., 2023).
Recent studies also suggest that the academic challenge no longer lies in asking
whether AI is adopted, but rather in addressing deeper questions related to
organizational design, data governance, human–AI collaboration, and technology
absorptive capability. Even so, most current studies still examine AI either at the
operational level or within individual functional domains. There is therefore a need for an
integrated analytical framework to clarify the transformation chain from organizational AI
capability to strategic restructuring, innovation, and sustainable competitive capability,
especially in the context of Vietnamese firms, where considerable disparities remain in
data resources, digital human capital, and technology absorption capability (Borges et al.,
2021; Chowdhury et al., 2023; Krakowski et al., 2023; Bankins et al., 2024; Kolbjørnsrud,
2024; Füller et al., 2024; Hillebrand et al., 2025).
1.3. Objectives and contributions of the paper
Based on these gaps, this article focuses on analyzing the role of AI as a driver of
strategic restructuring in enterprises. Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory, the study
seeks to clarify the chain of effects from organizational AI capability to strategic
restructuring, from strategic restructuring to innovation, and from innovation to
sustainable competitive capability. The article is concerned not merely with describing AI
as a technical tool, but with explaining AI as a strategic capability capable of reconfiguring
resources and upgrading business models (Warner & Wäger, 2019).
From a theoretical perspective, the study contributes to clarifying the mediating
mechanism through which AI generates strategic value in firms. From a practical
perspective, the article provides a reference point for managers to view AI as a strategic
asset that must be deeply integrated into organizational structures and innovation culture,
especially in the context of Vietnam’s ongoing digital transformation at both the national
and enterprise levels.

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