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firms shift from experience-based management to data-driven management, from linear
processes to real-time adaptation, and from localized optimization to system-wide
orchestration.
AI generates strategic value only when it is integrated into the core of the
restructuring process rather than functioning merely as a technical add-on to existing
structures. AI-driven strategic restructuring can be manifested along three main
dimensions. First is resource reconfiguration, in which data, technology, human resources,
and knowledge are reorganized into a new operational architecture. Second is operating
model redesign, in which AI directly participates in analysis, coordination, and decision
support. Third is business model repositioning, through the development of new forms of
value creation such as large-scale personalization, intelligent services, and the
exploitation of data as a strategic asset.
Accordingly, AI-driven strategic restructuring is the critical mediating link that
transforms AI from a technological capability into a strategic capability of the firm.
2.4. Innovation and sustainable competitive capability
According to Schumpeter (1934), innovation is the process of creating new
combinations of resources to generate new products, processes, or organizational models.
OECD/Eurostat (2018) conceptualizes innovation not merely as an output, but as a system
of activities encompassing research, data, governance, and human resources. In this
context, AI is not simply a supporting tool, but also a factor that changes how firms
organize innovation activities through data-processing capability, rapid experimentation,
and real-time decision optimization.
From a competition perspective, Porter (1985) argues that a firm’s position is
shaped by its ability to organize and coordinate value-creating activities more effectively
than its rivals. AI contributes to competitive capability by altering value chain structures
and stimulating innovation at three levels: products, processes, and business models.
However, innovation value does not arise automatically; it depends on the firm’s
organizational capability to combine AI with industry knowledge and strategic orientation.
Drawing on the VRIO framework, Barney (1991) argues that a resource can generate
sustainable competitive capability only when it is valuable, rare, difficult to imitate, and
effectively organized for exploitation. In the digital era, algorithms themselves can be
replicated; therefore, the source of sustainable competitive capability lies not in simply
possessing AI, but in the firm’s ability to organize and reconfigure resources around AI
(Krakowski et al., 2023). It is the synergy among organizational AI capability, strategic
restructuring, and continuous innovation that creates capability gaps between firms.
Overall, AI generates strategic value only when it is absorbed by the firm as an
organizational capability (Russell & Norvig, 2021) and translated into concrete innovation
outcomes (OECD/Eurostat, 2018).
2.5. Proposed analytical framework and research propositions
Based on the synthesis of the above theoretical arguments, this study proposes an
analytical framework structured as a logical relationship chain in which organizational AI
capability serves as the input condition, strategic restructuring functions as the central
transformation mechanism, innovation represents the intermediate outcome, and
sustainable competitive capability constitutes the final output. This framework asserts
that the strategic value of AI does not stem from the technology itself, but from the firm’s
ability to absorb and exploit AI as an organizational capability.

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