Abstract
Due to the dynamic nature of the business environment, organisations regularly face rapid changes for which they need to adapt their Enterprise Systems (ESs). This makes ES adaptability essential. We identify ES adaptability as a conceptual notion that bridges the strategic and the technical domains. We provide a conceptual and empirical analysis that captures the current state of ESs from a top management perspective and shows the challenges of and potential for ES adaptability. Results show that having an adaptable ES is critical for an organisation to manage uncertainties and continue providing services that meet the expectations of their customers. However, the evidence from this study suggests that many in top management may have not fully understood the meaning of ES adaptability and as a result did not accurately assess the current state of their implemented ES. Therefore, they perceived their current ESs as adaptable in essence, when, in fact, they were less adaptable in practice. The study findings, limitations, and possible future research are discussed.