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Article
Publication date: 26 September 2018

Yancy Vaillant and Esteban Lafuente

The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether business owners that simultaneously demonstrate past entrepreneurial experience and process agility have greater export propensity…

1748

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether business owners that simultaneously demonstrate past entrepreneurial experience and process agility have greater export propensity levels.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed hypotheses are tested using binary choice models relating past entrepreneurial experience and reported process agility on a unique sample of 246 Catalan business owners for the year 2010.

Findings

Consistent with the theoretical arguments on the relevance of generative-based cognitive agility, the results of this paper reveal that serial entrepreneurs demonstrate a greater export propensity. Additionally, the authors found that serial entrepreneurs who also demonstrate process agility show superior export propensity levels, compared to the group of business owners outside this ambidextrous group (first-time business owners without process agility).

Research limitations/implications

The findings of this study indicate that traits characterizing international marketing agility, decisional speed and accuracy are also linked with greater export propensity levels. The added export market expansion resulting from the opportunity responsiveness of serial entrepreneurs is found to be amplified by the accuracy of internal adaptation capabilities of process agility.

Practical implications

Therefore, the promotion of ambidextrous strategic agility coming from the complementarities between the benefits of entrepreneurial experience and adaptive process abilities is essential for increasing businesses’ internationalization.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the literature by further exploring the influence of different sources of agility on the internationalization of entrepreneurial ventures and opens a link between entrepreneurs prone toward export market expansion and international marketing agility.

Article
Publication date: 13 September 2022

Marte C.W. Solheim, Torgeir Aadland, Ann Elida Eide and Dag Håkon Haneberg

Agile organisations do not arise from a single characteristic but comprise a combination of various aspects. Thus, this study aims to examine the combined effects on…

Abstract

Purpose

Agile organisations do not arise from a single characteristic but comprise a combination of various aspects. Thus, this study aims to examine the combined effects on organisational agility regarding firms’ utilisation of digital technology to create value during the COVID-19 pandemic, how firms perceive uncertainty related to their own organisational response and the degree to which they have an entrepreneurial mindset.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, this study investigates 355 established firms and start-ups in Norway.

Findings

This study finds digitalisation is required for agility to develop, but that it needs to be combined with having an entrepreneurial mindset or being a start-up and lower levels of perceived uncertainty. Hence, entrepreneurial mindset and low uncertainty are important factors for digitalisation, and in turn, for agility to be developed.

Originality/value

Agility is recognised as being pivotal for firms’ competitiveness and innovation and argued to be significant in overcoming sudden economic shocks. However, lacking empirical scrutiny are investigations into the relationship between digitalisation and agility, and how digitalisation might act as a driver for building agility, which the authors tackle herein.

Details

European Business Review, vol. 35 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-534X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 October 2018

Birgit Hagen, Antonella Zucchella and Pervez Nasim Ghauri

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize strategic agility in entrepreneurial internationalization and highlight the role of marketing “under particular conditions” – those…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize strategic agility in entrepreneurial internationalization and highlight the role of marketing “under particular conditions” – those of early and fast internationalizers.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on in-depth case studies of four entrepreneurial internationalizers using an inductive approach. The role of marketing is studied along a set of four key business processes, i.e. sensing through selective customer/partner intimacy; business development through selective experimentation and testing; coordination and harmonization of multiple stakeholders; and creative extension of resources.

Findings

Strategic agility is a composite of flexibility and selective responsiveness. Marketing thought, mainly through customer and partner interaction, plays a prominent role in achieving strategic agility. Customer- and market-centric thinking needs to be built in a key set of business processes. Marketing’s contribution to strategic agility means an ability to cope with time, relationship and functional dependencies. Strategic agility helps improve the risk profile of the entrepreneurial internationalizer. Entrepreneurial internationalizers are particularly suited to compete on and benefit from strategic agility.

Practical implications

The findings show managers and entrepreneurs in early and fast internationalizing ventures a path to strategic agility which helps to overcome the many parallel challenges that come with firm foundation and internationalization.

Originality/value

Strategic agility is a novel explanation for entrepreneurial internationalization. The study explains the prominent role played by marketing in achieving strategic agility and growth. Strategic agility is reconceptualized in the context of the young and small internationalizing firm.

Details

International Marketing Review, vol. 36 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-1335

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 January 2024

Gerald Stei, Alexander Rossmann and Levente Szász

As a response to the increased frequency of disruptive events and intense competition, organizational agility has become a key concept in organizational research. Fostering…

Abstract

Purpose

As a response to the increased frequency of disruptive events and intense competition, organizational agility has become a key concept in organizational research. Fostering organizational agility requires leveraging knowledge that exists both outside (exploration) and inside (exploitation) the organization. This research tests the so-called ambidexterity hypothesis, which claims that a balance between exploration and exploitation leads to increased organizational outcomes, including the development of organizational agility. Complementing previously established measurement models on ambidexterity, this research proposes an alternative measurement model to analyze how ambidexterity can enhance organizational agility and, indirectly, performance, taking into consideration the moderating effect of environmental competitiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

A review of existing measurement models for ambidexterity shows that tension, a crucial aspect of ambidexterity, is often neglected. The authors, therefore, develop a new measurement model of ambidexterity to incorporate ambidexterity-induced tension. Using this measurement model, they examine the effect of ambidexterity on the development of entrepreneurial and adaptive agility as well as performance.

Findings

Ambidexterity positively influences both entrepreneurial and adaptive agility, indicating that a balance between exploration and exploitation has superior organizational effects. This finding confirms the ambidexterity hypothesis with respect to organizational agility. Furthermore, both entrepreneurial and adaptive agility drive organizational performance. These two indirect effects via agility fully mediate the impact of ambidexterity on organizational performance. Finally, environmental competitiveness positively moderates the relationship between ambidexterity and adaptive agility.

Originality/value

The findings extend research on ambidexterity by showing its positive effects on organizational agility. Furthermore, the study proposes an alternative operationalization to capture the ambidexterity construct that may lay the groundwork for further applications of the ambidexterity concept.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 44 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 September 2018

Hung-Tai Tsou and Colin C.J. Cheng

Drawing on the resource-based view, this paper aims to extend prior information technology (IT) B2B service research by building and empirically testing a theoretical model in…

Abstract

Purpose

Drawing on the resource-based view, this paper aims to extend prior information technology (IT) B2B service research by building and empirically testing a theoretical model in which organizational agility mediates the relationship between organizational capabilities (IT capability and organizational learning) and service innovation performance, under conditions of entrepreneurial alertness.

Design/methodology/approach

The theoretical hypotheses are confirmed by partial least squares analysis of survey responses collected from 170 IT B2B service firms.

Findings

The results reveal that the effect of either IT capability or organizational learning on service innovation performance is fully mediated by organizational agility, and organizational agility has a greater impact on service innovation performance under a high level of entrepreneurial alertness than under a low level.

Practical implications

The results of this study provide specific managerial guidelines for how to effectively manage organizational mechanisms to enhance IT B2B service innovation performance.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature of service innovation, IT B2B (industrial) marketing and dynamic capability by providing theory-driven and empirically proven explanations to help managers better understand the IT capability-service innovation relationship from the perspective of organizational mechanisms (organizational agility, organizational learning and entrepreneurial alertness).

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 33 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 May 2013

Nakul Gupta and Sangeeta Shah Bharadwaj

Pedagogy today has become a function of technology and this relationship becomes all the more promising when used to address the educational needs of the constantly changing and…

1350

Abstract

Purpose

Pedagogy today has become a function of technology and this relationship becomes all the more promising when used to address the educational needs of the constantly changing and fast evolving business school education. Business schools today are responsible for empowering future managers and leaders with not only the knowledge and insights but also with the ability to sense and respond to the unanticipated changes of the turbulent business environment. The objective of this paper is to conceptualize an integrated pedagogical framework that combines “richness” of augmented reality, classroom teaching and academic research with “reach” of social networking to yield a paradigm of agile business school education.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors propose a conceptual model that would help in building entrepreneurial agility through business school education when internal factors collectively optimize the richness of education content and external factors provide the reach necessary to create a field for socialization that helps in building knowledge.

Findings

The authors’ conceptual model consists of three sub‐paradigms derived from the theories they discuss: richness (from theory of experiential learning), reach (from social network theory) and business school education agility (from contingency theory). These three dimensions together enable the authors to understand and propose a new model for business schools, which would have the objective of producing more graduates with entrepreneurial agility.

Research limitations/implications

This research is just an attempt towards integration of emerging technologies to offer agile and experiential education. More research is needed to assess the effectiveness of various teaching and learning techniques. Multivariate analysis would be helpful in determining the multitude of effects on learning that can occur within a business school environment.

Originality/value

Agile business school education is a new variation on business school pedagogy that combines traditional‐style education with technology to provide education that is relevant today and will be relevant in dealing with unforeseen events in the future. Agile business school education will enable graduates to build and lead agile and successful organizations.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 55 no. 4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 23 July 2014

Gertjan Schuiling

This chapter describes the change efforts and action research projects at a Dutch multinational which, over a period of 25 years, produced in one of its businesses a zigzag path…

Abstract

This chapter describes the change efforts and action research projects at a Dutch multinational which, over a period of 25 years, produced in one of its businesses a zigzag path toward collaborative leadership dynamics at the horizontal and vertical interfaces. The chapter also identifies the learning mechanisms that helped achieve this transformation. Changing the patterns at the vertical interfaces proved to be a most tricky, complex, and confusing operation. The data show that organizations need hierarchical interfaces between levels, but are hindered by the hierarchical leadership dynamics at these interfaces. The data furthermore show that competitive performance requires more than redesigning horizontal interfaces. A business can only respond with speed and flexibility to threats and opportunities in the external environment when the leadership dynamics at agility-critical vertical interfaces are also changed.

Details

Research in Organizational Change and Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-312-4

Article
Publication date: 26 June 2009

Jochen Wirtz and Michael Ehret

The purpose of this paper is to express the widely underestimated role of business services in driving the growth of the service sector, and the increasing specialization and…

2693

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to express the widely underestimated role of business services in driving the growth of the service sector, and the increasing specialization and productivity of the economies.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors draw on statistical data and industry reports and link them to the non‐ownership‐concept in service research and the theory of the firm.

Findings

Business services are the major driver of the service economy. Organizations focus on core competencies and outsource commoditized and non‐core activities in order to free managerial capacity for the entrepreneurial pursuit of opportunities. This in turn drives the specialization and enhanced productivity of economies.

Research limitations/implications

This paper advances the non‐ownership discussion in service research and integrates it with economic theories of the firm, including the property rights theory, the resource‐based view and the entrepreneurial theory of the firm. This paper makes a conceptual contribution without empirical testing.

Practical implications

Implications for individual businesses include recommendation to focus on core activities and outsourcing of non‐core competencies to competitive business service providers. Here three fundamental value propositions business service providers can offer their clients are identified: reduction of the costs of asset‐ownership (property rights theory); freeing scarce management capacity to focus on high value‐creation opportunities (resource‐based view); and the enhancement of their entrepreneurial agility and leverage (entrepreneurial theory of the firm). Policy implications include a better understanding of the role of business services in wealth creation and the recommendation to create and ensure competitive business services markets that are open to global competition.

Originality/value

The authors provide an explanation for the role of business services as a driving force of economic development and business productivity.

Details

European Business Review, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-534X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 May 2023

Tanushree, Chandan Kumar Sahoo and Akriti Chaubey

In recent years, organizational agility (OA) has garnered significant attention from the academic community. Despite a substantial rise in the academic literature on OA, the…

Abstract

Purpose

In recent years, organizational agility (OA) has garnered significant attention from the academic community. Despite a substantial rise in the academic literature on OA, the nuanced understanding of OA among academicians, practitioners and policymakers is limited. To address this research gap, the current study attempts to synthesize the academic literature on organizational literature, understand the evolution of OA literature and state the potential research gaps that may open multiple research avenues.

Design/methodology/approach

The current study critically evaluates academic literature published in peer-reviewed journals using the bibliometric approach to map the intellectual structure of identified 224 articles on published literature on OA between 2001 and 2022.

Findings

The findings outline OA's evolutionary trend, most prolific authors, journals, affiliations and countries. Further, network analysis is deployed to unearth prominent OA themes. After that, four key themes of OA from each cluster have been identified and evaluated.

Research limitations/implications

The study is based on the literature drawn from the SCOPUS database. Although the SCOPUS database is one of the largest databases, the authors believe that the SCOPUS does not contain some publications that might have offered some different insights. Secondly, the bibliometric analysis does not offer the opportunity to provide critical insights into published literature, which is one of the main limitations of bibliometric-based studies. However, despite some of these limitations, the authors believe that the study is a useful guide for scholars, practitioners and policymakers who do not have much information related to OA literature.

Originality/value

This article provides a pioneering review of the OA literature using bibliometrics and network analysis. The results and potential directions for further research may assist researchers in increasing the relevance of OA in the current uncertain and ambiguous environment.

Details

Benchmarking: An International Journal, vol. 31 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-5771

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 February 2023

Cheng Gong and Vincent Ribiere

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the conceptual confusion in the extant literature about organizational agility and explore its role in different relationships in the…

1683

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the conceptual confusion in the extant literature about organizational agility and explore its role in different relationships in the context of digital transformation.

Design/methodology/approach

An integrative review of the relevant literature on agility was conducted. The literature on organizational agility and other variables in recent quantitative research was also examined to explore its role in different relationships.

Findings

Organizational agility is the ability to quickly respond and proactively embrace unanticipated changes in dynamic environments through effective resource reconfiguration and rapid decision-making. The role of organizational agility in achieving digital transformation has not been addressed from a holistic conceptual perspective. This paper addresses that gap and proposes that organizational agility is the underlying mechanism for an organization to fully use and engage its workforce, operation and network in the process of digital transformation.

Research limitations/implications

This research is an integrative review of the existing literature on the concept of agility and its relationships. The next phase of research needed for theory building will be the operationalization of constructs.

Practical implications

Organizations should strive to strategically develop both the reactivity and proactivity sides of organizational agility in achieving digital transformation that involves fundamental changes at different levels of the organization.

Originality

This paper explores the role of organizational agility in digital transformation through an integrative review of the relevant literature.

Details

VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-5891

Keywords

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