Strategic agility, openness and performance: a mixed method comparative analysis of firms operating in developed and emerging markets

Abstract

This research delineates the relationship between strategic agility and performance, and proposes openness as a requisite means to fostering agility and enhancing performance. Methodologically, the research follows the pragmatist paradigm through a mixed-method research design, incorporating three separate studies. These comprise a CEO-based survey on foreign firms operating in emerging markets, a CEO-based survey on firms operating in developed countries, and CEO interviews, all of which are complimented by auxiliary instruments of secondary data and an expert panel. The research finds that strategic agility is vital for firms’ performance in both developed and developing markets. Moreover, we found that while search depth amplifies the above relationship in both contexts, search breadth does it only in the context of foreign firms operating in emerging markets. The value of these findings stems from their elucidation of the role of strategic agility in emerging markets and its comparison to that of firms operating in developed countries; their insights into strategic agility’s relationship with openness; their schematic culmination into a systemically and contextually depicted framework; and their prescriptive managerial implications.

Unlocking agility: Trapped in the antagonism between co-innovation in digital platforms, business analytics capability and external pressure for AI adoption?

“…The results of the direct model confirm that knowledge from external sources is essential to achieve OA (Vrontis et al. , 2023), particularly knowledge from digital innovation platforms (Bresciani et al ., 2021; Hoch and Brad, 2021).…”

“…The results of the direct model confirm that knowledge from external sources is essential to achieve OA (Vrontis et al, 2023), particularly knowledge from digital innovation platforms (Bresciani et al, 2021;Hoch and Brad, 2021). In other words, as companies strengthen their interaction with online communities, participate in discussion forums, submit their new product concepts to vote, and collect feedback on their new releases via these digital platforms, there will be a permanent flow of knowledge.…”

“…The reality is that the company's internal resource base is insufficient to attain OA, which depends on access to critical knowledge from external sources, regardless of whether the company is located in a developed or emerging country (Vrontis et al, 2023). Therefore, the role of CO as a driver of agility is attributable to the fact that it provides access to key external knowledge, mainly the one provided by the innovation ecosystem (Granig and Hilgarter, 2022).…”

“…The reality is that the company's internal resource base is insufficient to attain OA, which depends on access to critical knowledge from external sources, regardless of whether the company is located in a developed or emerging country (Vrontis et al. , 2023).…”

Governance agility in reception of war refugees from Ukraine: The case of Wrocław, Poland

“…Agility might be understood as the ability to survive in a competitive environment characterised by constant and unpredictable change, by responding effectively to the transforming environment (Sahid et al, 2020) or, using other words, the organisation's ability to continuously adapt to uncertain contexts. The need for agility is a consequence of progressing globalisation, competition, and the opportunities offered by new technologies (Vrontis et al, 2022). In this perspective, achieving organisational agility is seen as a challenge, meeting which preserves the survival of the organisation in the rapidly changing global environment.…”