Strategic agility and the effects of firm age and environmental turbulence

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this empirical paper is to operationalize the Doz and Kosonen (2010) model of strategic agility, consisting of three dimensions and 15 subfactors and to test its relationship with firm performance under multiple contingencies.

Design/methodology/approach

A CEO-level survey is conducted to collect a sample of 73 firms from three industries in the US state of Florida. Factor analysis and convergence with similar criterion are used to validate the strategic agility construct. Multiple regression is used to test hypothesized relationships.

Findings

The findings support construct validity of Doz and Kosonen's model. Moreover, firm age and environmental turbulence are found to be important contingency factors. Environmental turbulence is found to moderate the relationship between firm age and strategic agility. Firm age and environmental turbulence are found to jointly moderate the relationship between strategic agility and firm performance.

Research limitations/implications

It is evident that firms may benefit from strategic agility depending on their age and environment. The results encourage future longitudinal research addressing causality.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to research by validating a more comprehensive model of strategic agility and identifying contingency factors that help to explain prior mixed results on the relationship between strategic agility and performance.

Citation

Reed, J.H. (2021), "Strategic agility and the effects of firm age and environmental turbulence", Journal of Strategy and Management, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 129-149. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSMA-07-2020-0178