What drives strategic agility? Evidence from a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (FsQCA)

Abstract

Strategic agility is a topic that has not reached maturity and is of increasing interest for companies and academics alike. Yet few studies assess what drives strategic agility in organisations. This paper aims to review how companies are currently obtaining strategic agility and to identify the individual factors and confgurations that lead to it. The study draws on a survey carried out with 40 Spanish companies in the services sector. The study then uses Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to identify the diferent confgurations of factors that lead to strategic agility. Finally, we complement QCA analysis by performing a case study for each of the confgurations that lead to strategic agility. The study reveals that there is no necessary condition to reach strategic agility and that companies reach it in fve main ways, depending on diferent combinations of six factors: frm size, frm age, whether the frm is international, whether it competes in a turbulent environment, and whether the frm invests in i) capabilities and technologies, and ii) additional revenue models or cost-cutting mechanisms or not.