Title: Is strategic agility the new Holy Grail? Exploring the strategic agility construct

Authors: Gayathri Sampath; Bala Krishnamoorthy

Addresses: NMIMS – School of Business Management, V.L. Mehta Road, Vile Parle (West), Mumbai 400 056, India ' NMIMS – School of Business Management, V.L. Mehta Road, Vile Parle (West), Mumbai 400 056, India

Abstract: This paper reviews the concept of strategic agility and relates it to the context of building competitive advantage. The view of agility as an essential element of a firm's long-term success and survival has been discussed extensively in the literature. Strategic agility is an emerging area of research in the agility domain. It is a multidimensional concept, which includes both the ability to detect, anticipate, and sense market opportunities, evolving conditions, and other environmental changes and the ability to seize the opportunity with speed and implement new solutions. The paper discusses the concept of strategic agility and its impact on competitive advantage. The discussions are illustrated based on research carried out on Indian retail banks clarifying both the constituents of strategic agility as well as its contribution towards building a sustainable competitive advantage.

Keywords: strategic agility; agility; retail banking; sustainable competitive advantage; SCA; performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBEX.2017.086323

International Journal of Business Excellence, 2017 Vol.13 No.2, pp.160 - 180

Received: 30 Oct 2015
Accepted: 06 Apr 2016
Published online: 04 Sep 2017 *

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