Author(s): Atefeh Asil
Purpose: One of the duties of managers facing environmental uncertainty is to understand the important events and their changes and how they affect organizations. Agility enables organizations to provide their survival in such environments with quick, innovative, and creative responses. Agility requires rapid changes in the structure and configuration of the company, which can be implemented in various activities such as strategy. This research aimed to identify and develop a model for the assessment of strategic agility of companies based in growth centers with a modelling approach.
Methodology/Approach: The research method is applied to collect data from a descriptive survey type and the statistical society includes all newly established companies located in Tabriz city centers (10 centers) and simple sampling method, and a sample of 155 companies. The opinions of selected companies about the indicators and their relationship were gathered through a researcher-made questionnaire. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed using relevant tests. Structural equation modelling has been used for data analysis and structural modelling.
Findings: The findings showed that six factors were the most influential factors affecting the assessment of strategic agility of these companies. These factors (in order of importance) included: developing a prospect on the basis of customer knowledge, developing strategic goals based on the commitment and accountability of members, identifying partners and understanding environmental changes, fluency of resources based on the strategic mission, change management along with unity in leadership and finally strategic planning along with delegation of authority. Then, based on identified factors, the status gap with the desired situation in these companies was evaluated.
Research Limitation/implication: Apart from these factors, regional and global environmental factors may also affect the strategic agility of companies that need to be addressed.
Originality/Value of paper: So far, research has not been conducted specifically for newly established companies in the field of strategic agility. The newly established companies are important for economies in terms of economics and employment. A strategic misfortune can help these companies survive.