How Strategic Agility Affects the Competitive Capabilities of Private Banks

Abstract

Developing capabilities of agility, rapid responsiveness and adaptation to environmental changes are known as tools to gain competitive advantage. Strategic agility is a developed type of agility that in addition to rapid response pays specific attention to strategic aspects and predicting changes in the environment before they occur. Most of the studies in the field of agility and competitive advantage have focused on productivity and agility of supply chain. And a small number of studies have assessed the determinants of strategic agility and its impact on financial, competitive and operative factors organizations; therefore, having the awareness of both this issue and also the importance of competitiveness in the current banking system, in this research we have tried to explain the concept of strategic agility and its determinants, and to reveal its importance in the banking sector and to investigate its impact on the competitive capabilities of the private banks in Iran. In terms of its aim, this study is an applied one, and regarding the data collection, it is descriptive- correlational. The statistical population of this research consists of managers and experts working in the Iranian private banks. A total of 150 managers and experts from the banks have formed the study sample. In this study, first based on conducted studies, a model was developed to study the effect of strategic agility on competitive capabilities, and then, by using the tests of confirmatory factor analysis, Pearson structural equation modeling and correlation, this model was reviewed and approved. The results indicate that strategic agility has had significant impact on the competitive capabilities of the private banks in Iran. Furthermore, among the dimensions of strategic agility, clarity of vision is the most influential factor in the competitive capabilities.

Keywords: agility, strategic agility, competitive capabilities, competitive advantage, telecom industry