Strategic Responses to Dynamic Changes: The Roles of Agility and Ambidexterity in International Marketing: An Abstract

Abstract

International marketing is complex (Kaspar 2017) forcing firms to cope with unexpected events and frequent shifts in technology and consumer preferences. Thus, global managers in search of superior performance need guidance beyond traditional concepts such as marketing planning (Whalen and Holloway 2012). Accordingly, and in line with the resource-based view theory (RBV), we argue that international firms need to recognize that distinct performance outcomes in dynamic global world depend on the related capabilities of agility and ambidexterity. Specifically, these capabilities serve as bases for designing responses to multiple changes in the environment (Zahra and Garvis 2000). To the best of our knowledge, although both are interrelated, no paper has addressed them simultaneously yet. Moreover, most papers on these concepts were published in the operations and strategic management literatures but much less in international marketing context. Our paper is designed to address these gaps. Specifically, we argue that these constructs are positively related with two performance outcomes (international new products (NPD) performance and international market performance) and should be empirically tested together to assess their joint and specific contributions. By running two parallel models (each time with a different performance outcome), we follow Katsikeas et al. (2016) recommendation to study distinct aspects of performance as it is more appropriate than measuring a latent global performance variable. It is apparent from the results that if resources are readily available, agility and ambidexterity deserve the attention of international marketers as they positively impact international performance. The findings provide important validation and extension to Kester et al. (2014) and Asseraf et al. (2019) studies as they demonstrate that the impact of agility is stable across two performance outcomes, beyond the impact ambidexterity.