Organizational Agility: Key to the Success of New Product Development

What is it about?

Organizational agility is the ability of an organization to transform its capabilities and resources to innovate new values or protect existing values that provide high return. Several studies have investigated the impact of organizational agility on the performance of organizations. However, few studies have explored the impact of the organizational agility of new product development teams during the process of new product development (NPD) on the performance of new products. Additionally, the process of increasing the effectiveness of organizational agility with innovativeness during the NPD process lacks empirical examination. Based on the concept of dynamic capabilities, this research presents a framework to explain the antecedents and consequences of the mediator (organizational agility of product development teams). The moderating role of innovativeness in the NPD process is also proposed. The findings reveal that the organizational agility is important to the firm’s successful product innovation because it improves the effectiveness of the fuzzy front-end (FFE) in the NPD process. The agility of the development team can be increased by top management support and learning organization. In addition, innovativeness positively moderates the effect of organizational agility on managing FFE. Altogether, these findings provide implications for proficiently managing FFE in the NPD process.

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Why is it important?

Keeping in mind the importance of organizational ability to NPD, this study differs from previous ones in aiming to explore the mediating role of the organizational agility of a development team in the NPD process. Additionally, the antecedents (top management support and learning orientation) and consequences (fuzzy front-end, innovativeness, and new product performance) of organizational agility are examined. Furthermore, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of organizational agility in managing FFE with moderating effect (innovativeness) is explored.