Strategic Agility and Competitive Advantage of Selected Manufacturing Firms in Osun State

Abstrak

The growing turbulence and competitive nature of the current business environment require organisations to evolve adaptive capabilities. This research examined the connection between strategic sensitivity and competitive advantage and the effect of strategic response on competitive advantage. The research design used in the study was cross-sectional research design and instrument used was structured questionnaire that was given to the top and middle-level employees in eight manufacturing companies that comprised a population of 2,980 managers, supervisors and functional heads. Among the distributed questionnaires, 371 valid responses were analyzed using SPSS 29, employing descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression. The results show that strategic sensitivity and strategic response are both significant factors of competitive advantage. Nevertheless, strategic response is the most powerful influence and proactive and timely change in response to environmental changes is more important in improving competitive positioning than sensitivity. Competitive advantage was explained by the model which indicates that the strategic agility model is indeed robust in the manufacturing environment. The novelty of this research lies in contextual, comparative and explanatory contributions to the strategic agility and competitive advantage literature. The research recommended that policymakers need to promote the establishment of an enabling environment, which favors the agility of manufacturing companies.