The balancing act: Organizational agility in fast-growing international ventures
研究了快速成长的国际B2B企业如何维持组织敏捷性，以应对内外矛盾需求（如稳定与变革、本地与全球），为管理者提供发展敏捷性以持续应对变化的建议。
Organizational agility (OA) is a prominent strategic goal considered to be a key to success, especially in conditions of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. In this paper, we flip the dominant research focus, that is, how to build or how to transform towards OA, to the under-investigated topic of how to maintain and weave it into the fabric of an organization. We draw on data from eight fast-growing B2B ventures that operate internationally. These companies may be considered revelatory for the study of OA, given that they outperform despite the inherent uncertainty and the liabilities of their new business, the complexity arising from a volatile international environment, and the internal turbulence resulting from their fast growth. We build on a paradoxical lens to understand whether and how OA assists in engaging with alternative strategic demands – e.g. stability and change, local and global demand, short- and longer-term horizons, and respective resource allocation- that arise from their external and internal environment. Theoretical contributions lie in a reconceptualization of OA that is ‘future-fit’ and supports fast growth over the long term, in a better understanding of growth drivers in entrepreneurial ventures, and with the identification and resolution of paradox in a new – fast-growth - context. For management practice, we offer advice regarding where and how to develop agility to continuously benefit from the ability to respond to internal and external change and avoid tensions in the future. • Explores how organizational agility is maintained in fast-growing B2B ventures that operate internationally • Identifies tensions, e.g. ‘running a business’ vs ‘growing a business’ and respective pre-emption or resolution strategies • Provides a future-fit reconceptualization of organizational agility that enables and supports sustained fast growth • Introduces stability and continuity and significant new insight regarding flexibility and speed dimensions • Illustrates how ventures should develop OA for continued ability to respond to internal and external change