The microfoundations of marketing agility : a dynamic capabilities perspective

Marketing agility has emerged as an important construct in research for enabling marketing managers to thrive in dynamic markets. So far, however, marketing research has not provided sufficient guidance on how to develop marketing agility. Drawing on the dynamic capabilities view, this study fills this research gap and explores the microfoundations — the specific skills, processes, and organizational features — that enable marketing agility. Based on 26 in-depth interviews with marketers, the findings reveal 17 microfoundations, which constitute a holistic marketing agility framework. Further, the findings demonstrate that marketing agility involves two types of agile market responses: (1) fast and (2) innovative responses. First, fast responses enable marketing managers to react as fast as possible to unpredictable market changes. Second, innovative responses allow marketers to shape their market by seizing innovation opportunities arising from new trends and customer insights. The findings also show that marketing agility is best suited to marketing activities that (1) are conducted in uncertain business environments, (2) can be tested on customers to generate learning, and (3) can be iteratively enhanced based on that learning. Finally, this study contributes to marketing research as well as the dynamic capabilities literature. It provides marketing managers with critical practical insights and identifies promising avenues for marketing research.