The influence of uncertainty and firm characteristics on marketing agility : An interview study on the need formarketing agility

Sammanfattning: Market changes are held to occur at an ever-faster rate due to forces such as technologicaladvancements, shifting consumer preferences and habits and increased competition. This hascaused a rise in interest for developing more agile working methodologies in marketing.Marketing agility is a capability that allows firms to quickly sense and respond to marketchanges. The assessment of when and how much marketing agility is needed is based on theknowledge of when the business environment is uncertain. Uncertainty is not always presentor constantly at the same level, indicating marketing agility is not as necessary in all contexts.The need for agility is also influenced by characteristics of the firm and their businessenvironment. Utilising a research design based on interviews with marketing managers inSweden, the purpose of this research is to determine how characteristics of the firm and theirbusiness environment influence the need for marketing agility. The results indicate that bothmarket uncertainty levels and different characteristics of the firm related to size, structure,resources, brand and product, influence the need for marketing agility. We emphasise how theneed for marketing agility can be constant or occur only in specific situations. The paperconcludes with implications for research and practice in relation to when marketing agility isneeded.Keywords: Marketing Agility, Iteration, Sensemaking, Speed, Marketing Decision, Uncertainty,Dynamic Market Changes