The Role of Entrepreneurial Orientation in Achieving Agility Capability

Firms are seeking ways to improve their ability to respond quickly to ever-increasing changes. In this regard, the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and Agility capabilities come into emergence as new concepts in marketing-management field contributing companies to survive and handling changes. Notwithstanding the importance of these concepts, the majority of researches conducted in relation to these subjects examine their relationship with firm's performance. Also, from one hand, researches focusing on the antecedents of agility capabilities are scarce and literature in this area needs to be extended. From the other hand, Chang et al. (2007)'s call for paper scrutinizing the associations between the dimensions of EO and flexibility (one of the agility capabilities). Therefore, this study aims for filling in the gaps through both the literature of agility and entrepreneurial orientation. Additionally, in the light of multidimensional essence of concepts of agility and EO, the one-to-one study of the relationships between the dimensions of mentioned concepts is needed for precise illumination of this issue. Our finding showed that EO has a strong influence on agility capability. Also, innovativeness positively affects responsiveness, flexibility Competency, and quickness; risk-taking impact positively on responsiveness, competency, and quickness. Proactiveness lays positive influence on responsiveness; competitive aggression puts positive influence on responsiveness, competency and quickness; and eventually, autonomy affects flexibility and quickness.