The impact of strategic agility on organisational performance moderated by digital transformation in firms within the city of Johannesburg South Africa

Abstract

While there is an acknowledgement of the importance of strategic agility as a driver of superior organisational performance in volatile market environments, a significant contextual and empirical gap remains regarding how this relationship presents itself in emerging African economies such as the City of Johannesburg. In addition, the role of digital transformation in amplifying this relationship has predominantly been studied as a mediator rather than a moderator. As such, this study aimed to explore the impact of strategic agility on organisational performance among firms operating within the City of Johannesburg and to determine the extent to which this relationship is moderated by digital transformation. The study employed a deductive, quantitative approach using a cross-sectional survey design and was underpinned by the Dynamic Capabilities Theory. Data was collected using structured questionnaires, drawn from a sample of 211 full-time employees across diverse private and public sector organisations operating in the City of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used. Data analysis employed descriptive statistics, reliability and validity testing, correlation analysis, and moderated multiple linear regression modelling utilising SPSS to test the three hypotheses. The study revealed that strategic agility (beta=0.1962, p<0.001) and digital transformation (digital adaptability) (beta=0.5186, p=0.001) have a positive impact on organisational performance, together constituting 78.2% of the variance. Digital transformation (digital adaptability) emerged as the strongest predictor. However, the hypothesised moderating effect on the relationship between strategic agility and organisational performance was not statistically significant (p=0.602). The findings of this study suggest that in a highly volatile, competitive, and contextually constrained environment like the City of Johannesburg, strategic agility and digital transformation work as strong, independent drivers of organisational performance rather than synergistic, interactive capabilities. This finding requires management to intentionally focus on strategic digitisation and integration of digital systems into the core of strategic processes to close the gap between strategic responsiveness and digital adoption. From a theoretical perspective, the study expands the Dynamic Capabilities Theory by positioning digital transformation (digital adaptability) as a critical, independent capability that impacts organisational performance alongside strategic agility. However, the primary limitation of this study is the cross-sectional design, which inhibits causal inference and the ability to capture the dynamic evolutionary effects that happen over time. Therefore, future research should adopt a longitudinal design that enables tracking of the evolution and alignment of these capabilities. Furthermore, mixed-method research is iii recommended to enable the qualitative exploration of the influence of organisational mechanisms like leadership, culture and cross-functional integration in integrating strategic agility and digital transformation to enhance organisational performance in emerging economies. Another critically important limitation of this study was the emergence of the unplanned construct ‘overall employee perception’, suggesting that the instrument used could have captured broader evaluative tendencies that transcended the study’s scope and the initially defined theoretical constructs. Thus, this construct was excluded from the core of the investigation, despite its significant appearance in the results, as it would lead to theoretical and methodological ambiguity.