When the business world becomes more chaotic, companies do not always become less capable. This study finds that turbulence can actually make them more alert, more responsive, and better able to adapt. Strategic agility is generally believed to encompass three core capabilities: actively sensing and anticipating changes in the environment, making bold and fast decisions as a leadership team, and quickly reallocating resources as needed.

Think of a company like a rescue crew: it must notice a changing situation, agree quickly on what to do, and move its people and equipment where they are needed. The study examines internationalization, firm age, and environmental turbulence, and their impact on the components of strategic agility.

It analyzes how these factors influence each dimension separately: sensing change, keeping leadership aligned, and moving resources quickly. The study is supported by a survey of Spanish firms in the service sector and uses structural equation modelling to identify the role of these three variables in the three capabilities of strategic agility.

This approach offers practical insights for strategic management and international business. Internationalization has a dual effect on strategic agility: it enhances strategic sensitivity, reflecting improved environmental awareness, but diminishes leadership unity.

An increase in firm age is associated with a decrease in all aspects of strategic agility. By contrast, environmental turbulence positively impacts each dimension of strategic agility, suggesting that turbulent conditions can promote adaptability and responsiveness.

The positive relationship between internationalization and strategic sensitivity suggests that global operations enhance a firm’s ability to adapt to diverse market conditions. But internationalization has a negative relationship with leadership unity, highlighting the challenge of aligning leadership.

The maturity of a firm has a negative relationship with each dimension of strategic agility: strategic sensitivity, leadership unity, and resource fluidity. Older firms may struggle to maintain the awareness and responsiveness needed to navigate a rapidly evolving market, leading to slower adaptation to new demands and technological shifts.

Established routines and ingrained organizational practices may become barriers to the flexible reallocation of resources needed for agile responses to new opportunities and market threats. Environmental turbulence has a positive relationship with strategic sensitivity.

Rapidly shifting conditions elicit adaptive responses from firms. As turbulence intensifies, firms need to enhance their foresight and insight so they are not only reactive but also proactive in the face of market disruptions and trends. This model links international reach, market turbulence, and firm age to three parts of strategic agility: sensing change, staying united as leaders, and moving resources quickly.

It accounts for 30.4% of differences in strategic sensitivity, making clear how these forces may shape a firm’s ability to respond. The study advances understanding of strategic agility within internationalization, firm age, and environmental turbulence. The study advances understanding of strategic agility in relation to internationalization, firm age, and environmental turbulence, while acknowledging limitations that can guide future research.

A company’s flexibility depends on more than size or international reach: age can slow every part of it, while difficult conditions can sharpen its awareness, decisions, and ability to move resources.