Impact of organizational inertia on organizational agility: the role of IT ambidexterity

Firms have increasingly relied on information technology (IT) to remain agile in today’s hypercompetitive business environment. Drawing on the organizational inertia theory and literature on IT-enabled agile, this study examines the relationship between organizational inertia, IT ambidexterity (i.e., IT exploration and exploitation), and organizational agility. Quantitative data were collected from 326 respondents through a questionnaire survey in China and analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling. Results show that organizational agility is negatively influenced by organizational inertia, whereas IT exploration and exploitation positively related to organizational agility and IT exploitation is the dominant force. Furthermore, IT exploration and exploitation partially mediate the relationship between organizational inertia and agility. These findings offer new theoretical perspectives on organizational agility and guide practitioners to deal with related inertia issues to effectively improve organizational agility.