STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT, ORGANIZATIONAL AGILITY, AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN THE DIGITAL AGE: A CASE-BASED THEORETICAL STUDY
Augustine Felix Augustine 1, Olufade Kolawole Olumide 2, Temitope Oluwafemi Ademola 3,
Hilda Afeku Amenyo 4 & Jide Gboyega Okedeji 5
Department of Marketing, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria 1
Department of Banking and Finance, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria 2
School of Business, Osiri University, Nebraska, USA 3 & 5
Department of Earth and Environment, Montclair State University USA 4
Corresponding Email: augustinef110@gmail.com 1
Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7874-2351 1
Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5680-6040
Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3990-2032
Abstract
The accelerating pace of digital disruption obliges companies to repeatedly adjust their strategy, structure, and abilities to stay ahead. This study examines how the practices of strategic management and what specific strategic management practices deliver organizational agility and maintain digital-era competitiveness. This inquiry was guided by three sequential steps. First, a systematic review of over 20 recent peer-reviewed studies (2018-2025) to distil what we actually know, and do not know, about digital-era agility. Next, the Resource-Based View, Dynamic Capabilities Theory and the Strategic Alignment Model, to create an integrated “capability-system” framework. Finally, the framework illustrated with PepsiCo: a 60-year-old multinational that has repeatedly turned digital disruption into new sources of growth. The findings pointed to a simple recipe. Agility is not a single skill but a trio: sharp environmental sensing, friction-free resource redeployment, and leadership teams that speak with one voice. Digital leaders initiate virtuous cycles by institutionalizing experimentation and data-driven decisions, yet its impact fades unless the firm keeps learning and innovating in loops that feed straight back into strategy. PepsiCo’s AI-powered supply-chain and marketing moves show how alignment between technology choices and business goals converts incremental gains into lasting advantage. For managers, the message is clear: treat leadership, agility and innovation as one living system, tune it continuously, and measure it against strategic outcomes. For scholars, the study exposes blind spots, too many success stories, too few failures, and too little longitudinal evidence outside large Western multinationals that future research must fill.
Keywords: Strategic Management, Organizational Agility, Competitive Advantage, Digital Age, Case-based Theoretical Study.
