Adaptation and Product Success in Information Services Industry: A Multi-Level Study

Under the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) influence, firms have to rapidly adapt this kind of environmental situations. In this context, the management as well as organization literature generally argue that firms should generate and utilize organizational adaptive capability. Developing and using organizational adaptive capability is closely related to the organizational members’ adaptive behaviors in the environmental conditions. However, in the relevant literature, this relationship has not been investigated thoroughly yet. This study attempts to crystallize the potential effects of individual adaptive performance on organizational adaptive capability. In addition, this study aims to demonstrate the probable influence of organizational adaptive capability on product success. To this end, based on the analyses conducted on the sample from 138 organizational members, who work in Information Technology (IT) industry, ―by using structural equation model based on partial least squares (PLS) method―, this study found that (i) there is a positive and significant relationship between individual adaptive performance and organizational adaptive capability and (ii) between organizational adaptive capability and product success. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study were discussed.