Developing and deploying marketing agility in an emerging economy: The case of Blue Skies

Purpose - In almost every large business, there is a growing recognition of the importance of

organisational agility in improving their marketing responsiveness and business survival. However,

limited insights have been offered by scholars on multinational enterprises and their marketing

agility in emerging markets context. This paper examines the various manifestations of agility and

the various strategies adopted to sustain agility by an emerging economy multinational enterprise

(EMNE) which started in the late 1990s as a small firm operating within the fresh fruit and juice

industry in Africa.

Design/methodology/approach - We utilised empirical qualitative data from an emerging African

economy to develop a three stage model of how agility manifest overtime.

Findings - We find that successful development and deployment of international marketing agility

strategy adopted by an EMNE from emerging markets hinge on building relationships, being

socially responsible and being innovative in standardisation and adaptation in response to, and in

anticipation of the rapidly changing business environment.

Research limitations/implications - This research is based on data from one organisation. Future

research can consider using multiple cases from different countries to further understand marketing

agility in emerging markets and when such firms internalize into developed markets.

Originality/value - This paper extends research on standardisation/adaptation debate and research

on agility, to address the gap on international marketing agility. Hitherto, there was no significant

research on marketing agility in emerging markets which focused on highly perishable products

such as fruits. This research provides unique insight into how marketing agility could be developed,

deployed and sustained in emerging African markets.