Comparison of agility perception between industrial and service sectors1

In recent years, organizational agility has become one of the most crucial elements for success and sustainability in increasingly competitive global markets. Agility refers to businesses’ ability to adapt to rapidly changing market conditions and is recognized as an important performance indicator in both industrial and service sectors. The significance of agility performance and capability as a competitive element has attracted interest from both business and academic worlds, becoming the subject of numerous studies. However, how the perception of agility differs between industrial and service sectors hasn’t been adequately examined. Agility is a capability that can significantly positively impact the competitive power that businesses need strategically. However, the agility phenomenon doesn’t depend solely on a business’s intentions and efforts. External factors affecting business can influence agility perception. One of these is the sector in which the business operates and this sector’s characteristics and structure. This research examines agility perceptions of businesses in industrial and service sectors and investigates differences stemming from sectoral characteristics. The study considered data collected through surveys from 341 upper and middle-level managers of companies operating in the Istanbul region, including 145 service and 196 industrial businesses. The collected data underwent reliability, frequency, descriptive, and t-test analyses. The research found that agility perception differs based on the operational sector (t=3.429 p=0.001<0.05). Accordingly, service sector businesses (Mean=4.06) have a higher agility perception compared to industrial sector businesses (Mean=3.85). These results reveal that agility perception in the service sector is at a higher level than in the industrial sector.