The impact of balanced agile project management on firm performance: the mediating role of market orientation and strategic agility

This study aims to examine the impact of balanced agile project management (balanced APM) on firm performance through the mediating role of market orientation and strategic agility of medium and large telecommunication technology providers in Indonesia.

Research data was collected from the executive management of telecommunication technology providers in Indonesia via a questionnaire survey to obtain 150 valid questionnaires for analysis. This study analyzed the overall model fit through confirmatory factor analysis and causal relationships through structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that market orientation mediates the link between balanced APM and strategic agility and that strategic agility mediates the link between market orientation and firm performance.

The choice of single telecommunication industry in a single country, Indonesia, provides a limitation on external validity. It is, therefore, suggested to extend the research efforts to other industry sectors in multi-country environments.

This study extends the knowledge about agile project management by embracing balancing control enforcement and tests it empirically. This study also re-conceptualizes strategic agility to embrace business partner switching capability and market orientation to embrace the inter-partner coordination dimension. Finally, the results highlight that agile project management needs to be framed by market orientation to create higher value for customers. However, market orientation alone is not enough and that the organization requires strategic agility to achieve firm performance.