How startups utilize organizational adaptability in digital innovation

Abstract

In a global digital market, startups must have the capability to handle apprehension of knowledge and utilization of knowledge efficiently to quickly adapt to new realities as these emerge, given their limited resources—this regardless of whether it is customer needs or other events that affect the market. However, we do not know how startups quickly change course and adapt to stay competitive in the market. Therefore, we conducted a qualitative study based on 23 interviews with nine globally active automotive startups to understand startups' fast adaptability and how it impacts their digital innovation capability. The results show that startups with an organizational agility capability efficiently handle the transition between all four stages of innovative thinking. We conclude that dealing simultaneously with a problem from several different perspectives accelerates the apprehension of knowledge through concrete experience and abstract thinking; experimenting with new solutions develops new insights and knowledge.