JOURNAL OF ORGANISATIONAL STUDIES AND INNOVATION, cilt.10, sa.4, ss.49-68, 2023 (ESCI)
Along with the
Covid-19 pandemic, unprecedented changes have occurred in customer shopping
experiences arising from time constraints, insufficient stock, and social
distance. Up till now, some retailers have become more resilient to crises, and
some have even attained more growth in such a turbulent atmosphere. What the retail
industry learned deeply from public health threats is that multi-channel
interoperability builds up retailer resilience and creates some opportunities
while fostering strategically agile behaviour and hence better performance in
times of crisis. In this line, the present study here examines whether
online-offline channel integration improves strategic agility and retail
business performance during the pandemic outbreak of Covid-19. The data obtained
from Turkish clothes retailers confirms the mediator role of strategic agility
in the relationship between channel integration and retail business
performance. This study provides the first evidence for the
performance-enhancing effect of channel integration through strategic agility
in the struggle with the pandemic.