Digital agility: Balancing situational turbulence with digital platforms

As the current global pandemic continues to impinge on organizations’ operations worldwide, balancing the tensions imposed by the turbulent environment is becoming necessary to endure the crisis. This difficult balancing act calls for a different type of agility than previously explored. In extreme contexts, such as this one, digital platforms are becoming instrumental in helping organizations realize digital agility, by shifting to new modes of operation in order to survive. This research employs a case study of a rapidly changing digital platform, within an Australian university. By drawing on the theories of coevolution and punctuated equilibrium as the combined theoretical lens, we theorize a number of mechanisms of coevolution, which explain the dynamic and mutually-shaping relationship between the organization’s responses and digital platform’s modules. The findings show that digital agility is achieved through a series of fast adaptations between the strategic and the digital platform levels and their environment.