IMPORTANCE OF FIRM’S ADAPTABILITY AND FACTORS

INFLUENCING CHANGE MANAGEMENT

 
 
BACHELORS IN  
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
 

 
 
LAIBA MANZOOR SANDHU
GULL NAGEEN
ZUNAIRA
 
 
 
 
DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS STUDIES 
KINNAIRD COLLEGE FOR WOMEN, 
LAHORE, PAKSTAN 
 
 
 
12TH JULY, 2020 
Table of Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................3
Importance of the study.....................................................................................................3
Objectives of the study.......................................................................................................3
Literature Review...............................................................................................................3
Firm’s Adaptability.......................................................................................................................4
Firm Adaptability and Marketing Myopia.....................................................................................4
Hypothesis: I................................................................................................................................5
Firm Adaptability and Company Culture......................................................................................5
Hypothesis: II...............................................................................................................................5
Methodology.....................................................................................................................5
Population....................................................................................................................................6
Sample.........................................................................................................................................6
Unit of Analysis............................................................................................................................6
Administration.............................................................................................................................6
Equipment....................................................................................................................................6
Scales and measures....................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................6
Bibliography......................................................................................................................7

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IMPORTANCE OF FIRM’S ADAPTABILTY AND FACTORS
INFLUENCING CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Introduction
Adaptability in an organization meaning to create modifications or changes in oneself to
adapt or suit the new environment [ CITATION New19 \l 1033 ]. The workplace is
recognized by how frequently the organization changes itself according to the environment
and these changes results in business growth, innovation, globalization, competition, and
evolving consumer tastes (Pasmore 2011). Many companies like Kodak and Nokia had to
face downsizing and failures such as 80% decline in its workforce, loss of market share, a
tumbling stock price and significant internal turmoil because they did not adapt themselves
according to the changing environment and not fulfilling customer needs. It is biggest
challenge for company to address and adapt to rapid changes according to the customer needs
[ CITATION New19 \l 1033 ]. Adaptability is when an individual can adapt to changing roles
and align with changes in the workplace and devising a solution when faced with unexpected
challenges. There are many internal and external factors of the company that are continuously
changing and decision about the changes at that time have huge effect on the success or
failure of a business. As the needs, desires and expectations of the customers changing very
frequently so many new firms try to meet those expectation and attract the customers through
its new product to gain competitive advantage over other. So, in this case it is very important
for the firm to attract their customers by adapting change in themselves and satisfy their
needs so that they could maintained relationship with them otherwise it is very difficult for
them to survive in the market.

Importance of the study

Barnes and Noble had to face a lot of losses and sudden decrease in market share as they
were quite reluctant and had over confidence about their product but they failed to understand
that the needs of customers change with the changing environment and new opportunities.
Before that, Nokia and Kodak also couldn’t adapt to the changing environment. In this study
we are focusing on two main things. First is the importance of the adaptability in the firm and
the second is what are the major factors that influencing the firm to change. There are many
factors that influence the adaptability, but our focus is on marketing myopia and company
culture. These factors help in identifying the weaknesses which companies had to face and
moving towards downsizing and after knowing these factors the firm try to overcome them to
attract customers and increase sales and profitability and to maintain its position in the
marketplace.

Objectives of the study

Following are the objectives of the study
 Importance of the firm adaptability
 Factors affecting company adaptability

Literature Review

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This study focuses on two points. First it focuses on the importance of the adaptability for the
organization and secondly, it is intended to test various factors influencing the adaptability of
the organizations. Many researchers have worked to find out the change management factors.
Barnes and Noble was facing the problem of the adaptability which led to their failure due to
increase in competition and technological advancement in the industry with Amazon being its
competitor coming up with E-learning.

Firm’s Adaptability

Adaptability is the skill of the individual or firm to change as per the changing environment
(Adaptability Skills, n.d.). This action has become really important as now we live in world
where everything is changing with time, and so is the internal and external factors effecting
the company. With time many new developments are taking place providing the opportunities
for new firms to enter with a competitive advantage. In such a situation, it is important that
firm’s reacts to the change or become proactive, but being still and reluctance to change led
firm to bare heavy losses.
Fred Chua wrote an article ‘Adapt or Die’ which is the true depiction of how it is really
important firms to adapt [ CITATION Fre19 \l 1033 ]. We have various examples such as
Nokia, Kodak who were reluctant and led to business failure. Hughes defined change as “any
alteration in the status quo”. It is the start of a revolution, may it be small or not. If they do
not adapt to their environment, the competitive edge they offer to their customers would
likely be gone[ CITATION Fre191 \l 1033 ].

Different theories stated the process how company should respond to change. Kurt Lewin
developed 3 step change model including unfreezing, changing and refreezing. This model
was really appreciated and is still in use by many firms. As per the model if you perceive the
need of change, review the need and inform the employee to increase acceptance, then bring
about change and ultimately refreeze the new norm[ CITATION Ali05 \l 1033 ]. Later, Beer
and Korter model provided in depth process to respond to change.
Company usually become aware of change through decrease in sales, but it is said that
company should continuously study environment and take advantage of the change in
industry. Many firms such as Philips lighting, Amazon and Microsoft have successfully
accepted change and are running successfully [ CITATION Bus17 \l 1033 ].
But the question what influences the firm’s adaptability. Here we will study two factors as
indicated through the failure stories of these companies, include marketing myopia and
company culture.

Firm Adaptability and Marketing Myopia

Marketing Myopia was first coined by Theodore Levitt, editor of the journal Harvard
Business Review, and it refers to the often myopic view that a business might get where it
looks at the business’s own goals rather than focusing on the needs and wants of the
customers (Levitt, 2004). This usually happens when firm start to feel overconfident of its
products and believes that its competitive advantage can’t be challenged by others. Barnes
and Noble also lack adaptability as they were overconfident that the environment provided by
them is unique and E-learning can’t provide the same atmosphere, which was later really well
captured by Amazon. Other companies such as Nokia, Kodak, Hollywood also faced the

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myopia that restricted their sales and profitability, thus as the environment changes customer
needs changes, and the profitable firms capture those needs and bring change.
In any case, it should be obvious that building an effective customer-oriented company
involves far more than good intentions or promotional tricks; it involves profound matters of
human organization and leadership (Levitt, 2004). It should also keep looking at various
possible ways of adapting itself to the ever-changing market conditions and demands, only
then can it survive the ever-increasing competition [ CITATION Bha19 \l 1033 ].
An example of Kodak clearly illustrates the relation of marketing myopia and adaptability.
Scott Anthony wrote in his Harvard Business Review “An easy explanation is myopia. Kodak
was so blinded by its success that it completely missed the rise of digital technologies. But
that doesn’t square with reality. After all, the first prototype of a digital camera was created in
1975 by Steve Sasson, an engineer working for … Kodak [CITATION Sco16 \l 1033 ].
This clearly indicates how marketing myopia effects the adaptability of the firm. Marketing
myopia is the independent variable while firm adaptability being relied on myopia

Hypothesis: I
Marketing Myopia effects firm adaptability

Firm Adaptability and Company Culture

An organization's culture defines the proper way to behave within the organization. This
culture consists of shared beliefs and values established by leaders and then communicated
and reinforced [ CITATION Shr \l 1033 ]. Organization varies depending on their norms and
believes. Change adaptability is the key feature of the culture. Some firms tend to have
innovative culture, while other believes to be consistent and avoid any risk.
Company culture effects the firm adaptability. As in the organization Barnes and Nobel
company assumed a traditional culture, merely focusing on their product and avoiding the
changing needs of customers. Culture is usually made by people and if the leader themselves
avoid any uncertainty, it will enforce the same culture, providing no place for innovation.
An adaptive culture pays close attention to all of the constituencies and takes immediate
actions when needed to serve the changing interest even if it entails risks. Many firms
incorporating adaptability led to high profits, thus it can also be said that adaptive culture is
positively related to profits such as Amazon.
A toxic culture keeps firms so much self-centered that they assume that their existing
competitive advantage is enough and can’t be duplicated by others and avoids the firm to take
advantage of new opportunities. Digital transformation scares the organization as they would
have to bring about a change and have to move from their consistent actions but if they
ignore such transformation it will provide their competitors with competitive advantage and
will lead to reduction in market share [ CITATION Dan16 \l 1033 ].
Culture can make or break a company. Adaptability is only possible when all the levels of
organization are fully involved and accepts change.

Hypothesis: II
Company Culture effects firm adaptability

Both of the factors are found to be key influence on adaptability, but the study will further
confirm the most important factor of adaptability. This study will help the firms to point at
the weakness that is leading to the firm reluctance to change and make decisions wisely.

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Methodology
The research design will be descriptive in nature, describe the characteristics of objects,
people, groups, organisations or environment. Descriptive research tries to paint a picture of a
given condition by addressing the questions of who, what, where, when, how etc. The basic
purpose of our research is to examine how marketing myopia and organisation culture affect
the firms adaptability. For this purpose, we examine the relationship between dependent and
independent variables. We have three variables adaptability, organisation culture and myopia.
Adaptability is a dependent variable, whereas, organisation culture and marketing myopia are
independent variable.
Population
We have selected the employees of three different companies Nokia, Kodak and Barns and
Nobles as a target population for our study.
Sample
We will be selecting 25 employees from each company as a sample size. We will use
convenient sampling technique, a type of non-probability sampling technique. It states that
the collection of data from the unite and the people conveniently available. So, the sample
will be the employees of these companies.
Unit of Analysis
The data will be collected from the employees of the Nokia, Kodak and Barns & Nobles to
make it easy for us to analyse.
Administration
We will collect the data from the employees of Nokia, Kodak and Barnes & Noble probably
at the lunch time when they will free to respond. In order to gather the data from the
employees we use questionnaire and surveys. The purpose of this research is to analyse why
they are reluctant to innovation and don’t want a change in technology. We will record the
positive and negative responses of the employees.
Equipment
In order to analyse and calculate the responses we will use SPSS (Statistical Package for
Social Science) software. This software is recommended by our institution to calculate the
results.
Scales and measures
In our research we will use different scale to measure the responses. The selection of the
scale depends on the questions that we will ask to our target population.

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Conclusion
To conclude, the main aim of this research is to analyse how marketing myopia and
organization culture effect firm’s adaptability. For our research we will gather data from three
companies such as Nokia, Kodak and Barns &Nobles. We selected 25 employees from each
organization. Marketing myopia is an independent variable and greatly influence the firm’s
adaptability. Whereas if the organisation culture is not ready to adapt new changes or
innovation then this sort of culture will have the negative impact on the firm’s adaptability.
This study will prove that the adaptability of a firm is influenced by marketing myopia and
organisation culture.

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