The Role of Marketing Agility During Deep Uncertainty in Community Pharmacies

The Role of Marketing Agility During Deep Uncertainty in Community Pharmacies

Governments designate specific industries as “essential businesses” due to their significant economic and societal contributions. During the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, community pharmacies were recognised as essential businesses. The pandemic created a “deep uncertainty” environment, characterised by low probability but high impact, threatening the survival of many businesses. Despite this, community pharmacies thrived and reported improved financial performance. This thesis explores how they succeeded during deep uncertainty, through the concept of marketing agility (MA), which involves making rapid marketing decisions in response to unpredictable changes. Sensemaking, a key component of MA, is a reactive process through which individuals and groups interpret and address uncertainty. While MA is effective in lowto- moderate uncertainty, its efficacy in deep uncertainty is less understood. This research aims to fill this gap and contribute to marketing theory and practice. The thesis addresses two primary research questions (RQs) through four articles. RQ1 queries the extant literature and asks, “What is the status of marketing agility and sensemaking literature?” Subsequently, RQ2 investigates the question: “How does marketing agility influence firm performance in deep uncertainty?” The first paper is a systematic literature review comprising 27 studies on MA, and the second paper is a bibliometric analysis of 2,838 papers on sensemaking in business research, addressing RQ1 and highlighting the lack of evidence on MA’s effectiveness in deep uncertainty. During COVID-19, MA was redefined to include sensemaking, a concept often overlooked in marketing literature. Papers 3 and 4 use an exploratory sequential mixed-methods research design to address these gaps. Paper 3 presents qualitative findings from interviews with 12 pharmacy decision-makers, developing a theoretical framework with new themes of government intervention and digital technology. Paper 4 tests this framework with survey data from 254 pharmacy employees, using structural equation modelling. The results confirm that MA improves financial performance in deep uncertainty, with government intervention positively moderating and digitisation positively mediating this relationship. This research expands the understanding of MA in deep uncertainty and offers a validated approach for studying essential businesses in such conditions. It also provides practical insights for implementing MA to better prepare businesses for future crises.

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