Abstract:

This study empirically examined the impact of innovativeness on organizational agility of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria. The survey research design was utilized. The sampling technique used was simple random sampling techniques. The sample size of 119 was obtained from 17 selected manufacturing firms in Rivers State Nigeria. The spearman rank order correlation was used in ascertaining the relationship between the predictor and the criterion variable. The result of the analysis revealed that innovativeness significantly and positively impacts on organizational agility of food and beverage firms in Rivers State. The study concluded that innovativeness helps in organizational encouragement of Research and Development, development of new work processes, new product/services creation and introduction, and assuming leadership in area of technology, and in development of competitive advantage. Additionally, innovativeness is positively and significantly related to organizational agility of food and beverage manufacturing firms in Rivers State Nigeria. It is recommended that; Innovativeness should be codified as prerequisite specification for potential employees, innovativeness should be enshrined into the culture of the organization and managers of organizations should always encourage employees to be creative enough and also attach reward to creative idea generation from employees. Also, there should always be periodic scanning of the external business environment in search of threats and opportunities, Organizations should stay aggressively competitive in order to combat rivals when the need arises and should be proper risk assessment before embarking on any project.