Document Type : ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Authors
1
Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, Salatiga, Indonesia
2
Department of Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, Salatiga, Indonesia
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The global energy transition is fundamentally reshaping the strategic landscape of the energy industry, creating significant challenges for incumbent firms historically rooted in hydrocarbon-based business models. Increasing regulatory pressures, climate commitments, investor expectations, and technological shifts toward low-carbon energy systems require these firms to rethink their organizational structures, capabilities, and strategic orientations. However, transforming large and established energy organizations remains difficult due to structural inertia, legacy assets, and deeply embedded operational routines. In response to these challenges, organizational agility has emerged as a potential strategic approach for enabling adaptive transformation. Nevertheless, empirical explanations regarding how incumbent energy firms operate agile transformation in response to energy transition pressures remain limited. Therefore, this study aims to explain how incumbent energy firms undertake agile transformation in response to the complex pressures associated with energy transition.
METHODS: This study adopts a qualitative case study approach to examine the transformation process within an incumbent energy firm referred to as EnergyCo for confidentiality reasons. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with organizational leaders and employees, supported by organizational documents and secondary industry reports, and analyzed using an iterative thematic coding process. The research applies analytical generalization to derive theoretical insights from in-depth empirical evidence, focusing on how external pressures trigger organizational transformation and how firms mobilize strategic capabilities to respond to these challenges.
FINDINGS: The findings reveal that configurational institutional pressures, including market volatility, environmental, social, and governance expectations, geopolitical uncertainty, and cost pressures, trigger organizational transformation. These pressures increase perceived organizational vulnerability and stimulate managerial sensemaking. Through this interpretive process, firms activate dynamic capabilities that enable the redesign of strategies and the reconfiguration of organizational resources through agile practices. The successful implementation of agile transformation further depends on systemic alignment across strategy, structure, systems, organizational culture, and talent management, which together facilitate coordinated transformation efforts.
CONCLUSION: Agile transformation strengthens the firm’s adaptive capacity, enhances organizational performance, and supports the development of long-term sustainability capabilities in the context of energy transition. Based on these findings, the study proposes an integrative model of agile transformation in energy transition that explains how incumbent firms translate external pressures into coordinated organizational change.
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