Adaptability, flexibility, and agility have become crucial concepts in innovation management as firms have to adapt to the ever-changing organizational environments, in which they operate. While extant research largely supports a positive effect of adaptability on innovation, there is notable heterogeneity in firms’ ability to leverage this potential. Grounded in a dynamic capabilities lens, we propose conceptual differences and overlapping constructs within different sub-domains of adaptability (i.e., strategy, technology, workforce, supply chain, and customer), as well as contextual contingencies on the firm (i.e., firm size) and country level (i.e., institutional quality and stability) as potential drivers of this heterogeneity. A meta-analysis of 392 effect sizes from 188 independent samples, reveals an overall positive relationship between adaptability and innovation across all sub-domains, with the customer sub-domain being particularly pronounced. Further, we demonstrate that the positive effect is stronger for larger firms and weaker for firms in strong and stable institutional environments. Moreover, our findings indicate that managers should emphasize technology and customer adaptability to drive innovation. Meanwhile, firms operating in environments with institutional instability should prioritize adaptability, ensuring they can swiftly navigate the changing landscape. By synthesizing the fragmented literature on adaptability and the related concepts of flexibility and agility, we provide a holistic conceptualization of adaptability and evidence as well as explanations for its generally positive but highly heterogeneous effect on innovation.
