The Role of Strategic Agility in Enhancing Educational Innovation: The Mediating Role of Digital Competence in Iraqi Universities

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the impact of strategic agility on educational innovation in Iraqi universities and whether digital competence mediates this relationship. Strategic agility is conceptualized as a three-dimensional construct: strategic sensitivity, Collective Obligation, and resource fluidity, grounded in the framework of the strategic agility taxonomy, while digital competence is positioned as a mediator and educational innovation as an outcome. The data for the study were collected via a questionnaire (in a structured form) from academic staff and institutional leaders at three prominent public universities (Baghdad, Basrah, and Mosul), which resulted in 248 valid responses. The analysis of the data was performed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS–SEM) through SmartPLS 4. The results find that strategic agility strengthens educational innovation and digital competence, with the strongest influence from resource fluidity. The results proved that digital competence partially and mutually mediated the effect of strategic agility on educational innovation, suggesting that a significant portion of the influence of strategic agility is passed through the certified human capital endowed by agility. This study transfers a mostly Western framework into an unstable, resource-limited public-sector context and makes a context-relevant contribution by identifying implementation capacity, not environmental responsiveness, as the most dominant influence on innovation in more Centralised higher-education systems. The implications of these findings are actionable, suggesting that less centralization of resources coupled with digital competence among staff can help convert agile intentions into sustainable reconfiguration within Iraqi universities.