Strategic Change Capability Scale

What it measures

A 20-item second-order reflective scale measuring a marketing organisation's dynamic capability to enact strategic change across three stages: prechange (business case and employee preparation), initial implementation (organisational setup and institutionalisation), and postimplementation (assessing and adjusting). Developed via grounded theory from 26 interviews with senior marketing managers and consultants, then validated across five quantitative studies (total n ≈ 738; UK and US samples). Predicts market and financial performance beyond established dynamic marketing capabilities including strategic flexibility, agility, adaptiveness, and responsiveness.

Response format

7-point Likert; scale purification studies: 1 = not important at all, 7 = extremely important; predictive validity studies: 1 = extremely poor, 7 = excellent

Scale items

• Establishing a clear rationale for the change we decide to make.
• Establishing a clear and compelling vision for the change.
• Setting clear and measurable goals for the change.
• Ensuring that there is a clear and realistic timeline for executing the change plan.
• Communicating the change vision across our organization.
• Explaining the reasons for making the change and its benefits for our organization.
• Showcasing to our employees how the change can potentially benefit them.
• Being responsive to employees' questions/concerns regarding the change.
• Breaking down the vision of the change into deliverables/milestones.
• Assigning clear roles and responsibilities to people involved in the change.
• Designing mechanisms that allow constant access to feedback when performing the change we decide to make.
• Designing an organizational structure for effectively governing the change we decide to make.
• Fostering a sense of ownership among employees involved in change implementation.
• Effectively incentivizing employees involved in the implementation of the change.
• Recognizing employees that contribute to the successful implementation of the change.
• Ensuring that employees' individual goals and objectives are well in line with the change objectives.
• Effectively monitoring feedback mechanisms to ensure effective implementation of the change we are making.
• Disseminating intelligence generated from feedback mechanisms to all relevant parties to ensure effective implementation of the change we are making.
• Analyzing intelligence generated from feedback mechanisms to ensure effective implementation of the change we are making.
• Reacting appropriately to the insights generated from feedback mechanisms to ensure effective implementation of the change we are making.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Modelled as a second-order reflective construct; all five first-order dimensions are significantly correlated (r > .40). Authors recommend the 'performance' response framing (extremely poor to excellent) for applied and research use. An SCC Index (scored 0–100) with red (<60), amber (60–80), and green (≥80) capability thresholds is provided in the online supplement. Generalises across five types of strategic marketing change: international market entry/exit, product/service range, distribution area, distribution method, and target market. Measurement invariance confirmed across UK and US samples.

Citation

Bekos, G.S., Chari, S., Jaakkola, M. & Evanschitzky, H. (2025). Strategic change capability in marketing organizations: Conceptualization, scale development, and validation. Journal of Marketing, 90(2), 27–49.

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