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The purpose of this paper is to examine whether modular product design is an appropriate practice to improve manufacturers’ flexibility performance and cost performance as well as to evaluate whether combined effects of modular product design and delivery performance on flexibility performance and cost performance exist.

Structural equation modeling with moderating effects is used. Moderating effects allow an evaluation whether combined effects of modular product design and delivery performance exist. For the analysis, data from the international high-performance manufacturing survey are used.

Analysis results show a positive relationship between modular product design and cost performance, but do not show a significant moderating effect. Thus, no combined effect of modular product design and delivery performance exists in the data at hand.

A potential limitation of this study is the cross-sectional nature of the analysis. In order to test for causal relationships or chronological sequences, longitudinal data are deemed more suitable.

The findings make improvement processes more predictable and help managers to overcome traditional trade-off situations, especially in terms of flexibility performance and cost performance. Manufacturers are still neglecting the implementation of complementary methods for achieving an increase in flexibility while maintaining efficiency.

This paper complements prior research on the effect of improvement practices on operational performance dimensions. It also takes an alternative approach to examine whether a beneficial implementation sequence of improvement practices can be assumed.

To explore the relationship between the dimensions of supply chain flexibility and firm performance in a sample of automotive suppliers.

Empirical survey of a representative sample of 126 Spanish automotive suppliers during the months of September and October 2003. Data gathered through a mail survey to purchasing managers by using a structured questionnaire. Spearman correlation coefficients were used to analyse the relationship between the different supply chain flexibility dimensions, between supply chain flexibility dimensions and firm performance dimensions, and between supply chain flexibility dimensions and environmental uncertainty dimensions. A multivariate analysis studied the determinants of supply chain flexibility.

The research has found a positive relation between a superior performance in flexibility capabilities and firm performance, although flexibility dimensions are not equally important for firm performance. On the other hand, the results show that companies enhance more the basic flexibility capabilities (at the shop floor level) than aggregate flexibility capabilities (at the customer‐supplier level). However, aggregate flexibility capabilities are more positively related to firm performance than basic flexibility capabilities. Thus, companies might miss opportunities to improve competitiveness by underestimating customer‐supplier flexibility capabilities. Finally, the results indicate that flexibility capabilities are enhanced in supply chains with higher environmental uncertainty, technological complexity, and mutual understanding, but with lower interdependence among the agents involved in the supply chain.

There are other factors not included in the model that could impact the relationship between flexibility, supply chain characteristics and firm performance. On the other hand, the research has used cross‐sectional data, which are limited in order to explain causal relationships. Another limitation of the research is that we did not use any secondary data (like manual financial reports) to crosscheck firm performance.

The results of the research contribute to a better understanding of the forces and constraints that companies face with flexibility capabilities.

The paper analyses the relationship between supply chain flexibility dimensions and firm performance. The model provides a framework of supply chain flexibility dimensions that may be used as a test base for further research.

The process of choosing appropriate supply chain performance measures is difficult due to the complexity of these systems. The paper presents an overview and evaluation of the performance measures used in supply chain models and also presents a framework for the selection of performance measurement systems for manufacturing supply chains. Three types of performance measures are identified as necessary components in any supply chain performance measurement system, and new flexibility measures for supply chains are developed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of innovative HR practices as an important mechanism through which strategic flexibility affects firm performance as well as the role of female leadership in this relationship.

Data were gathered from a sample of 113 firms in China. The authors collected information on organizational strategy, HR practices, CEO information, corporate social responsibility and other firm characteristics in terms of firm age, location, and financial performance. Conditional procedural analysis was conducted to test the model.

The authors found strong evidence in support of the mediation relationship in which organizations with a strong focus on strategic flexibility are more likely to adopt Innovative HR Practices. Furthermore, the authors found that the extent to which firms have adopted innovative HR practices has a strong effect on employee productivity. In addition, the authors found that female leadership enhances strategic flexibility-performance relationship.

Information on strategic flexibility, HR practices and firm performance was collected at the same time. Future studies based on panel data would be helpful to establish the causal relationships in the model.

The authors’ findings suggest that practitioners should put more emphasis on developing innovative HR practices, as they are required by strategic flexibility.

Firms pursuing strategic flexibility should feel more confident when appointing a female CEO, because the results show that female leadership may enhance the positive impact of strategic flexibility on firm performance.

This research study is the first empirical examination of the mediating influence of innovative HR practices on the relationship between strategic flexibility and firm performance. The study also shows that female leadership benefits an organization in implementing strategic flexibility. The results are of value to researchers, human resource management managers, employees, and executives who are seeking to develop practices that are flexible and innovative in order to stay competitive in dynamic environments.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct an exploratory study that will assist supply chain firms in the development of partner satisfaction, flexibility, and supply chain performance. The authors examine how the interaction of information exchange, partner interaction, knowledge sharing and flexibility as mediated through partner satisfaction effectuates firm performance. The goal of this research is to answer the supply chain managers’ need to better understand where to invest their time and effort to get improved firm performance.

The model was tested with panel data from 105 experienced, US-based supply chain managers. Structural equation modeling using partial least squares approach was utilized to conduct the analysis.

The results provide crucial evidence that simple information exchange among supply chain partners does not result in improvements in firm performance or partner satisfaction, but, when mediated through the flexibility construct, it does. Further, the use of integration tools has a moderating effect on the relationship between flexibility and firm performance. The results suggest that working closely with supply chain partners helps ensure improved relationship satisfaction, and can reduce issues that can impact firm performance.

The empirical research presented requires additional validation though larger sample data from supply chain managers.

This study stresses on the importance of managers using information exchange, partner interaction, and knowledge sharing as a means of improving their firm’s indirect influence on firm performance through flexibility and integration tools.

This is one of the few studies in the supply chain literature that integrates flexibility as a mediator variable. Additionally, this study introduces the new construct of integration tools to the supply chain literature.

The aim of the current study is to empirically assess the effects of organizational flexibility on project portfolio (PP) performance, with the mediating role of innovation and moderating effects of environmental dynamism (ED) and absorptive capability (AC).

Data were collected from 173 manufacturing firms and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with the help of a partial least squares (PLS) approach.

Results show that innovation partially mediates the relationship between organizational flexibility and PP performance. Furthermore, the moderating effect of ED between organizational flexibility and innovation was analyzed. Additionally, AC also observed as a moderator between innovation and PP performance.

Based on the resource-based view, this study contributes to the literature by addressing the roles of innovation, ED and AC in the relationship between organizational flexibility and PP performance. Implications for managers also discussed in the end; for example, to be more competitive, they should incorporate flexibility into the firm to encourage innovation. It also emphasizes to select new innovative opportunities that correspondingly have effects on the PP performance.

High team performance helps achieve several organizational benefits, such as strengthened competitive advantages, enhanced productivity, and higher profits and market share. For these reasons, the purpose of this paper is to propose a model based on the framework of proactive motivation and the theory of collectivism to analyze the formation of service flexibility and team performance.

To test the hypotheses, this study conducts a survey of service staff in teams from high-tech firms in a well-known industrial zone in Northern Taiwan. These teams provide service for their industrial customers. From the survey, this study confirms the full mediating mechanism of service flexibility among the teams.

The test results reveal that service flexibility fully mediates the relationship between team performance and its exogenous factors. Whereas collectivism negatively moderates the relationship between team efficacy and service flexibility, it does not moderate the relationship between service recovery and service flexibility. Furthermore, collectivism positively moderates the relationship between service flexibility and team performance.

This study provides important findings that complement previous literature by examining three fresh antecedents for explaining how team performance is motivated by the mediating role of service flexibility and how some of the study’s model paths are moderated by collectivism. The mediating role of service flexibility indicates that managers can apply service flexibility as a firewall that calibrates a team’s input and output. Managers should encourage the application of agile solutions and advanced technology for facilitating team flexibility, consequently improving team performance.

Although the significance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in influencing economic growth is recognized, the performance of SMEs all over the world including Nigeria is unanticipated. Thus, this research aims to investigate the effect of strategic flexibility by moderating the effects of sustainability strategy on the SMEs' performance in Nigeria from a business strategy perspective.

The hypotheses of the study were tested using personally administered survey questionnaires; the study obtained 486 valid questionnaires, which were evaluated using SmartPLS algorithm and bootstrapping functions.

The research findings were established using SmartPLS algorithm and bootstrapping functions. According to the results, the research constructs have a satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity. Equally, the overall model has a very high predictive relevance. The study established a strong positive influence of strategic flexibility on the SMEs’ performance. In addition, the study also established the moderating influence of sustainability strategy on the constructs.

The research is explorative and designed to yield results and to be generalizable. Future research is thus encouraged to confirm or contradict the results of this study in a different context.

The research findings may be beneficial to policymakers and academics. It can particularly be useful in understanding strategic flexibility, its influence on the performance of SMEs and whether it can fit between the sustainability and strategic direction of a business enterprise.

This study fulfils an identified need to study strategic flexibility and its influence on the performance of SMEs using a dynamic perspective specifically in the context of emerging economies such as Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the supply chain strategy, flexibility, and performance relationships in the context of SMEs in Canada and Pakistan.

The research is based on a quantitative approach using a questionnaire survey from a total of 170 small and medium-sized Pakistani manufacturing companies. The current study draws upon the earlier work of Fantazy et al. (2009) for comparative purpose and employs path analysis technique.

The results partially confirm the findings of previous study on Canadian SMEs with regard to the relationships among strategy, flexibility, and performance in the context of supply chain. The survey results revealed that SMEs in Pakistan adopt followers strategy in order to achieve financial and non-financial performance. Whereas in the previous study, Canadian SMEs adopted innovative strategy and customer-oriented strategy in order to enhance their performance.

The literature did not reveal any study which attempted to compare supply chain strategy, flexibility, and performance of SMEs in developed and developing countries. The current study fills this important gap in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to explore if human resource (HR) flexibility facilitates the development of organizational ambidexterity, which in turn has positive effects on firm performance.

The research hypotheses are tested by partial least squares with data from a sample of 100 Spanish hotels.

The results confirm a total mediator effect of organizational ambidexterity on the relationship between HR flexibility and performance. However, it was not possible to check that such flexibility directly influences performance. This may be due to the fact that HR flexibility has a gradual effect on the development of organizational ambidexterity.

The results of this study contribute to the knowledge on the impact of HR flexibility on performance. This paper, thus, stresses the strategic role that HRs play within organizations, insofar as their flexibility makes it possible to develop a highly relevant organizational capability such as ambidexterity. The study’s limitations are the analysis technique utilized (it assumes linearity between latent variables) and that the research only explores the hotel industry.

HR managers need to consider that HR flexibility contributes to developing organizational ambidexterity and the ability to combine the learning of exploration and exploitation, which affects the firm’s performance and, therefore its competitiveness.

The results of this study can contribute to broaden the knowledge about the impact of HR flexibility on performance. In fact, the studies on HR flexibility performed so far have focused on analysing the role played by that flexibility as a mediator variable between high performance work system and performance. This work goes one step further, trying to examine the extent to which HR flexibility influences the ability to undertake exploitation and exploration processes at the same time. This paper, thus, stresses the strategic role that HRs play within organizations, insofar as their flexibility makes it possible to develop a highly relevant organizational capability as is ambidexterity.