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Flexibility characteristics of individual managers, management teams and organisational cultures, based on the consultancy experiences of a management psychologist, are explored. Flexibility is related to different types of challenges, and the contents of a managerial flexibility audit are outlined.

Organisational development is a well‐known and important methodology used by experts in group dynamics and organisational behaviour for improving groups and organisations. It is a process‐oriented approach of change and is believed to be more effective and valuable than the classic expert approach because it teaches people to improve their situations themselves, which emancipates and stimulates learning. Some organisation consultants seek a mix between the analytical and process approaches whereas others add “harder” aspects of human relations. The inherent limitations of organisation development are considered and alternative paradigms to improve social structures explored.

This study aims to clarify why and when digital business strategy (DBS) helps manufacturing firms generate value co-creation (VC) with different stakeholders in the digital context of China. This study considers external network capability (ENC) and internal network capability (INC) as mediation mechanism, and strategic flexibility (SF) as theoretical boundary.

Questionnaires were used and filled out by executives from manufacturing firms. The manufacturing samples from 289 different fields in China were used for hypothesis testing, and the structural equation model was the main analytical method.

This study found that DBS of manufacturing enterprises has a positive impact on VC. Specifically, DBS affects firm-partner VC and firm-consumer VC through the indirect positive effect of ENC, and affects firm-employee VC through INV. The positive effects of ENC on firm-partner VC and firm-consumer VC, as well as INC on firm-employee VC, are weak at high (or low) SF, and are strongest at moderate SF.

This study provides manufacturing firms with practical insights into why and when they can implement DBS to generate VC, with a particular emphasis on the weighted role of SF.

This study spotlights gaps in the literature on why and when manufacturing firms can reap the benefits of DBS, focusing on one important business outcome – VC. The authors clarify the mediating role of differences in ENC and INC, as well as the inverted U-shaped moderating role of SF.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the subject-specific literature on service and flexibility and derive a conceptualization of the linkages between provider flexibility and customers’ value creation.

The authors analyze existing perspectives on service and flexibility and propose linkages between provider flexibility and customer value creation.

Drawing on the service logic literature, and utilizing real-world examples, this paper advances propositions and a conceptual model of how flexibility can contribute to value creation.

This paper establishes the basis for a practical and applicable flexibility perspective on value creation. It is particularly important for service-oriented providers and other firms operating in dynamic contexts.

The propositions and conceptual model offer suggestions on the manner in which provider flexibility contributes to customer value creation. Contextual influences that moderate provider flexibility in value creation are also included.

This paper contributes a novel perspective on service, which may serve as the starting point for the development of a more formal flexibility perspective on value creation.

This paper examines how digitalization can affect three aspects of firm growth. The specific objectives are as follows: (1) to increase understanding of how digitalization affects pre-factors for growth, (2) to examine how digitalization transforms the growth process, especially growth strategies and (3) to examine how digitalization is apparent in the outcome of growth.

We explore six Finnish growth companies in order to understand the relationship between digitalization and growth. We used qualitative data collection and the Digimat measurement test for analyzing patterns, themes and best practices to generate a deeper understanding of the impact of digital technologies on business growth and growth strategies in these companies.

We propose that business growth includes three aspects of growth: pre-factors of growth, growth as a process and growth as an outcome. Digitalization may affect all of these aspects and strategic flexibility can affect business growth. Digitalization and strategic flexibility are intertwined; strategic flexibility enables the application of new technology, and digitalization enables flexibility.

Building on the results of the case studies, this research identifies relationships between digitalization, business growth and strategic flexibility.

This paper contributes to the growing literature on digitalization, providing new insight into its relation to business growth.

This study aims to investigate whether big data enabling (BDE) and empowerment-focused human resource management (EHRM) can effectively promote employee intrapreneurship and their effects on platform enterprises’ innovation performance. The paper also examines the contexts under which employee intrapreneurship may affect business performance.

Data were collected from 155 platform enterprises in China in the form of questionnaires. Participants were mainly middle and senior managers with a comprehensive grasp of the enterprises’ information.

The results indicated that BDE, EHRM and their synergy positively influenced employee intrapreneurship, which could potentially extend to enterprise performance. Specifically, employee intrapreneurship played a partial mediating role between BDE, EHRM and performance, and a whole mediating role between synergy and performance. Finally, platform strategic flexibility played a positive moderating role between employee intrapreneurship and performance.

Platform enterprises should focus on the construction and utilization of big data and EHRM to stimulate organizational vitality. They also need to encourage employees to start businesses and build more flexible strategies to adapt to the dynamic economic environment.

This is an empirical study on the effect mechanism of big data and HRM on employee intrapreneurship and platform enterprises’ performance in China. The paper combined big data, HRM and employee intrapreneurship, which broke through the previous research on enterprise entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship. The findings guide platform enterprises to stimulate organizational vitality and achieve better performance in the digital era.

Strategic mentality is the individual ability of managers to think, decide and act strategically. This requires the ability to see an integral whole. This ability is less common than organisational and societal needs require. Strategic mentality profiles (cognitive and emotional) are presented and related to existing manager typologies. Circumstances that hamper strategic mentality are discussed and practical suggestions made on how to cope with such circumstances.

This paper aims to analyze the ethical responses of the fashion industry to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic when the entire world was shocked by the rapid spread of the virus. The authors describe lessons from emergency ethics of care in the fashion industry during the initial months of COVID-19, which can assist fashion managers in improving ethical decisions in future operations.

Rapid qualitative research methods were employed by conducting real-time, in-depth interviews with key informants from multinational fashion companies operating in Spain, a severely affected region. A content analysis of news articles published during the first months of 2020 was conducted.

Five critical disruptions in the fashion industry were identified: (1) changes in public needs, (2) transportation and distribution backlogs, (3) defective and counterfeit supplies, (4) stakeholder relationships at stake and (5) managers' coping challenges. Additionally, five business survival responses with a strong ethics of care component were identified, implemented by some fashion companies to mitigate the damage: (1) adapting production for public well-being, (2) enhancing the flexibility of logistic networks, (3) emphasizing quality and innovation, (4) reinventing stakeholder collaborations and (5) practicing responsible leadership.

Despite the well-documented controversies surrounding unethical practices within the fashion industry, even during COVID-19, our findings inform managers of the potential and capability of fashion companies to operate more responsibly. The lessons learned can guide fashion companies' operations in a post-pandemic society. Furthermore, they can address other grand challenges, such as natural disasters, geopolitical conflicts and climate change.

It has been a decade, as the collaboration between the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) and the Ghana Library Authority (GhLA) to extend information and communication technology (ICT) and library services to rural deprived, unserved and underserved communities in Ghana dubbed the library connectivity project. This paper aims to evaluate this initiative from the perspective of relevant key stakeholders and through the lens of the digital inclusion model.

The study adopted a qualitative approach to evaluate the library connectivity project offered to deprived communities in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Interviews were conducted with the head librarians, ICT teachers and school librarians. Focus group discussions were held with pupils from four beneficiary schools of the project. The researchers also witnessed four of the outreach programmes and training sessions and observed the mode of instruction.

The study brought to fore the enormous benefits of the library connectivity project as it aided school pupils to acquire practical ICT skills, which were found to be useful towards their final exam. Despite the enormous benefit of the project, it was bereft with a lot of challenges such as inadequate logistics and personnel thereby restricting the project to very few schools. Low staff motivation and unmotorable roads were also found to be a challenge, which could all be as a result of lack of funds.

The paper underscores the importance of computer and information literacy and reveals how the GhLA is using innovative mobile library services to bridge the digital divide through the library connectivity project.

This paper makes a further contribution to the paucity of literature on the role of mobile libraries in the promotion of computer and information literacy.