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Existing studies have paid less attention to the impact of knowledge accumulation on digital transformation and its boundary conditions. Hence, this study aims to investigate the effects of ambidextrous knowledge accumulation on manufacturing digital transformation under the moderation of dynamic capability.

This study divides knowledge accumulation into exploratory and exploitative knowledge accumulation and divides dynamic capability into alliance management capability and new product development capability. To clarify the relationship among ambidextrous knowledge accumulation, dynamic capability and manufacturing digital transformation, the authors collect data from 421 Chinese listed manufacturing enterprises from 2016 to 2020 and perform analysis by multiple hierarchical regression method, heterogeneity test and robustness analysis.

The empirical results show that both exploratory and exploitative knowledge accumulation can significantly promote manufacturing digital transformation. Keeping ambidextrous knowledge accumulation in parallel is more conducive than keeping single-dimensional knowledge accumulation. Besides, dynamic capability positively moderates the relationship between ambidextrous knowledge accumulation and manufacturing digital transformation. Moreover, the heterogeneity test shows that the impact of ambidextrous knowledge accumulation and dynamic capabilities on manufacturing digital transformation varies widely across different industry segments or different regions.

First, this paper shifts attention to the role of ambidextrous knowledge accumulation in manufacturing digital transformation and expands the connotation and extension of knowledge accumulation. Second, this study reveals that dynamic capability is a vital driver of digital transformation, which corroborates the previous findings of dynamic capability as an important driver and contributes to enriching the knowledge management literature. Third, this paper provides a comprehensive micro measurement of ambidextrous knowledge accumulation and digital transformation based on the development characteristics of the digital economy era, which provides a theoretical basis for subsequent research.

This study investigates the roles of market, technology, and management system-related adaptive capability variables on a firm’s manufacturing adaptive capability. In addition, the study examines the effects of a firm’s manufacturing adaptive capability on its effectiveness. Further, this study tests the moderating role of organizational redundancy on the relationship between the market, technology, and management system-related adaptive capabilities and the overall manufacturing adaptive capability of a firm.

This study utilizes questionnaire-based research to test the suggested hypotheses by gathering related data from 59 manufacturing firms.

This study determined that a firm’s technology and management system-related adaptive capability positively relates to firm's manufacturing adaptive capability. Further, market adaptive capability influences manufacturing adaptive capability via the levels of technology and management system-related adaptive capabilities. Manufacturing adaptive capability is also found to be positively associated with organizational effectiveness, and resource redundancy positively moderates the relationship between management systems adaptive capability and manufacturing adaptive capability. Conversely, resource redundancy negatively moderates the relationship between technology adaptive capability and manufacturing adaptive capability. Finally, this study demonstrates that information redundancy does not moderate the desired relationship between all the adaptive capability-related variables for firms.

This study has some limitations inherent in survey design, mainly for both convenient sampling and country context.

This study suggests that management should improve firm’s manufacturing adaptive capability to enhance firm's overall effectiveness. For that purpose, managers should consider the interrelationships between the market and a firm’s technology, management system, and manufacturing-related adaptive capabilities. Management should also consider the importance of using resource-related redundancy to leverage the relationship between a firm’s management adaptive capability and manufacturing adaptive capability. At the same time, management should be aware of certain reverse effects of resource redundancy on both technology adaptive capability and the manufacturing adaptive capability linkage of a firm.

This study expands the understanding of the adaptive capability of firms by examining how manufacturing adaptive capability can be further enhanced. The study also offers a model for the potential relationships that develop between different aspects of organizational adaptive capability by applying the contingency role of organizational redundancy variables.

Notes that substantive relationships between dimensions of competition and supportive manufacturing strengths have not been clearly established. Existing priorities‐based models of strategy ignore the dynamics of manufacturing capabilities. Furthermore, these models employ highly aggregated concepts which mix together operational priorities, outcomes, and capabilities, making hierarchical relationships in strategy difficult to define. Develops and proposes a new framework which modifies existing models of business strategy and manufacturing strategy in order to clarify and define core dimensions of competitive differentiation and manufacturing capabilities. Discusses relationships among these dimensions that are apparent in previous research and case studies. These relationships are summarized by a comprehensive model with propositions regarding supportive links between manufacturing capabilities, manufacturing outcomes, and product differentiation. Concludes by suggesting directions for tests of the model and for related future research.

This paper presents a contingency analysis of additive manufacturing's (AM) impacts, proposes a novel form of AM-enabled competitive capabilities and explores manufacturing contexts (including product-operation-organization-related factors) influencing those capabilities.

A theoretical model incorporating manufacturing competitive capabilities and contingency concepts is developed and validated using an empirical study on 105 manufacturing firms using AM. Structural equation modeling is applied for statistical data analysis.

The results indicate that the production volume and material type have contingency effects on AM-enabled product quality, cost reduction and green capabilities. Besides, it has been demonstrated that the degree of a country's economic development and the firm's experience have contingency impacts on AM's capabilities as well.

The contextual settings employed in this study are limited. A future contingency analysis requires further exploration of other factors (e.g. different AM technologies or application sectors) through in-depth case studies. Future studies can also be built upon the proposed framework to generalize the model for analyzing other emerging manufacturing technologies.

Uncertainties around AM implementation and its consequences place the context of evaluation as an essential facet. The derived insights aid practitioners in aligning the firm's internal characteristics (i.e. manufacturing and organizational contexts) with AM's promising competitive capabilities.

The study is among the first analysis to empirically and rigorously establishes the contingency effects of manufacturing and organizational factors on competitive capabilities related to AM, using a representative sample of manufacturers spanning different countries, firm sizes and other investigated manufacturing contexts.

This study attempts to investigate the relationships among organizational capabilities, strategic choice, and firm performance and examine three questions: What are the relationships between organizational capabilities and the firm's strategic choice – contract manufacturing and branding? Do branding firms perform better than contract manufacturing firms after controlling for endogeneity bias? Do firms usually choose their strategy (contract manufacturing/branding) appropriately to achieve a better performance under the conditions they encounter?

The empirical study employs a questionnaire approach to collect data from the population of the top 5,000 Taiwanese firms listed in the yearbook published by the China Credit Information Service Incorporation for testing the validity of the model and research hypotheses. This study uses a Heckman two‐step estimation procedure and follows the procedure proposed by Shaver to examine the economic implications of strategic choice on firm performance.

Firms are more likely to adopt the branding strategy when they have better marketing and R&D capabilities while they are more likely to choose the contract manufacturing strategy when they possess superior manufacturing and process capabilities; in general branding firms perform better than contract manufacturing firms after controlling for endogeneity bias; and firms achieve a better performance if their strategic choice (contract manufacturing/branding) fits the conditions they encounter.

This study contributes to the marketing literature by exploring an important issue of strategic choice (contract manufacturing or branding) and contributes to the strategy literature by proposing the endogenous role of strategic choice in the relationship between organizational capabilities and firm performance.

Firms should take into account organizational capabilities when choosing a contract manufacturing strategy or branding strategy. Further, managers should not ignore matching their strategic choice (contract manufacturing/branding) with the conditions they encounter in order to optimize firm performance.

The strategic choice of branding or contract manufacturing is a prevalent phenomenon that has received little attention in the strategy and marketing literature. Based on the competence‐based perspective, this study examines the relationships among organizational capabilities, strategic choice, and firm performance.

The purpose of this paper is to integrate the manufacturing site and network perspectives for the purposes of strategy fulfilment, which has rarely been jointly discussed. By doing this, the site and network perspectives are broken into their constituents and linked to one another.

The paper provides qualitative research; it conducts a comprehensive literature review and merges the results with the concept of the quality function deployment to link the relevant dimensions. The developed framework is discussed based on a single case study.

The proposed framework relates the network and site perspectives in different dimensions, which range from the strategic dimension to the network and site dimensions. The paper, furthermore, offers the groundwork of developing relationship maps of the site and network capabilities, network configuration and coordination, and the structural and infrastructural dimensions.

The paper contains a single case study and lacks foundation with a broader data set.

The results support the decision-making process of the manufacturing network managers who assess, design, and develop their manufacturing networks and attempt to gain transparency by using different levels of analysis.

The paper is the first attempt to show how the different network and site capabilities contribute to strategy fulfilment, to link the configuration and coordination dimensions of the manufacturing network level, and to link the structural and infrastructural dimensions on the site level. Thus, the authors add to multilevel research in operations management because the authors provide a combined framework for the network- and site-level analysis.

Presents a framework of manufacturing competence, and tests its theoretical validity using empirical data from a large‐scale survey. Interesting findings include: the regression analysis shows that manufacturing competence is better represented when low‐priority capabilities are not explicitly considered; the manufacturing competence index appears to have more significant statistical relationships with some performance measures (such as the return on assets and return on sales) than with others – manufacturing matters, but not equally to all the financial and market performance; the concept of manufacturing competence is found to be more influential in determining the business performance in the electronics sector than in the machinery industry. Does manufacturing competence matter equally in all industries, or does it matter more in a specific industry? If so, what makes manufacturing competence so important? Advocates further study to answer these questions and to complete the theory of manufacturing competence.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship of strategic manufacturing effectiveness utilizing the four-stage model of Hayes and Wheelwright (H-W) with overall performance of manufacturing, market alignment and production competence (PC). In addition, it attempts to understand the relationship of strategic manufacturing effectiveness with manufacturing capability development modes, strategic groups of companies and the nature of improvement programs being employed.

Structured questionnaire was used to capture data from manufacturing organizations. Responses from managers of 47 Indian manufacturing companies were used to test the seven propositions that were developed to examine the paradigms of manufacturing competence.

The analysis revealed that the strategic manufacturing effectiveness of manufacturing companies based on H-W’s four-stage model has significant positive correlation with the overall performance of manufacturing and PC of the company. Further, the analysis substantiated the relationship of strategic manufacturing effectiveness with capability development process and the nature of improvement programs.

This exploratory study is based on a small sample of manufacturing companies with diversity and hence it may not be representative of all industry sectors. Second, it has used several scales for measuring the relevant constructs which themselves are not proven, hence, the findings should be taken with caution.

This is an initial research focussing on the relationships among different elements of manufacturing competence such as manufacturing capabilities, PC, manufacturing capability development mode and overall performance of manufacturing with strategic manufacturing effectiveness using H-W model. H-W model was primarily proposed as an audit tool for managers, was hitherto not adequately studied in relation to other paradigms of manufacturing competence.

Extant manufacturing strategy research dichotomizes the trade‐off model and the cumulative model, but fails to explain each strategic result. The purpose of this paper is to propose four key antecedents of a trade‐off versus a cumulative model by manufacturing business units (MBUs), and in turn, their association with business performance.

The authors first review literature pertaining to the history and major themes of manufacturing strategy. Next, the authors present a theoretical model with explanations of the methodology and research design used. The model is empirically tested, and conclusions, managerial implications, and future research opportunities that stem from this research effort are provided.

Strategic time orientation, as well as manufacturing practices of supply chain integration intensity and advanced manufacturing technology, are empirically found to be associated with MBUs' combinative competitive capabilities. More specifically, manufacturers following these practices are more apt to realize higher levels combinative capabilities, as depicted by the cumulative model.

The paper shows that these manufacturing practices may extend the time within which the MBU reaches its capability frontiers, and therefore, increase the odds that it can exploit its current resources. Moreover, MBU size negatively moderates the relationship between advanced manufacturing technology and the cumulative model.

This chapter conceptually addresses outward internationalisation of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) from the emerging markets (EMs) by focussing on the role of prior contract manufacturing relationships with a developed market multinational enterprise (DMNE). The internationalisation of SMEs originating from EMs is a rather under-researched area and the role of prior contract manufacturing experience specifically has not been addressed in prior studies. Based on a literature review, the authors identified four capabilities developed by EM SMEs during their contract manufacturing relationships with DMNE(s) that potentially help in later outward internationalisation. The authors incorporate some insights from dynamic capabilities theory, and develop propositions addressing the role of relational capital, human capital, manufacturing productivity capabilities and product innovation capabilities in this specific context. Despite being conceptual in nature, this chapter is one of the first to explicitly highlight the role of these specific capabilities developed during contract manufacturing relationship for outward internationalisation, setting bases for future studies to further empirically investigate them in different contexts.