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The purpose of this paper is twofold: to investigate the antecedents of resilience and to highlight the importance of resilience in achieving reconfiguration in supply chains.

This paper draws on literature on supply chain resilience and collects data from 253 companies in Qatar to understand the influence of the antecedents of supply chain resilience and the impact of resilience on reconfiguration using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The findings show that antecedents like risk management culture, agility and collaboration positively affect the supply chain resilience. Further, the study establishes that companies can leverage their supply chain resilience to reconfigure supply chain in case of disruptions.

This study is important for supply chain managers in Qatar, as the country faced major disruption of supply chains in wake of the blockade imposed by its neighbors with which it had the only land route and maximum trade. The findings from this study should aid mangers in developing resilient supply chains.

This paper highlights the role of supply chain resilience in achieving reconfiguration. Further, novelty of the work reported in this paper lies in its context where supply chains recently faced actual disruptions.

Systematic research examining the mechanisms that mediate the dynamic capability–performance relationship remains scarce. So too is research on the conditions under which these mechanisms might be influential. Accordingly, this study aims to build upon business network research to examine how a firm’s dynamic network capability (DNC) impacts firm performance, mediated by the speed of product reconfiguration (i.e. new product development [NPD] speed) and bounded by firm age.

The authors conduct moderated mediation analysis on survey data from small- and medium-sized manufacturing and technology firms in the USA. This study uses an initial survey and then a follow-up survey.

The findings support the general view that DNC is instrumental to firm performance, regardless of firm age. However, DNC operates differently for younger vs older firms. That is, DNC’s impact on the performance of younger firms is enabled by speeding up NPD, while much of the performance impact for older firms appears to be through alternative resource reconfiguration route(s). This study identifies the need to include a mediating variable such as resource reconfiguration to detect how DNC impacts performance.

The model could include different dimensions of mediating resource reconfigurations, alternative boundary conditions and longer-term data.

This study provides managers with insight on how speed of product reconfiguration (in terms of NPD) operates in the DNC–performance relationship. It also helps them understand how this relationship changes in younger vs older firms.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to provide empirical evidence on how DNC operates to influence performance in firms that are younger vs older.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new performance analysis and measurement regarding reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) taken into consideration new circumstances which include changes in the market demand, changes in a product design, and/or introduction of a new product. As the reconfiguration process is applied to a manufacturing system to improve the system's performance due to new circumstances, the RMS process has potential quantitative and qualitative measures.

The manufacturing system has a great impact on the performance measurement and the selection of the objectives to measure the performance is very important. These objectives include the critical requirements for a RMS and they are as follows: product cost, manufacturing response, system productivity, people behavior, inventory, and quality of the finished products. Because each criterion measure in a RMS is a potential source of evaluation, it should have a relative weight with respect to the other measures. First, each criterion will be measured individually. Second, these measures need to be evaluated through an aggregate quantitative metric because there is a lack of analytical techniques to analyze and evaluate both qualitative and quantitative measures.

Performance evaluation of a RMS from one circumstance to another is highly desired by using the new quantitative metric regarding updating (upgrading) the system for the next period based on the previous one. The results show that the applicable of using this new technique in evaluating the RMS. The results also support the new quantitative metric.

The suggestion of a new aggregate performance measurement metric including the all potential objectives is highly considered. This paper provides an insight into each objective individually to measure it. It is also used from 0 to 1 as range of measure to evaluate the potential and aggregate metrics toward next reconfiguration with respect to the existing one.

In manufacturing, dedicated machine tools and flexible machine tools are failing to satisfy the ever-changing manufacturing demands of short life cycles and dynamic nature of products. These machines are limited when new product designs are introduced. The solution lies in developing responsive machines that can be adjusted or be changed functionally when these change requirements arise. These machines are reconfigurable machines which are becoming the new focus, as they rapidly respond to product variety and volume changes. A sheet metal working machine known as a reconfigurable guillotine shear and bending press machine (RGS&BPM) has been developed. The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology, function-oriented design approach (FODA), which was developed for the design of the RGS&BPM.

The design of the machine is based on the six principles of reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs), namely, modularity, scalability integrability, convertibility, diagnosability and customisability. The methodology seeks to optimise the design process of the RGS&BPM through a design of modules that make up the machine, enable its conversion and reconfiguration. The FODA is focussed on function identification to select the operational function required. Two main functions are recognised for the machine, these being cutting and bending; hence, the design revolves around these two and reconfigurability.

The developed design methodology was tested in the design of a prototype for the reconfigurable guillotine shear and bending press machine. The prototype is currently being manufactured and will be subjected to functional tests once completed. This paper is being presented not only to present the methodology by to show and highlight its practical applicability, as the prototype manufacturers have been enthusiastic about this new approach.

The research was limited to the design methodology for the RGS&BPM, the machine which has been designed to completion using this methodology, with prototype being manufactured.

This study presents critical steps and considerations in the development of reconfigurable machines. The main thrust being to explore the best possibility of developing the machines with dual functionality that will assist in availing the technology to manufacturer. As the machine has been development, the success of the design can be directly attributed to the FODA methodology, among other contributing factors. It also highlights the significance of the principles of RMS in reconfigurable machine design.

The RGS&BM machine is an answer for the small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), as the machine replaces two machines with one, and the methodology ensures its affordable design. It contributes immensely to the machine availability by eliminating trial and error approaches.

This study presents a new approach to the design of reconfigurable dual machines using principles of RMS. As the targeted market is the SME, it is not limited to that as any entrepreneur may use the machine to their advantage. The design methodology presented contributes to the body of knowledge in dual reconfigurable machine tool design.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how strategic renewal affects the reconfiguration of capabilities. In the context of organizational change in a large utility firm, we examine the evolution of the capability structure, and explain the emergence and persistence of capability gaps.

The paper uses an inductive multiple case study methodology to compare four processes of capability reconfiguration at Eskom, South Africa's electricity supplier.

The results show that strategic renewal unfolds through different processes, which vary in their impact. Some processes have an immediate effect in closing capability gaps. The impact of others is with a significant time lag. Most critical, however, are processes that widen capability gaps. As a result, firms may face severe and persistent performance deficiencies.

Prior research has only marginally addressed the relationship between strategic renewal and capability reconfiguration, and has largely neglected emerging capability gaps.

Strategic renewal may cause unintended crowding out effects of specific capabilities. Managers need to consider these potential implications of strategic renewal.

Understanding the challenges of how to improve the performance of utility services is crucial for economic development, welfare and social inclusion.

This study importantly highlights that the emergence of capability gaps is a common phenomenon rather than an exception in strategic renewal processes. The findings contribute to the strategic renewal literature and to management research in infrastructure sectors.

This research paper reports a novel genetic algorithm (GA)‐based approach for reconfiguration of radial distribution networks for real loss minimization and power quality improvement.

A fuzzy controlled GA has been used for efficient reconfiguration of radial distribution systems for loss minimization and power quality improvement. The special features of the proposed algorithm are: an improved chromosome coding/decoding for network representation so as to preserve the radial property without islanding any load after reconfiguration and an efficient convergence characteristics attributed to fuzzy controlled mutation.

The proposed network reconfiguration algorithm is very much effective in arriving at the global optimal solution (minimum loss network structure) because of efficient search of the solution space. Also, no invalid chromosomes are generated in the genetic evolution because of appropriate coding/decoding. The algorithm is found to be very much suitable for real time implementations.

This research paper provides the power distribution engineers with a computationally efficient approach for optimal operation of distribution systems.

The algorithm proposed in this paper is computationally much faster compared to most of the present day mathematical programming approaches for distribution system operation. This makes it very much attractive for online implementations in any radial distribution network.

This paper has proposed a novel chromosome coding/decoding technique for radial distribution system and a fuzzy logic‐based mutation probability controller for efficient search of global solution space to be used in GA‐based optimal operation of radial distribution systems.

This paper explores how platforms reconfigure versatile digital resources to achieve marketing agility in international markets.

We draw on a case study of a Chinese digital platform to explore the processes and mechanisms of reconfiguring during marketing agility development. Data from different sources are collected, including interviews, informal dialogue and archival data.

Versatile digital resources create productive applications for previously less amendable marketing and nonmarketing resources to be malleable, editable and reconfigurable in marketing agility development. This study identifies and clarifies three versatile digital resource-enabled reconfiguration activities in marketing agility building: recombining digital artifacts, repurposing human capital and cross-pollinating markets.

Since our study adopts a case study method, future research can extend our insights by using quantitative methods to test and verify our theoretical framework.

First, we provide insights into how organizations can reconfigure versatile digital resources to achieve the benefits of marketing agility in international markets. Second, while recruiting new employees during internationalization is vital, we suggest that assisted by digital artifacts, firms can repurpose the existing workforce, such as via multitasking, swift task-switching and flexible job redirecting to satisfy dynamic international business requirements with lower adjustment costs. Third, we offer two localization approaches in which firms can use digital artifacts as the enabler to remix sociocultural elements with local adaptations to develop glocal content and decentralize content production to generate inclusive local content.

We provide a process model that specifies how platforms reconfigure versatile digital resources to achieve marketing agility in international markets. Furthermore, we provide novel insights into the literature on marketing agility in international markets and localization.

Based on the dynamic capabilities view, the current study aims to empirically investigate the effects of organizational learning culture (OLC), strategic reconfiguration (SREC) and digital transformation (DT), altogether, on Egyptian private hospitals' strategic renewal in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study adopted a cross-sectional design to collect the data used to carry out mediation analysis. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample consisted of 264 Egyptian private hospitals. The smart partial least square structural equation modeling technique (PLS-SEM) was adopted to test the hypotheses.

The results demonstrate that OLC directly and positively affects SR. Besides, SREC and DT partially and serially mediate the OLC-SR relationship.

The sample size was small, covering only Egyptian private hospitals. The results may be different in the manufacturing sector and in other countries. The study was cross-sectional which is limited to trace long-term effects of OLC, SREC and DT on SR. Accordingly, a longitudinal study may be undertaken.

Private hospitals' managers must actively explore and dig out valuable resources in order to discover potential information and trends endeavor to redesign internal structures, and reconfigure their current resources, structures and strategies to achieve strategic renewal. The findings also provide new insights to mangers of private sectors' institutions and direct their attention toward adopting the strategic renewal option to survive amidst crises instead of retrenchment, persevering, or quitting business.

The study's results imply that health care providers have sought to improve the capacities of their health care systems to address the patient-level social needs through continuous learning, internal reconfigurations and the transformation toward digitalization to renew their services.

This study therefore contributes to SR literature by being the first empirical study to introduce an integrative model for the antecedents of SR amidst the pandemic.

The new geopolitical context being created by the Ukraine–Russia war highlights the need for structured approaches to planning and implementing unhooking strategies and developing associated supply chain reconfigurations.

The authors have interviewed six supply chain executives to begin the investigation of the key supply chain risks and disruptions caused by the Ukraine–Russia war.

Initial corporate responses to the Ukraine–Russia conflict were significant, perhaps unprecedented. However, as institutional, corporate and consumer sentiment influence reconfiguration responses, the authors have identified three supply chain pathways that underpin unhooking actions.

The authors selected respondents from each different type of supply chain interaction with the conflict zone (inbound, outbound and within), covering both components/intermediate products and finished goods. Therefore the sample size was small and designed to fit in with the spirit of the pathway initiative.

The authors reinforce the key role of procurement and supply chain management in not just supply but also in downstream markets that can accelerate decoupling and mitigate the associated supply chain disruptions.

The authors observe that supply chains are increasingly being weaponized, as external institutional and consumer influences necessitate companies to unhook from conflict zones, countries, or regimes. They are becoming increasingly intertwined with foreign policy.

The novelty of the contribution to the associated discourse is the perspective that after decades of increasing globalization and geographic dispersion of supply chains, the unhooking effort is not limited to a firm and its internal operations but involves multiple stakeholders. For instance, the full extent of the complex linkages of supply chains, networks and relationships that touch conflict zone geographies must be considered, particularly those that are incompatible with the firm's values and aims, including those of their stakeholders.

This paper deals with a new formulation of the optimal operation of electrical distribution networks problem in regular working state. In the new deregulated energy market providing reliable and economical service to customers is a primary task. The multiobjective formulation of the reconfiguration and compensation problem used in this paper considers as a primary object also the minimisation of the load nodes unavailability (UA) expressed in probabilistic terms. Therefore, the objectives to be attained through the optimisation strategy are: minimal power losses operation, minimum UA of the load nodes, load balancing among the HV/MV transformers, and voltage profile regularisation. The application carried out uses an evolutionary algorithm and a particular normalisation technique for the multiple objectives formulation. In the considered automated network, the remote control of capacitor banks and tie‐switches is possible and their layout is the optimisation variable. After a brief description of the optimal reconfiguration and compensation problem for automated distribution networks, the most recent papers on the topic are reported and commented. Then the problem formulation and the solution algorithm are described in detail. Finally, the test results on a large MV distribution network are reported and discussed.