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A significant amount of work has been done on new product development (NPD); however, studies on the flexibility aspect in NPD are scant. This study aims to investigate the relationship between NPD flexibility and five infrastructural factors, namely, marketing and manufacturing integration practices (MMIPs), advanced human resource practices (AHRPs), supplier integration practices (SIPs), operational improvement practices (OIPs) and advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs).

The study applies a questionnaire-based survey approach to examine the proposed relationships between different variables and NPD flexibility. Using a 39-item questionnaire, 262 valid and usable responses were collected from Indian manufacturing firms. Data were analysed using principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Further, structural equation modelling was applied to examine the contribution of different infrastructural factors to NPD flexibility.

In light of the empirical evidence produced in this study, the study suggests that MMIPs, AHRPs, SIPs, OIPs and AMTs have a direct, positive and significant influence on NPD flexibility. Among all the predictors, SIPs are the strongest predictor of NPD flexibility, followed by OIPs and AMTs.

The findings extend prior studies of NPD by broadening the theory related to NPD flexibility. Practitioners should take a macro approach and focus on several practices to enhance flexibility in NPD.

Unlike earlier studies that provide limited empirical evidence on NPD flexibility and deal with the concept in isolation, this empirical study applies a systematic approach to understand factors influencing NPD flexibility.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the underlying relationships between entrepreneurial orientation and supply chain flexibility (SCF) in a market characterised by several uncertainties.

The study applies an explanatory sequential mixed method, in which an analytical approach is proposed and validated to establish the underlying relationships between environmental uncertainties, SCF, and entrepreneurial orientation. Thereafter, a focus group study is carried out to explain the findings of a case study analysis.

The study evaluates and prioritises dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation to develop SCF in a market characterised by several environmental uncertainties. It also develops a structured, effective, and flexible methodological approach to establish the relationships between environmental uncertainty, SCF, and entrepreneurial orientation.

The study is limited to a single firm; therefore, the use of larger sample size can improve its generalisability.

Supply chain practitioners should emphasise on innovative culture to support SCF. The study also proposes an analytical approach to improve flexibility in the supply chain.

The study contributes to the area of interdisciplinary research by developing an integrated analytical approach that identifies and brings together concepts that existed in the disparate form in supply chain, flexibility, and entrepreneurship literature.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of factors and their associated attributes that largely influence achievement of manufacturing flexibility.

Using two sequential phases consisting of literature review, plant visits and focus group interviews, the study identifies key factors that influence manufacturing flexibility and develop and validate these factors through postal survey. In total, 211 responses from multiple industries were collected to analyze the data.

The study identifies and develops eight factors and their associated 39 attributes that largely influence achievement of manufacturing flexibility. Out of eight underlying constructs, operational improvement practices construct reported highest level of variance followed by advanced manufacturing technology, human resource practices, supplier flexibility, supplier integration, customer integration, product-process technology integration and marketing and manufacturing integration.

The scope of the study is limited to the plant level. Therefore, other strategic-level factors, such as business strategy, the amount of investment, leadership quality have not been addressed in this research.

The findings can assist managers in improving the level of manufacturing flexibility by specifying key factors essential for achievement of manufacturing flexibility. An important implication for managers is that identification of factors should be followed by proper assessment and implementation so as to remain competitive in the market.

The findings provide insight into the factors that facilitate in achievement of manufacturing flexibility.

The purpose of this paper is to explore different drivers and volume flexibility strategies employed in manufacturing firms. It also examines contingent factors, which determine volume flexibility requirement in manufacturing firms.

Using a multi-case study approach, the study examines and analyses drivers, strategies and contingent factors that affect volume flexibility in four Indian manufacturing plants belonging to automobiles, auto ancillary, fashion apparel and electrical industry.

The empirical analysis suggests various drivers of volume flexibility and different strategies employed by firms to enhance flexibility. The study also illustrates various contingent factors that determine the need of volume flexibility in firms.

The sample of the study is majorly confined to the northern region of India. Methodologically, the analysis is solely based on the qualitative data.

The study suggests practitioners to consider a range of contingent factors, while evaluating the need of volume flexibility in manufacturing plants. Rather than relying on a single strategy, a mix of strategies should be used to develop volume flexibility in firms.

The identification of a range of strategies employed by volume flexible firms as well as contingent factors that need to be evaluated before employing volume flexibility are the major contributions of this study.

The study aims to conceptualize and empirically develop an instrument to measure manufacturing flexibility development practices in firms.

Using a dataset of 315 responses, a series of procedures were used to develop, modify and refine item measures of constructs to enhance their reliability and validity. Further, following a competing model strategy, alternative models were compared to finalize the manufacturing flexibility development practices.

The study develops 36-item instrument capturing eight distinct constructs that influence manufacturing flexibility development, namely operational improvement practices, supplier integration practices, advanced manufacturing technologies, advanced human resource practices, supplier flexibility, customer integration practices, marketing and manufacturing integration practices and product-process technology integration. The derived factors exhibit an adequate level of consistency, reliability and validity.

Since the external environment is always affected by externalities, tools and technologies used to develop flexibility may also vary over time. Therefore, the developed measurement instrument can be used over the medium term. Further, the statistical generalizability of this study cannot be drawn beyond the scope of this sample.

The derived items measure and their underlying factor structure facilitates practitioners to identify areas that need attention. Practically, practitioners should strive to improve multiple factors that influence manufacturing flexibility to arrive at the full realization of flexibility.

This study is probably the first to develop an instrument for assessing the factors influencing the potential of manufacturing flexibility.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel hybrid approach to assess marketing-based flexibility with respect to its source factors, enablers and attributes.

The study demonstrates an application of a hybrid principal component analysis (PCA)-analytical hierarchical process (AHP)-multi-grade fuzzy approach (MFA) to measure marketing-based flexibility. Using PCA method, attributes, enablers and source factors of marketing-based flexibility were identified and a conceptual model was developed. AHP and MFA were used to compute marketing-based flexibility index.

The proposed approach measures existing level of marketing-based flexibility and therefore it identifies weak areas that should be taken care to improve flexibility.

The scope of the study is limited to plant level. The validity of the proposed approach is shown using a case study. For generalisation point of view, the application of this proposed approach should be investigated in a large number of firms in different industrial settings.

The study gives a reliable and valid method, which combines both statistical and MCDM techniques to measure existing level of flexibility and identify weak areas for flexibility improvement.

The findings provide insight into factors that should be worked upon to improve flexibility.

The study aims to assess and prioritise the enablers of manufacturing flexibility by evaluating the degree of environmental uncertainty and manufacturing flexibility in an uncertain environment.

The study proposes a methodological approach based on fuzzy quality function deployment (FQFD), fuzzy analytical hierarchical process (FAHP) and fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS) to assess and prioritise enablers of manufacturing flexibility in an uncertain environment.

The study proposes a methodological approach that can facilitate firms to concentrate on preferred enablers and assist them in formulating a strategy to develop manufacturing flexibility. The empirical case study analysis of an Indian auto-air conditioning manufacturing firm was done to illustrate the effectiveness, flexibility and feasibility of the proposed approach.

The proposed approach is limited to manufacturing flexibility. This study does not consider inter-dependencies among environmental uncertainties.

The proposed methodological approach can assist practitioners in the identification and development of the preferred enablers to improve manufacturing flexibility. Thus, practitioners can invest strategically in the right resources to improve manufacturing flexibility.

The study proposes and validates a methodological approach that simultaneously addresses drivers and enablers of manufacturing flexibility; therefore, it aims to fill the gaps of earlier studies that have majorly studied flexibility concept in an isolated way.

The purpose of this study is to systematically review the state-of-art literature on the net-zero economy in the field of supply chain management.

A systematic literature review of 79 articles published from 2009 to 2021 has been conducted to minimise the researchers' bias and maximise the reliability and replicability of the study.

The thematic analysis reveals that studies in the field of net-zero economy have mostly been done on decarbonisation in the supply chain, emission control and life cycle analysis and environmental and energy management. The findings highlight the strong positive association between digitalisation, circular economy and resources optimization practices with net-zero economy goals. The study also addresses the challenges linked with the net-zero economy at the firm and country levels.

Practitioners in companies and academics might find this review valuable as this study reviews, classifies and analyses the studies, outlines the evolution of literature and offers directions for future studies using the theory, methodology and context (TMC) framework.

This is the first study that uses a structured approach to analyse studies done in the net-zero field by assessing publications from 2009 to 2021.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel integrated approach using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods for evaluation and prioritization of appropriate manufacturing flexibility type required in the face of multiple environmental uncertainties.

Using a case study of an Indian fashion apparel firm, the study demonstrates the application of the proposed integrated framework for evaluation and prioritization of manufacturing flexibility. The study uses AHP method to determine importance weight of environmental uncertainty criteria and subcriteria and then employs TOPSIS method to determine the final ranking of manufacturing flexibility types required to cope up with these uncertainties.

The findings of the case suggest that the proposed integrated approach is feasible and practically implementable for manufacturing flexibility assessment.

AHP has been extensively studied and used, but the major limitation of this proposed approach is the involvement of large number of pairwise comparisons leading to difficulty in maintaining consistency in pairwise comparisons.

The proposed approach can work as a benchmarking tool to practitioners in evaluating and prioritizing manufacturing flexibility alternatives and to suggest strategic allocation of resource by prioritizing different manufacturing flexibilities types.

Unlike conventional approaches, the study provides meaningful knowledge to decision makers by demonstrating a simple, flexible, and efficient method to evaluate and rank the appropriate manufacturing flexibility types.

The objective of this paper is to empirically test and verify the enablers of volume flexibility and product-mix flexibility and to assess the influence of these flexibilities on operational performance.

A research framework consisting of nine pairs of hypotheses was developed using an extensive literature review. Using a self-administered questionnaire, 391 responses were collected, and these responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling techniques.

The findings empirically confirm the enablers of volume flexibility and product-mix flexibility. The proposed model explained 59 percent variance in volume flexibility and 63 percent variance in product-mix flexibility. Volume flexibility and product-mix flexibility together explained 38 percent variance in operational performance.

Theoretically, this study advances flexibility literature in two significant ways. First, the study conducts first of its kind quantitative empirical investigation considering upstream, downstream, and internal integration practices as enablers of volume flexibility and product-mix flexibility. Second, this study adds to the flexibility literature by suggesting the positive influence of volume and product-mix flexibility on the operational performance of firms.

The study reinforces the role of enablers in the development of volume and product-mix flexibilities. Thus, the study provides a comprehensive view of flexibility enablers that can be used as a diagnostic tool, which practitioners can use to assess and deploy flexibility.