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Innovation has become extremely important, especially concerning manufacturing firms, as it is known to foster robust and healthy competition. The study aims to examine the effect of innovation orientation and supply chain integration on structural flexibility and strategic business performance.

Using the quantitative approach, 315 questionnaires were distributed to manufacturing firms in three cities (Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi) in Ghana out of which 305 usable responses were retrieved. The partial least square structural equation modeling technique and the statistical package for social sciences software version 27 were used for the data analysis.

The findings showed that supply chain integration and innovation orientation have a strong beneficial association. A substantial favorable association between structural flexibility and supply chain integration was found in the study once more. What is more, the research revealed a strong positive relationship between supply chain integration and strategic business performance. Furthermore, the study found a strong relation between innovation orientation and strategic business performance.

The research paper adds to the body of knowledge by examining how supply chain integration affects the relationship between innovation orientation, structural flexibility and strategic business performance.

This study analyzes strategic flexibility with a two-dimensional approach (structural and decisional flexibility). It also investigates the relationships among competitive strategy, structural flexibility, decisional flexibility, and financial and nonfinancial performance.

The authors collected data from members of 16 chambers of commerce in the United States and used PLS-SEM (partial least squares structural equation modeling) to test the hypotheses.

The findings suggest that strategic flexibility impacts financial and nonfinancial performance in different ways. While financial performance is influenced by both the structural and decisional dimensions of strategic flexibility, nonfinancial performance is impacted only by structural flexibility. In addition, the research indicates a negative relationship between cost leadership and structural flexibility and positions structural flexibility as a mediator between cost-leadership and nonfinancial performance.

The authors contribute to strategic flexibility research in the following ways: (1) analyzed the impact on nonfinancial performance; (2) examined structural and decisional elements and (3) identified cost leadership as a potential barrier.

The present study aims to develop a strategic business performance (SBP) model for larger firms by examining the mediating role of structural flexibility in the network capability–SBP link, as well as testing the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation in the relationship between structural flexibility and SBP.

Data were collected from 929 senior managers/owners of large textile sector firms operating in Pakistan. Regression and bootstrapping techniques were used to test the proposed relationships.

The results revealed that network capability positively shapes firms' structural flexibility, which, in turn, helps firms achieve SBP. The present work also showed that entrepreneurial orientation strengthens the positive relationship between structural flexibility and SBP.

This study is based on the cross-sectional data, and data were collected from the textile sector firms operating in Pakistan.

The findings suggest that managers should focus on developing firms' network capability, which positively shapes structural flexibility and helps firms achieve SBP. Entrepreneurial orientation can also play an imperative role for strengthening the link between structural flexibility and SBP.

The value of the present work rests on the deeper understanding of the network capability–SBP link that it offered by examining the relationships of the network capability dimensions with SBP through structural flexibility. Moreover, by bringing to the fore firms' entrepreneurial orientation as a moderator of the structural flexibility–SBP relationship, the study provided a new vantage point to uncover the complexities involved in the links between network capability, structural flexibility, and SBP.

The research attempts to evaluate whether services firms form a homogeneous body when applying managerial flexibility as compared to manufacturing firms. The paper examines the differential effects that exist regarding performance when faced with divergences in the levels of fit between the firm's real flexibility and that required by the environment on a strategic, structural and operational level. The hypotheses are tested using data from 417 European firms. The results show that a good fit between real and required operational flexibility has a more positive influence on business performance in service firms than in the manufacturing sector. Service firms, in the day‐to‐day context should have the capacity to change rapidly when successful operational practices in their adjacent environment change.

The purpose of this research is to develop a conceptual framework in which dynamic capabilities (DCs) for the creation of logistics flexibility are outlined, and elaborate it further based on empirical data from a case study at a Swedish fast fashion retailer.

A conceptual framework that aims to delineate the relationship between generic classes of DCs and logistics flexibility is proposed. Thereafter, based on a theory elaboration approach, empirical data from a case study at a Swedish fast fashion retailer is used to identify more specific DCs and further outline the characteristics of the DCs classes.

The proposed framework draws on the three DC classes of sensing, seizing and reconfiguring, and how they underscore logistics range and logistics response flexibility. The framework also distinguishes between DC classes and logistics flexibility that occur at operational, structural and strategic levels. DCs for the creation of logistics flexibility at a Swedish fast fashion retailer have also been identified and described as a means to further elaborate the characteristics of the DC classes.

Current empirical data is limited to one specific company context.

The research presents a systematic and comprehensive map of different DCs that underscore logistics flexibility, a useful tool supporting logistics development efforts regarding flexibility.

The establishment of a more detailed DC lens, in which different classes of DCs are included, means that an improved understanding for how flexibility is created can be achieved. It helps the research to move beyond the “here and now” existence of logistics flexibility to instead focus on how logistics flexibility can be created.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the compulsory quarantine of many of the world's inhabitants, and by staying at home, several functional developments emerged in residential spaces in Jeddah that affected the role of the house as a contributor to individuals' quality of life under the pressures of quarantine. Given the necessity of the apartments to adapt to these emerging developments, this study explores the determinants associated with the flexibility of residential apartments by looking at the extent to which they meet the new psychological, social and cultural roles required by their users post-COVID-19.

The qualitative approach (1) extracted concepts related to the flexibility of housing from the available literature and (2) extrapolated the flexibility of the residential apartments from the participants' study (12 families) in different areas of Jeddah by analyzing the results of targeted interviews.

There is a gap in the participant's understanding of the quality of housing and the level of satisfaction with a housing design that differs before and after their quarantine experience. The participant's adaptation to self-quarantine was mainly through furniture distribution, and housing flexibility was less reliant on the physical transformation of the place than on the change in the inhabitants' perceptions. There was an indication that the deficiencies of flexibility in design relates to the functional, cultural and structural aspects of residential buildings.

This study generated suggestions to develop the foundations for flexible housing design and activate its role under the post-quarantine context according to social and cultural variables. Some proposals should become future requirements for residential apartments to benefit officials and stakeholders to develop housing flexibility.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of managerial flexibility and analyse its relationship to the organizational responsiveness of firms. This paper seeks to measure responsiveness by determining the fit between contextual and organizational variables.

Using an empirical approach and data drawn from a wide range of countries and different industries this paper obtains a sufficiently validated multidimensional scale.

The research proposes a measurement scale of organizational responsiveness through four types of managerial flexibility: internal and external, structural and strategic.

Whereas researchers can benefit from the development of a methodology that integrates different perspectives on fit, practitioners can identify the organizational responsiveness in their organizations.

This paper contributes to the literature by proposing a method to identify the organizational responsiveness of firms and developing a measurement scale.

Tries to clarify and to define more strictly some central connotations of popular concepts in the field of personnel policy: mobility and flexibility. Develops a model connecting these concepts within a single theoretical scheme.

An underlying principle of supply chain management is to establish control of the end‐to‐end process in order to create a seamless flow of goods. The basic idea is that variability is detrimental to performance as it causes cost in the form of stock‐outs, poor capacity utilisation, and costly buffers. This paper questions this approach and argues that in the light of increasing turbulence a different approach to supply chain management is needed.

The paper reports on the authors' work on a Supply Chain Volatility Index and shows how current supply chain practices may no longer fit the context most businesses now operate in – primarily because these practices were developed under assumptions of stability that no longer hold true. The paper illustrates the findings with case study evidence of firms that have had to adjust to various aspects of turbulence.

The paper is able to show that most current supply chain management models emanate from a period of relative stability, and second, that there is considerable evidence that we will experience increasing turbulence in the future. This calls into question whether current supply chain models that feature some dynamic flexibility, yet are built on the general premise of control, will be suitable to meet the challenge of increased turbulence.

It is argued that what is needed to master the era of turbulence is structural flexibility which builds flexible options into the design of supply chains. This marks a major departure from current thinking and will require revisiting the management accounting procedures that are used to evaluate different supply chain decisions. The paper presents guidelines on how to manage supply chains in the age of turbulence: by embracing volatility as an opportunity rather than viewing it as a risk, by understanding its nature and impact, and finally by shifting the exposure to risk by building hedges into the supply chain design.

The paper questions the fundamental premise upon which current supply chain models are built and proposes an alternative approach to build structural flexibility into supply chain decision making, which would create the level of adaptability needed to remain competitive in the face of turbulence.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether supply chain (SC) ambidexterity improves supply chain flexibility (SCF) and its impact on SC competence and firm performance. A new measurement instrument for SCF is proposed that takes into account the demands of the environment: SCF fit.

A theoretical model is developed to examine the relationships proposed. The hypotheses are tested with data from 302 manufacturing firms using a structural equations model methodology.

The results show that SC ambidexterity helps to achieve the optimal level of SCF and that supply chain management (SCM) is important to firm performance.

This paper makes three contributions to the SCM literature: first, it develops the conceptual definition of SC ambidexterity and studies its effects at the SC level; second, it develops a new instrument to measure SCF known as SCF fit; third, it studies both the impact of SCF fit on SC competence and the importance of SC in firm performance.

This paper develops a measurement instrument that permits managers to diagnose the level of SCF and the correspondence/gap between current and optimal levels and to establish comparisons between different SC. It also indicates the importance of SCM for firm performance and the need to consider the SC as a whole.

This is one of the first studies to analyze ambidexterity in an organizational network like the SC. It shows that exploitation practices do not jeopardize SCF as long as they are accompanied by exploration practices. That is, high levels of exploration and exploitation are compatible in the SC and lead to the optimal level of SCF.