Taxonomy of Manufacturing Firms' Flexibility Under Influence of Dynamic Organizational Capabilities

Many scholars mentioned various dimensions and complex relations for manufacturing flexibility that implementing all of them is not possible for a manufacturing firm. On the other hand, today's dynamic environment convinces flexible organizations to create capabilities in order to take over competitors. Hence, the aim of this study is to determine dominant groups of flexibility for manufacturing firms and to prioritize them under the influence of dynamic organizational capabilities. In this research, firstly components of dynamic organizational capabilities and flexibility of manufacturing are identified by content analysis method. Then, based on that, taxonomy for Iran's manufacturing firms was determined using support vector machine algorithm. In the next step, based on experts' view using FDEMATEL method, conceptual model for relationship of manufacturing flexibility dimension as well as dynamic capabilities are provided. Conceptual model in three flexibility clusters was tested by structural equation modeling, and dominant groups were prioritized based on dynamic organizational capabilities. Results show that the best number of clusters is three. Results also show that dynamic organizational capabilities not only affect flexibility dimensions of manufacturing but also this influence is different in manufacturing firms with various industry fields.

Automated summary

This study aims to determine the dominant groups of manufacturing flexibility for firms and prioritize them under the influence of dynamic organizational capabilities. Using content analysis and support vector machine algorithm, components of dynamic organizational capabilities and manufacturing flexibility were identified. By utilizing the FDEMATEL method, a conceptual model for the relationship between manufacturing flexibility dimensions and dynamic capabilities was provided and tested using structural equation modeling. Results indicate that dynamic organizational capabilities not only impact manufacturing flexibility dimensions, but also vary across different industry fields.