Lara Agostini, Anna Nosella, Riikka Sarala and Corinne Nkeng
Strategic flexibility (SF) has become increasingly important for firms because of the fast changes in the external environment. In line with the practical importance of SF, an…
Abstract
Purpose
Strategic flexibility (SF) has become increasingly important for firms because of the fast changes in the external environment. In line with the practical importance of SF, an emerging research field has developed around it that has attempted to understand the nature of SF and the key relationships. The aim of this study is to unveil the semantic structure of the recent literature on SF and to suggest new promising areas for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct a systematic literature review with a bibliographic analysis technique, which allows authors to identify the main recent streams in the literature, as well as offer reflections and suggestions for future research.
Findings
The authors uncover three main emerging areas in the research on SF, namely SF as a dynamic capability, the role of knowledge management for SF and the relationship between a firm SF and the external environment. The authors put forward three avenues for future research on SF: Avenue 1. SF, business model innovation (BMI) and other dynamic capabilities (DC), Avenue 2. Digital technologies and SF/organizational agility and Avenue 3. SF and sustainability. Articles included in the special issue entitled “A strategic perspective on flexibility, agility and adaptability in the digital era” contribute to Avenue 2, thus paving the way for filling some of the identified gaps regarding the relationship between SF and digitalization.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first literature review on SF that uses a bibliometric approach to draw conclusions on the findings in the literature. The review contributes to the theoretical understanding of SF by illustrating and explicating core topics that have persisted over time, as well as by presenting three main avenues for further developing authors’ knowledge around SF.
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Keywords
Mariola Ciszewska-Mlinarič and Piotr Wójcik
The purpose of this study is to synthesize the literature on the topic of strategic renewal by identifying the key dimensions of extant research and the connections between…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to synthesize the literature on the topic of strategic renewal by identifying the key dimensions of extant research and the connections between fragmented research domains.
Design/methodology/approach
This study applies systematic literature review to identify the level of consistency and generalizability of research findings across existing studies in a comprehensive manner.
Findings
This study identifies six main themes of strategic renewal in the extant literature: (1) antecedents, (2) initiation, (3) logic, (4) structure, (5) process and (6) outcomes of strategic renewal.
Research limitations/implications
By integrating the current streams of research, the review offers a conceptual model of strategic renewal that maps the current state of the research and provide insights into key themes for the future research.
Originality/value1
This study, identifies connections between fragmented research domain and offers a conceptual framework of strategic renewal.