Fostering knowledge creation to improve performance: the mediation role of manufacturing flexibility

What is it about?

While addressing increasing competition and highly dynamic changes in demand and customer preferences, firms need to boost their technological and management know-how to adequately develop manufacturing flexibility. Manufacturing flexibility is a complex and risky venture that requires firm-specific knowledge creation to mitigate risks and make it more effective. Using a sample of 370 manufacturing firms, this study examines the mediation role of manufacturing flexibility in the relations between knowledge creation and technological turbulence and performance. The main findings show that knowledge creation positively and significantly affects business and operational performance directly, and indirectly, through manufacturing flexibility. Moreover, technological turbulence has a positive significant effect on manufacturing flexibility. This study highlights the importance of the organizational ability to learn and create new ideas toward an effective development of manufacturing flexibility and business performance, contributing to explain why some firms get better outcomes of manufacturing flexibility than others, a disputed issue in the literature. Overall, the findings suggest that manufacturing firms need to support strong knowledge creation cultures.

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