A Critical Literature Review of Agility and Flexibility in Research

Page 1

An Academic presentation by Dr. Nancy Agnes, Head, Technical Operations, Tut Group www.tutorsindia.com Email: info@tutorsindia.com AGILITY AND FLEXIBILITY IN RESEARCH: A CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW

Table Of Content WhatDoExpertsSayaboutAgilityand Flexibility? KeyTakeawaysfromExperts WhatistheFutureScopeinInternational BusinessResearch?

Organizations in today’s dynamic and highly competitive market require a diverse mix of talents to respond effectively and efficiently to growing levels of uncertainty, complexity, and unpredictability. Thesereactionshavebeenlinkedtotheconcepts ofagilityandflexibilityinbothstudyandpractise, since the terms are used interchangeably in the literaturetodescribeacomparableoccurrence. The impression of ‘speed,’or‘quickness,’ is also includedinthetermagility(Christofietal.,2021).

In addition, the current body of information on agility and flexibility has demonstrated that IB researchisincreasinglyfocusedonthetopic. Surprisingly, despite a slew of articles in IB journals onthesubject,thestructure,scope,andcomplexity of agility and flexibility research in IB is still largely unexplored.

Several literature evaluations and overviews of existing research proposal have been undertaken overtheyearsinanefforttocondensethebreadth ofthisgenerallyusedtopic(Shamsetal.,2021).

According to (Gomes et al., 2020), there is a dichotomous perspective of how agility and flexibility occur. Several academics consider agility as a collection of essential aspects that surround the idea of flexibility, while others see agility as an unavoidable extension of flexibility. Furthermore, agility and flexibilityarewideyetinterconnectedideaswithdifferentmeaningsindifferentfields. Production and operation management, for example, is concerned with an organization’s flexible activities, workflows, and supply chain links. Authors have to do review with effectively and successfully adjusting to ever-changing and unpredictable situations in the field of corporate strategy.

What Do Experts Say about Agility and Flexibility?

Academic interest in speed and flexibility has been steadily increasing, with attention coming from a variety of academic fields such as management and decision –making.

Researchers Asseraf et al. (2018) have improved the understandingofagilityandadaptabilityacrossavarietyof disciplines, including information systems, supply chain management, management of human resources, and generalmanagement.

They suggested organizations in dealing with new components of global competition, among other things in theIBarena.

Furthermore, as the corpus of knowledge in many business disciplines grows, there is a pressing need to integrate, arrange, and synthesize existing literature review services, particularly in fields like international marketingandinternationalbusiness.

To the knowledge, no previous study has examined studies on agility and flexibility in the IB area in a systematic and through manner(Benzidia&Makaoui,2020).

According to Khan (2020), convenience and a wide variety of definitions, on the other hand,mightcauseconfusion,whichhasbeennotedinotherdisciplinessuchasstrategy, operations,andsupplychainmanagement. Furthermore, misunderstanding arises as a result of the interchangeable usage of the phrasesagilityandflexibilitytorepresentthesamesetofeventsorscenarios. However,aspreviouslysaid,oneimportantdistinctionbetweenthetwoconceptsisthat agility stresses a firm’s capacity to respond quickly to problems or changes (Shukor et al.,2020).

One important distinction between the two concepts is that agility stresses a firm’s capacity to respondquicklytoproblemsorchanges.

Key Takeaways from Experts

Agilityasacollectionofessentialaspectsthatsurroundtheideaofflexibility,whileothersseeagility asanunavoidableextensionofflexibility. Agilityandflexibilityarewideyetinterconnectedideaswithdifferentmeaningsindifferentfields.

As the corpus of knowledge in many business disciplines grows, there is a pressing need to integrate, arrange, and synthesize existing literature review services, particularly in fields like internationalmarketingandinternationalbusiness.

What is the Future Scope in International Business Research?

As the findings of this review reveal that, neither agilitynorflexibilityhaveindeedbeenclearlydefined in the IB literature review paper help, there are differences in the way these concepts are used in theabovestatedliteratures. In a scientific discipline, a lack of definitional clarity and a set of standard definitions and definitional dimensions might cause academic results to be delayed in reaching commercial realities, and IB is notexempt.

Also the review reveals how research may be used to address theoretical and methodological flaws by developing new conceptual approaches and empirical investigations that rely on a number of fields and test a variety of scenarios. These suggestions might help to broaden the scope of international agility and flexibility research and strengthen external theoretical legitimacy. Accordingtotheconclusionsofthisreview,theconditioncurrentlyexiststhroughoutthescope of IB literature. Numerous definition-related reviews of literatureand conceptual research exist in different fields in an effort to find solutions to similar definitional difficulties. This blog has suggestedanddevelopedpathwaysforfutureresearchtosolveknowledgegapsintheareaby addingexcitingtheoreticalcontributions. Wehopethatthisblogwillserveasaspringboardfornewandinterestingresearchonavariety ofworldwideagilityandflexibilitypatternsthatwillbeofinteresttoawiderangeofpractitioners andacademicsinInternationalBusinessResearch.

GET IN TOUCH +44-1143520021 UNITED KINGDOM +91-4448137070 EMAIL INDIA info@tutorsindia.com

Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.