New publication by Bent Petersen
Bent Petersen (CBS/EGB), together with Gabriel R.G. Benito (BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo) and Lawrence S. Welch (University of Melbourne/ MSD) recently published the article 'Foreign operation mode flexibility: tradeoffs and managerial responses' in International Journal of the Economics of Business.
They propose and discuss mode flexibility as a management capability, with the aim at curbing the potential downsides of flexibility; in particular, the extra costs of coordination and contracting as well as revenue losses due to diminished partner commitment. In relation to the two dimensions of mode flexibility – multiplicity and switchability – and they highlight modularization and reciprocal use of real options as examples of tradeoff-shifting mechanisms that may improve the cost-benefit balance of mode flexibility.