Purpose – Previous research suggests new service development (NSD) is characterized by less stable offerings, less formal processes and is more emergent than new product development. In face of these issues, it seems managers must concern themselves more with the management of the underlying...

Reviews literature from manufacturing strategy, flexibility, agile manufacturing, and aspects of industrial marketing and highlights fragmented and inadequate treatment of fundamental issues relating to product customisation. Through synthesis of the literature and the analysis of four case...

Purpose – A growing body of literature has begun to recognise that in the era of supply chain management it is important to look beyond the flexible factory to the flexible supply chain. This paper seeks to further our understanding of supply chain flexibility and provide a comprehensive...

Purpose – This paper proposes a new approach to operations and supply strategy in the light of recent developments in the analysis of the respective roles of products and services in delivering benefits to customers. Design/methodology/approach – Reviews and synthesises concepts from...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical study of supply chain flexibility, asking: what specific inter‐firm practices are used to achieve increased flexibility in buyer‐supplier pairs and in the wider supply chain or network, and how do these practices and effects...

Examines the manufacturing strategy framework developed by Hill and its development, comparing it to work in manufacturing strategy and other related fields. Discusses Hill’s distinctive concepts of order‐winning criteria and order‐qualifying criteria. Also raises issues relating to...

Purpose – The paper argues that indirect capabilities – the ability to access other organizations' capabilities – are an important and neglected part of firm strategy in procuring complex performance (PCP) settings, and that this is especially so if these settings are treated as genuinely...