Abstract

Firms’ ability to change foreign operation modes appears highly desirable in an increasingly volatile and unpredictable global environment. We 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. We model the balancing and shifting of essential tradeoffs in relation to the two dimensions of mode flexibility – multiplicity and switchability – and highlight modularization and reciprocal use of real options as examples of tradeoff-shifting mechanisms that may improve the cost-benefit balance of mode flexibility.

摘要

在日益动荡和不可预测的全球环境中，企业改变国外运营模式的能力似乎非常可取。我们提出并讨论了模式灵活性作为一种管理能力，旨在遏制灵活性的潜在缺点；特别是由于合作伙伴承诺减少而导致的额外协调和签约成本以及收入损失。我们对与模式灵活性的两个维度（多样性和可切换性）相关的基本权衡的平衡和转移进行建模，并强调模块化和实物期权的互惠使用作为可能改善模式灵活性的成本效益平衡的权衡转移机制的示例.