Competitiveness, flexibility and management controls: mobilising and managing flexibility in four SMEs

Allan Hansen, Carsten Orts Hansen, Jan Mouritsen

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2000, vol. 2, issue 1/2/3/4/5/6/7, 757-776

Abstract: Flexibility often stands for competitiveness. Through a multiple case study of four SMEs, this paper analyses how flexibility is drawn into organisational situations and how it is managed through certain management control inscriptions. All four firms claim to be flexible, but they do so in very different ways, and the supporting management control mechanism differs widely among the situations. Flexibility is only "something" under specific conditions and it may even mean completely opposing things in different firms, e.g. both 'more components" and "fewer components". This paper analyses flexibility and the associated management control inscriptions which translate it into competitiveness.

Keywords: flexibility; management accounting; constructivism; strategy. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=1375 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijmtma:v:2:y:2000:i:1/2/3/4/5/6/7:p:757-776

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().