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Agility and Flexibility in Research: A Critical Literature Review
Agility and Flexibility in Research: A Critical Literature Review
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.

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. These reactions have been linked to the concepts of agility and flexibility in both study and practise, since the terms are used interchangeably in the literature to describe a comparable occurrence. The impression of ‘speed,’ or ‘quickness,’ is also included in the term agility (Christofi et al., 2021).

In addition, the current body of information on agility and flexibility has demonstrated that IB research is increasingly focused on the topic. Surprisingly, despite a slew of articles in IB journals on the subject, the structure, scope, and complexity of agility and flexibility research in IB is still largely unexplored. Several literature evaluations and overviews of existing research proposal have been undertaken over the years in an effort to condense the breadth of this generally used topic (Shams et al., 2021).

What Do Experts Say about Agility and Flexibility?

Researchers Asseraf et al. (2018) have improved the understanding of agility and adaptability across a variety of discipline  s, including information systems, supply chain management, management of human resources, and general management. 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). 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 marketing and international business.

According to Khan (2020), convenience and a wide variety of definitions, on the other hand, might cause confusion, which has been noted in other disciplines such as strategy, operations, and supply chain management. Furthermore, misunderstanding arises as a result of the interchangeable usage of the phrases agility and flexibility to represent the same set of events or scenarios. However, as previously said, one important distinction between the two concepts is that agility stresses a firm’s capacity to respond quickly to problems or changes (Shukor et al., 2020).

Key Takeaways from Experts

  • Agility as a collection of essential aspects that surround the idea of flexibility, while others see agility as an unavoidable extension of flexibility.
  • Agility and flexibility are wide yet interconnected ideas with different meanings in different fields.
  • 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 marketing and international business.

What is the Future Scope in International Business Research?