The Impact of Environmental Uncertainty, Manufacturing Flexibility and Operational Efficiency on Firm Performance: The Moderating role of the Operational Absorptive Capacity

Today, organizations in an environment with growing changes, should be flexible enough to manage unpredictable threats and opportunities in an uncertain future and lead to better performance. Also, they should optimize their business processes to achieve operational efficiency. Besides, Operational absorptive Capacity is a significant learning capabilities that may explain why some companies are enable to create a more effective response to environmental uncertainties. In this study, the impact of environmental uncertainty mediated by manufacturing flexibility and operational efficiency and moderating role of operational absorptive capacity on the performance of manufacturing firms has been tested. Also, the effect of manufacturing flexibility on the operational efficiency has been tested. A questionnaire is used as an instrument to collect data that is provided by experts and managers of 101 manufacturing companies in Rasht province. For the data analysis, structural equation modeling techniques (SEM) with the approach of Partial Least Squares (PLS) has been used. The results show that the company's performance can be improved by increasing manufacturing flexibility and operational efficiency. Also, with increasing flexibility, can provide more effective responses to environmental changes. The results confirmed the effect of manufacturing flexibility on the operational efficiency, as well as moderating role of operational absorptive capacity.