The Impact of Flexible Automation on Business Strategy and Organizational Structure

Abstract

This article presents a framework for explaining the technology-strategy-structure relationship in the context of the current trends toward flexible automation. By linking technology choices directly to a firm's external environment and by invoking the concept of “fit,” the framework places technology and strategy in a reciprocal relationship. The framework is used as a basis for examining the specific linkages arising from flexible automation and the posited relationship of this automation with strategy and structure. A set of research propositions is offered suggesting that superior performance can result when strategy and structure are congruent with the competencies and constraints of the firm's technological choice.