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Cited by 526

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 1 of the 1 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Efficiency, flexibility, or both? Evidence linking strategy to performance in small firms

Ebben, Jay J., Johnson, Alec C.·2005·Strategic Management Journal

Abstract

This paper analyzes small firm performance in relation to efficiency and flexibility strategies. Using configuration theory, the authors propose that small firms that pursue efficiency strategies or flexibility strategies outperform those that attempt to pursue both. Additionally, size is used as a configurational attribute to develop competing hypotheses on whether efficiency strategies or flexibility strategies are better suited for small firm performance. In two samples of 200 and 144 privately‐held small firms, firms that mixed efficiency and flexibility strategies significantly underperformed. No significant performance differences were found between firms utilizing only efficiency strategies and those utilizing only flexibility strategies. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Metadata

Authors
Ebben, J. J., & Johnson, A. C.
Venue
Strategic Management Journal
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2005-10-31
Volume
26
Issue
13
Pages
1249-1259
ISSN
  • 0143-2095 (ISSN-L)
  • 1097-0266
OpenAlex
W2081620325
Cited by
526
References
1
FWCI
32.97
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Efficiency, flexibility, or both? Evidence linking strategy to performance in small firms. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1002/smj.503
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Ebben, J. J., & Johnson, A. C. (2005). Efficiency, flexibility, or both? Evidence linking strategy to performance in small firms. Strategic Management Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.503

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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.