The Impact of Manufacturing Flexibility on Operational Ambidexterity: The Mediating Role of Operational Absorptive Capacity and the Moderating Role of Environmental Uncertainty: Applying on the Egyptian Electrical Appliances Industry

This research aims to identify the impact of manufacturing flexibility on operational ambidexterity considering the mediating role of operational absorptive capacity and the moderating role of environmental uncertainty in the Egyptian electrical appliances manufacturing companies. To achieve this goal, nine hypotheses were developed; and a survey list developed by the researcher was used to collect the primary data that serve the research purpose, and by using the Cronbach Alpha, the reliability of the research variables was confirmed; and through the use of the factor analysis, the convergent validity of the research variables was confirmed, as well as checking the discriminant validity for the research variables by comparing the square root of the explanatory variance with the correlation coefficients between the variables, and the use of the path analysis to test the research hypotheses and to assess the overall quality of fit of the proposed research model.
The research found a statistically significant positive impact of manufacturing flexibility on both explorative operational activities and exploitative operational activities. There is also a statistically significant positive impact of manufacturing flexibility on operational absorptive capacity, a statistically significant positive impact of operational absorptive capacity on explorative operational activities, and a lack of impact of operational absorptive capacity on exploitative operational activities. The research also found that operational absorptive capacity is a partial mediator between manufacturing flexibility and explorative operational activities, while operational absorptive capacity did not act as a mediator between manufacturing flexibility and exploitative operational activities. Finally, the research found that environmental uncertainty weakens the relationship between manufacturing flexibility and both explorative operational activities and exploitative operational activities.