PurposeIn response to highly volatile and uncertain environments, many firms have implemented flexible strategies and many management researchers have discussed the topic of flexibility. The purpose of this paper is to focus on distribution flexibility, the aspect of flexibility related to a downstream supply chain and to examine the construct of distribution flexibility and how organisations make strategic choices among different distribution flexibility strategies.Design/methodology/approachThis work conducts an exploratory multiple case study which analyses four Chinese manufacturers from different industries (pharmaceutical, solid/liquid separation, electric appliances, and clothing).FindingsThe results show that, given different circumstances, firms might choose an appropriate distribution flexibility strategy (one focused on either physical distribution flexibility, demand management flexibility, coordination flexibility, or on distribution flexibility co‐alignment) which fits with their distribution environment in the contingency theory sense of matching. Furthermore, for implementation, they fit a given distribution flexibility strategy to both their distribution networks and their distribution performance outcomes in the sense of gestalts or covariance.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper has some limitations common to all case studies, such as the limited generalisability of results (since the sample of firms is not statistically significant) and the potential subjectivity of the analysis.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the existing literature by empirically investigating the dimensions of distribution flexibility, by considering how an organisation develops a distribution flexibility strategy in order to adapt to a particular environment, and by suggesting that final performance outcomes may arise through a variety of different distribution flexibility strategies.

R&D-marketing integration is an important factor of technological innovation success. This study explores the relationships among R&D-marketing integration, business performance, and social performance in the context of Chinese agricultural science and technology enterprises. The findings suggest that the integration of R&Dmarketing has a positive effect both on business performance and social performance, and that business performance serves as a mediator in the relationship between the integration of R&D-marketing and social performance. This study provides empirical evidence for the research in the relationships between the integration of R&D and enterprise performance and contributes to the policy-making on the technological innovation.

This article summarizes the literature on inventory management flexibility from a competence perspective, and it classifies the work according to inter-firm and intra-firm flexibilities. It also explores the relationships between inventory competence flexibility, service capabilities flexibility, and performance. The results show that intra-firm inventory management flexibility, which reflects internal competence, has a positive impact on service capabilities and performance, while inventory coordination flexibility, which captures inter-firm competence, has no significance on those elements. Empirical results suggest that collaborative inventory management flexibility is an important issue for Mainland China to address in the future, although intra-firm competences there have been improved.

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