Flexibility and competitiveness in Indian pharmaceutical industry: A theoretical perspective

Given the fast pace of change and to confront today‟s VUCA (Volatile Uncertain Complex and Ambiguous) situations, especially in pharmaceutical domain, organizations are required to be highly flexible in order to survive and remain competitive. This prompted us to explore as to how the organizations are addressing the issue of flexibility and its consequent linkage with their competitiveness. This paper, thus, presents an extensive review of the literature on the need to manage flexibility and competitiveness in the pharmaceutical industry, in general, and India in particular. Based on the review, a conceptual research model linking flexibility and competitiveness is proposed for empirical validation. The paper presents a theoretical overview and is a conceptual review based paper and the sources mainly include published literature, observations and research experience. Drawing from the literature review, the research variables are identified and a conceptual research model is proposed. This paper reiterates the significance of agility and flexibility as the significant driver for the creation of competitive advantage in facing the pressing challenges of today‟s VUCA environment. Achieving competitiveness is dependent on various capabilities; including flexibility, responsibility, competency and quickness. Literature review indicates that competitiveness is largely influenced by flexibility in the organization. The proposed model, thus, hypothesizes a linkage between various dimensions of enterprise flexibility and competitiveness of an organization. The finding provides an in-depth perceptive of the dynamics of the Indian pharmaceuticals industry. The inter-relationship between the flexibility and competitiveness together, as proposed, can act as a valuable input for the practitioners for strategizing in this rapidly changing sector. Flexibility being a less researched domain, a comprehensive review paper in this area is expected to be a value contribution. Furthermore, linking flexibility with competitiveness in the pharmaceutical sector, too, is an original contribution.