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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.
Parthasarthy et al. (Wed,) studied this question.