Agility : customers perspective In competitive environments agility is emerging as an important determinant of success. Despite the widely accepted importance of agility there has been paucity in research on this construct, especially the customerxe2x80x99s perspective of agility. Rise of digital natives together with growth of ubiquitous information systems has changed the way firms engage with their customers. Firms are finding it difficult to establish sustained loyalty hence the long term sustained advantage over competition. Hence, firms are increasingly investing substantial resources on dynamic Customer Relationship Management systems such as mobileCRMS to better engage with customers to sense and respond quickly (Agility of the firm) to their demands. This paper investigates firmxe2x80x99s customer agility from customerxe2x80x99s perspective, and we propose a model to understand firmxe2x80x99s customer agility from customerxe2x80x99s point of view. The proposed model is derived based on previous conceptions of agility and the expectation confirmation theory (ECT). This paper reports the initial findings of this study obtained through a pilot test. The findings of the study demonstrate that customerxe2x80x99s view point on firmxe2x80x99s customer agility is an important determinant of achieving success through sustained competitive advantage.

IOS drivers of manufacturersupplier flexibility and manufacturer agility Abstract   In todayxe2x80x99s hypercompetitive environment, it is critical for manufacturing firms to be agile in responding to ephemeral opportunities in the marketplace. This agility often requires the collaboration with supply chain partners. However, how a manufacturing firm collaborates with its suppliers to achieve agility remains an understudied issue. This study holds that manufacturing firms and their suppliers need to develop manufacturersupplier flexibility accompanied with wellbuilt integrated information systems and associated analytical systems (such as business intelligence) to enable manufacturer agility. To deepen our understanding of the roles of manufacturersupplier flexibility and IOS technologies in facilitating manufacturer agility, we build and test a model based on the real options theory and bounded rationality. Based on 141 matchedpair samples of Taiwanese manufacturing firms, our findings demonstrate the importance of manufacturersupplier flexibility in achieving higher manufacturer agility, wherein IOS integration enables better flexibility. We also show IOSenabled analytical ability can strengthen the effect of such flexibility on manufacturer agility. Implications of the results for practices and academics are provided.