Flexibility versus efficiency

What factors determine whether you focus on flexibility, efficiency, or both?

Thesis project description

Research Question (not done, still being revised): 

Which factors affect the trade-off between efficiency and flexibility?
Size (revenue, employees, countries, divisions), industry (by industry code), type of product (Service, subscription, manufacturing), whether it is public or private, 
When should you focus on efficiency rather than flexibility?
Through available theories and the survey results we 

Method:

We would like to create a survey that would be distributed to all SMEs within chosen industries delimited by either revenue or staff size. Of course there is a challenge in building the survey, distribution, mitigating non-respondents bias, and gaining enough reliable data, but that is why we would like your view on it.
Alternatively, we can delimit to one or two specific companies and try to figure out when/if they made the trade-off; When, how, and why.

Theory/models:

Ambidexterity
Cross-training 
First-order and second-order learning (trade-off mechanisms) -> From Toyota case study
Division of labor (Cooperation and coordination)
Trust and community cohesion
Organizational design
Formalization as a mechanism to streamline the organization
Span of control (cost intensive)
Economies of scale and economies of scope
Organizational culture and subcultures
Autonomy (giving frontline more power to take action)

Managerial value of the research

It will be values of research and insights. We have state of the art knowledge, which will give you valuable insights in important areas. We have highly analytical skills, which with practical data and information would fit into your firm and be a huge competitive advantage. 

Research topic motivation

We had lecturs in this topic where my friend, and co-writer of our master thesis, both were highly interested in digging deeper down into the research. It is important for all firms to evaluate what to focus on at structure in the most relevant way.

Why collaborate with us

We wrote our bachelor together and have been study partners from our 1 semester of the bachelor. This means we are good at working togehter and our grades can confirm this. We are convinced, that we can give some valuable insight and will enjoy the period together with you. We are both very interessted in getting good grades and write a relevant paper, which mean we will put the required effort into this project.