Effect of product and process complexities on disruptions: Can coordination and transparency negate this effect?

Abstract

Different combinations of product and process complexities could lead to different effects on internal disruptions within firms. Therefore, this paper aspires to understand how the symmetric and asymmetric combinations of product and process complexities could be beneficial for improving a firm's internal resilience capabilities. Additionally, we also evaluate the contingent effects of internal coordination and internal transparency on the effect of these complexities on internal disruptions. Using survey data collected from 291 manufacturing firms in the United Kingdom and the United States, we evaluate negative binomial regression models and the resulting response surfaces to test and present our hypotheses. Our results show that asymmetric combinations of product and process complexities lead to higher internal disruptions than symmetric combinations of product and process complexities. Additionally, both internal coordination and internal transparency seem to effectively moderate the impact of these complexities on internal disruptions. Essentially, these two contingencies could make the firm more resilient against internal disruptions. By testing both symmetric and asymmetric combinations of product and process complexities, our research makes novel contributions to the extant literature of operational complexity.