Transaction Costs (TC) is a very important topic, especially in a changing work environment which has a large number of operational firms, and increasing business growth. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the transaction costs concept, and provide a conceptual framework to understand the meaning of transaction costs. Publications including articles and research papers have explained the notion of transaction costs and the theoretical issues related to them. The literature review reveals that, transaction costs are costs which arise because of the of a company‘s activities in the market , including (fees, commission, taxes) which are paid by the firm to provide a service or produce a good either to external parties or as internal costs. Therefore, according to the literature review. It emerges that firms must make a comparison between internal and external transaction costs and choose the lowest cost which enables them to increase profits. This means companies have to reduce transaction costs to the minimum level to achieve more profits and competitive advantage.

In the context of an unstable business environment, companies should be looking for a mechanism to deal with uncertainty. Flexibility maybe one of those mechanisms which can help company to cope with instability in the best way possible. As one of the basic types of flexibility, operational flexibility has become an essential capability which an organization seeks to acquire because it enables companies to respond quickly and effectively to dynamic environments, and as a result, improve firm performance. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between operational flexibility and firm performance. The sample consists of 90 industrial companies in Jordan, and the questionnaire has been developed for and distributed to senior managers and managers in operations, product development, financial and marketing departments. Descriptive analysis was also correlated and regression techniques used to obtain the results. Our field study showed that operational flexibility positively affects both the operational and the financial performance of small and medium industrial companies in Jordan. More specifically, volume flexibility as a type of operational flexibility does not affect the performance of these companies in Jordan, but both mix flexibility and new product flexibility positively affect the operational and financial performance of these companies.

Nowadays, strategic flexibility and its effect on organizational performance are crucial to discuss. Moreover, organizations, especially industrial companies, should estimate how flexibility as a mechanism can improve organizational performance. The Hungarian food industry is highly significant in the industrial sector of the Hungarian economy. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to evaluate how the performance of the Hungarian food industry is affected by strategic flexibility, using supply and demand uncertainty as moderators. It is a quantitative and causal study. A survey was conducted to collect the primary data from a proposed sample of managers at the target companies. As a result, 301 valid responses have been analyzed in SPSS. Regression analysis, correlation, and moderation analysis are used as well. The results indicated that strategic flexibility generally enhances the performance of the target companies, and 20.3% of changes in companies’ performance are related to strategic flexibility. The flexibility of resources affects only the operational performance, while the flexibility of coordination positively affects company performance; it has a 44.2% influence. The findings also showed that uncertainty does not moderate the relationship between strategic flexibility and target firms’ performance. Thus, strategic flexibility is considered as one-effect mechanism in a stable business environment. In all cases, strategic flexibility should be applied in addition to other managerial techniques to enhance company performance.

The business environment has become complicated—full of risk and uncertainty over and above companies’ control— therefore companies must find mechanisms to enhance their performance in the light of this instability. The Iranian market is one of the best examples of unstable markets because of its political and economic circumstances; despite this, the pharmaceutical industry in Iran is considered one of the best industries, which is still working efficiently. The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of strategic flexibility on the performance of Iranian SME pharmaceutical companies, by considering the effect of environmental uncertainty as a moderator. The study is a cross-sectional one. Primary data was collected from 113 companies by using an adopted questionnaire. The questionnaires were forwarded to managers at these companies, a purposive (selective) sampling technique was used to collect the data, and the total number of responses that were valid for statistical analysis was 228. The response rate was 67.25%. The results showed that strategic flexibility positively affects companies’ performance. Supply and demand uncertainty moderate the relationship between strategic flexibility and companies’ performance.

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