“…To date, however, much of the empirical research 146 GROWTH AND CHANGE, SPRING 1994 performance remains uncertain. To an extent, of course, this kind of uncertainty partially explains the reluctance of small and medium-sized manufacturing firms (SMFs) to opt for flexible technologies, especially on a significant scale (Bessant andHaywood 1986,1988;Graham 1993). Although flexible manufacturing cells (FMCs) and other types of advanced hardware have become increasingly divisible (and cheaper) over the last few years, adoption rates among small firms remain low (US.…”