Validating dimensions of operations flexibility in Malaysian service firms: a confirmatory factor analytics approach

The main objective of this study was to examine the dimensions of operations flexibility in Malaysian service sectors by adopting the confirmatory factor analytics approach. Through this approach, a model comprising two dimensions of operations flexibility: external flexibility and internal robustness was constructed and an instrument to measure operations flexibility elements in service sectors was developed. To validate the instrument, a survey which involved operations managers from various service sectors in Malaysia was carried out. The convergent and discriminant validity of the constructs were estimated through average variance extraction (AVE) and shared variance (SV). Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to test the goodness of fit of the model. Drawing on a sample of 254 respondents, the survey findings confirm the proposed model. Practically, this research contributes to enhancing the understanding of operations flexibility in the service sector.