Back to the future: Analyzing the consequences of future orientation on strategic flexibility

Abstract

Referring to the attention-based view of the firm, our study addresses the relationship between executives' future orientation and strategic flexibility. We examine the impact of the future orientation of top-level managers on two distinct facets of strategic flexibility, specifically strategic flexibility as an ex ante potential and an ex post observable status. Based on panel data for large German companies from 2003 to 2011, we find empirical evidence that a higher level of future orientation leads to higher levels of both types of strategic flexibility. Especially, the influence on the ex post observable type in terms of realized strategic flexibility is highly significant. Thus, we provide additional empirical evidence for three under-researched domains: the consequences of future orientation, the antecedents of strategic flexibility, and the precise distinction of strategic flexibility.