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The dynamic capability view serves to explain how particular practices ensure the firm's performance and competitiveness within a continuously changing environment. In this paper, the staff induction processes of two small firms in The Netherlands (management consultancy and biotech (BT) start‐up) are examined from a practice‐based view. The authors explore whether the staff induction processes of these firms can be regarded as practices, and if so, whether and how these firms have developed a dynamic capability in staff induction.

Case studies are conducted in the management consultancy and biotechnology sectors to explore the practising of dynamic capability.

The findings suggest small firms can effectively develop and master their staff induction processes (as practices), but do this on the basis of ad hoc problem solving rather than a dynamic capability. If small firms develop any dynamic capability at all, they apparently do so towards specialized resources and processes that are perceived as most critical to the firm's continuity and performance (e.g. product development in the case of the BT firm). As such, this study confirms Winter's hypothesis about the fundamentally different cost structures of dynamic capabilities and ad hoc problem solving, which explains why dynamic capabilities tend to be rare and ad hoc problem solving prevails in many small organizations.

The paper examines the interaction between staff induction practices, dynamic capabilities, learning strategies, and ad hoc problem solving in two small firms. Implications for practitioners are that consciously engaging in learning strategies helps to adapt practices and build a dynamic capability in staff induction.

Recent research places an increased emphasis on the inclusion of the customer in value creation, learning and innovation processes; yet, there remains a gap in the understanding of just how such customer involvement may work. This paper aims to address this gap by examining two aspects of customer involvement – their knowledgeability and their agency. In addition, three boundaries (semantic, syntactic and pragmatic) across which relationship development occurs and which may facilitate and/or inhibit value co-creation, collaborative learning and innovation processes have been explored.

Three case studies have been used. Two were large-scale construction projects in the UK, and one was a global professional accounting firm in the USA.

Customers may become frustrated if not allowed to exercise their agency. However, their involvement can create tensions for suppliers who may have to become more tolerant of divergent goals. In respect of knowledgeability, it was found that constraint satisfaction is important in allowing customers to reconcile their personal knowledge schema with the collective schema. However, it was also noted that customer knowledgeability brings with it challenges for suppliers, who must find ways to add value for such customers.

A number of further questions relating to the agency and knowledgeability of customers and their inclusion in value co-creation, collaborative learning and innovation processes have been posed. The need for guidance in identifying and minimising the barriers to crossing semantic, syntactic and pragmatic boundaries between customers and suppliers has also been highlighted.

This study makes an important contribution to research in the field, in that how the inclusion of the customer in business networks alters current assumptions and practices is investigated.

This study aims to examine reciprocal exchanges in knowledge networks using temporal differentiation of knowledge exchanges. To date, research on horizontal knowledge networks rather overlooks the temporal perspective, which could explain the dynamics of exchange in those networks.

The paper reports on a study of four horizontal knowledge networks in the UK over a period of 18 months.

The findings integrate three temporal dimensions of timescale, timeliness and time modalities. The dimensions have implications for the way knowledge is exchanged (or not), which can in turn sustain or stymie productive knowledge exchange in horizontal knowledge networks.

The study encourages researchers to attend to the micro-processes of knowledge exchanges through the integrative framework of temporalities. While this study examined horizontal networks, future research can be extended to analysing temporalities in other types of networks.

It seeks to inspire practitioners to appreciate how the impacts of knowledge networks play out in/over time, and how more effective coopetitive knowledge-sharing environments can be created and sustained by taking differentiated time structures into account.

This study contributes to the knowledge management literature by providing a temporal perspective to understand reciprocal knowledge exchanges in horizontal knowledge networks.

Business model innovation is a key element for firms' competitiveness. Its development can be supported by the establishment of an actor-oriented scheme to overcome hierarchical structures. The actor-oriented scheme is characterized by intra-organizational networks of relationships that can be established and dissolved between individuals. However, we lack an empirical perspective about its establishment; therefore, the purpose of this research is to advance our understanding of intra-organizational networks for supporting business model innovation.

Individuals create and manage knowledge aimed to innovate the business model through cognitive search and experiential learning mechanisms. Knowledge is spread within organizations by using intra-organizational advice networks, whose patterns reflect the presence of an actor-oriented scheme. This work applies social network analysis to network data from a multi-unit organization specializing in personal care services. We use a Logistic Regression-Quadratic Assignment Procedure to analyze intra-organizational network data on managers' advice exchange related to the learning modes of cognitive search and experiential learning.

Our research empirically identifies the main elements of an actor-oriented scheme in a business model innovation process. We find that managers are able to self-organize, because they are not influenced by their organizational roles, and that commons for sharing resources and protocols, processes and infrastructures enable advice exchange, thus showing the presence of an actor-oriented scheme in business model innovation process.

This research is based on a cross-sectional database. A longitudinal study would provide a better understanding of the network evolution characterizing the innovation process.

The results of our study support organizational decision-making for business model innovation.

This study provides empirical evidence of how an actor-oriented scheme emerges in a business model innovation process.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a more detailed understanding of how embedding in different social networks relates to different types of action that individuals choose in the context of organizational closures, downsizing or relocations. To develop such insights, this paper focuses on three particular types of social networks, namely, intra-organizational; external professional and local community networks. These three types of networks have been frequently related to different types of action in the context of closures and relocations.

This is a conceptual paper. The authors develop the argument by integrating relevant recent literature on the salience related to embedding in different types of social networks, with a particular focus on responses to organizational closure or relocation.

The authors argue that at times of industrial decline and closure: embeddedness in intra-organizational networks can favor collective direct action; embeddedness in professional networks is likely to favor individual direct action and embeddedness in community networks can lead to individual indirect action. The authors then add nuance to the argument by considering a range of complicating factors that can constrain or enable the course (s) of action favored by particular combinations of network influences.

On a theoretical level, this paper adds to understandings of the role of network embeddedness in influencing individual and collective responses to such disruptive events; and direct or indirect forms of response. On a practical level, the authors contribute to understandings about how the employment landscape may evolve in regions affected by organizational demise, and how policymakers may study with or through network influences to develop more responsible downsizing approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse a firm’s internal and external drivers of formal and informal open innovation (OI) practices. To enrich the analysis and to obtain more robust results, the authors checked the study’s hypotheses using samples from two European regions, Navarre (Spain), classified an innovator follower, and Noord-Brabant (Netherlands), an innovator leader.

The sample selected includes manufacturing and service firms that completed the Community Innovation Survey for the year 2008 in both regions. The final sample had 1,288 observations from Navarre and 623 observations from Noord-Brabant. The authors consider two OI dimensions, breadth of information sources for informal OI practices and breadth of cooperation agreement for formal OI practices. Finally, the estimates were performed by means of a negative binomial regression.

Results indicate that for the internal drivers, product-related motives to innovate and in-house R&D intensity are strong drivers for both formal and informal OI engagement in general, while the influence of process- and environmental-related motives are context dependence.

This study distinguishes between formal (i.e. cooperation activities) and informal (i.e. external sources of information used for new ideas) inbound OI practices, while most of the literature has focussed on one single type of OI practice. The use of two samples coming from two different European regions allows observe whether the adoption motives of the OI practices are robust independently from the firms’ location or if they vary across regions owing to context dependence.

La innovación abierta (IA) ha demostrado ser crucial para aumentar la innovación y el desempeño económico de las empresas. Sin embargo todavía existe una comprensión limitada de los factores que impulsan realizar esta IA. El principal objetivo de este artículo es arrojar luz en esta dirección al analizar simultáneamente los determinantes internos y externos que llevan a las empresas a realizar prácticas formales e informales de IA.

Las hipótesis son contratadas con muestras de dos regiones europeas, Navarra (España), calificada como región seguidora en innovación, y Noord Brabant (Países Bajos), líder innovador. La muestra seleccionada incluye empresas manufactureras y de servicios que completaron la Community Innovation Survey (CIS) 2008.

Los resultados indican que, para los determinantes internos, los motivos relacionados con la búsqueda de innovaciones en producto y la intensidad interna de I + D son fuertes impulsores para todas las prácticas de IA, mientras que la importancia de los motivos relacionados con la obtención de innovaciones en proceso y medioambientales dependen del contexto regional. En cuanto a los factores externos, la política pública influye en la adopción de IA tanto formal como informal, pero estos resultados varían entre las regiones dependiendo del origen de los fondos.

El estudio presenta importantes implicaciones para la literatura en IA. En primer lugar, mientras la mayoría de la literatura analiza un único tipo de prácticas de IA, este estudio distingue prácticas formales e informales de IA y estudia sus determinantes internos y externos simultáneamente. Segundo, las hipótesis son contrastadas en dos regiones europeas diferentes. Esto permite observar si los resultados obtenidos son robustos independientemente de la localización de las empresas o si varían dependiendo del contexto de ambas regiones.

A inovação aberta (IA) provou ser crucial para aumentar a inovação e o desempenho económico das empresas. No entanto, ainda há uma compreensão limitada dos fatores que conduzem essa IA. O principal objetivo deste artigo é lançar luz nessa direção, analisando simultaneamente os determinantes internos e externos que levam as empresas a realizar práticas de IA formais e informais.

As hipóteses são contratadas com amostras de duas regiões européias, Navarra (Espanha), classificada como uma região de inovação, e Noord Brabant (Holanda), um líder inovador. A amostra selecionada inclui empresas de fabricação e serviços que completaram o Community Innovation Survey (CIS) 2008.

Os resultados indicam que, para os determinantes internos, os motivos relacionados à busca de inovações no produto e na intensidade interna de P & D são fortes impulsionadores para todas as práticas de IA, enquanto a importância dos motivos relacionados à obtenção Inovações em processo e ambientes dependem do contexto regional. Em relação aos fatores externos, observamos que a política pública influencia a adoção de IA formal e informal, mas esses resultados variam de acordo com as origens dos fundos.

O estudo apresenta implicações importantes para a literatura em IA. Primeiro, enquanto a maioria da literatura analisa um único tipo de práticas de IA, este estudo distingue práticas formais e informais de IA e simultaneamente estuda seus determinantes internos e externos. Em segundo lugar, as hipóteses são contrastadas em duas regiões européias diferentes. Isso permite verificar se os resultados obtidos são robustos independentemente da localização das empresas ou se variam de acordo com o contexto de ambas as regiões.

Elementary schools have been confronted with large-scale educational reforms as strategies to improve the educational quality. While building school-wide capacity for improvement is considered critical for changing teachers’ classroom practices, there is still little empirical evidence for link between enhanced school capacity for improvement and instructional change. In this study, the authors examined the impact of school improvement capacity on changes in teachers’ classroom practices over a period of time. Leadership practices, school organizational conditions, teacher motivation and teacher learning were used to measure school-wide capacity for improvement. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Mixed-model analysis of longitudinal data over a four years (2005-2008) period of time from 862 teachers of 32 Dutch elementary schools were used to test the impact of school improvement capacity on changing teachers’ instructional practices.

The results showed that organizational-level conditions and teacher-level conditions play an important, but different role in changing teachers’ classroom practices. Whereas teacher factors mainly affect changes in teachers’ classroom practices, organizational factors are of significant importance to enhance teacher motivation and teacher learning.

More longitudinal research is needed to gain better insight into the opportunities and limits of building school-wide capacity to stimulate instructional change.

By encouraging teachers to question their own beliefs, facilitating opportunities for teachers to work together to solve problems, and through the promotion of shared decision making, school leaders can reinforce the personal and social identification of teachers with the organization. As a consequence, teachers will feel increasingly committed and are more willing to change their classroom practices. Additionally, school leaders can use the findings from this study and the related instrument as a tool for school self-evaluation.

This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the nature of changes in conditions for school improvement and its influence on changes in teachers’ instructional practices over a period of time.

The purpose of this study is to propose a model of a value cocreation strategy (VCS) for analyzing how enterprises adopt innovative, marketing, and design strategies to achieve their performance goals through cocreation.

In the present study, a case study was conducted to establish a preliminary model. Subsequently, 1,000 NPD project managers in information and communications technology industries were approached to complete a two-stage questionnaire survey. The first survey investigated the VCSs they adopted for their marketing, innovation and design activities (valid questionnaires recovered=283). The valid respondents completed a second survey measuring their NPD performance 18 months after launching a new product (valid questionnaires recovered=247).

A conceptual was constructed to explain the effects of innovation marketing and design cocreation strategies on NPD performance. A partial least squares method was used to test the model showing a good fit between the model and the survey data, indicating the applicability of the proposed model. The innovation marketing and design cocreation strategies of the enterprises affected their NPD performance. Enterprises adopting diverse cocreation strategies improved their NPD performance. The cocreation strategies in the model were independent and mediating variables to NPD performance. A qualitative comparative analysis was performed to examine which strategy configurations affected NPD performance and to explore any regular patterns in them. Finally, a cluster analysis was conducted to investigate four cocreation strategies: market development, technology improvement, cost direction and customer service.

Whether different industry categories involve different characteristics and whether different corporate cultures cause inconsistent result in value cocreation warrants further in-depth investigation. In addition, the two surveys conducted in this study were separated by 18 months, and thus, only the short-term NPD performance could be presented. Future studies are recommended to conduct an extensive exploration of different industries, administer long-term surveys, investigate the different levels of influence of various types of enterprise on the proposed research model or examine the degree of difference in the mechanisms and methods adopted for elevating innovation performance.

Enterprises can reference the proposed approach to optimize their product development and services according to their organizational resources and market advantages to increase their market coverage.

This study was the first empirical study to examine critical factors, such as product innovation, marketing, design and value cocreation strategies, and NPD performance by administering two-stage surveys. Enterprises can reference the proposed method according to their organizational resources and market advantages to develop products and services efficiently and face the ever-changing market.