Search results

This paper aims to investigate organizational learning (OL) at the individual, group and organizational levels in service and manufacturing firms in Mexico to determine if there are differences in how OL operates or in the link between OL and firm performance.

The authors surveyed experienced managers from 1,093 Mexican firms across a range of service and manufacturing industries, using the Strategic Learning Assessment Map (Bontis et al., 2002).

Organizational learning processes (OLPs) were highly similar in service and manufacturing firms and OL had a strong positive association with performance in both types of firms. OLPs at the individual level had a slightly greater impact on performance for service firms.

The results provide further evidence of the strong link between OL and firm performance. There were no significant correlations of firm size or age with the OLPs or firm performance. However, the micro-companies that constitute 95% of Mexican firms were under-represented in the sample.

OLPs are equally important in manufacturing and service firms and across developed and developing economies. Therefore, OL should pervade all organizations. Managers should create cultures that encourage employees to produce new ideas and share those ideas with peers and supervisors through both formal and informal communication processes.

The findings indicate that the individual employees’ contributions to OL are the main driver of the impact of OLPs on firm performance and that individual-level learning processes are even more relevant for service firms than for manufacturing firms. As value co-production takes place simultaneously at the moment of the service delivery/service consumption, the individual learning stock is fundamental for enhanced firm performance.

The authors believe this to be the first large-scale study to compare OLPs in manufacturing and service firms across industries in a major emerging market.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the appropriate method, demonstrating with a prototype model, of how knowledge in reliability management can be elicited from individuals as well as a team.

The approach is to elicit the tacit knowledge of the reliability engineers through narratives and cognitive mapping. With a sufficient number of cognitive maps, patterns are revealed and an aggregate cognitive map for all participating members is produced, which helps to summarize various approaches and procedures that can be taken in handling different reliability management issues.

The work provides a real‐life example to support the stages of learning from the individual, the group to the organizational level as described in the theoretical Learning Framework.

Many knowledge management programs failed for various reasons. One common pitfall is that they are either too ambitious or too vague in the scope, methodology of their deliverables. To be successful, the project objectives should be linked to the business needs that lead to solving their business problems.

A prototype is developed in the organization of expertise knowledge in a bottom‐up manner in the building of a corporate memory from individuals to team level in the reliability management in an airline company.

This is the first study in the airline industry to capture the know‐how and experience of its reliability engineers in the form of congregate cognitive maps so as to facilitate team learning and the building of organizational memory. It is the first in the airline industry to adopt this methodology for developing its own procedure manuals. The model was implemented successfully in the Engineering Division of an airline business in order to handle their reliability management issues.

Because U.S. legislators are often most attentive to the issues raised by people who create jobs in their states, Bob Epstein, a local business owner, has been asked by activists to help lobby for a bill that would mandate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in California. Before deciding whether he should work to establish the business community's backing for this bill, Epstein must weigh the pros and cons of supporting measures that might put his business (and standing in the community) at risk.

Use the 4 I's framework to evaluate the nonmarket environment, assess the political impact of the potential coalitions in favor of and opposed to the bill, identify the type of politics that characterizes the situation, and describe the strategies each side will likely use in contesting the bill.

Uses information gathered from the advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) literature to develop an integrated conceptual framework for effectively planning and implementing these systems. Then examines the efficacy of this framework by investigating the relationship between adoption of various advanced manufacturing technology (AMT), the way that firms plan for and implement them and their eventual performance. A detailed survey instrument was administered to a cross‐section of manufacturing firms in the USA to collect the required data. The results of this investigation indicate that the rate of adoption for integrated technologies was higher among firms that adopted more extensive formal planning approaches. In addition, these firms were found to be outperforming other firms. Also provides managerial and research implications of these and the other findings of this study.

This study was launched because practitioners of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) instilled awareness for needed AI outcome research. Therefore, the goal of this research was to identify the salient AI processes and levers and the rate of AI success and failure. This study was specific to U.S. municipalities due to a researcher finding AI failure probability therein. In direct opposition, eight U.S. municipalities were identified from the literature as having utilized AI in 14 projects and all were successful even when resistance was present in three applications. A survey revealed 15 AI initiatives identified as successful even when resistance was present in eight, resulting in validation. This study utilized a mixed methods exploratory case study design, sequentially in the mix, consisting of a literature review and application of two unique instruments applied to three populations.

The innovation of business model (BM) is a strategic process for many firms, from which depends competitiveness and sustainability. Despite its theoretical relevance in management sciences, research on business model innovation is in its infancy and lacks of research consistency and theoretical connections to the theme of “performance”. With the aim to contribute in bridging this gap, this paper aims to identify and analyse drivers of business model innovation performance.

This research is based on an integrative literature review methodology.

BMI performance drivers are conditions related to various dimensions (i.e. processes, resources, market, BM structure, etc). that, when fulfilled, allow the BMI to have higher performance. BMI performance drivers are antecedents of BMI performance, and their identification is of both theoretical and practical value. The authors find and report a set of 35 BMI performance drivers.

The value of this research is both theoretical and practical. From a theoretical point of view, the identified “Business Model Innovation performance drivers” define and identify a variable of BMI performance, from a practical perspective, and they provide a comprehensive set of key conditions whose attainment should be planned, pursued and monitored by managers.

The study aims at investigating the impact of organizational learning (OL) on the firm’s performance and knowledge management (KM) practices in a heavy engineering organization in India.

The data were collected from 205 middle and senior executives working in the project engineering management division of a heavy engineering public sector organization. The organization manufactures power generation equipment. Questionnaires were administered to collect the data from the respondents.

Results were analyzed using the exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis techniques. The findings showed that all the factors of OL, i.e. collaboration and team working, performance management, autonomy and freedom, reward and recognition and achievement orientation were found to be the positive predictors of different dimensions of firm’s performance and KM practices.

The implications are discussed to improve the OL culture to enhance the KM practices so that firm’s performance could be sustained financially or otherwise. The study is conducted in one division of a large public organization, hence generalizability is limited.

This is an original study carried out in a large a heavy engineering organization in India that validates the theory of OL and KM in the Indian context.

United Learning is a family-owned leader in the K-12 supplementary teaching material market. In January 2001, United Learning realized that sales for one of its flagship products, a drug and prevention program, were rapidly deteriorating because the program was not mentioned on a recently released U.S. Department of Education list of recommended products. United Learning must decide on which action to take: regain sales or focus on its other educational products—which are also threatened by changes in the regulatory environment.

Most comparative education research has included investigation of dimensions of educational reform but not all research in the field has focused concertedly on reform in relation to the realities in practice. In the latter half of the 20th century comparativists underscored the need to investigate implementation issues, not just reform policies, as had often been the case in earlier comparative research, since time had shown that political processes did not always equate with educational outcomes. Reforms can be thwarted altogether, significantly modified or mediated in practice, embraced with qualification, or differentially implemented across regions or levels within a given country. Reform implementation might produce intended and unintended change (for better or for worse); or no change at all might be the outcome; or change might occur ahead of reform. Some of the most fascinating findings in comparative research are dichotomous considerations of change such as policy versus practice, ideal versus real, de facto change versus de jure change, intended and unintended outcomes of reform, grass-roots (bottom–up) versus centralized (top–down) reforms, and de facto change legitimized-after-the-fact through reform or new policy.

United Learning is a family-owned leader in the K-12 supplementary teaching material market. In January 2001, United Learning realized that sales for one of its flagship products, a drug and prevention program, were rapidly deteriorating because the program was not mentioned on a recently released U.S. Department of Education list of recommended products. United Learning must decide on which action to take: regain sales or focus on its other educational products--which are also threatened by changes in the regulatory environment.