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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

In order to remain competitive, organizations need to discard old knowledge and acquire novel information. Unlearning is essential in this respect and needs to occur at different levels in order to have the desired outcomes. Development of an unlearning cycle can raise its effectiveness and help enable new skills and capabilities to be acquired.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The aim of this paper is to introduce the special issue on “Human resource management and corporate entrepreneurship”.

The paper discuses the articles in the special issue, which investigate the relationships between human resource management and entrepreneurship from different points of view, approaches and employing different empirical contexts.

The papers highlight different human resource management factors of entrepreneurial behaviour and their influence on corporate entrepreneurship. Results from different empirical contexts as small and medium‐size firms, case studies, joint ventures, in the USA, China, and Spain, among others, make important contributions to the previous literature.

The paper discusses the intersection and association between human resource management and corporate entrepreneurship. Human resources play an essential role in so far as they can encourage or hinder corporate entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a scientometric analysis of the body of literature contained in 11 major knowledge management and intellectual capital (KM/IC) peer‐reviewed journals.

A total of 2,175 articles published in 11 major KM/IC peer‐reviewed journals were carefully reviewed and subjected to scientometric data analysis techniques.

A number of research questions pertaining to country, institutional and individual productivity, co‐operation patterns, publication frequency, and favourite inquiry methods were proposed and answered. Based on the findings, many implications emerged that improve one's understanding of the identity of KM/IC as a distinct scientific field.

The pool of KM/IC journals examined did not represent all available publication outlets, given that at least 20 peer‐reviewed journals exist in the KM/IC field. There are also KM/IC papers published in other non‐KM/IC specific journals. However, the 11 journals that were selected for the study have been evaluated by Bontis and Serenko as the top publications in the KM/IC area.

Practitioners have played a significant role in developing the KM/IC field. However, their contributions have been decreasing. There is still very much a need for qualitative descriptions and case studies. It is critically important that practitioners consider collaborating with academics for richer research projects.

This is the most comprehensive scientometric analysis of the KM/IC field ever conducted.

This study aims to investigate the concept of “practical wisdom” which may be defined as the ability to effectively manage one’s rational knowledge and to read and respond appropriately to the interplay of other people's emotions and one's own and their values. The aims of this study also are (1) to investigate the relationship between the spiritual, emotional and rational capacities which underpin practical wisdom and (2) to analyse the relationship between the practical wisdom co-created in and between individuals through these three capacities.

This study adopts a case study methodology by considering the experience provided by a group of hikers who organized a trip to cross the island of Gran Canarias and its natural parks.

This study proposes that the presence of spiritual, emotional or rational capacities can boost individual self-awareness, self-control and empathy, which can help workers in general and knowledge workers, in particular, more effectively tackle difficult situations, remain calm and collectively develop and enact appropriate responses to these situations. Therefore, results show that the concept of practical wisdom allows for the identification of both the nature of the capacities that contribute to the effective handling of difficult situations and them and the balance that needs to be developed between them.

For knowledge workers, the study provides a framework and an explanatory framework to help them understand how rational, spiritual and emotional capacities both interact and are operationalized to tackle difficult problems. Furthermore, it enables them to identify situations where success to consider such interactions, leads to develop and implement appropriate responses to such situations.

A proper balance of emotional, rational and spiritual capacities may enable people to have a more holistic vision of difficult situations, allowing the finding of appropriate solutions to complex problems (i.e. practical wisdom). This study contributes to strengthening knowledge workers' perception and understanding of the links between the knowledge stocks and knowledge flows that relate to a practical perspective of wisdom.

Business‐to‐business service marketing has received comparatively less attention in the academic literature than business‐to‐business product marketing; much of the service marketing literature discusses the ways in which services and products are different. Compares service marketing to product marketing in the industrial sector from the perspective of customer value creation. Results of a study of managers in the telecommunications industry provide some insight into criteria used by customers to evaluate services and products. According to the results, more similarities than differences exist between service and product marketing in the industrial sector. Managerial implications of this finding are presented.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

Examines how the business products‐marketing firm acquires knowledge about its customers. Objectives include identifying the most effective means by which organizations can acquire customer knowledge, and the specific kind of knowledge which firms should strive to possess about their customers in order to create value. Puts forward two key premisses regarding where customer knowledge acquisition efforts should lie, and what the results of these activities should be. Presents the results of an empirical study conducted in the telecommunications industry on this topic. Concludes by drawing managerial implications.

Proposes that firms of different Miles and Snow strategic types will have different bundles of firm‐level capabilities; that is, certain capabilities will be more important to certain strategic types. Specifically, proposes that prospectors have greater relative inside‐out capabilities and information technology capabilities, while defenders have greater relative outside‐in capabilities and marketing capabilities. Empirically tests, and finds support for, the propositions using a data set of 245 Chinese firms, comprised mostly of state‐owned enterprises. Understanding the Chinese business environment is of importance to businesses around the world as the Chinese economy undergoes rapid expansion and decentralization of strategic decision making to the level of the state‐owned enterprise. As the central government takes on a lesser role in the management of enterprises, and Chinese enterprise managers become more responsible for their own strategic decision making, a clear understanding of the enterprise's specific capabilities and advantages is required in order to achieve sustained competitive advantage. Concludes by discussing managerial implications.

The resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm has gained much attention in recent years as a means to understand how a strategic business unit obtains a sustainable competitive advantage. In this framework, several research studies have explored the relationships between resources/capabilities and firm performance. This paper seeks to extend this line of research by explicitly modeling the heterogeneity of such relations across firms in various different industries in exploring the interrelationships between capabilities and performance.

A unique latent structure regression model is developed to provide a discrete representation of this heterogeneity in terms of different clusters or groups of firms who employ different paths to achieve firm performance vis‐à‐vis alternative capabilities. An application of the proposed methodology to a sample of 216 US firms were provided.

Finds that the derived four group latent structure regression solution statistically dominates the one aggregate sample regression function. Substantive interpretation for the findings is provided.

The paper contributes to the understanding of the performance effects of investing in capabilities in the RBV framework, which has previously been lacking, especially in the areas of information technology capabilities.

The purpose of this article is to challenge the applicability of the traditional micro‐economic framework for analysing marketing situations and actions in the contemporary marketing environment. To assess the validity and value of relationship marketing as an alternative paradigm. To identify fruitful directions for further research.

The literature of relationships and relationship marketing was systematically reviewed and thoroughly analysed, and a conceptual framework built from the findings.

Three key schools of thought are identified, examined and discussed, and their main components explained and examined. Various perspectives on exchange relationships are discussed. Two specific tools for implementation of relationship marketing are evaluated. With a clear conceptual frame of reference thus established, the second part proposes a number of fruitful directions for further research. These include a bibliometric study to assess whether or not a consistent theory of relationship marketing exists, and a rigorous identification of contextual factors determining different marketing styles.

The second part of the paper explicitly discusses research directions to take the new paradigm forward, in theory and in practice.

The combination of a more rigorous conceptual framework and a clear research agenda holds the promise of significant progress in the practical implementation of a young sub‐discipline.

The paper presents a distinctively wide‐ranging and thorough overview of the subject of value to both academic researchers and marketing practitioners.