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Despite the intrinsic human benefit and potential organizational benefit of spirituality, we suggest that there are limits to the effectiveness of spirituality in the workplace. Spirituality in the workplace is subject to dilemmas, costs and outright negative effects. Successful implementation of spirituality in the workplace requires organizations to pay attention to six issues: (1) net economic cost of implementation, (2) potential for worker exploitation, (3) replacing or substituting community's function or role in spirituality, (4) inappropriate practice of spirituality in the workplace, (5) potential for competitive disadvantage, and (6) increased groupthink. We conclude by discussing research opportunities and practical suggestions.

The concept of self‐managed work teams is identified as a historically grounded story of success originating in perspectives on Socio‐Technical systems and the Quality of Work Life. Expansion based on early success has focused on structural problems associated with the establishment of teams and on solving acute problems that may arise. This paper suggests that future success and research on teams must confront an increasingly complicated set of team applications and needs to shift to a process orientation. The process issues related to long term team operation are more appropriate to a chronic problem/wellness model that is proposed by the authors.

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, the authors aim to investigate the applicability of the five (EO) dimensions of autonomy, innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness, and competitive aggressiveness to a medium‐sized firm. Second, the research seeks to explore firm processes leading to the development of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in a medium‐sized domestic US firm. Thus, it endeavours to examine the applicability of EO dimensions as well as the processes by which EO arose in the focal company.

The authors use a multi‐method approach entailing analysis of archival data as well as semi‐structured interviews of executives to examine the applicability of EO dimensions as well as the processes associated with the development of EO to a medium sized firm competing in a Midwestern US market. Such an in‐depth analysis of one firm provides rich data, enabling the exploration of EO using qualitative methods.

While the medium‐sized domestic US business had high levels of autonomy and proactiveness, it exhibited moderate levels of innovativeness and risk‐taking, and only a low level of competitive aggressiveness. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that organizational artifacts facilitate the development of EO and support organizational culture. Specifically, the organizational artifacts of having an ESOP, a flat hierarchy, inter‐unit coordination, and customer communication facilitated EO, and reinforced the organizational culture aspects of empowerment, openness, teamwork, quality services, customer satisfaction, and adaptability.

This study is among the first to examine all five EO dimensions as well as to use qualitative methods to do so. It also illustrates how EO applies to medium‐sized firms, and identifies processes by which these dimensions develop.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the depth and breadth of firms' technological knowledge affect their performance.

An empirical investigation of a sample of US manufacturing firms was conducted. The main independent variables were measured using firms' patent data. Three hypotheses based on theory were developed and tested using multivariate regressions. To increase reliability, alternative industry and firm explanators of performance are controlled.

The depth and breadth of technological knowledge, rather than total stock, are significantly better at predicting three measures of firm performance that was used in the study – return on invested capital, sales growth, and Tobin's q. The two knowledge dimensions exhibited either independent non‐linear effects or mutually reinforcing effects on each of the three performance measures.

The study is limited to a fine‐grained analysis of effects of technological knowledge. It does not take into account the facilitating role of marketing and administrative knowledge.

Corporate managers need to measure the depth and breadth of their technological knowledge stocks and include them in their planning models. Extreme combinations of depth and breadth need to be corrected and brought into balance.

The paper represents one of the few studies to disaggregate a firm's total stock of technological knowledge into its depth and breadth components.

Spirituality in organizations is currently a particularly salient issue in both the scientific and practitioner literature. The “S” factor (Klenke, 2003) has lead to a proliferation of books, special issues of journals, edited volumes, symposia at conferences, and popular press articles which collectively represents a struggle between science and marketing for the soul. Conlin (1999) concluded that “a spiritual revival is sweeping corporate America as executives of all stripes are mixing mysticism into their management, importing into office corridors the lessons usually doled out in churches, temples, and mosques” (p. 150). Recent scandals involving ethical lapses at major U.S. corporations and institutions have only served to reinforce the need for organizations to acknowledge employees' thirst for meaning, community, and connection with a higher purpose and/or power. As a result, tapping into the human spirit at work has become a flourishing business as companies are willing to invest money to sponsor seminars, workshops and retreats on spiritual growth, mediation, creativity, and authentic communication.

This paper describes a comprehensive approach to examine how technological innovation contributes to the renewal of a firm’s competences through its dynamic and reciprocal relationship with R&D and product commercialization. Three theories of technology and innovation (the R&D and technological knowledge concept, product‐process concept, technological interdependence concept) are used to relate technology and innovation to strategic management. Based on these theories, this paper attempts to identify the dynamic relationship between product innovation and process innovation using system dynamics by investigating that aspect of the dynamic changes in the closed feedback circulation structure in which R&D investments drive the accumulation of technological knowledge.

This chapter combines insights from organizational theory and the entrepreneurship literature to inform a process-based conception of organizational founding. In contrast to previous discrete-event approaches, the conception argues that founding be viewed as a series of potential entrepreneurial activities – including initiation, resource mobilization, legal establishment, social organization, and operational startup. Drawing on an original data set of 591 entrepreneurs, the study examines the effect of structural, strategic, and environmental contingencies on the relative rates with which different founding activities are pursued. Results demonstrate that social context has a fairly pervasive impact on the occurrence and sequencing of founding processes, with one possible exception being the timing of legal establishment.

This article is a case study of a small‐scale family enterprise which successfully introduced a new crop, adopted new farming methods, formed a research, development and marketing alliance with a major international company, and fostered R&D alliance with several government organisations. The study was completed through reviewing government, consultant and industry reports, and in‐depth face‐to‐face interviews of key informants in industry and government. The findings showcase the importance of entrepreneurship (ingenuity to seize opportunities, effectively use personal contact networks, take risks, experiment through trial and error learning, adapt and, notwithstanding immense barriers, to continue with the venture) and a supportive national culture in fostering innovation and business development.

A mathematical model of the extracellular electric field of an active neuron is proposed under a set of simplifying assumptions. The basic assumption is that the electric field is quasi‐stationary. Consequently, the field potential can be obtained by solving the Laplace equation. The main aim of the model is to formulate boundary conditions, which are not rotationally symmetric, and to include the influence of dendrites in the computations. A formula representing the electrical and geometrical composition of the nerve cell is developed, which describes the time and space behavior of the extracellular potential. The results obtained from the model and experimental data closely agree. Possible applications of the model as a means of interpreting experimental data are discussed.

This paper is an analysis of knowledge creation following implementation of the world's leading quality assurance standard, ISO 9000. We combine the perspectives of Nonaka on knowledge creation (Nonaka, 1994; Nonaka & Takeuchi 1995; and Krogh, Nonaka, & Nishiguchi, 2000) with those of authors who have dealt with the dynamics of rules and routines (March, Schulz, & Zhou, 2000; Nelson & Winter, 1982; Cohen & Bacdayan, 1994). On the basis of our analysis of ISO 9000 implementation we develop observations about rules and learning and about rule integration, absorption, and renewal. Our paper fits into the growing literature on the role of learning and knowledge transfer in quality improvement and the evolution of dynamic capabilities in the firm using routines and learning mechanisms such as knowledge codification.