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The paper aims to analyze the influences of organizational context and information technology (IT) applications on employees' perceptions of knowledge acquisition and application capabilities in five public and five private sector organizations in South Korea.

The paper analyzes how employees' perceptions of organizational context and IT affect employee knowledge acquisition and application capabilities in five public and five private sector organizations in South Korea. It discusses the results of regression analyses based on a survey of 322 public and private employees that explored their perceptions of organizational vision and goals, social networks, centralization, performance‐based reward systems, the usage of IT applications, and knowledge acquisition and application capabilities.

The results of a survey of public and private employees show that clear organizational vision and goals, social networks, and employee usage of IT applications are all positively associated with high levels of employee knowledge acquisition and application capabilities. Centralization, however, was negatively associated with employee knowledge acquisition and application capabilities. Social network and IT application utilization were both positively associated with public employees' knowledge acquisition and application capabilities. Performance‐based reward systems were positively associated with private employees' knowledge application capabilities only.

In 2000, the South Korean Government established a special task committee to develop knowledge management systems (KMS) in the public sector and to initiate KM strategies. Since 1997, major South Korean corporations have been developing KM information systems to allow employees to quickly respond to complex and evolving domestic and international market environments. Some of the knowledge management practices effectively implemented in these corporations have been selected as benchmarks for developing the government KMS in the South Korean Government. However, there is limited research on comparative studies of the factors affecting employee KM capabilities in public organizations and private in South Korea.

This study aims to investigate how the employees' attributes, capabilities, behavioral control and behavioral intentions affect their intention to become a supply chain manager (SCM). The study also investigates how employees' capabilities mediate the relationship between attributes and intention to become SCM.

The purposive sampling frame is employed to collect the data, and multiple statistical tools and techniques are used for analyzing the data.

The findings reveal that attributes are the most crucial factor for the capabilities of employees to become successful SCM. Employees' behavioral intention and capabilities have a significant impact on intention, whereas perceived behavioral control has a significant negative impact on it. Also, the result finds that capabilities partially mediate the relationship between attributes and intention to become an SCM.

The study extends the application of employees' intention to become a supply chain manager. The idea collected is based on Malaysia; thus, further study should be extended to assess the impact of employees' attributes, capabilities and behavioral control to become SCM as well as economic performance in other countries.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical analysis on the relationship between employees' attributes, capabilities, behavioral control and intention to become SCM in the context of Malaysia. The findings will help the top management to select the right people as SCM and improve their attributes, capabilities and behavior so that they become an effective SCM.

This paper aims to investigate the effects of transformational leadership on individuals and organization’s innovation capability via the mediating role of employees' positive psychological capital (Psy-Cap) namely self-efficacy and optimism.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test proposal hypotheses through the empirical data collected from 330 participants at 90 firms in Vietnam.

The research findings revealed that self-efficacy and optimism significantly mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and innovation capabilities. In addition, self-efficacy has a greater impact on innovation capabilities compared with the effect of optimism.

The findings highlight the important role of practicing transformational leadership style to nurture and foster both employees' positive psychology sources and firms' innovation capability.

The paper has significantly advanced and deepened our understanding of how transformational leaders connect with employees to nurture and develop one of the most special aspects of human resource in contemporary working environment called employees' positive Psy-Cap for stimulating firm's innovation capabilities.

The paper seeks to addresses the ethically and strategically important question: “How can managers sustain the equality of employee voice in a dynamic environment?”.

To address the above question, this paper conceptually integrates two theoretical streams that are prominent in their respective traditions: Amartya Sen's capabilities approach (SCA) in the economics and ethics literature and the dynamic capabilities approach (DCA) in strategic management.

Adapting SCA, this paper conceptualizes “voice” as employees' “capability” or “freedom” to achieve what they morally “value” in an organization, and “justice” as the equality of employee voice. Following DCA, it outlines a framework for “dynamic capability” (“voice management capability”) building by managers. It describes the processes by which executives leverage their knowledge to find new ways of creating equality in employee voice and continually remedy inequities in a changing environment. The creation of paths during the discovery of such processes and the subsequent path dependence can influence the persistence of employee voice equality.

The paper is unique in that it extends Sen's notion of “equality of individual capabilities” to employee voice. Although SCA overcomes several flaws in the competing ethics theories, it remains seriously underexplored in organizational analysis. DCA is valuable in explaining how the equality in employee voice can be sustained over time. The equality of employee voice is important not only because of its moral implications but also because of its potential desirable consequences (e.g. employee trust, commitment, and loyalty).

The current state of the art on continuous improvement takes into consideration that capabilities and organizational behaviors are more important elements for conduction and sustainability than the technical aspects. This set of capabilities and behaviors, initially addressed by Bessant and Caffyn in the 1990s, essentially considers that organizations should build an environment focussed on continuous learning. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the development of capabilities that support continuous improvement programs in two distinct productive environments: the automotive sector and the custom made capital goods sector.

From a theoretical reference on the subject, a set of capabilities that are related to the practice of continuous improvement is raised and, through a qualitative approach, four companies of the two sectors considered are analyzed using a case study strategy.

The research results suggest that the companies researched in the automotive sector have a higher level of employee engagement in relation to continuous improvement programs compared to the companies in the capital goods sector, which is justified by the strategy adopted by the organizations.

As any qualitative approach, this research presents restrictions regarding the generalization of the results for the studied sectors.

The contribution of this paper can be divided into two parts. The first one refers to the identification of a current framework of capabilities that support continuous improvement, and the second one is the evaluation of the development of these capabilities in two sectors with different productive contexts (automotive and custom made capital goods).

The purpose of this paper is to explore how experience with organizational change influences employees' reactions to change. While exposure to an increasingly frequent organizational change can lead to change fatigue and cynicism, it can also generate more positive reactions to change. The authors identify experience‐based change capabilities and explore conditions for developing such capabilities.

The paper draws on qualitative interview data from two studies of reactions to planned change. The authors probe employees' accounts of their reactions to change and show how they vary depending on employees' level and type of experience.

The findings suggest that experience provides opportunities for employees to develop their change capabilities, which leads to milder and more constructive reactions to subsequent change initiatives. However, negative experiences can lead to loyal behavior that is based on cynical attitudes.

The findings contribute by identifying experience‐based capabilities among change recipients. The limitations of the study include the threat of self‐selection as employees who remain in the organization may be more prone to loyal behavior.

When employees have extensive change experience, managers must adjust their way of thinking about change. Managers need to be alert to the prominence of more loyal behavior. They should also recognize their own role in generating positive process experience, which is a precondition for developing change capabilities at the employee level.

The study adds to the increasing focus on change recipient perspectives during change and shows how change capabilities can be developed among employees.

Using arguments from the knowledge-based view and resource-based view of the firm, the purpose of this paper is to propose that external knowledge (as measured by a firm’s customer orientation) and internal knowledge management (through human capital development techniques of job-related training and enhancing employee capability) together contribute to successful service delivery systems.

The hypothesized model is tested on a large sample of 249 Chinese service firms using structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analyses.

The results indicate that the knowledge management factors of customer orientation, employee capability and job-related training had a varying influence on quality and efficiency dimensions of service system performance. Also, internal knowledge facets of employee capability and job-related training had complementary effects in inducing improved performance on both quality and efficiency.

The focus on the key enablers of customer orientation, employee capability and job-related training does not represent a comprehensive set of enablers of service system performance outcomes. Also, a longitudinal examination of capabilities that influence service system performance can also be explored.

The context of service firms in multiple sectors serves as an important contribution to the emerging literature that bridges human resource management and customer orientation in service settings. Implications of the results for practice and theory development are discussed.

The mechanism of leadership’s impact on dynamic capabilities has aroused widespread interest, but few studies focus on transactional leadership, especially empirical research by micro foundations in the R&D departments from collaborative innovation alliances. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the mechanism of transactional leadership affects dynamic capabilities based on the mediating effect of regulatory focus.

In order to better illustrate the role of transactional leadership on dynamic capabilities, the authors introduced regulatory focus as a mediator based on previous research. A sample of 245 dyads comprised of full-time employees and their immediate supervisors was collected from the innovation teams of industry-university alliances through questionnaires in China and analyzed via hierarchical regression method. Non-response bias and endogeneity testing were also conducted to confirm the validity of the findings.

Contingency-reward behavior promotes the development of employee sensing and seizing capability. Management-by-exception promotes the development of employee reconfiguration capability. Promotion focus positively mediates the relationship between contingency-reward and sensing-seizing capability. Prevention focus positively mediates the relationship between management-by-exception and sensing-seizing capability. In addition, management-by-exception is also positively related to sensing capability and promotion focus is positively related to reconfiguration capability.

This paper confirmed different dimensions of transactional leadership favor different dimensions of dynamic capabilities based on different dimensions of regulatory focus, which enriches the theory of strategic leadership and dynamic capabilities, and is conducive to the management of collaborative innovation in technological innovation alliances.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between human capital (HC) and value creation and employee reward. HC is an important component of intellectual capital (IC). There is growing interest in how IC can be used to create organizational value. This paper addresses the need for critical analysis of IC practices in action. Based on data gathered from three annual surveys at Australia’s second largest public sector organization, the paper introduces psychological contract (PC) as new HC factors, and develops a method to measure HC in terms of value creation (work activity) and employee reward (pay). The findings have practical implications for managers in using the paper’s HC measurement to achieve strategic alignment (SA) of the workforce.

The research was based on data gathered from three annual surveys (2009-2011) of staff at Australia’s second largest public sector organization. A total of 248 questionnaires were completed. Three independent variables conceptualized HC: first, employee capability (HC1); second, employee satisfaction (HC2); and third, employee commitment (HC3). Two dependent variables were tested: work activity and pay. The data collected in this study was analyzed through the use of bivariate correlation and linear regression using SPSS software.

The paper’s major finding is that HC1 (employee capability) and HC2 (employee satisfaction), had a direct positive relationship with the importance of work activity. The paper’s second finding was that only HC1 has a direct positive relationship with the pay. However, HC3 (employee commitment) had a direct negative relationship with the importance of work activity. Further, HC2 and HC3 had no relationship with pay. The research project organization (RPO) achieved SA with employees’ capability and motivation; as well as employee capability and pay. However, inequities emerge in terms of employee commitment and value creation (work activity) and in the PC factors and pay.

While the research findings are limited by them being based on a single RPO, this is offset to some degree by the longitudinal nature of the study and the size of the RPO. It also presents opportunities for further research, particularly in terms of further testing of the new conceptualization of HC in other organizations and industry settings, and investigation of the failed hypotheses: PC and pay; and employee commitment and work activity.

While strong PC employees are being asked to do important work, they are not always being paid at the rate of colleagues doing similar work. This will create perceptions of distributive justice, which will make those with strong PC unhappy, thereby decreasing their PC, disrupting the SA of the value creation, and lead to employee turnover. Managers can address this problem by using the HC method outlined in this paper to introduce methods such as merit increases and variable pay. While this is problematic for public sector organizations often constrained by having to fit salary awards, innovative organizations are increasingly considering more flexible pay systems.

The paper introduces a new conceptualization of HC, and two proxies for organizational performance: pay and work activity. The paper addresses calls for IC in practice research to make the field more relevant for practitioners. The HC model introduced will allow managers to act on IC measurement by linking HC value with adequate pay, increasing motivation, commitment, and productivity, leading to increased innovation and reduced employee turnover.

Enterprises generally change their organizational structures in an era of uncertainty for flexibility, and accordingly, employee entrepreneurship emerges as employees gain more power and responsibility during this process. This paper aims to explore how employee entrepreneurship impacts enterprises’ sustainable innovation capability. The authors consider the mediating effect of value cocreation and the moderating effect of role stress.

The authors adopted a questionnaire survey to test the hypothesis, and 356 questionnaires were collected from an online questionnaire platform.

The results show that employee entrepreneurship has a positive impact on sustainable innovation capability, value cocreation plays a partial mediating role in this relationship between employee entrepreneurship and value cocreation and role stress plays a negative moderating role in the relationship between employee entrepreneurship and value cocreation.

The study makes three main contributions to the literature concerning entrepreneurship and enterprise sustainable innovation capability. First, in relation to the entrepreneurship literature, the authors shift entrepreneurship research from entrepreneurs/leaders to employees in the digital transformation context and specify the connotation of employee entrepreneurship. This shift further enriches and broadens the research boundary of entrepreneurship (Bhide, 2000; Djankov et al., 2006). Second, we add the micro dynamic mechanism of sustainable innovation capability by focusing on the effect of employee entrepreneurship. Employee entrepreneurship positively contributes to enterprise sustainable innovation capability, which is partially mediated by value cocreation, and its impact on value cocreation is moderated by role stress due to the identity change of employees in the digital transformation context. The authors answer calls to clarify the micromechanisms of building enterprise competitive advantage (Terziovski and Sohal, 2020). The research confirms the relationship change between enterprises and consumers in value creation from separation to cooperation (Tu et al., 2020; Costa and Hafto, 2021). Additionally, the authors discuss the dynamic mechanism and factors of value cocreation at the employee level and further verify the positive effect of an active interaction among enterprises, consumers and other value creators (Matarazzo et al., 2021; Heinonen et al., 2013). This approach compensates for the deficiency of previous studies investigating the influence of value cocreation at the level of organization members.

The theoretical analysis and empirical conclusions of this study have important practical implications. First, employee entrepreneurship positively impacts enterprises’ sustainable innovation capabilities. Therefore, enterprises should stimulate their employees’ entrepreneurship to strengthen organizational resilience and adaptability, which are important for enterprises to survive in the changeable age. For example, enterprises can authorize their frontline employees with more resource allocation power and reduce hierarchical control; thus, their employees can address emergencies in a timely manner and catch fleeting market opportunities. Second, since value cocreation is a partial mechanism by which employee entrepreneurship contributes to an enterprise’s sustainable innovation capability, enterprises should help employees improve their capabilities and knowledge for value cocreation. For instance, enterprises should develop decision-making support toolkits, upscale training courses and efficient coordination tools to help employees achieve the necessary skills and knowledge. Only in this way can they qualify to perform an increasing number of autonomous tasks. Finally, employees’ role stress negatively moderates the relationship between employee entrepreneurship and value cocreation. This finding provides a reference for enterprises in position setting, role rule-making, role responsibility-planning, etc. Specifically, enterprises should build a feedback mechanism to manage employees’ role ambiguity, conflict and overload; thus, they can eliminate the potential negative effects on value cocreation and their sustainable innovation capability in a timely manner.

This study expands the boundary and connotation of entrepreneurship in an era of uncertainty, specifies the micromechanism of sustainable innovation capability and provides new insights for enterprises constructing their sustainable innovation capability.