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Although knowledge has become a decisive factor in the development of firms, there has been no detailed investigation into how start-ups acquire external knowledge. In order to narrow the research gap, this paper attempts to explore the mechanism of acquiring external knowledge in start-ups from the perspective of “environment–[sic.] structure” interaction.

This research develops a conceptual model regarding improvisation as an independent variable, strategic flexibility as a mediator, knowledge acquisition as the dependent variable and environmental mutation as a moderator between improvisation and strategic flexibility. Furthermore, this study collects the survey data from 277 firms and uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to empirically test the model and hypotheses.

The results show that creativity-bricolage and spontaneity-persistence have significantly positive effects on both capability flexibility and coordination flexibility. However, the positive effects of pressure-stress on capability flexibility and coordination flexibility are not supported. Meanwhile, the mediating roles of capability flexibility and coordination flexibility are supported. Finally, environmental mutation only positively moderates the relationship between creativity-bricolage and capability flexibility.

Improvisation can be seen as a core antecedent for start-ups to acquire external knowledge in environmental mutation. More specifically, the significant mediator is strategic flexibility to promote the relationship between improvisation and knowledge acquisition. The findings provide practical inspiration for start-ups to effectively utilize improvisation in emergencies.

Not all cells are equal: each tissue and organ has its own type of cell. Although the nucleus of each cell in a living system has the same genetic information, each one dispenses of the lion's share of that information and only those genes that are necessary for carrying out the function of the particular organ or tissue to which they belong remain active. Despite the fact that in specific scientific fields, such as ecosystem studies, it is possible to measure the relationships between different variables and to compare the various direct and indirect effects they may have on one another, there has been no such development in the wider context of a General Systems Theory. This paper sets out to address the question of cellular change by interpreting processes such as direct and indirect causality, cellular meiosis and mutation of cells.

This paper aims to characterize the French public hospitals (FPHs) according to their strategic behaviour. Until recently, FPHs used to ignore strategic issues, for their mission was clearly defined by regulating authorities and their activities were quasi‐automatically funded by the latter. This situation fundamentally changed as the environment of all “health care providers” became more demanding: FPHs have now to engage in a strategic process. The paper seeks to focus on the content of FPHs' strategies, and compare our results with standard findings of the strategic management literature, notably the strategic behaviour typologies established by Miles and Snow and Zaleznik and Kets de Vries.

A three‐stage empirical approach is conducted, mixing qualitative and quantitative methods. The measurement stage, based on a questionnaire survey realized with the support of a professional union, gathered the answers of 276 FPHs' decision‐makers, representing 51 per cent of the target population. This stage allows the formation of classes among these respondents, according to the environmental, organisational, and strategic features they describe.

The results are globally consistent with Miles and Snow's and Zaleznik and Kets de Vries' typologies. This is noteworthy since they were obtained in a different context and with different methodological approaches.

This article tackles the issue of the universality of the strategic process.

Finally, implications for policy makers and hospitals' managers are drawn from the study.

What mostly differentiates the paper' results from the standard typologies is that FPHs can be separated according to the alliances criterion.

The burgeoning interest over the last decade in technology transfer at universities in the United States has driven contentious debates over patent policy. In this context, biotech patenting has become the poster-child for claims that the proliferation of patenting by universities, and in the private sector, is undermining scientific norms and threatening innovation. Commentators have expressed particular fears about the negative effects of biotech patenting on the public information commons and concerns about emerging “patent anticommons.” This chapter argues that the standard (finite) commons model is being misapplied in the biotech arena because, owing to the complexity of biological processes and the power of existing biotech methods to produce genetic data, biomedical science is, in crucial respects, an unbounded, uncongested common resource. These findings imply that strategic biotech patenting of problem-specific research tools (i.e., single-nucleotide polymorphisms, drug targets) is not economically justified and therefore is irrational.

This paper attempts to shed light on a further understanding of the notion of corporate identity especially in relation to communication and visual identity, and its relevance for the organisation.

The paper presents a main theoretical background reviewing and discussing the literature in corporate identity in particular, addressing the following dimensions: communications and visual identity. The paper also resorts to examples that illustrate how organisations change or shape their corporate identity to face (new) market and environmental conditions.

The paper shows that corporate identity is an issue of growing importance to all companies. Its development and management has become a key dimension within an organisation's strategy. The paper highlights that corporate identity extends beyond the company's logo and name. It covers all forms of internal and external communications of the company. It further discusses the implications for corporate identity change or adaptation in the context of market and other environmental alterations and how it leads to attaining competitive advantage.

The paper describes how practitioners applied (and may apply) corporate identity as a strategic resource.

This paper contributes to a further understanding of the magnitude of corporate identity, its strategic relevance and managerial dynamics. Moreover, by stressing communication and visual identity dimensions, it underlines how “parts” of identity need and should be managed in a company's setting.

The purpose of this paper is to emphasise projects as being part of a social process. It aims to move away from the traditional views that lay emphases on linear and predictable models of project practice to one that better highlights the complex nature of human interrelations.

The work reported upon involved a case study where one of the authors was embedded as a reflective practitioner undertaking action learning and elicitation of knowledge from colleagues using soft systems methodology as a primary research method.

Findings from the doctoral research implemented in the Middle East, indicate that socio‐cultural factors in project contexts affect knowledge creation processes critical to organisational change.

Research results benefited from viewing the project organization as a “complex adaptive system” with a structurally open project entity facilitating the contextual interconnections necessary for detecting and creating environmental change.

Pragmatic knowledge was seen as emergent through movement of human interactions and contributed to the portrayal of the project organisation as a “becoming” cognitive system whose resilience is dependent upon producing meaning as opposed to processing information. When change management is viewed in a multicultural context such as this, within this paradigm, then greater emphasis will likely be placed upon complexity and uncertainty issues arising out of the interplay of culture and the political aspects of managing change in a more empathic way.

Complexity in project management and theory has traditionally focussed on technical and structural aspects of project practice; but given the heterogeneous nature of human capital residing in today's organisations, aligning social systems with nature where disorder and uncertainty prevail, provides a more relevant ecological model of social analysis. The paper shows that the challenge today for those working in culturally pluralistic project environments is to make sense of such multiple realities and disparities in language to effectively manage the inherent power relationships that influence project outcomes.

Inventory constraints, costs of lost production, safety and environmental objectives, strategies of maintenance adopted, logistics aspects of spare parts are some of the criteria taken into account, and spare parts classification is thus defined with respect to multiple attributes. In virtue of the large number of the potential operational characteristics to be considered, the decision diagram is integrated with a set of analytic hierarchy process models used to solve the various multi‐attribute decision sub‐problems at the different levels/nodes of the decision tree. An inventory policy matrix is defined to link the different classes of spare parts with the possible inventory management policies so as to identify the “best” control strategy for the spare stocks. The principles of the theory and an actual application in a company operating in the paper industry are reported in the paper.

The fragmentation of knowledge poses serious threats to a survival when scientific and technological know‐how constantly outrun understanding of societies and individuals. A significant problem associated with this state of affairs is the unquestioned separation of facts and values. This paper has two immediate aims. The first is to argue that there is knowledge of values. The second is to look at some issues in the social sciences and to show this conclusion bears on the possibilities for the reunification of knowledge. Issues in economics, sociology, and anthropology are examined kin terms of detailed examples.

What new empirical implications can emerge in the organizational adaptation domain by adopting a multi-level co-evolutionary theoretical perspective? How does the performance appraisal process affect the evolution of the organization? The purpose of this paper, positioned within the organizational evolution research field, is to untangle the complexity behind emergence, development, and extinction of business processes over time, highlighting the inner mechanisms behind the adaptation process.

The work is presented as a longitudinal, single case study of a service firm. Scholars concur in considering this approach particularly reliable when investigating the evolution of a practice (Feldman, 2000; Howard-Grenville, 2005; Lazaric and Denis, 2005). Data have been collected during 2014 through three main methods: unstructured interviews, meeting observations, and direct observation of participants.

From the analysis, it emerges that the impact of the performance appraisal routine on individual and group dynamics is the main determinant behind organizational inertia and resistance to change. In particular, the degree of managerial control exerted, the feedback scheme applied, and the group interaction mechanisms are predictors of the degree of business process exploitation or exploration within a practice.

In order to address the exploratory nature of the work, further developments may deepen the analysis investigating and comparing the findings obtained in different business contexts, highlighting important similarities or differences in various sectors. Different empirical settings might also be beneficial in further investigating the complexity of additional dimensions of routines’ evolution, especially at the group and organization level of analysis.

The insights from the case may serve as useful inputs to improve the efficiency of the service firm examined, and to identify possible mechanisms to foster knowledge production and replication within the practice.

The paper, by adopting a co-evolutionary perspective, has been conceived as a deliberate search for new empirical implications in the organizational evolution research domain at multiple levels of analysis.