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This paper aims to theoretically investigate a knowledge management model from the combined perspective of knowledge acquisition and knowledge application and its effect on organizational performance.

This study reviews prior research on knowledge acquisition and knowledge application, puts forward the concepts of “the extensiveness of knowledge acquisition” and “the concentration of knowledge application” and more importantly proposes an integrated model by combining these two dimensions. Four case examples of enterprises are subsequently described and analyzed to illustrate the sources of knowledge acquisition, the objects of knowledge application and their influences on organizational performance.

Four knowledge management modes and their impacts are confirmed in this study. Specifically, the organization of the turbojet engine mode (high extensiveness of knowledge acquisition and high concentration of knowledge application) can achieve good performance. The pipeline mode (high extensiveness of knowledge acquisition and low concentration of knowledge application) is the second, which has limited influence on good organizational performance. Organizations with the flashlight mode (low extensiveness of knowledge acquisition and high concentration of knowledge application) can achieve limited performance under the appropriate environment. The candle mode (low extensiveness of knowledge acquisition and low concentration of knowledge application) is the worst, performance of which is poor due to the break of the knowledge chain.

This paper holds that organizations should actively use the turbojet engine mode, adopt the pipeline mode and the flashlight mode cautiously, and avoid falling into the candle mode.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to propose the concepts of “the extensiveness of knowledge acquisition” and “the concentration of knowledge application,” and provides a combined model for analyzing differences in organizational performance from the perspective of knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of the mediating role of the extensiveness of strategic planning on the relationship between slack resources and organizational performance.

The study uses empirical data gathered from 102 usable replies from private and also public hospitals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The findings indicate the existence of a positive relationship between slack resources and organizational performance and show that the extensiveness of strategic planning plays a mediating role in this relationship.

The authors highlight the exploratory nature of the study considering its unusual setting, namely, the UAE’s health care sector.

Several implications of the findings for managerial and policy practices in the UAE health care sector are discussed.

This study contributes to the existing literature on management, health care, and developing countries by examining the role of the extensiveness of strategic planning in mediating the relationship between slack resources and organizational performance in the health care industry of a developing country.

Understanding of the farmers’ buying process is of great economic and strategic relevance for agri-business firms. The purpose of this paper is to explain the extensiveness of the buying process of Indian farmers in their purchase of agri-inputs and discusses its implications for agri-industries.

Four different dimensions of the buying process, namely, buying decision time, number of information sources used, number of evaluated suppliers, and number of conversations with suppliers were used to study the extensiveness of the buying process of the farmers. Responses of 278 farmers were analyzed with the help of mean and frequency distribution, analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation coefficient.

Overall, the extensiveness of the buying process for the frequently purchased inputs was less in comparison to that of the infrequently purchased inputs. However, there were differences in the extensiveness of the buying process for the inputs within the same category. Farmers’ characteristics influenced their buying process and the impact was more evident in case of frequently purchased agri-inputs. All the four dimensions of the farmers’ buying process were found to be positively correlated for most of the agri-inputs.

The farmers’ buying process varies for different agri-inputs and is dependent on the farmers’ characteristics. Firms can use the findings of the study to develop appropriate marketing strategies to broaden their customers’ base and increase sales.

The paper offers an insight into the farmers’ buying process in India and how the farmers behave in different dimensions of the buying process. There are very few studies on the subject carried out in the Indian context.

The transfer of organizational practices in multinational enterprises (MNEs), typically from the headquarters to foreign subsidiaries, has been a key theme in international business (IB) literature. Research on this topic increasingly acknowledges the important role of organizational actors external to the focal MNE. Furthermore, there is a growing interest in the microfoundational underpinnings of practice transfer as an important phenomenon in IB. This paper aims to bring together these two emerging research trends to outline an exciting and important avenue for further research.

This is a conceptual paper. This paper builds on prior empirical research to theorize different types of involvement of external organizational actors in the transfer process. This study further identifies specific mechanisms that lead to transfer outcomes in terms of practice adaptation.

The authors develop conceptual arguments regarding the role of external actors in the microfoundations of transfer. The involvement of external organizational actors can be either direct or indirect, and it can occur in the initiation stage at headquarters level and/or in the implementation stage at subsidiary level. The authors theorize how the involvement of external organizational actors in the transfer process shapes practice adaptation as a key outcome. This study summarizes the theorization with the help of propositions, and this study also identifies a set of research questions that can guide future research on this increasingly important topic.

This paper contributes to the literature by developing a research agenda to open up the black box regarding the role of external actors in the microfoundations of practice transfer in MNEs.

The purpose of the present study is to examine the effect of principals' sense of uncertainty on organizational learning mechanisms (OLMs) in schools.

Data were collected from 130 school principals (90 women and 40 men) from both Tel‐Aviv and Central districts in Israel. After computing the correlation between perceived uncertainty and OLMs, hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the effect of principals' sense of uncertainty and the demographic variables on the OLMs' components.

The results of this study reveal a negative relationship between principals' sense of uncertainty and the extensiveness of OLMs in schools. Hierarchical regression analyses reveal that OLMs are predicted significantly and negatively by the complexity dimension of perceived uncertainty and predicted significantly and positively by seniority in teaching (length of service).

The findings call for ongoing research on the connection between environmental uncertainty, faculty learning processes, and student outcomes.

Contrary to the findings of various studies on business management, the paper shows that the complexity dimension of principals' perceived uncertainty, rather than the changeability dimension, predicted the extensiveness of organizational learning mechanisms in schools.

In this article, we examine how person–possession relations vary across three stages of the role-identity cultivation processes. We explore stage-related variation in the accumulation of role-related consumption stimuli and their self-relevance in a cross-sectional sample of two freely chosen athletic role-identities. Results show that as individuals cultivate an identity they accumulate more role-related possessions, social ties, and media commitments, and evaluation of those elements becomes more positive, yet the impact of those stimuli on self-conception declines. Ultimately, the results suggest that a full understanding of person–possession relations must include consideration of how role-identity cultivation stage moderates relations between people and consumption stimuli.

This paper aims to empirically examine the factors driving the acquisition of patents and foreign technologies in 2,198 firms spanning multiple industries in Visegrád countries.

To fulfil the research objectives, the authors used the binary logistic regression models for the empirical specifications to analyse the various hypotheses to ascertain the factors contributing to patents, foreign technologies and international quality certificate acquisitions in Visegrád countries.

The results show that technological innovations, in-house and external research and development, intense competition from the informal sector and external knowledge search positively influence firms to acquire patents, foreign technologies and international quality certificates. The study further showed that certain firm characteristics, such as size, having a board of directors, female top managers and top managers’ experience, positively influenced firms’ ability to obtain patents, foreign technologies and international quality certificates.

The authors provide new insights into understanding the factors contributing to international technological linkages in the context of transitional countries such as the Visegrád four group. The authors have shown that international technology linkages through foreign technology licences and international quality certifications are vital for innovations in transition economies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the use made of the Research Commons during its first year of operation in an attempt to establish whether it actually provides a genuinely new and different service from the point of view of the end‐users, and whether a facility such as this could indeed be presumed to support research and enhance research output at the university.

Using Lippincott's assessment grid, an attempt was made to assess activities in the Research Commons according to the dimensions of extensiveness, efficiency, effectiveness, service quality and usefulness. Methodology was mixed, with quantitative and qualitative components that logged the extent and nature of the use of the various facilities in the Research Commons and sought to establish from stakeholder perceptions whether the services on offer are regarded as substantially different from those in the undergraduate Knowledge Commons and whether they are indeed seen to be supporting research activities.

It was found that a combination of numerical and qualitative measurements has yielded sufficient evidence for the drawing of preliminary conclusions. The evidence gathered demonstrates that the Research Commons, designed primarily as a site for the creation of new knowledge in the form of original writing by researchers at postgraduate and academic level, is indeed an advance on the well‐established “library commons” concept, and that its creation represents an instance of “parallel invention” – the “new creature” that the title refers to.

This paper provides a multifaceted perspective on the activities taking place in a new library facility and should provide librarians and researchers with evidence‐based insight into how meaningful research support may be provided to young researchers from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds as part of an academic library service in a middle income country.

To investigate the theoretical foundations of price as a multi‐dimensional component of value and to examine the nature of the relationship between price‐attribute perception and overall price evaluation.

The economic theory of the distribution of surplus across customers and the equity theory are used to develop the hypotheses about the multi‐dimensional nature of the price construct. Prospect theory is used to predict the relationship between price‐attribute performance and overall price evaluation. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire regarding mobile communications operators in Italy. After carrying out a principal factor analysis, several regression models were run to test the hypotheses.

The results confirm that price is a multi‐dimensional construct (i.e. made up of cheapness, fairness and variety), yet they do not fully support the prospect theory predictions.

Multi‐item price measurement scales need to be further developed and validated. The theoretical framework needs to be further validated in other industries to assess the external validity of these findings.

Different dimensions of price represent different “evaluation categories”, all related to importance, yet vastly different in how one ought to respond to each of them. For price dimensions showing an asymmetric relationship with overall price evaluation, relative importance is a function of performance.

This paper extends the price conceptualization from a uni‐dimensional to a multi‐dimensional construct and suggests an integration of prospect theory. It offers a contribution for research on evaluation measurement procedures as well as on price and value management.

Examines the impact of client industry on the use and effectiveness of audit analytical procedures. Segregates audit client firms into two industry categories ‐ new and matured. Posits that the industry category the client firm is operating in will have a substantial effect on the extensiveness, types and effectiveness of analytical procedures employed. In particular, hypothesizes that analytical procedures will be more extensively and effectively used in the audit of firms in matured industries. Further, hypothesizes that trend analysis will be used primarily in the audit of firms in matured industries while visual scanning of data and ratio analyses will be used in the audit of firms in both new and matured industries. The results of a questionnaire survey distributed to one of the Big Six audit firms in Singapore support the above hypotheses.