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11 – 20 of 28Arto Lindblom and Henrikki Tikkanen
This article aims to contribute to the study of knowledge creation and management in business format franchising by focusing on the question of how franchisors can convert the…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to contribute to the study of knowledge creation and management in business format franchising by focusing on the question of how franchisors can convert the tacit knowledge held by franchisees (such as insights, ideas, and hunches) to explicit knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
The article is conceptual and is largely anchored on the assumptions of the knowledge management, theories of organisational learning and organisational knowledge creation theory.
Findings
The findings emphasise that the conversion of franchisees' tacit knowledge to new explicit knowledge is one of the key knowledge management practices required for successful business format franchising. Proposes that the concept of ba has much to offer in considering knowledge management in a business format franchise system.
Research limitations/implications
With regard to future research avenues, conceptual and empirical studies are both needed to obtain a clearer understanding of the dynamic process of knowledge creation under business format franchising.
Practical implications
The article sensitises franchisors to think how knowledge is created under business format franchising, and in particular how the tacit knowledge that franchisees provide can be converted into the form of explicit knowledge. Underlines that franchisors can never control and direct dynamic process of knowledge creation among franchisees, but a franchisor can provide certain conditions that lead franchisees and other members of franchise system to create and disseminate knowledge.
Originality/value
The article proposes that both tacit and explicit knowledge under business format franchising are created in formal or informal groups encompassing bas that may span both horizontally and vertically throughout the business format franchise system.
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Henrikki Tikkanen and Pasi Pölönen
Most of the 50 largest organizations in Finland have undertaken business process re‐engineering (BPR) projects during the last five years. This study concentrated on business…
Abstract
Most of the 50 largest organizations in Finland have undertaken business process re‐engineering (BPR) projects during the last five years. This study concentrated on business process re‐engineering projects in 21 large Finnish organizations. Of the 21 organizations interviewed, six represent manufacturing industry, seven large public institutions or enterprises, and eight belong to the trade and services sector. The objectives of the study were to shed light on BPR projects in large Finnish organizations in terms of their scope, focus and adopted change management practices. Respectively, a threefold conceptual framework was developed for the study. The findings of the study show that the firms in the trade and services sector have undertaken very comprehensive BPR initiatives. BPR projects in the public sector have been slightly more limited. Manufacturing companies seemed to have the most limited approach to BPR. In change management, all studied organizations identified questions related to change navigation as the most important problem area in the actual management of the BPR projects. On the other hand, management involvement was clearly perceived as the area where the organizations’ capabilities were the strongest. As to the preconditions for a successful BPR project, four major conclusions can be drawn on the basis of the study. First, the broader the projects are in terms of scope and focus, the better the overall results. Second, strong management involvement is a basic requirement for a BPR project to succeed. Third, change navigation is the most critical area of concern, clearly differentiating successful BPR projects from the less successful ones. It is also the area where organizations encounter the greatest problems in BPR project implementation. Fourth, personnel involvement, as well as training and development projects, play a supportive role in BPR and are usually handled quite well in the organizations.
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Kimmo Alajoutsijärvi and Henrikki Tikkanen
There has lately been increasing discussion revolving around the emerging concepts of organizational competencies, business processes and industrial networks among both academic…
Abstract
There has lately been increasing discussion revolving around the emerging concepts of organizational competencies, business processes and industrial networks among both academic researchers and practitioners in various fields of management. In our opinion, there should be a systematic aim to bring together the new view of interorganizational business reality offered by the network approach and some basic ideas related to the concepts of organizational competencies and business processes. This could be one way to reach a more complete understanding of the occurrence of competence-based business processes within the relevant network context. On the other hand, this kind of synthesis might prove useful in making the network approach more practically oriented and applicable in real-life organizations. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce an integrative approach to the study of competence-based business processes primarily through the application of concepts and ideas of the network approach. First, key ideas and concepts related to the above-mentioned three theoretical perspectives are discussed and elaborated. Second, an integrative framework is proposed through which an empirical case involving the long-term development of competence-based business processes within industrial networks can be analyzed. Third, the framework is applied empirically in a longitudinal case study of Valmet Inc., a Finnish manufacturer which developed during the post-war period from a producer of weapons to the world's leading producer of paper machines. Fourth, theoretical and managerial implications are put forward on the basis of the authors' understanding gained during the research process.
Henrikki Tikkanen and Petri M.T. Parvinen
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the emergence of the network society from the perspective of planned and spontaneous order.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the emergence of the network society from the perspective of planned and spontaneous order.
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual analysis based on extensive familiarization with literature.
Findings
The network society does not increase either planned or spontaneous ordering of economic activity, but their interplay.
Research limitations/implications
The paper produces a number of research implications at global, industry, relationship and firms levels of analysis.
Practical implications
Businesses should craft practical strategies and policies on the assumption of constant change, build networking capabilities and be reactive to discontinuities in technologies and business models.
Originality/value
The paper is a unique multi‐level account of the impact of the network society on the type of economic ordering it creates.
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Henrikki Tikkanen and Kimmo Alajoutsijärvi
The purpose of this paper is to “open up” the concept of customer satisfaction in industrial markets through arguing for a broader, contextually sensitive perspective to the…
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to “open up” the concept of customer satisfaction in industrial markets through arguing for a broader, contextually sensitive perspective to the phenomenon in its real‐life settings. The conceptual argumentation put forward in this paper is based on an action‐oriented research project on customer satisfaction in industrial markets conducted in two globally operating case organizations, the first one in paper machine manufacturing and the second one in production of high quality steel for industry. On the basis of the three steps highlighted in this paper – the inner context of a business relationship, the connected network of the customer‐supplier relationship, and the outer context of the connected network – it is argued that one can gain a more complete understanding of the context within which customer satisfaction actually emerges in industrial markets. The main function of the three steps proposed in this paper is to structure the inherent complexity and multiple facets of different contexts affecting customer satisfaction as a managerial phenomenon.
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Jaakko Aspara and Henrikki Tikkanen
The purpose of this paper is to examine the links between individual investors' subjective evaluations of certain companies' products and brands, on one hand, and their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the links between individual investors' subjective evaluations of certain companies' products and brands, on one hand, and their willingness and decisions to invest in those companies' stocks, on the other. The authors aim to challenge the traditional assumption that individuals would make stock investment decisions purely on the basis of expected financial returns and risks.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected from 293 individuals who invest in the stock market of a European country and analyzed with PLS path modeling.
Findings
In the clear majority of the consumers' stock investment decisions that were analyzed, the consumers exhibited some willingness to invest in a chosen stock beyond its expected financial returns/risk. Two variables are found to elicit willingness to invest in a company's stock beyond its financial returns: the personal relevance that the individual attaches to domains (activities or areas of interest; ideas or ideals) supported or represented by the company's products; and the individual's affective evaluation of the company's product brand.
Research limitations/implications
Replicating the study with different companies from different industries and with consumers from different countries will be important. Overcoming a potential retrospection bias in the reported study is also a task for further research.
Practical implications
The findings provide insights that can serve segmentation, targeting, and positioning when it comes to marketing a company in the stock market so as to attract investors.
Originality/value
The paper provides new evidence on the influence of product and brand evaluations in consumers' stock investment decisions – suggesting that positive product evaluations elicit extra willingness to invest in a company's stock, over and beyond its financial returns.
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Jaakko Aspara, Henrikki Tikkanen, Erik Pöntiskoski and Paavo Järvensivu
Long‐run corporate success requires engagement in two types of innovative activities: exploitation and exploration. However, earlier research has focused on exploration and…
Abstract
Purpose
Long‐run corporate success requires engagement in two types of innovative activities: exploitation and exploration. However, earlier research has focused on exploration and exploitation concerning a firm's technologies. The purpose of the present article is to explicitly examine exploration and exploitation related to customers and markets.
Design/methodology/approach
The article is conceptual in nature, based on marketing, strategic management, and organization literatures.
Findings
The article explains the logic of exploration‐exploitation with respect to two market‐related resource classes – the firm's knowledge of markets and customers (market/customer intelligence) and market actors' knowledge of and bonds to the firm (brands/bonds) – as viewed in combination with the resource class of technologies, processes, and products (technologies/processes). The distinction of these three resource classes enables a three‐dimensional conceptualization of the ideal types of a firm's business development projects, which are seen as combinations of exploration and exploitation of resources across the three classes. The article also introduces the notions of multidimensionality of exploration‐exploitation within the resource classes and relativity of resource newness.
Originality/value
The article explicates how firms can orient their exploration and exploitation strategies not only on the technology dimension but also on the dimensions of market/customer intelligence and brands/bonds.
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Henrikki Tikkanen, Juha‐Antti Lamberg, Petri Parvinen and Juha‐Pekka Kallunki
The purpose of the paper was to outline a generic framework for the business model and illuminate its linkages to managerial cognition.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper was to outline a generic framework for the business model and illuminate its linkages to managerial cognition.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviewed the focal literature focusing on the actions and evolution of a firm and built a synthesis that describes the different components of a business model.
Findings
The main finding was that a business model is essentially both a cognitive phenomenon as well as being built on the material aspects of a firm.
Research limitations/implications
The paper proposes that the business model can be scrutinized in future studies, especially from the viewpoints of cognition, thus creating new avenues for intra‐firm evolutionary studies.
Practical implications
The paper found several implications for practising managers. First, the concept itself creates possibilities for self‐analysis and scenario building. Second, the understanding that a business model is systemic helps managers to evaluate their actions vis‐à‐vis the evolutionary path of the business model. Third, the outlined business model is useful in executive education as it creates a cognitive map of the various aspects of business activities.
Originality/value
The paper offers new insights into the functions and evolution of firms and will be of interest to both researchers and practising managers.
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Juho-Petteri Huhtala, Pekka Mattila, Antti Sihvonen and Henrikki Tikkanen
Over the past 50 years, a substantial interest has been put to research on how innovation spreads within social networks over time (see Rogers, 1962, 2010). Our initial aim was to…
Abstract
Over the past 50 years, a substantial interest has been put to research on how innovation spreads within social networks over time (see Rogers, 1962, 2010). Our initial aim was to examine innovation diffusion in industrial networks. We operationalized the research through a case study of an advertising network by using systematic combining as the approach (Dubois & Gadde, 2002, 2014). From the initial focus of innovation diffusion, the rematching of data and theory led us to focus on the barriers of innovation diffusion. By doing so, we found out that multilevel strategizing appears to be an important phenomenon in understanding dynamics of innovation diffusion within industrial networks. Specifically, strategizing occurs in two levels: (1) the groups within the network compete for position, and (2) actors within a group compete for position by trying to differentiate themselves from other group actors. A strategic mismatch between the two levels leads the network to become decelerated or even static in diffusing new innovations (Abrahamsen, Henneberg, & Naudè, 2012). Uncovering these findings would not have been possible without the use of systematic combining and the constant matching between theoretical and empirical domains.
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Henrikki Tikkanen, Joel Hietanen, Tuomas Henttonen and Joonas Rokka
Drawing from recent work on online social networking and communities of consumption, the purpose of this paper is to explore, identify, and postulate key factors facilitating the…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing from recent work on online social networking and communities of consumption, the purpose of this paper is to explore, identify, and postulate key factors facilitating the growth and success of marketing in virtual worlds.
Design/methodology/approach
An empirical study was conducted employing netnographic evidence from three different virtual worlds and related user‐generated blog discussions.
Findings
The findings suggest mechanisms which enable virtual worlds to gain and maintain the interest of their users and therefore underlie successful marketer practices.
Research limitations/implications
This is an exploratory study based on qualitative and ethnographic online research methods, and therefore the results are of a descriptive nature. The study was conducted to initiate the academic discourse about marketing in virtual worlds. As such, the paper believes that it can act as a reasonable starting‐point for future discussion.
Practical implications
The study suggests that traditional advertising has not proven to be a very effective way to exploit the special characteristics of virtual worlds. There is substantial potential in virtual worlds for new and innovative marketing methods that are highly engaging and take advantage of users' active role in virtual worlds. From the marketing point of view, virtual worlds can be especially used for connecting with customers, contributing to customer learning, and getting customer input.
Originality/value
The paper illustrates that virtual worlds have come to offer marketers new opportunities for engaging their customers into interactive and co‐productive marketplace exchanges. They uncover untapped potential, resources and creative means for building customer relationships.
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