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It has been widely projected in the library literature that a substantial number of librarians will retire in the near future leaving significant gaps in the workforce, especially in library leadership. Many of those concerned with organizational development in libraries have promoted succession planning as an essential tool for addressing this much-anticipated wave of retirements. The purpose of this chapter is to argue that succession planning is the wrong approach for academic libraries. This chapter provides a review of the library literature on succession planning, as well as studies analyzing position announcements in librarianship which provide evidence as to the extent to which academic librarianship has changed in recent years. In a review of the library literature, the author found no sound explanation of why succession planning is an appropriate method for filling anticipated vacancies and no substantive evidence that succession planning programs in libraries are successful. Rather than filling anticipated vacancies with librarians prepared to fill specific positions by means of a succession planning program, the author recommends that academic library leaders should focus on the continual evaluation of current library needs and future library goals, and treat each vacancy as an opportunity to create a new position that will best satisfy the strategic goals of the library. In contrast to the nearly universal support for succession planning found in the library literature, this chapter offers a different point of view.

Consists of a series of nine articles under the same title. Each article provides a different slant on the hiring process. Outlines the legal position when hiring employees and concentrates on providing a framework for managers. Covers areas including job analysis and descriptions, where to advertise and recruit, selection criteria, the interview, testing, negotiating the offer of employment and references. Briefly describes trends in employment practices and ways to minimize potential litigation through best practice.

The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the role of talent management (TM) in strategic renewal. Furthermore, the authors extend the existing knowledge on the process of TM implementation by underlining particular activities, which are involved in this process during strategic renewal.

The authors report a qualitative study of a TM program in a Finnish–Swedish Multinational corporation undergoing major strategic renewal. The data consist of 46 semi-structured interviews and secondary data.

The role of TM in the context of strategic renewal is to provide the conditions for the self-initiation and identification of potential change agents and for the development of the talented employees to perform in their roles of change agent. In the context of strategic renewal, TM process consists of identification of key projects to address critical business opportunities and challenges, the identification of talented employees to execute them, and the identification and creation of key positions.

The authors encourage scholars to explore the empirical settings characterized by change and unpredictability in more detail, and thus examine the role of talented employees and TM in other specific contexts. Future studies are also encouraged to study other cultural settings and examine to what degree the process of TM implementation may positively influence attitudes and behaviors of talented employees and, consequently, the overall organizational performance.

This study offers practical advice for top management and HR managers. First, the process of TM implementation during strategic renewal should start with the identification of “must-win-battles” that can have a more profound impact on change. Furthermore, top management should allow and enable motivated potential talented employees to volunteer for the job of aiding company-wide changes. Next, top management should provide the talented employees with the space to come up with novel ideas and conceive new business opportunities. Finally, the importance of transparent and spot-on evaluation criteria should be emphasized.

The study contributes to advancing our understanding of TM and strategic management in practice.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a survey of business schools examining the impact of market orientation on overall business school performance. The authors extend previous research by examining the possible moderating influence of accrediting body affiliation and administrative position of key informants on the relationships between the components of market orientation (customer orientation, competitor orientation, and inter-functional coordination) and overall performance for each of three markets (student, parent, and employer). Research objectives are stated in terms of 18 hypotheses.

The authors apply moderated regression analysis following the methodology used by Sharma, Durand, and Gur-Arie (1981) and Slater and Narver (1994), examining the variable relationships within schools affiliated through two accrediting bodies, from the perspective of business school deans and chief academic officers.

Results suggest moderating effects for three of the 18 relationships that were tested. Intelligence gathered from survey research within higher education is indicated to vary somewhat depending on key informant characteristics (accrediting body affiliation and administrative position in this study).

These results have practical implications for strategic planning within higher education. A better understanding of the differences within higher education will assist decision makers in responding to intelligence gathered within their own university, and will also assist them with strategies involving other universities (such as competitors or global partners).

These results within higher education have implications for survey research more broadly, supporting concerns by Phillips (1981) and others that researchers be mindful of key informant characteristics and other factors that could bias their judgments regarding organizational properties and other variables under investigation.

The purpose of this paper is to revise the concept of positioning to differentiate between fundamental approaches to it and chart a scheme of schools of positioning.

An extensive literature review traces the roots and evolution of the concept. Two approaches to positioning are explored and related to the paradigms of market and brand orientation. Based on current theory and practice, different schools of positioning are identified and categorized along a market- and brand-orientation spectrum. Metaphors differentiate schools of positioning, illustrated by case examples.

Positioning is a key concept in marketing, branding and strategy. However, its theoretical and practical usefulness is in peril due to its many meanings, applications and overall vagueness. There is a need for a theoretical overview of positioning, which the literature currently lacks. Two approaches to define a brand’s position are identified and introduced: market- and brand-oriented positioning. Five principal schools of positioning show how these are different and why differentiating between them matters. The choice of school implies the market- and/or brand-oriented approach to positioning.

Further empirical case-based research might investigate when, what and how different positioning schools are applied in practice. The brief cases in this paper indicate a dynamic over time regarding the applications of the brand- and market-oriented school of positioning. An in-depth theoretical and practical investigation of the dynamics of positions would be of value for the research field.

The distinction among different schools of thought helps bridge the gap between the theory and practice of positioning. A specific positioning objective can guide management in the selection of a particular school of positioning, which enables management to make more insightful conscious choices regarding its opportunities, limitations and consequences.

Position and positioning is of relevance in society in broad terms, e.g. in sports, politics and culture. Positioning strategy is discussed and implemented in different industries (business-to-business and consumer), for all kinds of brands (including, for instance, corporate brands) and for “brands” in the very widest sense (such as places or people).

This paper relates positioning to the fundamental discussion of brand and market orientation. It integrates positioning research and provides a structured overview of the concept.

Despite increasing interest in customer solutions, and the importance of brand management in the B2B context, prior research provides little understanding on brand positioning strategies adopted by solution providers. The present study aims to examine the possible brand positioning strategies for industrial firms providing customer solutions.

The empirical part of the present study consists of a multiple case study, involving four industrial firms providing customer solutions. Primary data was gathered by semi-structured interviews from a total of 22 business managers from the case companies.

The present study identifies four possible brand position strategies for industrial firms providing customer solutions: customer value diagnostic, global solution integrator, high quality sub-systems provider, and long-term service partner. The identified strategies highlight the tendency of solution suppliers to position their brands around different capabilities that are needed at different phases of the solution delivery process.

The present study was conducted from the industrial supplier's perspective and is context-bound to companies operating in solution-oriented process and information technology industries.

Managers need to identify the capabilities that are central to delivering customer value and acquire and/or develop capability configurations that differentiate their brand positioning from competitors.

Existing literature on branding lacks understanding about the specific characteristics of building brands in solution-oriented B2B contexts. The present study identifies four brand positioning strategies that illuminate the special characteristics of branding customer solutions.

Examines the role of key players such as front‐line and middle managers as well as executives in implementing and sustaining corporate gender diversity initiatives. Findings show that mentors and role models can have a great effect, especially in assisting women employees gain and complete high profile projects important for their advancement. Develops key leadership roles and discusses them through a number of case examples.

The purpose of this paper is to draw the perspective of dynamic adjustment costs, the author developed hypotheses regarding the relationships between the internationalization of business groups and first, key leaders of business groups who helped found the groups (i.e. founder-key leaders); second, business groups’ group-level decision teams where the majority of positions are held by members of the founding family (i.e. family-dominated decision teams); and third, business groups’ group-level decision teams where strong ties exist among these teams (i.e. strong-tie decision teams) because group-level top managers are simultaneously top managers of group affiliates.

This study used generalized least squares fixed-effects models to test its arguments about longitudinal data pertaining to 173 Taiwanese business groups’ foreign direct investments over a period of five years (2004-2008).

The results show that the presence of a founder-key leader and strong-tie group-level decision teams in a business group can positively affect the internationalization of business groups. However, family-dominated group-level decision teams in a business group can adversely affect the internationalization of business groups.

Using a dynamic managerial-capacities perspective, this study provides alternative explanations regarding the degree of business groups’ internationalization to demonstrate the links among business groups’ key leaders, group-level decision teams, and internationalization.

When deciding whether to expand abroad, managers at a given business group should carefully consider the characteristics of the group's management team because business groups engaging in such expansion are likely to incur dynamic adjustment costs. In this case, the dynamic managerial capacities of a business group play an important role in enabling the group to decrease dynamic adjustment costs. The differences among a group-level key leader's traits, a family-dominated group-level decision team's traits, and a strong-tie group-level decision team's traits will lead to distinct levels of dynamic managerial capacities within the group.

Given the increasing number of business groups entering international markets, this paper rests on the perspective of dynamic managerial capabilities and uses group-level evidence to clarify how the characteristics of key leaders and the characteristics of group-level decision teams in business groups affect the groups’ international expansion.

This paper aims to argue that traditional talent management practices cannot lead to organizational excellence.

On the basis of their extensive HR-experience, the authors analyze common talent management practices and demonstrate the need for a different approach.

Strategic talent management should align and mutually reinforce business development and personal development to enhance strategic success.

Increasing dynamics and agility in business require HR-professionals to really master strategic thinking and practices and develop themselves as true participants in strategy development.

Talent managers should start thinking in terms of strategic capabilities for the organization.

Strategic talent management starts with the where and what of the work that has to be done and only then looks at who.

The paper introduces the new concept of A-positions where top talents and strategic organizational capabilities can reinforce each other.

This paper aims to understand the key factors affecting collaborative innovation in a destination management organisation from a dynamic capability perspective.

An in-depth case study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with the CEO and Chairman of the destination management organisation (DMO) and internal DMO documents from 2011 to 2016. Thematic analysis was carried out on the data both deductively, with generic themes identified and informed by theory, and inductively, where detailed subthemes were developed from the data.

The success of innovation in the context of a DMO depends on having a strong base of microfoundations that underpin the DMO’s capabilities to sense and seize opportunities and reconfigure its assets for competitive advantage. Collaboration with the key players in the sector has been the essential elements of these microfoundations.

This study has been conducted within a single DMO case study. Future research should test the proposed models in different types of organisations and collaborative contexts.

The proposed dynamic capability framework helps managers achieve collaborative innovation, leading to competitive advantage through better development of relevant capabilities.

The study represents a first attempt to understand the key factors enabling successful collaborative innovation in the context of DMOs, from a dynamic capability perspective. The unique opportunity of accessing information and witnessing the changes in a DMO over a period of five years enabled the authors to gain in-depth insights and comprehensive understanding as to why and how a UK DMO has been successful in enhancing its business performance through a successful collaborative innovation.