Search results

1 – 10 of over 49000
Article
Publication date: 7 March 2016

Xinchun Wang, Dennis B Arnett and Limin Hou

The purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of the process used by organizations to leverage external knowledge. A model of the knowledge leveraging process is…

1381

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of the process used by organizations to leverage external knowledge. A model of the knowledge leveraging process is developed, which hypothesizes joint sensemaking is a key antecedent to both explicit and tacit knowledge exchange, a dual role for explicit knowledge exchange (i.e. as an antecedent of both tacit knowledge exchange and absorptive capacity) and absorptive capacity is a key mediator between knowledge exchange (both explicit and tacit) and organizational innovativeness.

Design/methodology/approach

The hypothesized model is tested using survey data gathered from over 230 Chinese companies. The results from the analysis of the hypothesized model are compared to ones from a theory-based rival model. The analyses are performed using partial least squares analysis.

Findings

The results suggest key roles for both joint sensemaking and absorptive capacity in the knowledge exchange process. In addition, our findings provide evidence regarding the interplay between explicit and tacit knowledge exchange and their role in the knowledge leveraging process.

Research limitations/implications

The cross-sectional nature of the study provides limited inferences regarding causality. In addition, organizational innovativeness is measured using self-reported, subjective assessments. However, the results provide valuable insights into the knowledge leveraging process.

Practical implications

The study increases our understanding of how organizations leverage external knowledge to improve organizational innovativeness. In addition, it provides specific guidance for managers interested in leveraging external knowledge.

Originality/value

Knowledge and knowledge management issues are receiving increased attention in the marketing literature. However, due to the complexity involved in transferring and using external knowledge, our understanding of the processes involved is limited. Our study provides some insights regarding how firms leverage external knowledge and therefore should be of interest to both researchers and practitioners.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 31 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 June 2017

Anna Goussevskaia, Carlos Arruda and Samir Lótfi

Firms across many industries use acquisitions as a vehicle for renewing their capabilities. Many such acquisitions fail to achieve their goals, mainly because of the trade-offs…

Abstract

Purpose

Firms across many industries use acquisitions as a vehicle for renewing their capabilities. Many such acquisitions fail to achieve their goals, mainly because of the trade-offs involved in managing the post-acquisition integration process. The acquisition integration process not only is an important phenomenon by itself but also offers a unique opportunity to gain insight into how firms transform their capabilities more generally. Recent strategic management literature has begun to recognize the importance of incorporating individual-level cognitive, motivational and behavioral mechanisms into firm-level explanations, although empirical studies within this vein have been scarce.

Design/methodology/approach

This longitudinal inductive study traces the process of capability transformation in an acquisition of a medium-size entrepreneurial firm by a larger corporation.

Findings

The authors found that capability transformation involved a continuous interplay of knowledge leveraging and interest alignment mechanisms, converging around a set of practices that were considered critical for the capability. Only after firms achieved an agreement about this set of practices that knowledge leveraging efforts translated into actual performance.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the literature on competitive advantage by developing a better link between the potential advantage derived from the availability of knowledge-based resources and the translation of this availability into actual firm performance. This study also advances knowledge on managing post-acquisition integration process by demonstrating which managerial skills and actions contribute to the integration capability.

Details

Management Research: Journal of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management, vol. 15 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1536-5433

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 June 2022

Pradeep Ray, Sangeeta Ray and Vikas Kumar

Contemporary frameworks in the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm observe that the proprietary firm-specific assets of multinational companies (MNCs) from developed economies…

Abstract

Purpose

Contemporary frameworks in the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm observe that the proprietary firm-specific assets of multinational companies (MNCs) from developed economies give them competitive advantage in international markets. However, the question “how do emerging market firms (EMFs) achieve accelerated internationalisation in knowledge based industries – despite not possessing proprietary assets and lacking critical elements of innovation eco-systems, institutions and infrastructure” has yet to be addressed. This paper aims to adopt a knowledge-based view (KBV) of the firm, identifying knowledge, both inside and outside of the firm, as a critical element for the internationalization of EMFs.

Design/methodology/approach

This research entailed deductive econometric analyses using panel data analysis from 925 firm-year observations, which tested our predictions on capabilities that contribute to the internationalization of EMFs from the IT industry in India.

Findings

The findings of the authors’ panel data analysis reveal that the capacity to internationalize is predicated by knowledge leverage in three principal domains: absorptive capacity, tacit knowledge and knowledge-codification. This study shows internationalization is driven by higher-order capabilities of EMFs that draw on the absorptive capacity of individuals and collectives as a dynamic capability to serve international clients worldwide.

Research limitations/implications

This study highlights that the process by which EMFs gain competence is different to the Western MNCs insofar as the extent to which EMFs have to stretch their efforts of learning from clients.

Practical implications

For practitioners, the findings of this research are a useful guide to understand that EMFs need to make strategic investments to understand the idiosyncrasies of a variety of clients’ needs and operating environments to dynamically adapt, document the learning and leverage the tacit knowledge.

Social implications

This study captures the innate ability of entrepreneurs in emerging economies to unlock their potential in human capital for globalizing operations and targeting new market segments in the industry. This can directly benefit in uplifting the income level of millions in relatively underdeveloped countries and bringing about much-needed equity in the level of income in the society.

Originality/value

The value of this study lies in its novel and contemporary insight on how EMFs leapfrog in a fast-changing technology space. What distinguishes the work from the static framework in literature is that EMFs learning is dynamic, and happens in an interactive mode, alongside clients in close proximity. This study captures the innate ability of entrepreneurs to unlock the potential of human capital in emerging economies for globalizing operations.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 27 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Knowledge Assets and Knowledge Audits
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-771-4

Article
Publication date: 5 June 2007

Andreas N. Andreou and Nick Bontis

The paper seeks to develop a business model that shows the impact of operational knowledge assets on intellectual capital (IC) components and business performance and use the…

3513

Abstract

Purpose

The paper seeks to develop a business model that shows the impact of operational knowledge assets on intellectual capital (IC) components and business performance and use the model to show how knowledge assets can be prioritized in driving resource allocation decisions.

Design/methodology/approach

Quantitative data were collected from 84 high‐tech federal contractors in the Washington DC metro area. Respondents in the target population were middle‐level and operations managers of business sectors holding positions as presidents, vice‐presidents, directors, engineering managers, operations managers, and analysts. Partial least squares (PLS) analysis was performed to develop a structural model between operational knowledge assets and IC components that maximizes explained variance for business performance. Operational assets were specified as formative constructs and IC and business performance were specified as reflective constructs.

Findings

A parsimonious conceptually sound model with significant measured variables and path coefficients was developed that explains almost 40 percent of the variance in business performance. The model shows both the interrelationships between the IC components that drive performance and the operational assets as levers for each IC component, respectively.

Research limitations/implications

The scope of the study was focused on the high‐tech federal contractors in the USA. However, the model can be applied and tested in different industry sectors. This would provide evidence of the different operational knowledge assets used as levers in different industry sectors.

Practical implications

Senior executives and chief financial officers in particular are constantly challenged with making the optimum investment decisions given their budget constraints. The model offers a tool for developing and evaluating different resource allocation decisions based on an organization's strategic intent. In addition, the model can be useful in evaluating merger and acquisition decisions. In evaluating target companies the model can be used to identify the core capabilities or competency areas that the target company is leveraging and assess the impact or integration potential for the acquiring company.

Originality/value

This is the first study in the field of IC that has adopted the use of formative indicators in specifying operational knowledge asset constructs. Previous research has focused on developing models with the use of proxy measures as reflective indicators. Therefore the emphasis so far has been on scale development. The use of formative items in this study fills both the business need and theory gap to understand better the causal relationships that exist between work and knowledge assets.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 14 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 July 2018

Hung Nguyen and Norma Harrison

Nowadays, companies compete and win based on the capabilities they can leverage across their supply chains. With unpredictable and turbulent business environment, supply chains…

1202

Abstract

Purpose

Nowadays, companies compete and win based on the capabilities they can leverage across their supply chains. With unpredictable and turbulent business environment, supply chains are seeking to customer knowledge as sources of competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to empirically test a conceptual framework to investigate the roles of customer leverage (CL) on process innovation and the relationships to performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing upon the knowledge-based view, this study argues that CL is the sources of firms’ process innovation. This study also posits that process innovation mediates the relationship between CL and performance based on transaction cost economics. This empirical study employed 650 manufacturers across different regions.

Findings

This study showed that strong association exists between a manufacturing firm’s CL capability and its process innovation and performances. Process innovation play critical mediating roles in absorbing and transforming customer knowledge in supply chains. In a more dynamic market, CL strengthens the positive impacts on process innovation.

Research limitations/implications

This study further highlights the need to emphasize both strategic and CL capability in dynamic environments as these may be needed to enable the firm to seize market niches that may open up in such environments. Similarly, managers should emphasize CL capability and process changes in competitive environments as they are more difficult to imitate from competitors in regards of new product or services.

Practical implications

These results extend the limited existing research on global manufacturing context that the customer knowledge are effective sources for increasing innovative processes. The higher the market turbulence, the stronger the pressures for CL demanded by process innovation. The findings also confirm that process innovation plays a mediating role in absorbing and transforming customer knowledge in improving costs and financial measures. This is an important result that highlights the mechanism by which customer knowledge can influence a firm’s bottom line.

Originality/value

This study examined the linkages between a marketing concept and operations and supply chain management.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 25 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 November 2019

Lisa J. Daniel and Fang Huang

The purpose of this paper is to propose alternative ways to develop and leverage organisational knowledge by considering the nexus of data managed by information and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose alternative ways to develop and leverage organisational knowledge by considering the nexus of data managed by information and communications technologies and the expertise of human capacity. In doing so this paper challenges current understanding of tacit–explicit knowledge boundaries and presents a third dimension of knowledge which can be developed as a strategic organisational resource.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper seeks to extend current understanding of knowledge and presents the organisational knowledge nexus as a confluence of information, knowledge resources and human potential. Knowledge management is explored through the theoretical frameworks of the knowledge nexus and a model of triadic knowledge. Their conceptualisation and development are discussed and illustrated.

Findings

This research suggests the potential for organisational knowledge resources to be advanced is greater, if organisations can strategically use the knowledge nexus with a triadic perspective of knowledge. A framework for knowledge development with increasing levels of insight is proposed.

Research limitations/implications

As a novel conceptual work this research has limitations of newness. It presents a challenge to conventional thinking because of the subliminal nature of latent knowledge and the causal ambiguity of its development process in the knowledge nexus. The potential of latent knowledge and its transition process in the organisational knowledge nexus has significant implications for organisational knowledge development.

Originality/value

The concepts of latent knowledge, the knowledge nexus and their potential ability to develop and leverage organisational knowledge resources presents a paradigm shift to currently accepted understanding of knowledge systems and organisational knowledge management. The originality and value of this work comes through its contribution to broadening our understanding of the scope and potential of organisational knowledge resources and their processes of transition and development.

Details

VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, vol. 49 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-5891

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1997

Terry Finerty

The establishment of a learning culture supported by powerful knowledge systems can transform the rate and quality of learning. Those factors key to the learning culture not only…

1928

Abstract

The establishment of a learning culture supported by powerful knowledge systems can transform the rate and quality of learning. Those factors key to the learning culture not only help accelerate the rate of learning and knowledge creation, they also provide a solid foundation for building meaning and motivation in the workplace. A case study is presented describing how Action Learning, supported by an intranet knowledge system (Open Learning Centre), provides the means to capture and leverage knowledge as well as contributing to skills development.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 1 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 March 2023

Sanjay Chaudhary, Amandeep Dhir, Nicola Farronato, Melita Nicotra and Marco Pironti

The importance of knowledge-based assets and the capability to leverage them has been the subject of scholarly interest in entrepreneurial orientation literature. The authors…

Abstract

Purpose

The importance of knowledge-based assets and the capability to leverage them has been the subject of scholarly interest in entrepreneurial orientation literature. The authors attempt to understand the dominant themes in the prior literature and propose directions for future research.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors performed a systematic review of 79 studies to answer the research questions: (1) What are the predominant themes in the literature on the role of intellectual capital and entrepreneurial orientation? (2) What are the potential fields of future research?

Findings

The findings suggest that current research engages the topics of intellectual capital, the capability to leverage knowledge assets and entrepreneurial orientation. The thematic analysis reveals the role of knowledge management, organizational learning, intellectual capital and absorptive capacity in entrepreneurial firms. The authors propose a theoretical model to explain how intellectual capital and its management influence firm-level entrepreneurial behavior.

Originality/value

Understanding the association between intellectual capital and the capability to leverage knowledge assets is crucial in a dynamic business environment. Effective deployment of knowledge is vital while searching for new entrepreneurial opportunities.

Details

Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol. 24 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1469-1930

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 May 2017

Stefano Borzillo

This research aims to uncover three forms of communities of practice (CoPs), based on a set of six governance mechanisms. The focus is on the specific question of how…

1048

Abstract

Purpose

This research aims to uncover three forms of communities of practice (CoPs), based on a set of six governance mechanisms. The focus is on the specific question of how organizations combine different governance mechanisms to balance autonomy and control in the management (steering) of CoPs. This paper is based on a study of 16 CoPs in nine multinational organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

The method used is a multiple case study conducted in 16 CoPs within nine multinational organizations. Ninety-two informants were interviewed over a period of four years.

Findings

Data revealed three distinct governance patterns for CoPs (three forms of CoPs), each associated with different knowledge processes and representing a different path toward a balance between autonomy and control. Expanding communities focus on improving existing products by recombining bodies of knowledge supported by a governance pattern that achieves balance by making moderate use of a wide selection of governance mechanisms. Leveraging communities are dedicated to improving operational efficiency by transferring best practices supported by a governance pattern that combines strong technical authority (leadership) with low disciplinary authority. Probing communities focus on generating new practices by exploring new knowledge domains supported by a governance pattern that replaces direct managerial control with indirect nurturing of the community’s routines. Probing communities also establish linkages beyond the community’s boundaries to enable knowledge to be shared with individuals throughout (and outside) the organization (boundary-spanning).

Research limitations/implications

The size and scope of the sample limit the generalizability of the findings. Although the study involved a variety of different organizations, it concentrated merely on large and multinational organizations. Thus, larger-scale empirical work is needed to statistically evaluate the relationships that are described in the findings, and to help specify the conditions according to which these relationships may vary.

Practical implications

This study should help managers understand which form of CoP is most appropriate to meet a particular knowledge objective. If the objective is the creation of new knowledge via the recombination of bodies of existing knowledge, expanding communities are appropriate. Leveraging communities are better suited for transfers of best practices within the organization. Finally, probing communities should be used to explore new knowledge domains.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the understanding of CoP dynamics by revealing different governance patterns deployed to balance autonomy and control in CoPs. It also contributes to organization learning by revealing different learning processes that constitute the three forms of CoPs.

Details

Journal of Business Strategy, vol. 38 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0275-6668

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 49000