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1 – 10 of over 76000Chia-Yang Chang, Kuen-Hung Tsai and Billy Sung
This paper examines the effect of market knowledge on market success of product innovativeness and the moderating role of absorptive capacity. We separated market knowledge into…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the effect of market knowledge on market success of product innovativeness and the moderating role of absorptive capacity. We separated market knowledge into market diversity and market significance components and examined their effects on radical product innovation performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopted the secondary database study. Excluding cases with missing values of main variables, a total of 1,219 Taiwanese manufacturing firms from the Third Taiwan Technology Innovation Survey (TTIS3) database were used to test the hypotheses. A moderated hierarchical regression approach was utilized to analyze the data.
Findings
The results revealed that the relationship between market diversity and radical product innovation performance is a predominantly positive concave downward curve. In contrast, the relationship between market significance and radical product innovation performance is a predominantly negative concave downward curve. Furthermore, the results also indicated that absorptive capacity has different moderating effects on the relationships between market diversity/significance and radical product innovation performance. Absorptive capacity enhances the negative effect of market significance but suppresses the positive effect of market diversity on radical product innovation performance.
Originality/value
This paper is the first research which contributes to examining the relationship between market knowledge and radical product innovation sale performance.
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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of selected determinants in building business success (comparative analysis between SME sector and large companies).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of selected determinants in building business success (comparative analysis between SME sector and large companies).
Design/methodology/approach
Research conducted among companies operating on the Polish market in 2015. 149 companies from the SME sector and 33 companies from the large companies' sector were submitted to the final analysis. PAPI and CAWI methods were used to collect data.
Findings
The performed research was an attempt to assess the ability of small and medium companies to compete in hectic times. The research was limited in scope. They however proved that rejecting the partial hypothesis was not possible, and as a result, it was also impossible to reject the main hypothesis according to which organizations, using market success determinants (MK – market knowledge, MO – marketing orientation, LO – learning organization) to a greater extent achieve better market performance (BS – business success).
Research limitations/implications
It should be noted that the research methodology had its limitations and imperfections. The research was carried out in the PAPI and CAWI market research forms. Standardization of the research method and research process certainly has its advantages. On the other hand, however, it does limit the in-depth observation. Linking the results of the SME sector survey to the large company sector remains inconclusive. Probably, because of the small size of the sample, the analyzed relationships were statistically insignificant. This applied primarily to the relationship between independent variables (MK – market knowledge, MO – marketing orientation, LO – learning organization) and the dependent variable (BS – business success).
Practical implications
Research has shown that the market success of small- and medium-sized companies depends on not only the ability to learn the market faster than competitors but also marketing orientation and market knowledge. It thus can be said that it is the ability to apply the knowledge and not its scale that is crucial for success. This conclusion seems to take on a completely different meaning in the era of new technologies, especially the phenomenon referred to as big data.
Originality/value
The analysis of the nature of market knowledge, marketing orientation and learning organization has shown how closely these concepts are related, how much they complement each other and facilitate the occurrence of synergy effects. There is a gap in the analysis of the relationship between these variables (market knowledge, marketing orientation, learning organization) and business success, especially in terms of the SME sector on the emerging markets. This paper attempt to reduce this gap.
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The strategic management literature emphasizes the concept of business intelligence (BI) as an essential competitive tool. Yet the sustainability of the firms’ competitive…
Abstract
The strategic management literature emphasizes the concept of business intelligence (BI) as an essential competitive tool. Yet the sustainability of the firms’ competitive advantage provided by BI capability is not well researched. To fill this gap, this study attempts to develop a model for successful BI deployment and empirically examines the association between BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage. Taking the telecommunications industry in Malaysia as a case example, the research particularly focuses on the influencing perceptions held by telecommunications decision makers and executives on factors that impact successful BI deployment. The research further investigates the relationship between successful BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage of the telecommunications organizations. Another important aim of this study is to determine the effect of moderating factors such as organization culture, business strategy, and use of BI tools on BI deployment and the sustainability of firm’s competitive advantage.
This research uses combination of resource-based theory and diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory to examine BI success and its relationship with firm’s sustainability. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and a two-phase sequential mixed method consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches are employed. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. The chapter presents a qualitative field study to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. The study includes a survey study with sample of business analysts and decision makers in telecommunications firms and is analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling.
The findings reveal that some internal resources of the organizations such as BI governance and the perceptions of BI’s characteristics influence the successful deployment of BI. Organizations that practice good BI governance with strong moral and financial support from upper management have an opportunity to realize the dream of having successful BI initiatives in place. The scope of BI governance includes providing sufficient support and commitment in BI funding and implementation, laying out proper BI infrastructure and staffing and establishing a corporate-wide policy and procedures regarding BI. The perceptions about the characteristics of BI such as its relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, and observability are also significant in ensuring BI success. The most important results of this study indicated that with BI successfully deployed, executives would use the knowledge provided for their necessary actions in sustaining the organizations’ competitive advantage in terms of economics, social, and environmental issues.
This study contributes significantly to the existing literature that will assist future BI researchers especially in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. In particular, the model will help practitioners to consider the resources that they are likely to consider when deploying BI. Finally, the applications of this study can be extended through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.
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Enterprise software is a predominant sector in the European software industry. Four of the five largest European software companies are found in this sector. Interestingly, two of…
Abstract
Enterprise software is a predominant sector in the European software industry. Four of the five largest European software companies are found in this sector. Interestingly, two of these — among them SAP as one of the two global market leaders — are located within the same industrial agglomeration in South-Western Germany. This agglomeration, the SAP cluster, further consists of enterprise software SMEs forming a ‘satellite system’ centred around the large players, which fosters the formation of ‘mutualistic symbiotic’ relationships between large and small firms. At first sight, cluster formation in the context of the enterprise software industry might seem perplexing considering that traditional rationales of agglomeration economies seem obsolete in an environment where advances in communications technology would permit companies to locate in any location within a modern developed economy instead of concentrating in proximity to each other or to major players in the industry. This chapter explores possible explanations of this agglomeration phenomenon based on patterns of competition, collaboration and the formation of social capital between smaller firms and large anchor firms.
The findings of a comparative analysis between the SAP cluster environment and two categories of controls (firms in other agglomerated environments and those unaffected by agglomeration effects within Germany) show that SAP cluster SMEs might simultaneously benefit from heightened intensity of competition and a more pronounced inclination towards collaboration. Moreover, the role of social capital derived from SAP as anchor firm clearly differentiates SAP cluster participants from firms located within other environments.
Filipe J. Sousa and Luis M. de Castro
Markets-as-networks (MAN) theorists contend, at least tacitly, the significance of business relationships to the firm – that is, business relationships contribute somewhat to…
Abstract
Markets-as-networks (MAN) theorists contend, at least tacitly, the significance of business relationships to the firm – that is, business relationships contribute somewhat to corporate survival or growth. One does not deny the existence of significant business relationships but sustain, in contrast to the consensus within the MAN theory, that relationship significance should not be a self-evident assumption. For significance cannot be a taken-for-granted property of each and every one of the firm's business relationships. The authors adopt explicitly a critical realist meta-theoretical position in this conceptual paper and claim that relationship significance is an event of the business world, whose causes remain yet largely unidentified. Where the powers and liabilities of business relationships (i.e., relationship functions and dysfunctions) are put to work, inevitably under certain contingencies (namely the surrounding networks and markets), relationship effects ensue for the firm (often benefits in excess of sacrifices, i.e., relationship value) and as a consequence relationship significance is likely to be brought about. In addition, relationship significance can result from the dual impact that business relationships may have on the structure and powers and liabilities of the firm, that is, on corporate nature and scope, respectively.
Shiaw‐Wen Tien, Yi‐Chan Chung, Chih‐Hung Tsai and Chung‐Yun Dong
In the competitive global market, firms have to keep profit from innovation activities. A firm makes profits by offering products or services at a lower cost than its competitors…
Abstract
In the competitive global market, firms have to keep profit from innovation activities. A firm makes profits by offering products or services at a lower cost than its competitors or by offering differentiated products at premium prices that more than compensate for the extra cost of differentiation. The IC Package and Testing technology industries were the first high technological industry to build in Taiwan. The Package and Testing industries in Taiwan adopted competitive innovation activities to become stronger. In our study, we want to know how innovation activities influence a firm operating in the IC Package and Testing industries. Our study used a questionnaire and Likert five‐point scale to survey the innovation activities, customer and feedback in innovation performance in the IC Package and Testing industry. The wafer level chip size packing technology in our study indicates the innovation activities. Because we need to compare the difference between the wafer level chip size packing technology and wire bonding technology to recognize innovation and how the innovator and customer were influenced. Our conclusions are described below: (1) When the innovator adopts innovation activities that can be maintained using experiments and knowledge, using machine and decision variables more quickly will produce success; (2) Innovators should adopt innovation activities that focus on customers that use knowledge and experimentation, training time and cost. If an innovation forces customers to spend much time and cost to learn new technology or applications, the innovation will not be adopted; (3) Innovators that create innovation performance higher than his customers must also consider the impact upon their customers. We have to remind innovator to focus on why their customers have a different level of evolution in the same innovation activities.
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Henry Langseth, Michele O'Dwyer and Claire Arpa
This study applies Oviatt and McDougall’s (2005) model of forces influencing the speed of internationalisation to small, export oriented enterprises. The purpose of this paper is…
Abstract
Purpose
This study applies Oviatt and McDougall’s (2005) model of forces influencing the speed of internationalisation to small, export oriented enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance of the forces enabling, motivating, mediating and moderating internationalisation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the manner in which these forces manifest themselves in the market.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative research approach utilising eight case studies within Norway and Ireland was adopted in order to facilitate theory building required for this study.
Findings
The findings demonstrate that four forces in particular are found to be strongly significant to the speed of internationalisation among the case SMEs: the enabling force of technology, the mediating force of entrepreneurial actor perceptions/owner-managers’ global vision and the moderating forces of foreign market knowledge and tie strength in networks.
Practical implications
The empirical evidence has several implications for managers and policy regarding influencing the speed of internationalisation process. The enabling force (technology) has implications for government in their support of the SME macro environment. The motivating force (competition) has implications for government, in understanding what motivates entrepreneurs to enter international markets. The two moderating forces (foreign market knowledge and network tie strength) have implications for managers and can be leveraged through product innovation, increased focus on intellectual property rights for better protection against copycats, and through active and deliberate international networking.
Originality/value
The paper suggests adjustments to Oviatt and McDougall’s (2005) model, permitting researchers to gain an in-depth understanding of the complex reality of SME internationalisation.
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Sheshadri Chatterjee, Ranjan Chaudhuri and Demetris Vrontis
This study examines the relationship between knowledge-sharing activities of the firm and its innovation capability. It also investigates the moderating impact of the firms'…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the relationship between knowledge-sharing activities of the firm and its innovation capability. It also investigates the moderating impact of the firms' absorptive capacity on the relationship between knowledge sharing and firm innovation capability from the cross-subsidiary perspective in the international market environment.
Design/methodology/approach
This study reviewed the literature from the areas of knowledge management, international market and innovation management. Through the literature review, absorptive capacity theory and dynamic capability view (DCV) theory, a conceptual model has been developed. This model has been validated using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique with 612 respondents from 16 multinational firms from different countries.
Findings
The study finds that knowledge-sharing activities across subsidiaries of multinational firms are important for product and process innovation. Firms’ absorptive capacity also impacts the relationship between firms' knowledge-sharing activities and their different dynamic capabilities, such as sensing, seizing and transforming. The study also finds that firms' innovation capability positively impacts their competitiveness.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides valuable inputs to the management of multinational firms to recognize the importance of knowledge-sharing activities across their different subsidiaries in the international marketing knowledge management (MKM) context.
Originality/value
The study adds to the literature on knowledge management, international market and firms' innovation capability. As the study examines the knowledge-sharing activities across different subsidiaries of multinational firms, especially in the context of process and product innovation, it is considered unique. The study also provides a unique validated model.
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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some…
Abstract
Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.
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Aqueeb Sohail Shaik, Monika Jain, Aparna Mendiratta, Ghadah Alarifi and Elisa Arrigo
The purpose of this study is to investigate the significance and impact of strategic knowledge management (SKM) practices and organisational change capacity (OCC) in improving…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the significance and impact of strategic knowledge management (SKM) practices and organisational change capacity (OCC) in improving strategic thinking and strategic orientation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their contribution in overall improvement of entrepreneurial performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative research methodology using partial least square structural equation modelling with data of 296 sample from the target group as managers and owners from various SMEs in the UK has been used in the study.
Findings
The findings suggest that SMEs that invest in SKM and OCC are more proficient at adjusting to fluctuations in the business landscape and develop effective strategies that lead to improved entrepreneurial performance. The study provides evidence that SKM encompasses more than just the acquisition and use of information. It also involves the establishment of a learning and innovation culture that facilitates strategic thinking and direction. Similarly, OCC is not just about implementing change but also about developing the agility and flexibility to adapt to market changes, consumer demands and technology.
Practical implications
According to the research, SMEs may boost their entrepreneurial performance and keep a competitive advantage in the modern, dynamic business environment by investing in SKM and OCC. The capacity of SMEs to implement SKM and organisational change should be encouraged and supported by policymakers and practitioners, who should also offer the necessary tools and assistance to do so.
Originality/value
This study offers a valuable addition to the previously published works on SKM and OCC within SMEs. It offers empirical data that highlights the significance of SKM and OCC in fostering strategic thinking, strategic orientation and ultimately, boosting entrepreneurial performance. The study also highlights the challenges faced by SMEs in implementing SKM and OCC and provides recommendations for overcoming these challenges.
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