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Purpose: The main goal of this discussion is to explain how competitiveness could be an important source of knowledge and economic power in a society, especially in the period of higher demands on knowledge, innovation and organisational base growth. Our focus of the discussion will be tourism as an important service sector economic activity in countries all over the world.

Methodology: The chapter will be conceptually based on its goal to develop the theories of competitiveness and to discuss how competitiveness influences knowledge, organisational processes and forms with a focus on tourism services.

Findings: Competitiveness in tourism depends on many factors. As an intangible source of knowledge, organisational culture processes and organisational forms generally influences tourism activity. For this reason, not only is comparative advantage important in the competitiveness concept, but also competitive advantage and the way of deploying resources play an important role.

Significance: Resources are not only based on labour, capital and land (neoclassical theory approach), but resource-advantage theory underlines the importance of financial, physical, legal, human, organisational, informational and relational capital. In this process, new processes and organisational forms must be created, as well as innovative approaches to processes and the importance of knowledge capital.

Practical Implications: New ideas about this process could be helpful for researchers and practitioners to recognise the importance of competitiveness for their work and research.

This paper aims to enrich absorptive capacity literature by specifically highlighting and adding environmental conditions and internationalisation process to the original conceptualisation.

The authors undertake a conceptual analysis and present an enhanced framework of absorptive capacity by integrating multiple literature streams. The authors have analysed the most relevant literature to provide underlying justifications for the proposed conceptual model.

Absorptive capacity ensures the long-term survival and success of a business. To develop absorptive capacity successfully, firms should focus on its various dimensions and existing intangible assets and external environment. The multidimensionality and richness of absorptive capacity is an under-explored area in the existing literature. The authors revisit the conceptualisation of absorptive capacity and add environmental conditions and the internationalisation process to the original conceptualisation. Absorptive capacity does not lead to a competitive advantage independent of its environment. To successfully develop it, firms have to adopt a holistic approach by considering the multi-dimensions, drivers and contextual conditions of absorptive capacity.

This study contributes by conceptualising absorptive capacity as a dynamic capability. It is one of the first studies to specifically propose a framework that combines antecedents (prior knowledge, combinative capabilities and IT capabilities), moderators (environmental conditions, namely, market and technological turbulence, competitiveness and the internationalisation process) and consequences (competitive advantage). The study offers a unique conceptualisation with implications for researchers and managers. As a result, managers will have a well-defined blueprint to create value by using firm capabilities.

This paper aims to verify the effect of organizational learning (OL) and two specific aspects of innovation, innovation speed and innovation quality, on competitive advantage.

Structural equation modeling has been applied to test the degree of influence of OL and innovation on two types of competitive advantage (differentiation and low-cost advantage) using data collected from 279 Chinese firms.

The findings show that innovation speed and quality play mediating roles in the relationship between OL and competitive advantage. In general, while innovation speed has greater effects on low-cost competitive advantage, OL and innovation quality have greater effects on differentiation competitive advantage.

This paper offers directors/managers a deeper understanding of the factors necessary to promote competitive advantage in their firms.

This paper offers CEOs/managers a deeper understanding of the necessary factors needed to promote competitive advantage in their firms.

This paper provides practical and theoretical initiatives on innovation and competitive advantage that can be used to promote specific aspects of innovation and build up competitive advantage for relevant organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to improve understanding and provide guidance for investments in organizational learning mechanisms for the establishment and evolution of organizational capabilities such as project portfolio management (PPM) and project management capabilities.

A multiple‐case study research project investigates the development of PPM capabilities in six successful organizations across diverse industries.

The research indicates that PPM and organizational learning are dynamic capabilities that enhance an organization's ability to achieve and maintain competitive advantage in dynamic environments. PPM capabilities are shown to co‐evolve through a combination of tacit experience accumulation, explicit knowledge articulation and explicit knowledge codification learning mechanisms. Although all three learning mechanisms are important throughout the establishment and evolution of PPM capability development, the research indicates that the development of an effective PPM capability will require particularly strong investments in enhancing tacit experience accumulation mechanisms and explicit knowledge codification mechanisms during the initial establishment or during periods of radical change to the PPM process.

The research includes a sample of six case studies and the results may not be generalisable. In addition, the research was conducted over a short period of time whereas a longitudinal study would be required to gain more detailed information about the development of capabilities over time.

The findings suggest that managers can enhance and sustain competitive advantage by investing in tacit experience accumulation as well as explicit knowledge articulation and codification learning mechanisms to develop their PPM capability. Strengthened investment in experience accumulation and knowledge codification learning mechanisms is recommended during establishment of the PPM capability.

This paper contributes to the understanding of the links between organizational learning and the development of dynamic capabilities. Original hypotheses are proposed and some initial support for these hypotheses is provided through multiple‐case study research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of human resource (HR) management practices on achieving competitive advantage through studying the mediating role of employee satisfaction in the context of five-star hotels in Northern Cyprus.

To produce numeric data as well as to test the hypothesis, the researchers employed structural equation modeling and AMOS. The testing included (n=439) questionnaires. The model suggested by the authors examined the tourism sector, and in particular, five-star hotels located in Northern Cyprus.

The main research findings revealed that HR practices had a significant effect on competitive advantage. By comparison, the research findings revealed that the mediator variable had no effect on achieving competitive advantage for five-star hotels in Northern Cyprus.

This study demonstrates originality by responding to the recommendations of prior studies conducted on HR in Northern Cyprus Island. This makes a theoretical contribution to the field, since only Turkey recognizes Northern Cyprus, which makes conducting research on this country a challenge for researchers worldwide. Based on this study’s outcomes, this paper discusses its theoretical and practical implications, as well as recommendations for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedents of successful organizational cross-border knowledge transfer and also the relationship among the antecedents for sustainable competitive advantage.

First, a focus group study was conducted to identify major constructs and map out the proposed framework. This is then followed by questionnaire survey from 210 Malaysian multimedia super corridor (MSC) status corporations as recipients. Their international business affiliates refer to any organizations located outside Malaysia with which the recipient firm has a relationship. Data were analysed using SPSS.

The findings suggest that the perceived value of the knowledge, relational dimension and cognitive dimension, as well as recipient learning intent and the attractiveness of a foreign source are significant related to the effectiveness of organizational cross-border knowledge transfer.

Because this research only covered 210 MSC status corporations, future research can try to have more coverage on other industry to have larger sample size for generalizability purposes. Other factors such as organizational and context characteristics can be added as antecedents to strengthen the framework for effective knowledge transfer.

The empirical findings can be used as a guideline for MSC status firms to undergo a self-check and help them rethink and reposition themselves in light of the findings. It helps MSC status corporations to frame their organizational cross-border knowledge transfer activities to enable the creation and application of knowledge which should allow them to drive the capability of creating and retaining a greater value onto their core business competencies.

This study provides valuable insights to help creating a successful foundation for organizational cross-border knowledge transfer. This study is also among few studies to examine the critical antecedents in successful organizational cross-border knowledge transfer from a multidimensional perspective in Malaysia.

The purpose of this paper is to consider organisational sustainability in the small- to medium-sized enterprises (SME) context focussing on a resource-based view. The paper overlays two contrasting perspectives: those of the SME and human resource (HR) perspectives to allow for the development of a composite model of organisational sustainability for SMEs.

The paper overlays four models of Carson’s (1985, 1990) small firm evolution and unique characteristics of SMEs; Wright et al.’s (2001) pertaining to the application of the resource-based view of the firm perspective to strategic HR and Boudreau and Ramstad (2005) model of effectiveness, efficiency and impact of talentship. The paper, in particular, considers the human resource management (HRM) perspectives pertaining to the overlay and considers how these might impact organisational sustainability.

An outcome of the paper is the development of a composite model to the SME and HR perspectives of organisational sustainability and its applicability to the SME context.

The paper suggests a number of emergent areas for future research. Future research should focus on the intangible aspects and softer elements of the organisational resource base. The majority of work in this area is grounded in the positivist paradigm. Future research should consider a pluralists perspective and draw on traditions of the post-positivist paradigm, for example, social constructionism.

SME-support agencies and consultants who work with SMEs need, therefore, to work with them in assessing their competency spectra and then to help them develop the talent pools required to effect continued growth and success. In doing so SMEs need to be guided towards a better understanding of the traditional temporal cycle of recruitment; in essence, they need to ensure that they have the right competency set in situ in the early stages of the firms’ development.

This paper is unique in its approach to the examination of sustainability within the context of SMEs and, in particular, the HRM aspects which contribute towards organisational survival, growth and sustainability.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

This research paper analyzes the dynamics between innovative organizational culture, leadership, and flexibility to adapt to market demands. The results from the analysis of resource-poor SMEs in Ghana reveal that organizational leadership and culture both positively drive a service company's competitive advantage. Also, market flexibility fully impacts the relationship between organizational culture and competitive advantage, with a partial impact seen on the relationship between organizational leadership and competitive advantage. Firms are advised to create flexible attitudes in their people culture, leadership, and processes, as a way of competitively adapting at low cost to market shifts and customer demands.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

This paper aims to examine the views of the global knowledge management (KM) community on the research area of KM and business performance and identify key future research themes.

An interview study spanning 222 informants in 38 countries was launched to collect data on KM expert views concerning the future research needs of the KM field.

The value contribution of KM requires more research despite experts agreeing on the complexities involved in solving this challenge. Further research areas identified were related to the influence of KM to support business strategy, intellectual capital, decision-making, knowledge sharing, organizational learning, innovation performance, productivity and competitive advantage.

The sample is dominated by European-based KM experts and the self-selecting sampling approach that was used by relying on the networks of each partner could have biased the structure of this sample.

The recognition of the complexity to demonstrate the value contribution of KM could prevent practitioners from using over-simplified approaches and encourage them to use more advanced measurement approaches.

The paper is unique, in that it reports on the views of 222 KM experts from 38 countries representing both academia and practice, on the issue of future research needs in terms of KM and business outcomes. As such it provides valuable guidance for future studies in the KM field and related subjects.

The importance of new product development to the survival and success of firms is well supported in the literature; however, few studies have investigated new product development in small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). This study aims to examine the impact of product launch, product advantage and market orientation on new product development performance and organisational performance in SMEs.

This model was tested using data collected from 48 small and large sized firms in Ireland. Findings from 33 small and 15 large firms were compared, and a correlation analysis was used to establish the relationships defined in the model for both small and large firms.

The study identified several significant differences between the impact of product launch, product advantage and market orientation on new product development and organisational performance in small and large firms. It also indicated several areas in which small firms can improve their new product and organisational performance.

This research builds on prior empirical research that has established a positive link between customer and competitor orientation and performance of small firms.

The managerial implications suggest that managers need to place a greater emphasis on product launch proficiency, new product characteristics and market orientation.

The results show that a market orientation, as well as having a direct impact on organisational performance, also affects new product development activities.