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The Resource‐Based View of the Firm (RBV) has become an important stream of literature in strategic management. RDV's main prescription is that strategic assets are crucial determinants of sustainable competitive advantage and thus firm performance. Unfortunately, little empirical research has been occasioned to substantiate that prescription. Part of the difficulty in empirically testing RBV's main prescription lies in identifying resources capable of being strategic assets. This article combines RBV logic, the definition of strategic assets, Hall's studies, and the logic embodied in several streams of management literature to explain why strategic assets are intangible in nature, to show that not all intangible resources are strategic assets, and to demonstrate that company reputation, product reputation, employee knowhow, and organizational culture possess the characteristics of strategic assets. That is the foundation for the proposed hypotheses and proposed conceptual model presented in this paper for testing RBV's main prescription. We also discuss the practical, theoretical and empirical implications of this paper and make suggestions regarding empirical testing.

To provide practitioners of information management with an overview and framework to explore the various controversies associated with the methods of traditional methods of voting with electronically enhanced voting via the internet (I‐voting). The current paper is centered on the assumption that I‐voting is the next logical step in applying online information‐gathering and retrieval technologies to the field of e‐government.

A review of the applied literature on electronically enhanced voting methods with potentials associated with internet voting, as well as from practical experience, resulted in a basic model for discussion of the emergent nature of I‐voting.

I‐voting would reduce the cost for staffing polling stations, and also the funds needed to pay for voting machines. I‐voting could also reduce the number of errors made by both the voters and the electoral administrators, and allow for easier adoption of uniform standards in the ballot format, since it could be transmitted via the internet from a central election agency to all local and regional polling places. Bridging the digital divide and internet security issues may be the most important barriers that must be overcome if I‐voting becomes a viable option in the USA.

It may be years, if ever, before a truly secure, relatively risk‐free internet service, such as I‐voting, is developed. However, despite the controversies associated with election fraud, the numerous current voting systems that are in place suffer from the same problems associated with online informational exchanges; but, for the most part, nations still conduct their businesses and the political systems are still relatively stable.

Owing to recent voting débâcles in the USA, the public is demanding a more reliable and secure method of voting. Currently, many nations are moving more toward electronically enhanced voting methods with the long‐term goal being internet voting. Unfortunately, there are heated debates about the pros and cons of handing over the right to vote, using a system that is prone to security risks from outside sources.

In the short term, there should be increased interest in establishing national and international standards for testing and certification of electronic and I‐voting systems and their IT‐infrastructure. It is a basic premise of the present study that voting online increases voter participation, which can only be viewed in a positive light.

Analysis of social trends of the past several decades indicates the growth of significant social‐political issues which, if predicted in the late 1950s, might have made the position of business firms stronger in the 1970s, and far better prepared to cope with the 1980s. Examples abound. They follow a pattern of peaking and waning where peaks were preceded by measurable signals from the environment. Had these signals been recognized, they could have been adapted to strategic and tactical business plans.

Knowledge is a resource that is valuable to an organization’s ability to innovate and compete. It exists within the individual employees, and also in a composite sense within the organization. According to the resource‐based view of the firm (RBV), strategic assets are the critical determinants of an organization’s ability to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. This paper will combine RBV theory with characteristics of knowledge to show that organizational knowledge is a strategic asset. Knowledge management is discussed frequently in the literature as a mechanism for capturing and disseminating the knowledge that exists within the organization. This paper will also explain practical considerations for implementation of knowledge management principles.

Traditionally, corporate planning was, and sometimes still is, a curious blend of aspiration, perspiration, and inspiration. In this age of Future Shock these virtues are admirable but not sufficient. Nor do simple trend projections deal effectively with external conditions related to consumer behavior, federal reserve policies, energy uncertainties, stock market fluctuations, and technical innovations such as computer networks and time‐sharing. Fortunately, a relatively new tool, made possible through electronic computers, improves the planner's capability to cope with accelerated change and the increasing risks associated with planning for such change.

The purpose of this paper is to provide practitioners of management a sense of how a major grocery retail business may flourish on the internet, but by employing a more brick‐and‐mortar approach, through the extensive use of a knowledge‐management system, namely KnowAsis™.

The paper is a review of the applied literature on practices and actual examples of companies' practices through personal interviews and basic empirical analysis of managers located in Pittsburgh, PA.

Giant Eagle's new knowledge‐based system utilizes interactive capabilities and attempts to standardize valuable knowledge in a properly stored format in order to made available to those employees that ot would benefit the most. Among other benefits of its knowledge‐management system, data mining and support for the front‐end personnel could be especially enumerated. It is recommended that the company should pay closer attention to the scalability of the system and the technologies involved, since it would be the key of successful future development. The primary feature is that the posted content is essentially owned and managed by the particular business area and reviewed on a periodic basis; thus the shared information through the various departments and knowledge shared is not permanent.

By investing heavily in its knowledge‐management portal, Giant Eagle, a major grocery retailer in the US marketplace, is looking at improved financial competitiveness, efficiency of operation, and increased market share. The management at GE is hoping that by leveraging its digital‐sharing system to promote the sharing of important ideas, best business practices, and lessons learned; the entire organization will become transformed by a new culture of knowledge sharing.

The paper highlights the retail grocery industry is under immense pressure by external and internal stakeholders to remain competitive in a high volume transactional environment by sharing best business practices, policies, and procedures. Today, many of the most dramatic and potentially powerful uses of Internet‐based technology involve networks that connect the people in a company, allowing them to share, manage and create data readily accessible by everyone in the company.

To provide practitioners of knowledge management with a sense of the importance of reverse logistics as an important part of today's company policies, especially throughout the product life cycle, with the accompanying technology that supports it and the effects on customer relation management (CRM) and satisfaction.

A review of the applied literature of reverse logistics and its effects on CRM resulted in a basic model and empirical verification of such effects.

As shown from the empirical section of the present study (n=102), the ease of locating returns procedures and the rating given by respondents to the overall returns process were found to be statistically very significant regarding whether the ease of returning items had an influence on purchasing decisions for most respondents. As demonstrated in the results of stepwise regression analysis of the two independent variables, the largest share of explained variance was explained by the variable, Returns' Procedures.

The purpose of reverse logistics is to accommodate customers wanting to return items and how to account for such accommodations. The breakdown, process, and analysis of reverse logistics will portray the significance of having reverse logistics implemented within a marketing or strategic plan.

This paper describes reverse logistics and CRM within a knowledge‐based system and its implementation process in an academic manner. Hence, there should be a process in place and managers should work to master reserve logistical processes to promote the principles of CRM properly. To remain competitive, firms must develop reverse logistics systems that rival traditional systems in terms of efficiency, cost‐effectiveness, competitiveness, and customer satisfaction.

Many companies and small businesses do not think about the importance and impact of reverse logistics and therefore do not include reverse logistics in their strategic or marketing plan. There are several important aspects of reverse logistics that need to be utilized in every company that exploit and track return policies.

The purpose of this paper is to provide practitioners of management and information technology a sense of how the automobile industry uses the internet to market its products.

A review of the applied literature on practices and actual examples of companies' practices (obtained through personal interviews and basic empirical analysis of managers located in Pittsburgh, PA) was conducted. An analysis of data derived from web‐enabled and highly educated professionals from the metropolitan area of Pittsburgh, PA, resulted in 60 interviews from an initial sample of over 155 professionals from three area firms. Techniques reviewed include online advertising, data mining from web sites, other conventional advertising of the company web site and positioning their vehicles among the various search engines.

The statistical findings lead to the general conclusion that people are using the internet with greater regularity to gain information about vehicle purchases. However, the vast majority of those surveyed still preferred to ultimately complete the purchase in person.

The findings show that while dealers are forced to be more competitive in terms of financing and pricing, dealerships are not in danger of being cut from the vehicle purchase model, at least not in the short‐term.

The internet has proven to be an invaluable tool for consumers who are either considering the purchase of a new car or actually in the process of doing so. In today's market, automotive manufacturers must have a significant market presence to compete and, in many cases, just to survive in a business environment where several of the major automotive manufacturers must find new markets overseas.

The purpose of this paper is to provide practitioners of management with a sense of how collaborative team integration processes and new product development (NPD) processes were required in order to be reasonably successful in the current economic recession.

The four relatively large Pittsburgh‐based general service and/or manufacturing‐oriented companies, most with global operations and reach capabilities, were selected and reviewed for the principles of the strategic, financial, informational, and operational viewpoints.

Even conservative companies found that more radical approaches to NPD, such as product newness and uncertainty in new product innovation/production, may remove, not increase, barriers to incremental and/or radical manufacturability. This is especially true in firms that make proper use of the managerial connectivity provided by proper use of limited resources, which are enhanced by the timeliness of good strategies.

The roles of uncertainty, supplier influences, team integration processes, as well as technology, may act as change agents, especially under the current economic recession. These factors may result in leveling the playing field for incremental and radical innovators as they integrate processes associated with NPD.

The executive teams involved recognized the need for more radical product offerings by turning their focus to meeting customer needs instead of making risky investments. Through successful product implementation, the companies studied found stability in a very turbulent financial and service‐oriented marketplace.

In a complex adaptive environment, leaders must create an environment in which employees feel trusted and empowered to make decisions. Interconnectivity results in information that is easier to get, and customers can make competitive comparisons more easily. In addition, a sales organization that focuses on learning increases its intangible assets, which may be the only way it can remain competitive. A possible functional relationship between sales performance and factors relating to individual motivation, resistance to change, and a sales organization’s structure and strategy may exist that represents the concepts of change management within the viewpoints of an Internet‐driven world and of contemporary management. Examples from literature are presented as evidence to support the idea that motivation is the one critical item affecting sales performance and that resistance to change and an organization’s structure and strategy directly affect motivation.