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1 – 10 of over 62000The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of a dynamic analysis of the development and management of strategic capabilities and resources in manufacturing. It…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of a dynamic analysis of the development and management of strategic capabilities and resources in manufacturing. It aims to present dynamic resource/capability systems as a means to understand an issue from manufacturing strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study from a standard textbook on manufacturing strategy is used to illustrate the approach that is mainly based on Warren's strategy dynamics. Extensions to this approach are introduced.
Findings
Diagrams of dynamic resource/capability systems are valuable tools for understanding issues of interconnected and changing strategic resources and capabilities. Resources and capabilities can be interpreted as stocks in dynamic simulation models following ideas from system dynamics.
Research limitations/implications
The exact nature of strategic capabilities and their relationships needs to be further investigated. Approaches need to be developed to measure and to quantify these concepts. The connection between Hill's order winners/qualifiers and the inflows/outflows of capability and resource stocks should be further examined.
Practical implications
Static analyses of strategic issues are often difficult to interpret. The dynamic nature of strategic issues needs to be reflected in the tools used for analysing them.
Originality/value
Applies a dynamic analysis to manufacturing strategy and uses a textbook example in a new way to illustrate the relevance of the approach.
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Chandrasekararao Seepana, Fahian Anisul Huq and Antony Paulraj
While the significance of organizational resources and capabilities is widely discussed, little is known about their interrelationships as well as benefits for firms that are…
Abstract
Purpose
While the significance of organizational resources and capabilities is widely discussed, little is known about their interrelationships as well as benefits for firms that are involved in coopetitive relationships. Against this backdrop, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the performance effects of entrepreneurial orientation, strategic intent and potential absorptive capacity as well as their complementarity effects on operational and innovation performance for firms involved in horizontal coopetitive relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing upon the resource-based-view, dynamic capabilities and the relational view theories, this study forwards numerous hypotheses between the constructs of interest. The proposed hypotheses are tested utilizing survey data collected from 313 horizontal coopetitive relationships.
Findings
The results clearly suggest that entrepreneurial orientation, strategic intent and potential absorptive capacity could positively impact innovation and operational performance outcomes independently. In addition, the authors also find strategic intent and potential absorptive capacity to have differential moderating effects on the relationships between entrepreneurial orientation and the performance outcomes.
Originality/value
The findings suggest that although strategic intent and potential absorptive capacity could lead to performance benefits independently, when it comes to coopetitive relationships, the use of both these capabilities may not substantially increase the positive impact of entrepreneurial orientation on performance outcomes. Specifically, given that these capabilities could intensify competitiveness as well as hostility between partners, they seem to affect the firm's performance differently.
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Jorge Ferreira, Arnaldo Coelho and Luiz Moutinho
This study delves in the controversy about the nature and the sign of the effect of strategic alliances and exploration and exploitation capabilities on innovation and new product…
Abstract
Purpose
This study delves in the controversy about the nature and the sign of the effect of strategic alliances and exploration and exploitation capabilities on innovation and new product development. The paper analyses the effects of knowledge sharing and strategic alliances relationships at the firm level. Specifically, we study the influence of strategic alliances relationships in new product development and the mediating role of exploration and exploitation as dynamic capabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
This investigation proposes a theoretical model tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The multigroup analysis was performed to understand the moderating role of. A questionnaire survey was developed to explore the relations between strategic alliances and innovation and new product development variables. For this study, 387 valid questionnaires were collected from a sample of Portugal SME' firms. A 90-item questionnaire was submitted to employees managers of a large number of Portuguese SMEs, which consists to study the relationships among all the variables.
Findings
The results show that exists a positive direct influence of strategic alliances on innovation and new product development, and mediating impact the exploration and exploitation by the moderating role of knowledge sharing.
Research limitations/implications
This study has some methodological limitations affecting its potential contributions. A cross-sectional study that captures one image in time and its ability to identify strict causality between variables is limited. Furthermore, the results are based on log collected from a key respondent, rather than broader actual data. The results are restricted to one country, Portugal. Future research should initially target different countries. Such research could then test the generalizability of the results.
Practical implications
To fill this managerial relevance gap, we propose a process model in which the main antecedents of alliance stability will be examined. We argue that an alliance's evolutionary dynamics depend on these factors and variables that the partners must assess and manage over its developmental stages. In this sense, managers have significant scope to influence the ultimate success of strategic alliances. This study highlights the need to actively manage the cooperation – competition (coopetition) tension with the alliance partner and to apply the knowledge acquired from the partner to create new knowledge to enhance innovative performance
Originality/value
This paper contributes to fill the gap between strategic alliances and new product development mediated by exploration and exploitation in the dynamic capabilities view.
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Mona Rashidirad, Ebrahim Soltani, Hamid Salimian and Yingying Liao
– This paper aims to investigate the applicability of Grant’s framework in the current changing and dynamic environment.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the applicability of Grant’s framework in the current changing and dynamic environment.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, a critical review of Grant’s paper was conducted to identify the limitations and weaknesses of the framework, which prevent its effective application in the current digital age.
Findings
As a result, this paper presented a modified framework and four propositions to consider dynamic capabilities in the new turbulent environment and extend the relationships between a firm’s resources, capabilities, dynamic capabilities, competitive advantage and competitive strategy. Findings tied to this initiative will provide important contributions to research.
Originality/value
Rooted in resource-based view (RBV), the proposed framework puts forward a valid theoretical foundation on how to create a competitive advantage from a firm’s internal factors, including strategic resources, capabilities and dynamic capabilities. Furthermore, it contributes to RBV literature by considering dynamic capabilities, as the firms’ most crucial factors in the current dynamic digital market.
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Baofeng Huo, Zhaojun Han and Daniel Prajogo
This paper aims to investigate the antecedents of supply chain information integration (SCII) and their consequences on company performance from the perspective of resource-based…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the antecedents of supply chain information integration (SCII) and their consequences on company performance from the perspective of resource-based view (RBV).
Design/methodology/approach
Based on empirical survey data collected from 202 Australian manufacturers, this study examines the effects of strategic supply chain relationship (SCR) and supply chain technology (SCT) internalization on external and internal information integration (II) and the effects of external and internal II on operational (operational efficiency and service quality) and financial performance. Structural equation modeling and the maximum-likelihood estimation methods are used to test the proposed relationships.
Findings
The results indicate that both strategic SCR and SCT internalization are positively related to external and internal II. Moreover, strategic SCR has a stronger positive relationship with external II than with internal II, and SCT internalization has a stronger positive relationship with internal II than with external II. Internal II is positively related only to service quality, and external II is positively related only to operational efficiency. Both operational efficiency and service quality are positively related to financial performance.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the SCII literature and provides significant managerial implications for manufacturers to leverage their supply chain resources and capabilities by establishing a resources-capabilities-performance framework for the antecedents and consequences of SCII.
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Minli Wan, Katja Lähtinen and Anne Toppinen
China is a leading country in the production, consumption and exports of value-added wood products. Despite this fact, the sources of competitiveness and the existing strategies…
Abstract
Purpose
China is a leading country in the production, consumption and exports of value-added wood products. Despite this fact, the sources of competitiveness and the existing strategies in the Chinese wood products companies have not been profoundly studied in an international context. The purpose of this paper is to fill these gaps by exploring managerial perceptions of these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The theoretical ingredients originating from the value chain theory, functional upgrading, the dynamic capability perspective and the natural resource-based view were combined to explore the shift of business functions and sources of the firm-level competitiveness in the Chinese wood products companies. In the empirical part, data from qualitative semi-structured interviews made with 28 managers of seven companies in China based on the case study method were used.
Findings
Our results indicate a transition from non-branded manufacturing to original equipment manufacturing to original brand manufacturing business model. With this strategic transformation, the amount of resources and the relative importance of intangible resources increased and the nature of tangible resources also changed.
Practical implications
Chinese companies tend to shift from low-value-added to high-value-added products production. Our results are not only informative about the current situation of the Chinese wood products companies, but also can be used as a background for assessing the impact of China’s increasing competitiveness on the future international wood products market.
Originality/value
The dynamic capability perspective was incorporated in a new empirical approach to study the strategic management of woodworking industries, and our results provide new information on the importance of intangible resources for firm competitiveness.
The purpose of this study is to critically evaluate the canonical contribution of the classical theories of multinational enterprises (MNE) and complement them with congruous…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to critically evaluate the canonical contribution of the classical theories of multinational enterprises (MNE) and complement them with congruous multi-theoretical lenses to a propose a meta-theoretical view for competitive advantage. The proposed framework is applied to fundamental questions of MNE, and exploratory insights are revealed.
Design/methodology/approach
This study sought to review the literature on various paradigms such as resource-based view, knowledge-based view, attention-based view, relational view, dynamic capability view and institution-based view to propose a meta-theoretical approach explicating the phenomenon of competitiveness.
Findings
This study proffers that the key to global competitiveness lies in building micro-foundational, multidimensional and multilevel multinational orchestration capabilities. The requisite orchestration capabilities are capabilities par excellence that explain: how organizational capabilities originate through the cognition of individual employees at the micro level; how individual-level abilities are amplified when they are harnessed through relational capabilities to form knowledge capabilities at the meso-level; and how the confluence of knowledge capabilities and higher order dynamic capabilities gives rise to heterogeneous firm-level knowledge-based dynamic capabilities that can be combined with institution capabilities to aggrandize the prediction of competitive advantage for MNEs.
Originality/value
The successful development of MNE competitiveness as a field of academic inquiry, brought about by an increasing amount of theoretical specialization, has come at the price of significant fragmentation of the overall scientific quest. The abovementioned paradigms and their underlying constructs have primarily been conceptualized in silos. The classical theories of MNE have been used a starting point to which complementary multidisciplinary views have been scaffolded to gain a more nuanced understanding of global competitiveness.
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Md Imtiaz Mostafiz, Mathew Hughes and Murali Sambasivan
The purpose of this study is to test the thesis that the family firm’s success hinges on effective strategic knowledge management (SKM) capability coupled with an entrepreneurial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to test the thesis that the family firm’s success hinges on effective strategic knowledge management (SKM) capability coupled with an entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Contingency theory holds that entrepreneurial success is contingent on strategic capabilities and resource orchestration theory explains how well family firms nurture capabilities to structure, bundle and leverage resources that define competitive advantage (CA). This study combines these two theoretical viewpoints to propose the effects of EO and SKM capability on CA to achieve successful performance in family firms.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a hybrid approach applying structural equation modelling (SEM) and deep-learning artificial intelligence (DL-AI) analysis to survey data on 268 Malaysian family firms.
Findings
SEM results confirm that CA mediates the relationship between innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking dimensions of EO and firm performance. Autonomy and competitive aggressiveness have no bearing, however. The relationships among innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking with CA and performance are positively moderated by SKM capability, becoming more potent at higher levels. Moreover, four additional DL-AI models reveal the necessity of specific EO dimensions and the interacting effects of EO–SKM capability to influence CA and to attain performance success subsequently.
Originality/value
This study theorizes and presents two new boundary conditions to a knowledge-based theory of the family firm and its firm performance. First, CA mediates the relationship between EO and performance; and second, SKM capability moderates the relationships between EO and CA and between EO and family firm performance. Methodologically, this study uses DL-AI to embrace non-linearity and prioritize predictor variables based on normalized importance to produce greater accuracy over regression analysis. Hence, DL-AI adds methodological novelty to the knowledge management and family firm literature.
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Karthik N.S. Iyer, Prashant Srivastava and Mahesh Srinivasan
The purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of resource orchestration in inter-firm partnerships that appropriately configure and align strategic cross-firm supply…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of resource orchestration in inter-firm partnerships that appropriately configure and align strategic cross-firm supply chain resources and capabilities generating synergies to deliver superior performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Applying the resource orchestration logic, supported by the relational view of competitive advantage, the study draws from an empirical analysis of survey data from 152 top-level executives of US manufacturing firms to investigate the effect of leveraging and coherently combining cross-firm supply chain resources with capabilities on operational performance.
Findings
The study underscores the view that appropriately orchestrated combinations of key partnership resources and capabilities as mechanisms for marketing strategy implementation, enhance performance. Specifically, research results suggest that complementary inter-firm resources and lean align, and similarly idiosyncratic resources and agility align synergistically to deliver superior operational performance outcomes. The results also accent partnership responses to intense competition, enabling enhanced operational performance. The findings thus enrich the understanding of the resource orchestration logic and strategy, making important theoretical contributions.
Research limitations/implications
As is typical in marketing and strategy research, the study research design has a cross-sectional framework, thus limiting insights on the resource orchestration dynamics that can otherwise be generated using a longitudinal design. Also, the resource orchestration stream is still nascent. Further research is needed to delineate the orchestration mechanisms that deliver on performance outcomes, especially in supply chains.
Practical implications
A key insight for supply chain and marketing managers is that close-knit inter-firm partnerships are critical for accessing idiosyncratic and complementary resources that can be configured and symbiotically aligned with market-facing agility and lean capabilities, respectively, to deliver market value. Proactive partnerships, especially in highly competitive and disruptive environments, enable mobilizing cross-firm resources and building appropriate matching combinations with capabilities to deliver on operational performance.
Originality/value
The study, guided by theory, advances the understanding of how key cross-firm resources and capabilities deliver performance gains. The key to competitive advantage and enhanced performance outcomes may lie in acquiring, leveraging and deploying appropriately matched resource-capability combinations. The present study investigates this proposition within the context of supply chain partnerships, focusing on cross-firm resources and capabilities.
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John A Parnell, Zhang Long and Don Lester
The purpose of this paper is to investigate linkages among competitive strategy, strategic capabilities, environmental uncertainty, and organizational performance in small and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate linkages among competitive strategy, strategic capabilities, environmental uncertainty, and organizational performance in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in China and the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
In China, a survey was administered to managers of SMEs in Shanghai and Guangzhou. In the USA, a survey was administered to managers of SMEs in three major cities. Competitive strategy, capabilities, uncertainty, and performance were measured by previously validated scales.
Findings
Findings support the integrity Miles and Snow generic strategic typology. Performance satisfaction was significantly lower in firms employing a reactor strategy as opposed to those employing prospector, defender, or analyzer strategies. Additional support was found for the concept of strategic clarity, as businesses reporting moderate strategic clarity had lower levels of satisfaction with performance than those reporting either a single strategy or a combination emphasis on three equal strategies.
Practical implications
Chinese SMEs tend to prefer cost-based approaches to their local markets. A differentiation market approach is challenging in most local Chinese economies due to the low wages of most jobs in an economy that is still largely centrally planned. In the USA, more disposable income leads to more market opportunities. While this situation is gradually changing in China, it is not at a point where SMEs feel comfortable pursuing totally differentiated strategies.
Originality/value
Several distinctions in competitive strategy, capabilities, and environmental uncertainty between China and the USA are recognized by analysis. Analyzers and defenders in Chinese SMEs tend to follow industry prospectors with lower prices and/or superior service. They might change strategies after gaining a foothold in the market. Performance for SMEs with low strategic clarity often depends on established guanxi with governmental agencies or stated-owned enterprises, a situation very different from that in the USA.
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