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1 – 10 of over 150000Shih‐Yi Chien and Ching‐Han Tsai
This paper seeks to apply the dynamic capability framework to explore why store managers within the same chain of restaurants perform differently. Specifically, this paper argues…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to apply the dynamic capability framework to explore why store managers within the same chain of restaurants perform differently. Specifically, this paper argues that knowledge resources and learning mechanisms are critical to the development of dynamic capabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach takes the form of an empirical data analysis. Hypotheses are tested on 132 store managers in a leading fastāfood restaurant chain in Taiwan.
Findings
The findings indicate that dynamic capabilities increase store performance, and that both knowledge resources and learning mechanisms have a positive effect on dynamic capabilities. In addition, the effect of knowledge resources on dynamic capabilities is partially mediated by the type of learning mechanism.
Practical implications
Store managers must be able to develop dynamic capabilities if they are to deal with the rapidly changing environment they are facing. Knowledge resources and learning mechanisms both improve the development of dynamic capabilities.
Originality/value
This paper conceptualizes and empirically tests the relationships between knowledge resources, learning mechanisms, dynamic capabilities, and performance in the restaurants of a fastāfood chain. In addition, this paper investigates how dynamic capabilities work from a process perceptive by examining the mediation effect of the learning mechanisms.
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Breda Kenny and John Fahy
The study this chapter reports focuses on how network theory contributes to the understanding of the internationalization process of SMEs and measures the effect of network…
Abstract
The study this chapter reports focuses on how network theory contributes to the understanding of the internationalization process of SMEs and measures the effect of network capability on performance in international trade and has three research objectives.
The first objective of the study relates to providing new insights into the international market development activities through the application of a network perspective. The chapter reviews the international business literature to ascertain the development of thought, the research gaps, and the shortcomings. This review shows that the network perspective is a useful and popular theoretical domain that researchers can use to understand international activities, particularly of small, high technology, resource-constrained firms.
The second research objective is to gain a deeper understanding of network capability. This chapter presents a model for the impact of network capability on international performance by building on the emerging literature on the dynamic capabilities view of the firm. The model conceptualizes network capability in terms of network characteristics, network operation, and network resources. Network characteristics comprise strong and weak ties (operationalized as foreign-market entry modes), relational capability, and the level of trust between partners. Network operation focuses on network initiation, network coordination, and network learning capabilities. Network resources comprise network human-capital resources, synergy-sensitive resources (resource combinations within the network), and information sharing within the network.
The third research objective is to determine the impact of networking capability on the international performance of SMEs. The study analyzes 11 hypotheses through structural equations modeling using LISREL. The hypotheses relate to strong and weak ties, the relative strength of strong ties over weak ties, and each of the eight remaining constructs of networking capability in the study. The research conducts a cross-sectional study by using a sample of SMEs drawn from the telecommunications industry in Ireland.
The study supports the hypothesis that strong ties are more influential on international performance than weak ties. Similarly, network coordination and human-capital resources have a positive and significant association with international performance. Strong ties, weak ties, trust, network initiation, synergy-sensitive resources, relational capability, network learning, and information sharing do not have a significant association with international performance. The results of this study are strong (R2=0.63 for performance as the outcome) and provide a number of interesting insights into the relations between collaboration or networking capability and performance.
This study provides managers and policy makers with an improved understanding of the contingent effects of networks to highlight situations where networks might have limited, zero, or even negative effects on business outcomes. The study cautions against the tendency to interpret networks as universally beneficial to business development and performance outcomes.
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Resource reconfiguration enables firms to adapt in dynamic environments by supplementing, removing, recombining, or redeploying resources. Whereas prior research has underscored…
Abstract
Resource reconfiguration enables firms to adapt in dynamic environments by supplementing, removing, recombining, or redeploying resources. Whereas prior research has underscored the merits of resource reconfiguration and the modes for implementing it, little is known about the antecedents of this practice. According to prior research, under given industry conditions, resource reconfiguration is prompted by a firmās corporate strategy and by characteristics of its knowledge assets. We complement this research by identifying learning from performance feedback as a fundamental driver of resource reconfiguration. We claim that performance decline relative to aspiration motivates the firmās investment in knowledge reconfiguration, and that this investment is reinforced by the munificence of complementary resources in its industry, although uncertainty about the availability of such resources limits that investment. Testing our conjectures with a sample of 248 electronics firms during the period 1993ā2001, we reveal a clear distinction between exploitative reconfiguration, which combines existing knowledge elements, and exploratory reconfiguration, which incorporates new knowledge elements. We demonstrate that performance decline relative to aspiration motivates a shift from exploitative reconfiguration to exploratory reconfiguration. Moreover, munificence of complementary resources mitigates the tradeoff between exploratory and exploitative reconfigurations, whereas uncertainty weakens the motivation to engage in both types of reconfiguration, despite the performance gap. Nevertheless, codeployment, which extends the deployment of knowledge assets to additional domains, is more susceptible to uncertainty than redeployment, which withdraws those assets from their original domain and reallocates them to new domains. Our study contributes to emerging research on resource reconfiguration, extends the literature on learning from performance feedback, and advances research on balancing exploration and exploitation.
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Tomislav Hernaus, Nikolina Dragičević and Aleša Saša Sitar
Building on the premise of conservation of resources theory (COR) that people protect their knowledge as a resource, the authors questioned whether the contextual nature of job…
Abstract
Purpose
Building on the premise of conservation of resources theory (COR) that people protect their knowledge as a resource, the authors questioned whether the contextual nature of job resources buffers the counterintuitive positive relationship between evasive knowledge hiding (KH) and task performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Two multisource field survey studies were conducted to examine the moderating influence of task-job resources on the knowledge hiders' task performance. Hierarchical regression analyses tested the main effect of evasive KH on task performance. In addition, conditional process analyses were applied to examine two-way and three-way interactions of evasive KH, job autonomy and task variety.
Findings
The data analysis showed a positive relationship between evasive KH and task performance. Moreover, the authors found that employees receiving accumulative task-job resources continued to hide knowledge and used abundant resources to increase their task performance further. However, contrary to expectations, for employeesāwho received partial task-job resourcesātheir task performance deteriorated when evasively hiding knowledge.
Practical implications
Managers and human resource practitioners should acknowledge that employees' evasive KH to co-workers is not always wrong and should not be treated like it is. Moreover, they are endorsed to pay attention and invest in job resources since job autonomy and task variety create a beneficial context for knowledge holders' task performance.
Originality/value
The authors provided novel theoretical (the gain-loss perspective of COR theory) and consistent empirical (confirmed by two field-study evidence) arguments for an important contextual role of an HRM practice of job design in shaping the underrepresented knowledge behaviorātask performance relationship.
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Kaveh Asiaei, Zabihollah Rezaee, Nick Bontis, Omid Barani and Noor Sharoja Sapiei
The pivotal role of knowledge management (KM) and its extensive implications have been debated in the academic literature with insufficient focus on its link to particular…
Abstract
Purpose
The pivotal role of knowledge management (KM) and its extensive implications have been debated in the academic literature with insufficient focus on its link to particular organizational control mechanisms such as performance measurement systems (PMS). To bridge this gap and building on resource orchestration theory, this paper aims to investigate the relationships between KM factors, PMS and corporate performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a survey data set of 92 listed companies in Iran, the framework and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS).
Findings
The SEM-PLS results indicate that knowledge assets are significantly associated with both PMS and corporate performance while knowledge process capabilities (KPC) are not significantly associated with PMS and corporate performance. This study also shows that PMS mediates the relationship between knowledge assets and corporate performance.
Practical implications
The results suggest that the use of appropriate management control systems plays an effective role in synchronizing, aligning and orchestrating a companyās various knowledge resources, which, in turn, can lead to superior overall performance.
Originality/value
Building on a unique synthesis of resource orchestration theory and the knowledge-based view of the firm, the results of this study provide the first empirical evidence on how PMS intervenes in the relationship between knowledge resources (knowledge assets and KPC) and corporate performance.
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Bulent Menguc and Tansu Barker
Drawing on the resourceābased view of the firm and the dynamic capabilities perspective, this paper sets out to argue that salespeople's selling skills and their interā and…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the resourceābased view of the firm and the dynamic capabilities perspective, this paper sets out to argue that salespeople's selling skills and their interā and intraāunit collaborative skills are valuable, rare, socially complex, and inimitable knowledgeābased resources embedded in the human and social capital of field sales units (FSUs). Salespeople's selling and collaborative skills, both directly and interactively, should help field sales units generate greater economic rents. This paper also aims to explore the effect of salespeople's selling and collaborative skills on the level of total compensation through the mediating role of sales unit performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were obtained from a sample of managers of FSUs in 102 large Canadian organizations. The proposed model and its hypotheses were tested using hierarchical moderated regression analysis.
Findings
Collaborative skills, but not selling skills, are directly related to FSU performance; the effect of selling skills on FSU performance is strengthened by the complementary role of collaborative skills; and selling skills and collaborative skills both individually and interactively result in the payment of higher compensation to salespeople as a result of their enhanced performance.
Research limitations/implications
Salespeople's selling skills and collaborative skills (both directly and interactively) not only enable the FSU to generate higher levels of performance, but they also increase individual salespeople's compensation.
Practical implications
It is necessary for managers to acknowledge the role of knowledgeābased resources in building/developing organizational dynamic capabilities.
Originality/value
This is one of the few studies that explores the strategic role of salespeople in creating a competitive advantage and links the sales management literature to the literature on the RBV of the firm and social capital/human capital theory.
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Yaoguang Hu, Jingqian Wen and Yan Yan
This paper aims to provide insight into how knowledge resources in R & D organizations can be effectively and separately measured for knowledge sharing and transfer…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide insight into how knowledge resources in R & D organizations can be effectively and separately measured for knowledge sharing and transfer. Knowledge is recognized as a durable strategic resource to obtain sustainable competitive advantage.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper proposes a theoretical framework integrating an analytic network process (ANP) with a balanced scorecard (BSC) to measure the performance of knowledge resources under value perspective. Four indicators and three knowledge value (KV) components including labor value, technology value and utilization value are discussed. The model construction, problem structuring and calculation procedure for measuring the performance of knowledge resources based on ANP and BSC are demonstrated.
Findings
Despite a number of models to assess the performance of knowledge resources being proposed, they highlighted a need for separately measuring under value perspective. With the aim of filling this gap, the main finding of the paper is to clarify relevant issues, providing a better framework for assessment of the performance of knowledge resources.
Research limitations/implications
To handle the dynamic nature of knowledge, the research should take into account more advanced methods to measure the performance of knowledge resources. Both qualitative and quantitative methods should be utilized in future research.
Practical implications
The consequences of measuring the performance of knowledge resources under value perspective may help managers to organize and arrange the separate knowledge resources, improving the knowledge resources exchange between different institutions in R & D organizations.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this paper lies in the development of a comprehensive model, which incorporates diversified issues for conducting the performance of knowledge resources under value perspective.
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Pawan Budhwar, Andy Crane, Annette Davies, Rick Delbridge, Tim Edwards, Mahmoud Ezzamel, Lloyd Harris, Emmanuel Ogbonna and Robyn Thomas
Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce ā…
Abstract
Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce ā not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.
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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 eācommerce 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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Annette M. Mills and Trevor A. Smith
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of specific knowledge management resources (i.e. knowledge management enablers and processes) on organizational performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of specific knowledge management resources (i.e. knowledge management enablers and processes) on organizational performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses survey data from 189 managers and structural equation modeling to assess the links between specific knowledge management resources and organizational performance.
Findings
The results show that some knowledge resources (e.g. organizational structure, knowledge application) are directly related to organizational performance, while others (e.g. technology, knowledge conversion), though important preconditions for knowledge management, are not directly related to organizational performance.
Research limitations/implications
The survey findings were based on a single dataset, so the same observations may not apply to other settings. The survey also did not provide inādepth insight into the key capabilities of individual firms and the circumstances under which some resources are directly related to organizational performance.
Practical implications
The study provides evidence linking particular knowledge resources to organizational performance. Such insights can help firms better target their investments and enhance the success of their knowledge management initiatives.
Originality/value
Prior research often utilizes composite measures when examining the knowledge managementāorganizational performance link. This bundling of the dimensions of knowledge management allows managers and researchers to focus on main effects but leaves little room for understanding how particular resources relate to organizational performance. This study addresses this gap by assessing the links between specific knowledge management resources and organizational performance. The results show that some resources are directly related to organizational performance, while others are not.
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