Competencies: Alternative frameworks for competitive advantage

Competencies in organizations can be broadly classified as employee-level and organizational-level. Since organizational-level competencies are embedded in employee-level competencies, the identification of the latter is important for organizations interested in using competencies to achieve competitive advantage. In this paper, we present a model of employee competencies as a means to organizational competitiveness and discuss various frameworks for identifying employee competencies. In addition to the traditional frameworks, which are more suitable for organizations functioning in a static environment, we offer two alternative frameworks that can be useful in identifying competencies in a dynamic organizational environment. Once appropriate employee-level competencies are identified, a competency-based human resource system can be implemented to ensure that employees actually do possess the identified competencies.     

化比较优势为竞争优势

在中国制造源源不断地输向世界各地市场之际,一个比反倾销和一般性技术贸易壁垒更高层次的贸易保护壁垒——知识产权保护,引起的纠纷纷至沓来,知识产权竞争正成为中国出口企业面临的更高层次的竞争,知识产权成为国际贸易摩擦的新手段。中国大量出口甚至将来大量出口的机电产品如 DVD机、彩电、电池、摩托车、汽车等正全面遭受国际知识产权保护的挑战。     

Strategic-skill pools and competitive advantage

Strategic business units have their places, say the authors, but when a business is looking to grow outside its current markets, it should look to its expertise in functional skills.     

Mindfulness as a strategy for sustainable competitive advantage

This conceptual article explores how mindfulness can be successfully integrated in the strategy tool kit of organizations. The likely global reconstruction in the aftermath of COVID-19 can be effective if organizations reexamine their existing philosophies and business practices. Against this backdrop, mindfulness is a time-tested practice that has the potential to transcend all functions in a company’s value chain and to create a sustainable competitive advantage. This article uses a strategy lens to examine mindfulness in organizations, which has implications for researchers and practitioners. First, I discuss the theoretical frameworks of mindfulness, the performance improvements that individuals can expect from consistent practice, and how these improvements translate to organization-level performance. Next, I summarize the methods and tools for workplace application and the steps for implementing mindfulness strategies in organizations. Finally, I describe implementation challenges and offer assessment tools for mindfulness.     

Cognitive complexity implications for research on sustainable competitive advantage

Cognitive complexity of top managers gains increasing attention in the management field. Performance implication of cognitive complexity is an important one. This article clarifies several of the original points to reply to Huang's commentary. In particular, we comment on some issues of testability and measurement of cognitive complexity and internal/external related dimensions.     

Strategic entrepreneurship: Creating competitive advantage through streams of innovation

In today's fast-paced competitive environment, firms face the need to be increasingly nimble and adaptive. While often able to establish a certain level of performance based upon existing technologies, firms are equally as often to be left flat-footed in the face of emerging, novel technologies. We discuss strategic entrepreneurship as the means through which firms simultaneously exploit their current competitive advantages while exploring for future opportunities. Achieving a balance between exploration and exploitation consists of more than merely allocating resources evenly between the two processes. As discussed, exploration and exploitation are operationally, structurally, and culturally distinct processes.     

深圳五国企国际招标

对于国企股权出让的试点工作,经济学家董辅礽曾经指出政府应特别注重三个问题,一是对国有企业的资产评估,一定要恰当,不可造成国有资产流失;二是解决好分流、下岗职工的安置,要求政府对此必须做好充分的应对;三是解决好原有的负债,如果企业的实际负债过重,介入者可能承担过多负担,就不可能真正吸引注重市场化操作的国外战略投资者.     

Multicultural managers and competitive advantage: Evidence from elite football teams

Successful organizations have dynamic capabilities that are aligned with their competitive environments. As competitive environments globalize, the dynamic capabilities driven by managers with multicultural backgrounds are increasingly relevant. These managers are more likely to seize cognitively distant opportunities than monocultural managers. Using panel analysis of multilevel data from 355 elite football (soccer) teams, we find support for a moderated relationship among the degree of globalization in the competitive environment, the multicultural background of team managers, and team performance. When the competitive environment is highly global, teams with multicultural managers outperform teams with monocultural managers. When the competitive environment is less global, the reverse is true. The same effect holds when tested both cross-sectionally and longitudinally.     

Corporate social responsibility and competitive advantage: A developing country perspective

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has attracted wider research interests over recent decades. While some studies have examined the impact of CSR activities on firm competitive advantage (CA), the findings so far remain contradictory. Moreover, the role of export orientation, firm strategy, and structure on the association between CSR and CA has not been explicitly examined. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the moderating role of export orientation, firm strategy, structure, and firm size on the association between CSR and CA. Using a sample of 179 responses from management staff in organizations across five sectors in a developing country context of Ghana, the study found positive effects of CSR on CA. The study contributes to the resource‐based view (RBV) scholarship by confirming the important complementary effect of export orientation and organizational structure as important resources and capabilities on the CSR–competitiveness relationship. However, no evidence of a moderating effect of firm strategy, or firm size on the CSR–CA relationship was found. These findings are instructive, impactful, and enrich the existing literature on CSR and strategy. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.     

Human resource systems and competitive advantage: an ethical climate perspective

Drawing on the theoretical insights from the resource‐based view of the firm, this paper explores how human resource (HR) systems may contribute to competitive advantage by facilitating the development and maintenance of five types of ethical climates, and conversely, how HR systems may hinder competitive advantage by inhibiting the development and maintenance of these climate types. In so doing, this paper contributes to the literature by highlighting the resource worthiness of a firm's ethical climates and showing how HR systems may influence that value. In addition, it advances theory that underpins the concept of competitive advantage sustainability and provides a platform for future empirical research.     

Intellectual property: America's competitive advantage in the 21st century

Three forces reshaped the U.S. economy during the 1980s—globalization, the creation and application of new technologies, and the shift to a knowledge-based economy. By looking at the historic role of intellectual property rights in U.S. economic growth, one can see not only that an ability to create and adapt has always been the driving force in the U.S. economy, but that it will continue to be its strength in the future. This historical perspective leads to a fundamental conclusion: In the next century, U.S. economic growth and competitiveness will largely be determined by the extent to which the United States creates, owns, preserves and protects its intellectual property, and the extent to which the federal government can foster economic growth by creating incentives for private sector investment in research and development, promoting stronger intellectual property protection abroad, reducing barriers to trade and serving U.S. business interests throughout the world.     

An innovation perspective on Chinese retailers' competitive advantage

Given the emergence of strong local retail firms in China over the last two decades, this paper aims to explore their competence enhancement and capability building process from the innovation perspective. Innovative measures on retail format, activity and governance dimensions of three leading local retailers in China are investigated using an in-depth case study approach. After each case is studied on the three dimensions, a cross-case analysis is conducted using thematic analysis to examine their innovative strategies and to explore their sources of innovation. The three cases share notable similarities in their strategies that are in sharp contrast to those of foreign retailers. On the retail format dimension, they have all achieved differentiation by formulating niche strategies and succeeded in creating a strong reputation among customers and retaining the same. On the retailing activities dimension, they have all developed a profit-making model through unique supply chain management and stressed construction of logistics centres and operational standardisation. On the governance dimension, they have established an efficient incentive and reward mechanism to motivate employees and encourage innovative practice. They have also built long-term collaborative relationships with their suppliers. Based on these three cases, it is also found that local embeddedness, latecomers' advantages, business agility and a risk taking entrepreneurial mentality are the crucial factors behind the generation of efficient innovations of China's local retailers. With these findings, this paper has extended and enriched existing knowledge on latecomers' catch up and service innovation. It has constructed an analytical framework for retail innovation by building on relevant attempts in the existing literature. A theoretical framework that explains how indigenous Chinese retailers have managed to successfully compete with foreign retailers in China using innovative strategies has also been established based on empirical data.     

Crafting a paying-it-forward mindset in business: Five principles for a competitive employer branding advantage

Kindness can strengthen your employer brand. The business environment is changing, and the value of kindness in the corporate world is garnering increased attention. Paying it forward is a way to pass acts of kindness on to others. This allows employees and business partners to go above and beyond formal expectations that not only benefit the individuals involved but also the businesses they represent. Paying it forward can potentially create competitive advantage for firms from an employer branding perspective (to attract and retain talent) and in the broader market sense. This behavior can strengthen the employer brand in numerous and effective ways, and managers must understand, engage in, and encourage such conduct. In this article, we discuss different examples, benefits, and risks of paying kindness forward on a micro-, meso-, and macro-level. After providing this foundation, we introduce practical guidelines for managers on how to foster a paying-it-forward mindset among employees and the broader organization. The guidelines were created using insights from interviews we conducted with stakeholders in a business ecosystem in northern Sweden.     

Market orientation, competitive advantage, and performance: A demand-based perspective

This study assesses how customer value affects a firm's market orientation and consequently, competitive advantage and organizational performance in a service industry — the global hotel industry. The findings show that if a firm perceives its customers as valuing service, the firm is more likely to adopt both a customer and a competitor orientation; if the firm thinks its customers are price sensitive, the firm tends to develop a competitor orientation. Moreover, the greater a firm's customer orientation, the more the firm is able to develop a competitive advantage based on innovation and market differentiation. In contrast, a competitor orientation has a negative effect on a firm's market differentiation advantage. Finally, innovation and market differentiation advantages lead to greater market performance (e.g., perceived quality, customer satisfaction) and in turn, higher financial performance (e.g., profit, market share).