Entrepreneurial Orientation,Dynamic Capabilities and International Performance

In order to be able to seize the opportunities that a dynamic operating environment opens up, entrepreneurial firms have to reconfigure their existing asset base and processes. This study explores the effect of an entrepreneurial orientation and a firm's reconfiguring capabilities on international performance by using survey data from 217 manufacturing and service organizations. Our findings indicate that a firm's entrepreneurial orientation and reconfiguring capabilities have an effect on its international performance and provide empirical support for the dynamic capability view of the firm. Entrepreneurial behavior combined with organizational reconfiguring capabilities constitutes a potential source of competitive advantage.     

出口企业营销动态能力提升出口绩效的机理研究

本文在动态能力观与权变理论框架下,探讨出口企业营销动态能力提升出口绩效的作用机制,利用我国238家出口企业数据实证分析后发现营销动态能力显著提升出口绩效,关键权变因素影响营销动态能力与出口绩效的作用关系,文化智力和文化距离正向调节营销动态能力与出口绩效的关系,风险倾向和制度距离负向调节营销动态能力与出口绩效的关系。这一结论为出口企业培育营销动态能力,并在不同的内外部环境条件下运用营销动态能力提升出口绩效提供有益的管理启示。     

The Internationalization Strategy of Spanish Indigenous Franchised Chains: A Resource‐Based View*

In this paper, we identify characteristics of Spanish franchised chains that favor the adoption of an internationalization strategy and those that have a negative influence from a resource‐based perspective. Data used were drawn from Annual Franchise Guidebooks published in Spain for 2005. Various independent variables were taken into account and the final sample included 316 Spanish franchised chains. In order to detect relevant differences between chains with some degree of internationalization and those that only operate in the Spanish domestic market, we conducted a discriminant analysis to discover which of the independent variables contributed significantly to a correct classification of chains to their corresponding group (those that have chosen to spread activities abroad and those that have not).     

Virtue Ethics in Business and the Capabilities Approach

Recently, Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum have developed the capabilities approach to provide a model for understanding the effectiveness of programs to help the developing nations. The approach holds that human beings are fundamentally free and have a sense of human dignity. Therefore, institutions need to help people enhance this dignity by providing them with␣the opportunity to develop their capabilities freely. I␣argue that this approach may help support business ethics based on virtue. Since teleology has become problematic, virtue ethics has had difficulty giving itself an ultimate justification. By combining virtue ethics with the capabilities approach, it becomes possible to ground virtue ethics on the basis of the existence of human dignity. This frees virtue ethics of the need for a strict teleology, replacing it with the notion that people must work to develop the capabilities of others although those capabilities are not pointed toward a definite goal. I further suggest that by grounding virtue ethics in capabilities, the actions of a virtuous manager become clearer. Rather than simply charging a manager with serving the public, the manager is charged with serving the stakeholders in a way that develops their capabilities. For example, a manager should not just give their employees what is just but must give them the environment and the encouragement to grow and to find fulfillment in their job.     

R&D-Related Capabilities as Determinants of Export Performance

Empirical evidence from a sample of independent and privately held specialized suppliers all of which are engaged in formal R&D activities shows that specific R&D-related capabilities are determinants of different types of export performance. The major contribution of this paper is to take into account traditional measures of R&D activities as well as a broad range of R&D-related capabilities to further our understanding of the export behavior of SMEs in terms of volume and final destination of sales. Results suggest that the set of determinants varies with firms' internationalization process. In particular, determinants associated with the more global firms are significantly at odds with our traditional conception of a small firm and appear to be more aligned with the behavior generally found in proactive large exporters.     

营销动态能力的概念与量表开发

营销动态能力是动态能力在企业营销领域的特定形式,对其内涵及结构维度的研究还比较缺乏。文章运用混合方法对营销动态能力进行概念界定与量表开发：首先对营销动态能力理论渊源进行梳理,然后对其概念内涵进行界定;继而通过内容分析和探索性因子分析编制营销动态能力量表;最后运用327家样本企业数据对量表进行信度和效度检验。结论表明,营销动态能力具有多维度结构,包含市场感知能力、界面协同能力和顾客响应能力三大维度。研究结论为企业培育营销动态能力提供方向指引,也为后续实证研究奠定工具基础。     

Corporate Social Responsibility,Utilitarianism, and the Capabilities Approach

This article explores the possible convergence between the capabilities approach and utilitarianism to specify CSR. It defends the idea that this key issue is related to the anthropological perspective that underpins both theories and demonstrates that a relational conception of individual freedoms and rights present in both traditions gives adequate criteria for CSR toward the company’s stakeholders. I therefore defend “relational capability” as a means of providing a common paradigm, a shared vision of a core component of human development. This could further lead to a set of indicators aimed at assessing corporate social performance as the maximization of the relational capability of people impacted by the activities of companies. In particular, I suggest a way of evaluating the contribution of extractive companies to the communities close to their industrial sites in extremely poor areas, not from the viewpoint of material resources and growth, but from the viewpoint of the quality of the social environment and empowerment.     

Franchised and Small,the Most Beautiful of All; HRM and Performance in Plural Systems

Franchising is particularly present in industries in which human resources play a vital role. However, little is known about human resource management (HRM) in a franchising context. This study investigates HRM behavior and performance using a sample of 171 units within one plural retailing system. The results lend support to the agency and entrepreneurial perspectives; franchised units have a relatively low HRM intensity but superior HR performance. We also find a negative relationship between unit size and performance, moderated by type of unit ownership. We conclude that when it comes to HR performance, the units that are franchised and small are the most beautiful of all.     

Assessing Export Competitiveness through the Lens of Value Added

Extensive changes in the organization of world trade over the last two decades have renewed concerns about countries’ ability to compete in export markets. The impact could be especially large in industries that participate in global value chains (GVCs). This study assesses the recent export performance of 56 countries in five industries associated with GVCs using an index of normalised revealed comparative advantage (RCA) that can be compared across industries and countries and new data on the domestic value added in exports from the OECD's Trade in Value‐added database. For a number of the GVC industries, countries identified as the most competitive based on gross exports are often found to be less competitive when evaluated in terms of domestic value added. Business services are an important exception; several countries appear more competitive on a value‐added basis than based on conventional measures of gross exports. Despite concerns about hollowing out, a number of major industrial countries remain highly competitive in one or more GVC industries, even from the perspective of domestic value added. A value‐added approach to RCA provides insights that are not apparent from an exclusive focus on gross exports.     

Bonding Ties,Bridging Ties,and Firm Performance: The Moderating Role of Dynamic Capabilities in Networks

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Building on the dynamic capabilities view and the configuration of network ties, this study investigates how dynamic capabilities moderate the relationships between bonding and bridging ties and firm performance, thus an area with potential to explain the divergent empirical results contained in the existing literature on the relationship between intra/extraorganizational ties and performance.

Methodology: This study employed a mail survey to senior executives. A total of 169 firms operating in an industrial district were collected. Regression analysis was employed to test the proposed model.

Findings: This study found that the combination of dynamic capabilities and bonding/bridging ties helps improve firm performance. Furthermore, this study found a positive relationship between bonding ties and firm performance, but no equivalent relationship for bridging ties.

Research Implications: Research results indicate that firm performance is significantly enhanced by bonding ties, which provide opportunities for sharing information and exchanging resources. Moreover, the empirical results reaffirm the proposition that dynamic capabilities are important transformational mechanisms for managing resources.

Practical Implications: The findings reveal that managers can improve firm performance by simultaneously building social ties and developing and implementing dynamic capabilities.

Originality/Value: This study demonstrates that the components of dynamic capabilities (i.e., sensemaking and reconfiguration) are transformational mechanisms and can moderate the positive relationship between bonding and bridging ties and firm performance, empirically supporting recent perspectives from the literature on dynamic capabilities and social networks.     

Relationships among Strategic Capabilities and the Performance of Women-Owned Small Ventures

This study of small, life-style ventures owned by women focuses on the strategic, firm-level factors related to business performance. A theoretical model drawing on the resource-based theory is developed and tested empirically. The model includes strategic capabilities, management styles, and their relation to performance. It is tested empirically on a sample of 220 Israeli female business owners. Analysis reveals that life-style venture performance is highly correlated with certain aspects of the business owner's skills as well as the venture&apops;s resources. Paradoxically, the owner/managers in the sample rate their skills and their venture's resources as being weak in precisely those areas that correlate positively with business performance. These findings suggest that performance of life-style ventures owned by women depends more on marketing, financial, and managerial skills than on innovation.     

商业生态系统视域下的企业动态能力构建

动态能力理论认为,随着企业竞争环境动态性的加剧,企业只有不断整合、构建、重组内外部资源和能力,才能适应快速变化的环境,获取持续竞争优势。近年来,信息和网络技术的广泛应用改变了企业竞争的基础,使得企业间的竞争由个体竞争转变为商业生态系统间的竞争。可将动态能力框架扩展到商业生态系统视域,通过对信息空间的搜寻和过滤,锚定企业创新机遇,决定商业生态系统愿景和本企业战略选择。根据战略选择确定资源需求,选择合作伙伴,构建价值网络,获取互补资源,对企业内外部知识和资源进行配置与共享,并保护本企业资源优势,取得新的竞争优势。商业生态系统进入衰退期后,重新寻找新的创新机遇与合作,通过健康的商业生态系统和不断创新实现企业持续发展。传统出版企业应选择加入商业生态系统,通过互补资源、共享知识与协同效应占据网络核心,确立领导地位,通过动态能力的构建和培育来应对外来种群威胁,获取持续竞争优势。     

The Determinants of Green Product Development Performance: Green Dynamic Capabilities, Green Transformational Leadership, and Green Creativity

Because no previous literature discusses the determinants of green product development performance, this study develops an original framework to fill the research gap. This study explores the influences of green dynamic capabilities and green transformational leadership on green product development performance and investigates the mediation role of green creativity. The results demonstrate that green dynamic capabilities and green transformational leadership positively influence green creativity and green product development performance. Besides, this study indicates that the positive relationships between green product development performance and their two antecedents—green dynamic capabilities and green transformational leadership—are partially mediated by green creativity. It means that green dynamic capabilities and green transformational leadership can not only directly affect green product development performance positively but also indirectly affect it positively via green creativity. Hence, companies have to increase their green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, and green creativity to enhance their green product development performance.     

动态能力视角下的国际新创企业研究综述

本文系统地回顾和批评性地考察动态能力视角下的国际新创企业研究文献。首先,系统地分析48篇期刊论文的发表时期和期刊分布趋势以及主要作者对该研究领域的贡献;接着,重点梳理了相关文献所涉及的研究情境、研究方法和研究主题;最后,从动态管理者能力、挖掘情境调节变量、国际化各维度等方面提出了动态能力视角下的国际新创企业研究的未来方向。     

动态能力与自主创新能力关系的实证研究

以国内汽车业内企业作为分析对象,首先对于动态能力与自主创新能力的内涵、维度进行了文献研究和问卷设计,然后构建了关于企业动态能力与自主创新能力关系的结构方程模型,实证研究表明:我国汽车业内企业动态能力对于自主创新能力具有正向影响作用,但是动态能力的各个能力维度对于自主创新能力的各个能力维度的作用机理不同.     

Trajectories for Driving the Diffusion of e-Negotiation Service Providers in Supply Chains: An Action Research Approach

ABSTRACT

The recent proliferation of online-based trade makes negotiations with service providers for global supply networks evermore challenging. The Internet is believed to be a viable means for enabling and facilitating these supply chain interactions. As such, commercial web-based services that support negotiation processes have emerged (i.e., e-negotiation services). Even though these services have promising benefits for supply chain participants, they have not been accepted by most business users. Current e-negotiation studies fail to capture the substantive reasons of this low acceptance as they typically ignore real-world aspects of commercial negotiations. As such, this study argues that an action research approach is a plausible means to study this issue, and to drive changes in the e-negotiations services market. Accordingly, a research plan is outlined with guidelines and recommendations for future action research projects.     

Market Reforms,Technological Capabilities and the Performance of Small Enterprises in China

This paper shows that the domestic and foreign trade liberalization of the Chinese economy since the late 1970s has led to much dynamism among small and medium firms. Such firms have grown at a rapid pace and have increased their share of value added in the Chinese economy. At the same time, they have recorded gains in total factor productivity. However, after two decades of decontrol, the potential for further growth among small and medium industries is limited unless further liberalization is undertaken and government policies pertaining to the allocation of credit, levy of taxes, and grants of research and other subsidies are applied in a more even-handed fashion.