Non-linear relationship between industrial service offering and sales growth: The moderating role of network capabilities

In an effort to approach the mixed findings regarding the relationship between a firm's industrial service offering and its performance, this study analyzes the impact of the industrial service offering on sales growth and the moderating role of network capabilities. The proposed research model is tested based on data from 91 Finnish manufacturing firms. Our results demonstrate a non-linear effect of the service offering on sales growth. We also find that network capabilities enhance the effect of the service offering on sales growth. For managers of manufacturing firms, the results imply that the active development of a comprehensive service offering should be implemented in conjunction with the development of organizational capabilities, such as network capabilities, to create value and promote improved performance.     

Top management team diversity and innovativeness: The moderating role of interfunctional coordination

Top management team (TMT) diversity has received considerable attention in the academic literature as well as in the corporate arena. Our paper develops a contingent model on how top management team diversity acts as a form of human capital and can have a positive effect on innovativeness when it is effectively leveraged with favorable social capital. Our theoretical underpinning rests on the argument that greater interfunctional coordination is a source of internal social capital, which mitigates the costs while at the same time highlights the benefits associated with TMT diversity. By testing our model with TMT executives, the results generally supported our hypothesis in that the effect of TMT diversity on innovativeness was positive as interfunctional coordination increased. Implications for marketing theory and practice are discussed.     

大型电子工业厂房工程安全管理成熟度模型研究

为了测定大型电子工业厂房工程现场的安全管理水平,诊断安全管理缺失的关键问题所在,制定改进计划并予以实施,使现场安全管理工作得到持续改进,基于工程项目特点和现场安全管理的实际运行状况,采用问卷调查、理论结合实践及规范比对研究等方法,对模型的结构框架、构成要素、应用流程等进行了系统研究,构建了大型电子工业厂房工程安全管理成熟度模型(CP-SMM)。将CP-SMM模型应用于福州京东方第8.5代新型半导体显示器件生产线项目,应用结果与工程现场的实际运行情况吻合度较高。     

Offshoring and firm innovation: The moderating role of top management team attributes

This study attempts to increase the understanding of how offshoring influences the introduction of new products and services. Focusing on the offshoring of those business functions that provide direct knowledge inputs for innovation (i.e., production, R&D, and engineering), we propose that offshoring has an inverted U‐shaped influence on firm innovativeness. Additionally, we provide an upper echelon contingency perspective by considering the moderating role of two top management team (TMT) attributes (i.e., informational diversity and shared vision). Using a cross‐industry sample with lagged data, we find that offshoring has an inverted U‐shaped influence on firm innovativeness and that this relationship is steeper in firms with high TMT informational diversity and in firms with low TMT shared vision. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development and return on execution of product innovation capabilities: The role of organizational structure

This paper conceptualizes and tests an integrated model that combines the dual-core and ambidextrous models of product innovation. The integrated model distinguishes the development and return on execution of radical and incremental product innovation capabilities. The authors argue that organizational structure plays an important dual role as an (a) antecedent to the development of radical and incremental product innovation capabilities and (b) as a moderator in determining the new product performance returns from executing such capabilities. Using a sample of high-tech firms, the study finds that organizational structure is more consistent in predicting the execution of product innovation capabilities into new product performance than in predicting the development of such capabilities. For example, the effect of radical product innovation capability on new product performance is negative but nonsignificant under a formal structure, while the same effect is positive under an informal structure. Conversely, the effect of incremental product innovation capability on new product performance is positive under a formal structure, while the same effect is negative under an informal structure. The implications for managing different types of product innovation capabilities under formal versus informal structures and their effects on new product performance are discussed.     

Mapping technological capabilities into product markets and competitive advantage: the case of cholesterol drugs

While a lot of attention has been paid to those characteristics of capabilities that give firms a competitive advantage, a lot less attention has been given to supporting empirical evidence and to the deployment of these capabilities. This paper presents a model for mapping firm capabilities into customer value and competitive advantage in different markets. With empirical evidence from cholesterol drugs, I illustrate how the model can be used to estimate customer value and competitive advantage from technological capabilities. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Absorptive capacity and performance: The role of customer relationship and technological capabilities in high-tech SMEs

This study focuses on how the interplay between a firm's absorptive capacity (ACAP), and its technological and customer relationship capability contributes to its overall performance. Using structural equation modeling in a sample of 158 firms (316 questionnaires, two respondents per firm) from South Korea's semiconductor industry, we find that a firm's ACAP leads to better performance in terms of new product development, market performance and profitability when used in combination with the firm's capability to engage state of the art technologies in its new product development program (NPD) (technological capability) as well as cultivate strong customer relationships to gain customer insight in NPD (customer relationship capability). By highlighting the interactive nature of absorptive capacity's antecedents and how these relate to firms' performance, this study contributes to the understanding of the role of ACAP as a mechanism for translating external knowledge into tangible benefits in high-tech SMEs, thus leading to important theoretical and practical implications.     

R&D investment,business performance,and moderating role of Guanxi: Evidence from China

Conventional wisdom posits that a long-term orientation with important partners such as key suppliers and clients is essential for superior performance. This study critically examines this business tenet by studying the relationship between duration of partnerships with major suppliers and clients and company performance. Based on a dataset comprising over 10,000 Chinese manufacturing firms obtained through a probability sampling procedure, results show that relationship duration with major clients not only has a direct, negative effect on total income (sales), but also has a negative moderating effect on the association between research & development (R&D) and total income. However, relationship duration with major suppliers has a positive moderating effect on the association between R&D and total profits. Furthermore, relationship with government has a positive effect on total income, and it also has a negative moderating effect on the R&D-performance chain. Managerial and research implications are also discussed.     

Changes in firm knowledge couplings and firm innovation performance: The moderating role of technological complexity

We investigate the effect of changes in a firm's knowledge couplings on its innovation performance. We develop arguments to explain how changes in couplings among existing knowledge domains and those between new and existing knowledge domains affect the generation of valuable inventions. We also examine how observed domain complexity, an indicator of the inherent interdependencies among knowledge domains, moderates the effects of changes in a firm's knowledge couplings on innovation performance. Our results suggest that a change in couplings among existing knowledge domains hurts innovation outcomes, but not when the degree of domain complexity is high, whereas coupling new and existing knowledge domains leads to improved outcomes, but not when the degree of domain complexity is high. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

工贸企业危险化学品使用安全现状探析

为进一步加强危险化学品使用环节的规范化,对广东省M市工贸企业危险化学品的使用情况进行了广泛调研,并选取141家重点企业作为研究对象,利用大数据和粗糙集的约简功能,分别确定一级安全指标(安全资料、储存场所、使用场所)的18项二级安全指标的权重,并据此对使用危险化学品的工贸企业进行事故隐患分析。结果表明:工贸企业危险化学品使用过程中应将风险管理重点放到物理危险的管控上,其中易燃液体、加压气体、金属腐蚀物、易燃气体、氧化性液体的总占比达到91.6%,普遍具有火灾、爆炸、腐蚀等风险;权重结果显示,安全资料方面没有显著问题存在,储存场所中安全警示标志和仓储管理问题较突出,使用场所中需重点整治安全警示标志、防火间距、防雷与静电的问题。研究结果对工贸企业构建覆盖危险化学品使用的安全风险管控长效机制具有指导意义。     

Cluster and performance in foreign firms: The role of resources, knowledge, and trust

Clustering, the grouping of firms in close geographic proximity to one another, can enhance the performance of affiliated firms by providing access to complementary resources. Despite that some studies have produced empirical evidence supporting the positive impact of clustering, other studies have found no such evidence. Consequently, the consideration of clustering alone to explain differences in firm performance may be insufficient. This study seeks to determine whether the enhancement of firm performance comes as a consequence of clustering at the location level, interorganizational trust at the relationship level, or resource and knowledge management (i.e., the mechanisms of system dependence) at the firm level. Examining a sample group of Taiwanese manufacturers investing in China, we find that interorganizational trust, resources, and the mechanisms of system dependence all have a positive impact on performance. Further, we find that resources interact with clustering to positively impact firm performance.     

Top management team functional diversity and organizational innovation in China: The moderating effects of environment

While conflicts (cognitive and affective) have been considered as important process variables to better understand the mixed findings on the relationship between top management team functional diversity and organizational innovation, such an input‐process‐outcome model is still incomplete without considering the environmental factors. This study was formulated to assess the importance of both competitive and institutional environments in moderating such upper echelon effects within a transition economy. The chief executive officers and chief technology officers of 122 Chinese firms were surveyed and both competitive uncertainty and institutional support were found to shape top management team decision making processes and their outcomes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of learning and technical capabilities in predicting adoption of B2B technologies

Using the resource-based view and the learning organization as its theoretical framework, this study hypothesized that organizations which possessed not only the technical capabilities for automation but also the ability to learn and share information would be most likely to automate their supply chain processes. An empirical study with the top suppliers of a major airline supported this hypothesis. As predicted, both learning capabilities and certain technical capabilities were important in predicting the likelihood of adoption of Ariba, a web-based e-procurement tool.     

A methodology for the construction of dynamic capabilities in industrial networks: The role of border agents

The article presents a methodology for the formation and functioning of industrial networks that favors the development of dynamic capabilities with regard to the creation, integration, transfer and absorption of knowledge. This methodology has been put into practice in a case study: Lignum Facile. The presence of some misalignments between our initial proposal and its implementation helped us reshape and emphasize particular processes and flows associated to the methodology. Beyond the typical localization and agglomeration advantages, the analysis suggests that the success in the formation and functioning of industrial networks is mainly related to their potential to formulate immaterial relationships capable of stimulating learning processes, the dissemination of technological knowledge and innovative activities. Particularly, we found that the inclusion of border agents – intermediaries between the market and industry such as architects, engineers or designers – is fundamental to develop innovations at the intersection of different scientific and technological disciplines.     

New social relations of digital technology and the future of work: Beyond technological determinism

This introduction sets out the context for the Special Issue and offers an in-depth reflection on key themes addressed by our contributors. The Special Issue aims to place the social relations of production at the centre of debates about technology and the future of work, and create space for greater critical reflection on what it means to go ‘beyond technological determinism’. We identify ways in which aspects of technological determinism continue to influence debates on technology, the labour process and industrial relations, despite efforts to reject it. We argue that this influence is manifested in some persistent problems within the literature including overly rigid periodisations (such as ‘platform capitalism’), a narrow conceptual repertoire (which reifies notions like ‘algorithmic control’) and a constricted empirical focus. We elucidate the value of a social shaping of technology (SST) approach to overcome these challenges and provide a brief overview of the articles contained within the issue.     

The impacts of marketing and operations capabilities on financial performance in the UK retail sector: A resource-based perspective

Drawing upon the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, this study investigates the relationships among marketing capability, operations capability, and financial performance. Using archival data of 186 retail firms in the UK, we find that that marketing capability has a significant impact on operations capability, and that operations capability is significantly and positively related to retail efficiency. The results also suggest that operations capability fully mediates the relationship between marketing capability and financial performance. The findings of this study provide practical insights for practicing managers to consider when developing functional capabilities in order to achieve superior financial performance.     

Contingencies within dynamic managerial capabilities: interdependent effects of resource investment and deployment on firm performance

Dynamic managerial capabilities focus on managers' resource‐related decisions. Asset orchestration, a central component of dynamic managerial capabilities and of resource management, highlights the importance of integrating (matching) resource investment and deployment decisions. Building on these recent theoretical advances, we examine the contingent nature of resource investment and deployment decisions. The results, based on a sample of banking firms, indicate that firm performance suffers when managers' investment decisions deviate from the norms of rivals for both human and physical capital. However, when deployment decisions support investment decisions, greater investment deviation, both high and low, generally enhances performance. Specifically, firm performance is optimized by making congruent resource investment and deployment decisions as opposed to maximizing or economizing either decision independently. Therefore, resource management via asset orchestration is vital for superior performance. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Technological capabilities and firm performance: The case of small manufacturing firms in Japan

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between technological capabilities and firm performance. We divide technological capabilities into two types—refinement capability, which involves the improvement of the existing asset portfolio, and reconfiguration capability, which involves the restructuring of the asset portfolio through the integration of new assets. The results of an analysis of a sample of 302 small and medium-sized manufacturing firms in Japan suggest that refinement capability relates more positively to operational efficiency than does reconfiguration capability, and that reconfiguration capability relates more positively to strategic performance than does refinement capability. The results also suggest that firms with superior refinement capability tend to possess superior reconfiguration capability. Our findings show that both external and internal factors, such as technological volatility, inter-firm collaboration, and firm age and size, are significantly associated with the level of refinement and reconfiguration capabilities possessed by a firm.

Predicting the cost of environmental management system adoption: the role of capabilities,resources and ownership structure

This research explores why some facilities accrue greater costs when adopting an environmental management system (EMS) and why costs vary among three different ownership structures. Using survey data of organizations that documented their EMS adoption costs over a 3‐year period, the results show that publicly traded facilities had stronger complementary capabilities prior to EMS adoption and therefore lower adoption costs. By contrast, government facilities and privately owned enterprises had fewer capabilities and accrued higher EMS adoption costs. The development of organizational capabilities and resources therefore appears to be a function of both organizational exploitation of imperfect or incomplete market factors, and the institutional context of these decisions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Top management team incentive heterogeneity,strategic investment behavior,and performance: A contingency theory of incentive alignment

Research summary : We develop and test a contingency theory of the influence of top management team (TMT) performance‐contingent incentives on manager–shareholder interest alignment. Our results support our theory by showing that although TMTs engage in significantly higher levels of acquisition investment when their average incentive levels increase, investors' responses to those large investments are generally negative. More importantly, however, we further find that within‐TMT incentive heterogeneity conditions that effect, such that investors evaluate TMTs' large acquisition investments more positively as the variance in those top managers' incentive values increases. Thus, within‐TMT incentive heterogeneity appears to increase manager–shareholder interest alignment, in the context of large acquisition investments. Managerial summary : We find that as the average value of TMTs' incentives increase, relative to their total pay, they invest more in acquisitions and investors' respond negatively to the announcement of those deals. However, we further show that investors respond more positively to acquisitions announced by TMTs whose members' incentive values vary (some TMT members hold higher incentives and others hold lower). Results imply that when TMT members hold differing incentives levels, they approach investments from divergent perspectives, scrutinize those investments more heavily, and make better decisions, relative to TMTs with similar incentives. They also suggest that boards seeking tighter manager–shareholder interest alignment may benefit from introducing variance into TMT members' incentive structures, as doing so appears to create divergent preferences that can improve team decision making. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.