The Strategic HRM Configuration for Competitive Advantage: Evidence from Japanese Firms in China and Taiwan

The purpose of the present study was to identify the pattern of HRM practices that would lead to an improvement in business performance in Chinese- and Taiwanese-based Japanese affiliates in the light of a configurational perspective, following the current debate in the field of strategic human resource management (SHRM). In particular, a set of working hypotheses regarding the structural relationship among HRM practices for producing enhanced business results was drawn from the organizational learning theoretical framework that emphasizes a linkage between the process of learning and firm performance. Our conceptual model and specific hypotheses were examined using a sample of 286 Japanese affiliates operating in Mainland China and Taiwan. The results provided basic support for the configurational hypothesis in predicting the financial aspect of an affiliate's performance. It is argued that the findings of the study have several important implications for the untested relationships between high commitment work practices (HCWPs) and high performance work systems (HPWSs) from a Japanese management perspective. In addition, the manner in which each HRM technique can be used by Japanese overseas affiliates to enhance their learning and adaptive capabilities is discussed.     

Does market orientation matter?: a test of the relationship between positional advantage and performance

A recent series of articles in the Strategic Management Journal has discussed the potential value of an organization developing a market orientation in its quest to achieve success. We posit that market orientation can enhance success, but that its potential value should not be considered in isolation. Specifically, we draw on the resource‐based view of the firm to suggest that four capabilities—market orientation, entrepreneurship, innovativeness, and organizational learning—each contribute to the creation of positional advantages for some firms. The data used are drawn from 181 large multinational corporations (MNC). The results indicate that positional advantages arising from the confluence of market orientation, entrepreneurship, innovativeness, and organizational learning have a positive effect on MNC performance (five‐year average change in ROI, income, and stock price). Overall, the results support the contention that market orientation can enhance success, albeit within the context of other important phenomena. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards a model of dynamic capabilities in innovation-based competitive strategy: Insights from project-oriented service firms

With the growing significance of services in most developed economies, there is an increased interest in the role of service innovation in service firm competitive strategy. Despite growing literature on service innovation, it remains fragmented reflecting the need for a model that captures key antecedents driving the service innovation-based competitive advantage process. Building on extant literature and using thirteen in-depth interviews with CEOs of project-oriented service firms, this paper presents a model of innovation-based competitive advantage. The emergent model suggests that entrepreneurial service firms pursuing innovation carefully select and use dynamic capabilities that enable them to achieve greater innovation and sustained competitive advantage. Our findings indicate that firms purposefully use create, extend and modify processes to build and nurture key dynamic capabilities. The paper presents a set of theoretical propositions to guide future research. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. Finally, directions for future research are outlined.     

A stage-dependent model of resource utilization,strategic flexibility,and implications for performance over time: Empirical evidence from a transitional environment

It has long been recognized that there is a tradeoff between exploration and exploitation. How organizations utilize resources across time and space will affect firm survival and growth. In this paper, we examine resource utilization and performance implications over time in an environment undergoing fundamental institutional transformation. Based on a large archive of Chinese government data from 1988, 1992, and 1996, the study finds that (1) the impact of resource utilization is contingent on the degree to which different resources are committed to factors of production, (2) the impact is curvilinear and only valid within an “optimal” range, and (3) the performance implications change over time. As firms enter later stages of the transitional process, efficiency becomes less important as they shift their strategic focus from exploitation to exploration, which requires more flexibility. These findings have significant bearing on the issue of upgrading technological competitiveness in China as the country becomes increasingly integrated in the global economy. Such insights may also have implications for other emerging economies in Asia.

Technology‐push,market‐demand and the missing safety‐pull: a case study of American Airlines Flight 587

Through a critical case study of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, this paper draws upon ‘the Social Shaping of Technology’ (SST) approach to offer a reconceptualisation of the technology‐push and market‐demand model for High‐Reliably Organisations (HROs), providing support for a third factor, called here a ‘safety‐pull’. A safety‐pull is defined as organisationally supported reflexivity in which technology innovators and frontline operators collaborate to consider the potential implications of adopting new technologies in HROs and the complex ways this change may impact human operators' work performance, often in risky and unanticipated ways. In contrast to accidents occurring solely as the result of individual operator error, analysing the safety‐pull provides a way to tease out the wide range of factors that can contribute to HRO failures and offers a new SST perspective through which to examine high‐risk operations.