Effect of new product alliances on building cross-functional capability: cross-fertilisation or cannibalisation?

ABSTRACT

The extant literature has focused mainly on how establishing alliances helps firms develop their capabilities within focal functional areas, while paying limited attention to the cross-functional effects of alliances. Drawing on the knowledge-spillover literature and resource-dependence theory, this study investigates the effects of new product development (NPD) alliances on building cross-functional capabilities, testing the influences of important organisational, strategic, and environmental contingencies. Based on survey data collected from 212 Chinese firms, the findings reveal that, for resource-abundant firms, R&D-focused NPD alliances have cross-functional fertilisation effects on marketing capabilities; whereas for resource-constrained or highly innovative firms such alliances cannibalise marketing capabilities; in dynamic markets, marketing-focused NPD alliances cross-fertilise technological capabilities, but such an effect is weaker in firms adopting a highly incremental innovation orientation. Overall, this study sheds new light on how NPD alliances affect cross-functional capabilities under important contingencies.     

Impact of instrumental ties,tacit knowledge sharing and affective commitment on absorptive capacity – an empirical study of pharmaceutical companies

Absorptive capacity construct has gained importance since last two decades especially in knowledge intensive environment. The companies invest their time and resources to achieve strategic goals and thus enhance their absorptive capacity in order to deal with new knowledge requirements. Companies largely focus on the macro level processes and mechanisms which are external to their boundaries and ignore the intra company factors critical to absorptive capacity. This study explores the impact of human behaviours related to instrumental ties (INST), affective commitment (AFC) and tacit knowledge sharing (TKS) on absorptive capacity (ACAP). Results of this study based on sample from pharmaceutical companies of Pakistan show significant contribution of human behaviour in development of absorptive capacity. The employees’ behaviours may not be ignored by decision makers in pharmaceutical companies while formulating knowledge strategies.     

A method for knowledge integration of ontology-based user profiles in personalised document retrieval systems

ABSTRACT

The development of the Internet exceeds the ways to obtain information. Nowadays, a user is overloaded by information from every domain. In our work, we consider a Personalised Document Retrieval System that gathers information about user interests, determines a user profile and helps the user to obtain relevant documents. The scope of the paper is to develop techniques for integrating knowledge about a group of users and determining a profile that represents the group. Such a profile is then used to avoid 'cold-start' problem in a personalisation system. Experimental evaluations were performed to check the effectiveness of the system.     

Towards a typology of business process management professionals: identifying patterns of competences through latent semantic analysis

While researchers have analysed the organisational competences that are required for successful Business Process Management (BPM) initiatives, individual BPM competences have not yet been studied in detail. In this study, latent semantic analysis is used to examine a collection of 1507 BPM-related job advertisements in order to develop a typology of BPM professionals. This empirical analysis reveals distinct ideal types and profiles of BPM professionals on several levels of abstraction. A closer look at these ideal types and profiles confirms that BPM is a boundary-spanning field that requires interdisciplinary sets of competence that range from technical competences to business and systems competences. Based on the study’s findings, it is posited that individual and organisational alignment with the identified ideal types and profiles is likely to result in high employability and organisational BPM success.     

中国水资源利用与产业结构协调发展研究可视化分析

以1995—2022年中国知网核心数据库收录的218篇中国水资源利用与产业结构协调发展研究文献作为数据基础，利用CiteSpace可视化软件，分别绘制学者、机构、关键词知识图谱，系统探究该领域知识基础和前沿热点并揭示该领域的研究进展。研究表明：该领域发文量波动增长趋势与水利政策颁布趋势契合；领域研究机构合作紧密度小于学者合作紧密度；近年来“脱钩关系”“环境规制”“协调关系”等关键词在研究演化路径图谱中高频出现，构成领域前沿热点研究。     

知识产出货币价值的统计与运用

针对中国现行的R&D统计体系存在的"重投入、轻产出"倾向,通过梳理国内外文献,将R&D产出分为交易性R&D、自用性R&D和非交易性R&D,构建了用于测算R&D产出货币价值的知识产出三分法分析框架,并运用2010年深圳市的相关数据加以实证。     

Multiple foci of commitment in a professional service firm: balancing complex employment relations

Employees of professional service firms (PSFs) have attachments to multiple groups, which may be either compatible or conflicting: their employer, their clients and their profession. We analyse the antecedents of commitment to these three foci based on a survey of 510 employees in a large PSF in Norway. The main findings are as follows: (1) low quality of internal work relations is negatively associated with employer commitment and draws employees towards external foci of commitment – the clients and the profession; (2) role conflict is associated with stronger commitment to the client organisation and the profession; and (3) autonomy and transferability of skills are associated with stronger commitment to the profession, but does not undermine commitment to the employer. The article contributes to our understanding of the conditions under which employees identify with external groups and when commitment to the employer may be compromised. The findings have implications for how managers can help to increase the commitment of employees involved in complex employment relations.     

浅析国有企业隐性知识转化的障碍及相应对策

本文以国有企业为主要研究对象,系统阐述了国有企业在知识管理尤其是隐性知识管理方面所遇到的障碍,并通过对国有企业知识管理现状的分析,找出提高国有企业隐性知识管理水平的策略。