Agility and Resilience as Sources of Competitive Advantages a Theoretical and Empirical Investigation

Today’s hypercompetitive global climate makes lasting competitive edge unsuitable. Firms face increasing complexity due to the rapid entry and growth of internationalizing firms from emerging markets, technological breakthroughs, discontinuous innovation, and the uncertainties surrounding unexpected shocks transmitted across world markets, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. In this research, I examine how firms have built and applied two adaptive abilities (agility and resilience) to respond to environmental changes and disruptions to create sustainable competitive advantage. An agile organization is simultaneously a resilient organization. Despite agility’s increased relevance in the academy and practitioners\u27 publications, its epistemological and ontological analyses are superficial at best. Specifically, supported by inductive and deductive analysis, I bring clarity to agility’s concept and its boundary conditions. Thus, I propose an integrative multilevel framework of the antecedents, the enablers, and the outcomes of the process of agility performance. Moreover, through in-depth interviews with executives, I explore how agility and resilience manifested in emerging market multinational firms (EMNEs) enhance their competitiveness by using both adaptive abilities in their international operations. The findings reveal that all organizations possess some degrees of agility and resilience simultaneously as two faces of the same coin. Furthermore, agility and resilience are interdependent, comprising five common domains

Evolution of knowledge networks, technological learning and development of SME’s : a multi-level perspective of innovation and environmental trends in the automotive sector in Thailand

Car producers are under pressure in the shift towards automotive technologies that are environmentally sustainable, from the use of internal combustion engine to technologies associated with electric mobility. The question remains how firms along the automotive supply chain react to such challenges posed by environmental trends. The issue raised by this research is crucial to the automotive industry in Thailand which is the main industry with a major contribution to the country’s economy. As SMEs constitute the lion’s share in the supply chain of the Thai automotive industries, it is crucial to examine their ability to adapt to evolving technologies and the factors influencing their capability development. This research aims to investigate how existing firms, particularly SMEs, react to the sustainability transition by elucidating their processes of technological learning and participation in knowledge networks. To explore potential shifts in practices, the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) framework is employed. Specifically, the study centres on SMEs as established entities involved in niche innovations, examining how government interventions can facilitate their technological transition. In this study, the entrance of EV constitutes a concern for all firms, but SMEs tend to feel more of an impact than large firms. Most firms expect some product or process modification due to the advent of EV. To prepare for the shift, most firms show similar interest in joining the EV value chain and a diversification to new markets so as to maintain existing production capacity. Both SMEs and large firms primarily acquire technological knowledge using their own internal effort rather than networking with academia. The results also suggest that large firms seem to network with external partners for knowledge development activities more than SMEs. It is also found that firms required R&D capability improvement to support them in the transition to EV. This study has identified that SMEs have less absorptive capacity than large firms which is crucial for their adaptability and ability to innovate. Thus, the evidence of this study implies that, despite the responsiveness to change, SMEs may experience difficulties in the transition to EV more than large firms. The results also suggest that firms may increase their ability to learn new knowledge or increase their absorptive capacity through networking deeply with triple helix partners. It is found that the lack of an overarching EV policy framework at the landscape level and the lack of demand side policy tends to impact the direction of firm’s technological development or the regime shift. The role of government interventions is significant in terms of promoting investment policies to attract the establishment of the EV industry. However, the capability for niche technological improvement in local firms wishing to join the EV value chain seems to be mostly limited to large firms, either for incumbents or new entrants. Government policy intervention and strong implementation regarding the development of human resources and R&D support by providing researchers and funding are required, particularly for SMEs which lack both skills and resources. The focus on the establishment of EV industry without parallelly improving local technological capability is identified as a potential risk to the country’s future competitiveness.Car producers are under pressure in the shift towards automotive technologies that are environmentally sustainable, from the use of internal combustion engine to technologies associated with electric mobility. The question remains how firms along the automotive supply chain react to such challenges posed by environmental trends. The issue raised by this research is crucial to the automotive industry in Thailand which is the main industry with a major contribution to the country’s economy. As SMEs constitute the lion’s share in the supply chain of the Thai automotive industries, it is crucial to examine their ability to adapt to evolving technologies and the factors influencing their capability development. This research aims to investigate how existing firms, particularly SMEs, react to the sustainability transition by elucidating their processes of technological learning and participation in knowledge networks. To explore potential shifts in practices, the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) framework is employed. Specifically, the study centres on SMEs as established entities involved in niche innovations, examining how government interventions can facilitate their technological transition. In this study, the entrance of EV constitutes a concern for all firms, but SMEs tend to feel more of an impact than large firms. Most firms expect some product or process modification due to the advent of EV. To prepare for the shift, most firms show similar interest in joining the EV value chain and a diversification to new markets so as to maintain existing production capacity. Both SMEs and large firms primarily acquire technological knowledge using their own internal effort rather than networking with academia. The results also suggest that large firms seem to network with external partners for knowledge development activities more than SMEs. It is also found that firms required R&D capability improvement to support them in the transition to EV. This study has identified that SMEs have less absorptive capacity than large firms which is crucial for their adaptability and ability to innovate. Thus, the evidence of this study implies that, despite the responsiveness to change, SMEs may experience difficulties in the transition to EV more than large firms. The results also suggest that firms may increase their ability to learn new knowledge or increase their absorptive capacity through networking deeply with triple helix partners. It is found that the lack of an overarching EV policy framework at the landscape level and the lack of demand side policy tends to impact the direction of firm’s technological development or the regime shift. The role of government interventions is significant in terms of promoting investment policies to attract the establishment of the EV industry. However, the capability for niche technological improvement in local firms wishing to join the EV value chain seems to be mostly limited to large firms, either for incumbents or new entrants. Government policy intervention and strong implementation regarding the development of human resources and R&D support by providing researchers and funding are required, particularly for SMEs which lack both skills and resources. The focus on the establishment of EV industry without parallelly improving local technological capability is identified as a potential risk to the country’s future competitiveness

Технології менеджменту знань

Програма навчальної дисципліни «Технології менеджменту знань» складена відповідно до освітньоої програми підготовки магістра «Консолідована інформація». Предметом вивчення навчальної дисципліни є технології менеджменту створення, зберігання, розподілу і застосування знань у системі процесів, спрямованих на успіх організації. Забезпечується надання теоретичних і практичних знань щодо реалізації функцій менеджменту знань (Knowledge Management, KM), зокрема за допомогою сучасних технологій, передусім інформаційно-комунікаційних, з використанням електронних за­собів, надання знань з методології та інструментарію, застосування Internet технологій. Вивчаються теоретичні й практичні засади КМ, різні аспекти методології КМ з метою ство­рення стратегічних конкурентних переваг для організації, вивчення основних принципів організації та забезпечення функціонування систем КМ

Dynamic Capability Building through partnering: An Australian Mobile handset case Study

Dynamic capabilities are increasingly seen as an organisational characteristic for innovation and are regarded as a source of competitive advantage. In a quest for sustainability, service organisations are partnering with their stakeholders, and subsequently are aptly bringing innovation in services to market. Most of existing empirical research regarding dynamic capabilities seeks to define and identify specific dynamic capabilities, as well as their organizational antecedents or effects. Yet, the extent to which the antecedents of success in particular dynamic capabilities, contribute to innovation in service organisations remains less researched. This study advances the understanding of such dynamic capability building process through effective collaboration, and highlights the detailed mechanisms and processes of capability building within a service value network framework to deliver innovation in services. Deploying a case study methodology, transcribing interviews with managers and staff from an Australian telco and its partnering organisations, results show that collaboration, collaborative organisational learning, collaborative innovative capacity, entrepreneurial alertness and collaborative agility are all core to fostering innovation in services. Practical implications of this research are significant, and that the impacts of collaboration and the dynamic capabilities mentioned above are discussed in the context of a mobile handset case study

Vertical alliances and innovation : A systematic review of the literature and a future research agenda

For this paper, we conducted a systematic review of 116 articles on vertical alliances and innovation published in 35 leading journals between 2000 and 2021, and provide an integrative and in-depth evaluation of the current state of the vertical alliances and innovation literature. Through such review, this article makes three key contributions to the extant literature. First, it provides an integrative overview of vertical alliances and innovation. Second, it maps the depth and scope of the study of vertical alliances and innovation by highlighting the research methods, geographical coverage, industries, and theoretical perspectives deployed by the extant scholarship. Third, it develops a multi-level framework of the vertical alliances and innovation relationship, and discusses the findings based on research linkages between antecedents, mediators, outcomes, and moderators. This framework led us to identify key research gaps and to highlight additional theoretical approaches that may shed light on this important topic, given the growing importance of technological advancement and networks for innovation.© 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Investigating Three Key Principles of Sustained Strategic Renewal: A Longitudinal Study of Long-Lived Firms

How do long-lived firms strategically renew themselves over time? Viewing organizational longevity as sustained strategic renewal, this PhD research investigates three key principles of self-renewing organizations. Building on the coevolutionary perspective that incorporates both selection and adaptation perspectives, we developed a comprehensive framework to investigate these three key principles in the oil industry as our case industry, in Shell (1907-2008) as our focal case company and BP (1970-2008) as our comparative case company. Besides the multilevel and comparative case study methods, we employed the method of longitudinal content analysis to incorporate the temporal analysis of sustained strategic renewal over an extended period of time. First, we investigated the principle of matching the internal rate of change with the external rate of change. Our results suggest that aligning the internal rate of change of a firm with the external rate of change of the firm’s environment positively influences the firms’ sustained strategic renewal. Second, environmental turbulence requires firms to renew their organizational structure and develop self-organization. Our findings propound that self-organization positively influences sustained strategic renewal. Third, we investigated exploratory and exploitative strategic renewal trajectories as well as the role of top management team (TMT) in influencing these trajectories. We found that balancing exploration and exploitation positively influences sustained strategic renewal and that the TMT’s corporate governance perspective (shareholders / stakeholders) does influence strategic renewal trajectories. Finally, we substantiated managerial implications based on the enabling antecedents of the three key principles

Exploring the contributions of cross-sector collaborations to Disaster Risk Reduction in the city of Harare: an investigation through a drought response lens

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction calls for collaboration across sectors in society as an effective way to reduce disaster risk in order to safeguard lives, human wellbeing, and development gains from potential disasters. However, the effectiveness of these cross-sector collaboration approaches has most often been studied in the context of rapid onset disasters such as floods, with less focus on slow-onset disasters such as multiple year droughts. There is also limited research on the contributions of cross-sector collaborations towards Disaster Risk Reduction in African cities. For this study, I set out to investigate cross-sector collaboration efforts contributing to drought response in the city of Harare, Zimbabwe; and how these collaborations were contributing towards fulfilling the four priority areas of the Sendai Framework. These include i) understanding disaster risk, ii) strengthening disaster risk governance, iii) investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience, and iv) enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response. In this qualitative study, I made use of purposive and snowball sampling methods to select 14 key informants from national and local government, non-governmental organisations, and civil society organisations who were directly involved in eight drought related cross-sector collaborations. I conducted in depth semi-structured interviews with these key informants between 2018 and 2019. For the analysis, I followed prior developed themes based on Bryson et al. (2006) theoretical framework to understand cross-sector collaborations. I also applied a typology of barriers and enablers developed from the literature in the analysis, and interpreted emergent themes using NVivo software. I then assessed the contributions of the identified cross-sector collaborations to the activities listed under each of the four priority areas in the Sendai Framework. The findings highlighted the socio-political and economic context of the city of Harare had seeped through and influenced the cross-sector collaborations responding to drought. They shed light on how taking advantage of widely accessible social media platforms serve to enhance collaborations. Additionally, the results highlight the importance of existing networks and relationships in enabling cross-sector collaborations to occur effectively. Most of the cross-sector collaborations occurring in response to drought were originally formed for other reasons and included drought response during the peak of the drought disaster. Collaborations were effective at contributing towards engaging communities in risk assessment and reporting at the local level (Priority 1) and ensuring continual provisioning of services (water) during and after disasters (Priority 4). I make suggestions for collaborations to consider issues of power and how these affect the effectiveness of collaborations on the ground with regards to ensuring social justice and reducing inequality. Finally, I conclude that cross-sector collaborations would be more effective in response to slow-onset disasters when they are formed and applied before the disaster is at its peak. I also suggest that the design and implementation of the cross-sector collaborations be tailor made to consider the socio-political and economic aspects of the city in their design for effective response