The doctoral research abstracts Vol:1 2012 / Institute of Graduate Studies, UiTM

Foreword: Congratulations to Institute of Graduate Studies on the 1st issue of The Doctoral Research Abstracts. This inaugural issue consists of 40 abstracts from our PhD graduands receiving their scrolls in the UiTM’s 76th Convocation. This convocation is very significant especially for UiTM since we are celebrating the success of 40 PhD graduands from 12 of the university’s 25 faculties – the largest number ever conferred at any one time. To the 40 doctorates, I would like it to be known that you have most certainly done UiTM proud by journeying through the scholastic path with its endless challenges and impediments, and by persevering right till the very end. Let it remain in your thoughts and hearts that knowledge is Godgiven, and for those of us who have some to spare, never fear to share with those around us, and never be sparing in serving the community and the country, in the name of the Almighty. Dato’ Prof Ir Dr Sahol Hamid Bin Abu Bakar , FASc Vice Chancellor Universiti Teknologi MAR

Sleepy but creative? How affective commitment, knowledge sharing, and organizational forgiveness mitigate the dysfunctional effect of insomnia on creative behaviors

Purpose: This study investigates how employees' experience of suffering from insomnia might reduce the likelihood that they perform creative activities, as well as how this negative relationship might be buffered by employees' access to resources at three levels: an individual resource (affective commitment), a relational resource (knowledge sharing with peers) and an organizational resource (climate of organizational forgiveness). Design/methodology/approach: Quantitative data came from a survey of employees in the banking sector. Findings: Insomnia reduces creativity, but this effect is weaker when employees feel a strong emotional bond to their organization, openly share knowledge with colleagues and believe that their organization forgives errors. Research limitations/implications: The limitations of this research include its relatively narrow scope by focusing on one personal stressor only, its cross-sectional design, its reliance on subjective measures of insomnia and creativity and its single-industry, single-country design. Practical implications: The findings indicate different, specific ways in which human resource managers can overcome the challenges associated with sleep-deprived employees who avoid productive work behaviors, including creativity. Originality/value: This study adds to extant scholarship by specifying how employees' persistent sleep deprivation might steer them away from undertaking creative behaviors, with a particular focus on how several pertinent resources buffer this process.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Evidence based HRM:What we know about people in workplaces

Evidence based HRM: What we know about people in workplaces is an authoritative, practical text on using scientific and local evidence for doing Human Resource Management. It explains how making informed decisions about people in workplaces will benefit organizational performance, assure fit with the organizational context, as well as benefit employee wellbeing. The book provides a quick reference to the core theories and the key research evidence that inform present day HRM knowledge

R&D Leadership Styles and Behaviors: A Review and Research Agenda

R&D leaders are critical actors in creating and executing organizational R&D strategies and leading R&D departments. R&D leaders spearhead and manage innovation activities and efforts that are essential for organizational survival and growth. Despite the importance of the R&D leader role, there is a scant focus on R&D leadership styles and behaviors within the existing fragmented literature. Accordingly, in this article, the purpose is to address this deficit by examining R&D leadership styles and behaviors through a systematic literature review. Based on 60 articles, we identified three main themes: the influence of leadership style; R&D leader behaviors; and R&D leader human capital. We analyze and discuss these themes along with positing future research avenues for further understanding of R&D leaders and leadership

Transfer and institutionalisation of corporate governance practices: Asia-Pacific subsidiaries and joint ventures of United Kingdom listed multinational companies

This research considers the transfer and institutionalisation of a corporate governance practice to the Asia-Pacific subsidiaries and joint ventures of two UK listed MNEs. The practice under consideration is a risk based system of internal control (RBSIC) that follows the recommendations made in Internal Control: Guidance for Directors on the Combined Code more generally known as the Turnbull Report or guidelines. The main contributions are three-fold. They focus on corporate governance practices below board level; the transfer of corporate governance practices across international borders; and the role of managerial agency as a key influence over institutionalisation. Through the combination of semi-structured interviews, documentation provided by the companies and secondary sources including academic papers, books and news services two case studies were developed – one main case study, consisting of eight embedded case studies – Excelsior; and a supporting case study consisting of two embedded case studies – Landmark. Three key themes emerged: First, although the degree of institutionalisation of the RBSIC differed across cases, the overarching picture was one of ceremonial adoption that had been achieved without the relatively high level of implementation proposed by Kostova and Roth (2002). Secondly, the successful institutionalisation of the RBSIC resides primarily in the individual employees at the recipient business unit. However, the transfer is embedded inside a specific national context that to differing degrees, depending on the differences between the source of the RBSIC and the individual recipient business units, interacts with three practice-specific sub-variables – causal ambiguity, practice-specific absorptive capacity and motivation of the practice recipient. Thirdly, due to over reliance on the regional RBSIC team responsible for the institutionalisation of the practice, their role as gatekeeper, standing between the source of the knowledge (corporate headquarters) and the recipient (Asia-Pacific business units), was unexpectedly a barrier to the development and institutionalisation of the practice

R&D Leadership Styles and Behaviors: A Review and Research Agenda

R&D leaders are critical actors in creating and execut- ing organizational R&D strategies and leading R&D departments. R&D leaders spearhead and manage innovation activities and efforts that are essential for organizational survival and growth. Despite the importance of the R&D leader role, there is a scant focus on R&D leadership styles and behaviors within the existing fragmented literature. Accordingly, in this article, the purpose is to address this deficit by examining R&D leadership styles and behav- iors through a systematic literature review. Based on 60 articles, we identified three main themes: the influence of leadership style; R&D leader behaviors; and R&D leader human capital. We analyze and discuss these themes along with positing future research avenues for further understanding of R&D leaders and leadership

Risky Business : Creative SMEs, microenterprises and independents trading globally in a time of transition

The UK government’s 2018 Industrial Strategy: Creative Industries Sector Deal policy aimed to increase firm size in the sector. Policymakers identified small company size as a particular obstacle to creative industries exports, arguing that very small firms lack the “absorptive capacity” to undertake extra export duties (BEIS, 2018). Yet, there is a critical gap in knowledge about the global trading patterns of the UK’s creative industries, particularly amongst the microenterprises and independents that make up the bulk of the sector. This research endeavours to answer the question, is small firm size indeed a barrier to international trade in the creative industries? Employing anonymous online surveys and in-depth interviews, this study investigates whether small firm size acted a deterrent to trade engagement amongst small-tomedium sized enterprises (SMEs), microenterprises and independents based in creative hubs in England’s North West. The primary research was conducted during the inter-Brexit era, i.e. after the Brexit referendum of June 2016 and prior to the UK’s formal secession from the EU on 31 January 2020. The results challenge the assumption that small firm size was a barrier to international trade in the creative industries at the time of the study. Sampled SMEs, microenterprises and sole proprietors were found to be deeply involved in international markets, with 66 percent of respondents exporting. Furthermore, exporters often relied heavily on their overseas income with almost one-third earning over 50 per cent of their annual income overseas. Digital innovations and barrier-free access to the EU trade block appear to have supported the trade capabilities of independents and microenterprises at the time of the research. These findings imply that, in the absence of new trade deals, creative industries policy makers may need to shift focus away from firm size to other measures, such as supporting creative hubs or clusters to facilitate network-building and information sharing

Indirect capabilities and complex performance:implications for procurement and operations strategy

Purpose – The paper argues that indirect capabilities – the ability to access other organizations’ capabilities – are an important and neglected part of firm strategy in PCP (Procuring Complex Performance) settings, and that this is especially so if these settings are treated as genuinely complex, rather than merely complicated. Elements of indirect capabilities are identified. Design/methodology – This is a theoretical paper, drawing on complexity notions and Penrose’s analysis of endogenous innovation to drive a disequilibrium-oriented discussion of the capabilities required by firms in a PCP setting. Findings – Six inter-related elements of indirect capabilities are proposed and discussed: IT infrastructure; boundary management practices; contracting; interface artefacts; valuing others’ capabilities and relating direct to indirect capabilities. These are important in PCP settings and in other operations and supply settings characterised by complexity. Originality/value – This paper reconsiders the way complexity has been treated in the PCP literature, and develops an extended discussion of the notion of indirect capabilities. It potentially provides the basis for an operations and supply strategy more attuned to the demands of shifting inter-organizational networks