Knowledge management and firm performance: the mediating effect of entrepreneurial orientation

Entrepreneurship in Latin-American is high compared to other regions. However, there is little innovation. (Lederman, Messina, Pienknagura, & Rigolini, 2014). Lumpkin and Dess (1996) highlighted that holding an Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) relays on possessing five dimensions that contribute to a Firm Performance (FP). Therefore, a question arises about to what extent firms from emerging markets, such as Colombian companies, possess this orientation and to what extent EO has presented a positive relationship on their FP. In addition, to what extent these firms that implemented Knowledge Management (KM) practices have seen the EO-FP relationship influenced. Few studies are found that reflect the reality of firms from Latin-American markets in this context (Chen, Saarenketo, & Puumalainen, 2016; Martin & Javalgi, 2016) A quantitative, cross-sectional and correlational research was conducted in a sample of Medellin companies. This research found that there is a positive significant relationship between KM and FP on Colombian companies, although this relationship is fully mediated by EO. This should encourage managers from emerging economies to implement KM practices that have a positive effect on their Sales Growth. However, these practices ought be accompanied simultaneously with the promotion of EO. EO must be identified as a “strategic dimension” that companies recurrently present in a given period of time (J. G. Covin & Slevin, 1991). Also, EO does not remain constant over time; companies that possess it may show phases of high EO and low EO, based on their strategic reactions to environmental conditions (Wales, Monsen, & McKelvie, 2011). As KM practices influence positively firm innovation performance (Alegre, Sengupta, & Lapiedra, 2011), companies can expect better innovation performance when they implement KM practices. However, without EO, KM may not have any effect on a company’s Sales Growth, since it needs EO to mediate in such relationship. One of the limitations of this research is that the data collected is mainly from Medellin’s companies. Also, the small sample size of 90 observations may present another limitation. Similar studies from different countries in Latinamerica can be carried out and comparative analyses can be performed with this research in the Colombian context.Tesi

Estimating technological spillover effects in presence of knowledge heterogeneous foreign subsidiaries: Evidence from Colombia

This paper analyses the effects of heterogeneous foreign subsidiaries in the generation of knowledge spillovers beneficial for domestic owned firms. The empirical analysis uses firm-level panel data for manufacturing firms in Colombia for the period 2003-2012. We identify two different types of subsidiaries according to their technological responsibilities and mandates, to empirically test the existence of differential effects on domestic firms’ productivity. Our results confirm that only those subsidiaries oriented to creative technological activities exert significant and positive effects, while those subsidiaries oriented to exploitative technological activities do not generate knowledge spillover effects. These findings contribute to arguments in the existing literature supporting the distinctive role and relevance of heterogeneous foreign subsidiaries in developing host contexts

Technological Innovation in Colombian Small Firms: A Gender Multi-Group Analysis

Background: Studies on innovations have been focused on teams, institutions, and organisations without accounting for the role of the executive’s gender. Objectives: This research aims to analyse how small Colombian firms manage technological innovation from the perspective of the gender of executives. Methods/Approach: A quantitative approach and cross-sectional, non-experimental design through Structural Equation Models with PLS-SEM was used. We self-administered a survey randomly to gather data from 145 small firms’ owners or managers in the department of Bogota, Colombia. Results: The results obtained from multi-group analysis evidence that process innovation has a strong and significant positive impact on the innovation of products, and no significant differences were found when comparing the performance of male executives versus female executives. However, descriptive statistics showed that female executives give more importance to the process and product innovation activities, and they demonstrated to manage a better product innovation performance than male executives. Conclusions: The evidence reveals that female executives are more committed to developing new products and choose to acquire new skills or equipment to develop products and processes. It is, therefore, essential to eliminate organisations\u27 cultural stereotypes and take advantage of women’s potential in management leadership

Employee perception of impact of knowledge management processes on public sector performance

Purpose The application of knowledge management (KM) is critical to public sector firm as it is to private sector firm. However, despite its significance, the academic enquiry of KM in public sector is at its nascent stage. This forms the motivation of the present work; this paper aims to analyze and understand the intricate relationship between KM processes and public sector firm performance in terms of operational, quality and innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach A comprehensive KM processes–performance framework consisting of seven constructs (four constructs of KM processes and three constructs of KM performance) and their underlying factors was developed through an extensive literature review. The employee perceptions of these seven constructs were captured on a five-point Likert scale using a country-wide survey in the UAE public sector. The 270 valid responses captured were then used to first validate the KM framework and then test the hypothesized relationships between KM processes and KM performance. Findings The findings show that all four KM processes (knowledge creation, knowledge capture and storage, knowledge sharing and knowledge application and use) had a positive and significant impact on operational, quality and innovation performance of public sector in the UAE. Research limitations/implications The findings confirm the validity and reliability of all the seven constructs and their underlying factors and the assessment framework. Overall, this study fills a gap in the literature about applying/implementing a KM framework for the public sector and therefore significantly contributes toward the theoretical advancement of the field. However, the study does acknowledge the use of perceptual measures of individual employees as a limitation instead of more objective measures to capture the impact KM processes on KM performance. Practical implications The strong and significant impact of KM processes on firm performance is expected to provide the impetus for practitioners and policymakers to implement and leverage from KM processes and improve firm performance in the public sector. Originality/value A comprehensive development, validation and assessment of a KM framework for the public sector has not been attempted previously anywhere, let alone UAE, and hence constitutes the novelty of this work

Capacidade de absorção e processos organizacionais de gestão do conhecimento: relações com a inovação

The present doctoral thesis, written in the field of work and organizational psychology, merges theoretical and empirical scientific papers, and aims to answer to research goals related with the theoretical and empirical exploration and analysis of the existent relationships between absorptive capacity, key knowledge management processes and organizational innovation. Moreover, the present work analyzes, both theoretically and empirically, the absorptive capacity’s construct dimensionality. The developed theoretical chapters allowed the creation of an integrative model, strengthening the link between knowledge management processes and the phases of absorptive capacity as well as framing organizational innovation as a consequent of key knowledge processes and the organizational capability of acquiring external knowledge and apply it to commercial ends, that is, its absorptive capacity. One hundred eleven respondents, from different organizations, from ten activity sectors, participated on an online survey that collected sociodemographic data of the key informant and the corresponding company. An absorptive capacity scale, as well as instruments to assess knowledge management processes – namely the key processes of acquisition, sharing, storage and documentation, and knowledge creation – and an organizational innovations scale were applied. The results, presented on the two empirical chapters, show that, on the surveyed companies, the organizational processes of knowledge acquisition and knowledge sharing reinforce absorptive capacity and new knowledge creation. Intra-organizational knowledge sharing also potentiates organizational innovation, though the mediating role of internal knowledge creation, variable that appears to be the strongest predictor of organizational innovation on the analyzed sample. Considering the results presented on chapter three and searching for more detailed knowledge on the variables that can promote internal knowledge creation, a model that reflects the interrelationships between potential absorptive capacity, the process of knowledge storage, and realized absorptive capacity was tested. The analysis showed that knowledge storage and the organizations’ realized absorptive capacity, that is, its ability to transform an apply previously acquired and assimilated knowledge, positively influence new knowledge creation and both, individually and conjointly, play a mediating role between potential absorptive capacity and the internal creation of new knowledge. Conclusions and final considerations are presented, with reflections about theoretical (for work and organizational psychology research) and practical (for the work and organizational psychologist) implications of the thesis, as well as its limitations.A presente tese de doutoramento, em Psicologia (do trabalho e das organizações), apresenta um trabalho realizado em formato de articulação de artigos científicos, pretendendo responder a objetivos gerais de investigação relacionados com a exploração e análise, teórica e empírica, das relações existentes entre a capacidade de absorção (do conhecimento), processos chave de gestão do conhecimento e a inovação organizacional. Adicionalmente, investiga e analisa, teórica e empiricamente, a dimensionalidade do constructo de capacidade de absorção. Os capítulos teóricos desenvolvidos permitiram a criação de um modelo sinóptico, reforçando a ligação entre processos de gestão do conhecimento e fases da capacidade de absorção e enquadrando a inovação organizacional enquanto consequente de processos chave de gestão do conhecimento e da capacidade organizacional de adquirir conhecimento externamente e aplicá-lo para fins comerciais, isto é, a sua capacidade de absorção. Cento e onze respondentes, de diferentes organizações, pertencentes a dez setores de atividade, participaram num inquérito por questionário online que recolheu dados sociodemográficos do respondente e da empresa, aplicando ainda uma escala de capacidade de absorção, instrumentos de avaliação de processos de gestão do conhecimento – nomeadamente: aquisição, partilha, armazenamento e criação do conhecimento – e uma escala de inovação organizacional. Os resultados, apresentados em dois capítulos empíricos, demonstram que, nas empresas estudadas, os processos organizacionais de aquisição e partilha do conhecimento reforçam a capacidade de absorção e a criação de novo conhecimento. A partilha de conhecimento, intraorganizacional, potencia ainda a inovação organizacional, sendo esta relação mediada pela criação interna de novo conhecimento, variável que se apresenta como o mais forte preditor da inovação organizacional na amostra analisada. Considerando os primeiros resultados alcançados e procurando conhecer em maior detalhe as variáveis que podem promover a criação interna de novo conhecimento, foi testado um modelo onde a capacidade potencial de absorção, o processo de armazenamento do conhecimento e a capacidade efetiva de absorção são estudados na sua inter-relação. A análise realizada demonstrou que o armazenamento do conhecimento e a capacidade efetiva de absorção das organizações, isto é, a capacidade de transformarem e aplicarem conhecimento previamente adquirido e assimilado, influenciam positivamente a criação de novo conhecimento, representando, ainda, de forma individual e conjunta, um papel mediador entre a capacidade potencial de absorção do conhecimento e a criação interna de novo conhecimento. Conclusões e considerações finais são elaboradas e apresentadas, refletindo-se sobre as implicações teóricas (para a investigação em psicologia do trabalho e das organizações) e práticas (para o psicólogo do trabalho e das organizações) da tese apresentada, bem como acerca das suas limitações

The Discovery of New Export Products in Ecuador

This paper examines export diversification in Ecuador in the cases of fresh cut flowers, canned tuna, palm heart, broccoli and mangoes, using the theoretical framework on “pioneers” and “discoveries” developed by Hausmann and Rodrik(2003), as well as work by Sánchez and Butler (2006) on export costs and related uncertainties. It is found that the discoveries were mainly of traditional competitive advantage, with various degrees of technology adoption. The following policy implications are derived: i) innovative mechanisms to share the costs of new discoveries must be found and intellectual property rights strengthened; ii) cooperation among industry experts needs to improve; iii) deeper collective action to promote public-private partnerships should be undertaken; iv) relevant information and knowledge should be made available to all interested parties; and v) a national-level agenda should be undertaken to increase private investment in promising sectors while promoting the creation of public goods and minimizing rent-seeking behavior.Export diversification, Ecuador

Innovation, Sustainability, Development and Social Inclusion: Lessons from Latin America

This paper is one of a series of working papers relating regional experiences to ideas proposed by the New Manifesto, following on round table discussions held in Venezuela, Argentina, and Colombia in 2010. The paper briefly describes the heterogeneous context and history of the Latin American region with specific attention to STI policies and institutions, as well as the particular challenge of effectively linking STI to social needs. It highlights the important historic contribution of the Latin American School on Science, Technology and Development, and the relevance and synergies of ideas presented by these and contemporary Latin American researchers in relation to the New Manifesto’s ‘3Ds’. The paper documents some examples – from public, private and civil society spheres – of current Latin American initiatives that illustrate regional efforts to develop, in different ways, a 3D innovation agenda, as well as constructing and putting into practice the different New Manifesto ‘Areas for Action’. It also questions the relative weight of these efforts compared to conventional priorities of competitiveness and growth, and highlights some of the obstacles to realising 3D aims. In particular, it underscores persistent social and economic inequalities, issues of institutional and political resistance to change, and the role of power relations (at multiple levels) in determining directions of science, technology, and innovation, and STI policy, as topics worth exploring further in the future.ESR

Strategic and operational risk in an international collaboration agency: a knowledge management solution

The International Cooperation Agency (identified in this article as IDEA) working in Colombia is one of the most important in Colombian society with programs that support gender rights, human rights, justice and peace, scholarships, aboriginal population, youth, afro descendants population, economic development in communities, and environmental development. The identified problem is based on the diversified offer of services, collaboration and social intervention which requires diverse groups of people with multiple agendas, ways to support their mandates, disciplines, and professional competences. Knowledge creation and the growth and sustainability of the organization can be in danger because of a silo culture and the resulting reduced leverage of the separate group capabilities. Organizational memory is generally formed by the tacit knowledge of the organization members, given the value of accumulated experience that this kind of social work implies. Its loss is therefore a strategic and operational risk when most problem interventions rely on direct work in the socio-economic field and living real experiences with communities. The knowledge management solution presented in this article starts first, with the identification of the people and groups concerned and the creation of a knowledge map as a means to strengthen the ties between organizational members; second, by introducing a content management system designed to support the documentation process and knowledge sharing process; and third, introducing a methodology for the adaptation of a Balanced Scorecard based on the knowledge management processes. These three main steps lead to a knowledge management “solution” that has been implemented in the organization, comprising three components: a knowledge management system, training support and promotion of cultural change