Organizational Competencies and Innovation Performances: The Case of Large Firms in Belgium

The objective of this paper is to assess whether large firms' organizational competencies affect their innovation performances. About 40 organizational sub-competencies are defined and measured through an original survey questionnaire answered by 148 large firms in Belgium. The sub-competencies are grouped into seven broad organizational competencies associated with the inovation process. For each broad competence a principal component analysis is run to illustrate whether the sub-competencies are related to three innovation performance indicators, including R&D intensity, the number of patents and the share of sales accounted for by innovative products and processes. The empirical results show that the output related innovation performance indicators (innovative output and the number of patents) are closely related with most organizational competencies, whereas R&D intensity is only correlated with two competencies (developing an innovation culture and using internal funding for innovation). Innovation performance is not only a function of the investment devoted to the creation of new products, processes or services, but also a function of the organizational process underlying innovative activities.Organizational competencies, innovation performance, R&D, principal component analysis

Unique Organizational Competencies of Brazilian Technological Innovation

The general objective of this research was to identify the unique organizational competences of Brazilian Technological Innovation Centers (TICs). We developed a theoretical framework that deals with technological innovation centers and unique organizational competences. Empirical research consisted of two sequential phases, the first qualitative and the second quantitative. The qualitative phase consisted of semi-structured interviews that were chosen through non-probabilistic selection criteria. The quantitative phase made use of a survey questionnaire that was mailed to individuals responsible for the TICs participating in the National Forum of Managers of Innovation and Technology Transfer and the Intellectual Property Network of the State of Minas Gerais. The unique organizational competences encountered were: intellectual property; national patenting; consulting services rendered by individual professors or researchers; identification of the areas of excellence in research of scientific and technological institutions via the number of registered patents, the number of scientific publications, declared lines of research, and the presence of related research groups

Evolution of IS Competencies due to Mandatory Telework on Organizational scale – A Work-Systems Approach

Given the recent pandemic crisis, telework has become a mandatory practice for organizations across the world. Mandatory large scale implementations of telework are an abrupt technological shift in organizations which presents a unique set of challenges for organizational competencies. In this research initiative, we derive from the work systems framework to analyze the consequences of telework shift on organizational competencies from a resource-based view. Many organizations are inexperienced and unprepared to implement telework on an organizational scale. We analyze how organizations have been affected by these large scale implementations of mandatory telework and how the competencies of these organizations have been affected. Content and thematic analysis of several interviews of managers across organizations supervising teleworking teams have been done to provide insights into how IS competencies have been affected by this shift

Organizational Competencies: A Content Analysis: Working Paper Series--07-01

This article presents the results of research examining the composition and internal dynamics of organizational competencies held by four major technology corporations. The research used content analysis of corporate documents and in-depth interviews with corporate professionals to reveal that these competencies draw upon corporate understanding of phenomena related to communication networks, documents, and integrated circuits. The competencies identified contain seven component categories. Five involve understandings of core phenomena, intellectual disciplines, various technologies, and classes of products and services. Two involve functional, technological, and integrated skills. Importantly, during use the understandings and skills within competencies dynamically interact with one another, powerfully supporting corporate competitiveness. Interview results reveal organizational competencies to be intermediate knowledge. They are developed by applying more enduring corporate capabilities, such as strategic vision, and they enable the creation of more transient knowledge, such as familiarity with specific customers

Dynamic Organizations: Achieving Marketplace and Organizational Agility with People

Driven by dynamic competitive conditions, an increasing number of firms are experimenting with new, and what they hope will be, more dynamic organizational forms. This development has opened up exciting theoretical and empirical venues for students of leadership, business strategy, organizational theory, and the like. One domain that has yet to catch the wave, however, is strategic human resource management (SHRM). In an effort to catch up, we here draw on the dynamic organization (DO) and human resource strategy (HRS) literatures to delineate both a process for uncovering and the key features of a carefully crafted HRS for DOs. The logic is as follows. DOs compete through marketplace agility. Marketplace agility requires that employees at all levels engage in proactive, adaptive, and generative behaviors, bolstered by a supportive mindset. Under the right conditions, the essential mindset and behaviors, although highly dynamic, are fostered by a HRS centered on a relatively small number of dialectical, yet paradoxically stable, guiding principles and anchored in a supportive organizational infrastructure. This line of reasoning, however, rests on a rather modest empirical base and, thus, is offered less as a definitive statement than as a spur for much needed additional research

Crafting firm competencies to improve innovative performance

Recent interdisciplinary research suggests that customer and technological competencies have a direct, unconditional effect on firms’ innovative performance. This study extends this stream of literature by considering the effect of organizational competencies. Results from a survey-research executed in the fast moving consumer goods industry suggest that firms that craft organizational competencies – such as improving team cohesiveness and providing slack time to foster creativity – do not directly improve their innovative performance. However, those firms that successfully combine customer, technological and organizational competencies will create more innovations that are new to the market

Leadership Styles and Perceived Organizational Competencies at a Nonprofit Organization

Amidst increased demands for accountability and scrutiny over operational performance, nonprofit executive leaders are being asked to deliver more effective measures to address complex social issues largely ignored by government and business entities. Research indicates the nonprofit sector has the greatest opportunity in shaping the quality of life in America, yet the literature on the leadership and competencies needed to propel these organizations forward is limited. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the leadership styles of executive, management, and staff personnel, and the alignment to perceived organizational competencies concerning the areas of capacity for change, communication, strategic planning, and succession planning. Using an anonymous 36-question survey, research participants assessed their own leadership style along with the leadership style of their direct supervisor through the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) 5X-Short Form by responding to nine statements, each corresponding to a specific component of transformational, transactional, and passive/avoidant leadership. Through a series of statistical procedures, (descriptive statistics, t-tests, Chi-square test of independence, and a MANOVA) this study found statistical alignment of specific transformational, transactional, and passive/avoidant leadership components to capacity for change, communication, strategic planning, and succession planning as self-assessed and assessed by their direct reports. This study also found statistical alignment in terms of leadership styles and mediating variables of gender, educational background, and position membership