An exploration of VRIO resource development and competitive advantage in SMEs operating in a niche science education market in Europe.

Despite the plethora of empirical scholarship on competitive advantage in firms, there is a scarcity of literature explaining the relationship between firm performance, value creation and sustainable competitive advantage in an SME context. Popular theories such as the Resource-based View (RBV) analyses and interpret internal resources of the organisations and emphasises resources and capabilities in formulating a strategy to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. Resources are considered as inputs that enable firms to carry out their activities. Internal resources and capabilities determine strategic choices made by firms while competing in their external business environment. According to RBV, not all the resources of the firm will be strategic resources. Competitive advantage occurs only when there is a situation of resource heterogeneity and resource immobility. Specifically, the resources must satisfy the criteria of being valuable, rare, inimitable, and highly organised. However, the RBV is unclear on what are the specificities of resources and avoids a concrete definition of value. Moreover, the theoretical tenets of the theory remain unclear, and there has not, as yet, developed sufficient understanding of the micro-level organisational strategies which build sustained competitive advantage. Empirical studies have also steered clear of tackling the ontological and epistemological interpretations of the relational aspects of resource building in SMEs. It is for this reason, the inner workings of this ‘black-box’ of VRIO creation remain elusive. This empirical study aims to present a unique opportunity to address this gap. Following a mixed-methods approach, an exploratory quantitative pilot study surveyed 41,857 customers (8% response rate) and a main qualitative multi-case study of 13 different SMEs in 13 different countries. The qualitative review forms the central basis of the research findings. The interpretation of the findings was through an abductive Template Analysis approach complemented by a retroductive reflection in conclusion. The study links the scholarly domains of boundary spanning, the knowledge-based view and the RBV and suggests that a new approach and interpretation of value creation and resource configuration is timely for the RBV. To date, the RBV is positioned at the macro-level, and it has not been applied with much enthusiasm at the micro-level. This study has identified that RBV is an important and useful framework. However, its shortcoming in elucidating what and where value is created, and the true nature of resources has been highlighted. Also, the applicability of the RBV framework on a practical level for SMEs is shown to be deficient. Therefore, the study contributed to the field an acknowledgement that empirical research at the SME level adds substantially to the understanding of the RBV field in terms of value creation and capture. Moreover, the study contributes to a new way to view the RBV in terms of using complementary constructs to aid in understanding the RBV in more practical terms: the research findings enhance the development of RBV theory, research, and practice in SMEs. The following important conclusions emerge from this study: First, the current conceptualisation of VRIO resources in terms of their relational structure has been subject to unnecessary ontological ambiguity in the RBV literature. Second, the effects of routine and deliberate learning in SMEs result in different outcomes in value creation and value capture. Third, the managerial agency and knowledge accumulation through boundary spanning are critically effective mechanisms to help an SME develop important VRIO resources. Fourth, the study concluded that VRIO resources are not irreducible to, but overlap and are interrelated, and thus should not be ignored in the RBV literature. Fifth, where VRIO resources lead to competitive advantage in SMEs, they must be supported by an infrastructure of lower-order VRIO resources. Sixth, value creation and capture are separate entities that cannot always be defined in simple monetary terms. However, the findings show that they are related entities, although distinct. The research concludes that value capture back to the firm in higher profits, or long-term loyal customers is supported through the correctly configured VRIO resources. Seventh, from a theoretical perspective, this study is the first to merge constructs of KM, KAM and boundary-spanning with the RBV (and a lesser extent, dynamic capability theory). Eighth, the study shows that the RBV can be practically grounded if a clear and precise identification of ‘value’ and ‘resources’ are available. Finally, the research brings the focus back on SMEs and shows the need for a much higher level of empirical engagement in this area

Limitations of Proximity Lithography Printing:Simulations, Experiments, and Applications

Photolithography is one of the earliest technologies used to transfer patterns to a substrate. It is also known as optical lithography since it uses light to transfer the pattern. The main exposure techniques exist in the industry are projection printing, contact printing, and proximity printing. Projection printing technology uses optical elements between mask and wafer to project the feature on the mask to the wafer. This is very expensive and delivers the highest resolution. In contact printing, the mask and wafer are in contact with each other and in proximity printing, the mask is kept at some proximity distance away from the wafer. Proximity printing is an easy and cost effective printing technique because the damage to the mask will be less and also no optical elements between mask and wafer are used. The main drawback of the proximity printing is the diffraction effect caused by the proximity gap between mask and wafer, which limits the resolution. The main objective of this thesis is to study the limitations of proximity printing and to increase its resolution. To study the limitations, different types of design strategies and verification methods are used in the thesis. First is the simulation technique which is performed with GenISys Layout LAB. This is specially designed for proximity printing. The software gives the aerial image and final resist pattern as output. The most interesting and important aspect is the second verification technique which is the experimental setup. A measurement setup has been built to study the light propagation from different masks and to study the aerial image at different proximity gaps. The setup is known as High Resolution Interference Microscopy (HRIM). The setup is basically a Mach- Zehnder interferometer having different light sources, sample plane and reference arm which are used according to the samples. The final verification is achieved using the mask aligner. Both the simulation and experiments are carried out using a special illumination optics called MO exposure optics from Süss MicroOptics. The thesis mainly focuses on the rule based optical proximity correction a technique which is a simple method for mass production. Correction structures are designed for one dimensional and two dimensional features in amplitude masks. Adding lines near the edge to improve the edge slope will be discussed as the one dimensional correction. The different intensity cutting planes and the comparison between simulation and experimental results will be discussed along with that. A unified correction structure is designed to solve corner rounding problem and will be studied as the two dimensional study. The structure is defined to print different line widths at single proximity gap on single exposure. Usually, all the structures in the amplitude mask are studied with their aerial image intensities at different proximity gaps. But, here the study extends to phase evaluation also. The measurement technique can measure both intensity and phase evolution from the mask structures. Phase evolution from amplitude correction features will be discussed and how the phase modulates the intensity patterns is also studied. The role of fundamental principles like phase singularities, phase shifts are also discussed to find its effects on proximity printing structures. The study also leads to the intensity and phase propagation from phase shifting mask (PSM) . The structure evaluated is a group of corners in PSM

Wafer-level processing of ultralow-loss Si3N4

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are devices fabricated on a planar wafer that allow light generation, processing, and detection. Photonic integration brings important advantages for scaling up the complexity and functionality of photonic systems and facilitates their mass deployment in areas where large volumes and compact solutions are needed, e.g., optical interconnects. Among the material platforms available, silicon nitride (Si3N4) displays excellent optical properties such as broadband transparency, moderately high refractive index, and relatively strong nonlinearities. Indeed, Si3N4 integrated waveguides display ultralow-loss (few decibels per meter), which enables efficient light processing and nonlinear optics. Moreover, Si3N4 is compatible with standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) processing techniques,which facilitates the manufacture scalability required by mass deployment of PICs. However, the selection of a single photonic platform sets limitations to the device functionalities due to the intrinsic properties of the material and the fundamental limitation of optical waveguiding. Multilayer integration of different platforms can overcome the limitations encountered in a singleplatform PIC.This thesis presents the development of advanced techniques for the waferlevel manufacturing of ultralow-loss Si3N4 devices and approaches to enable their interface with active components like modulators and chip-scale comb sources (microcombs). The investigation covers the tailoring of a waveguide to the functionality required, the wafer-scale manufacturing of Si3N4, and how to overcome the limitations of a single platform on a wafer. These studies enable high-yield fabrication of microcombs, the integration of two Si3N4 platforms on the same wafer, and a strategy to efficiently couple to an integrated LiNbO3 layer to expand the chip functionality and scale up the complexity of the PIC

The Journal of MacroTrends in Technology and Innovation Development strategies for the French construction sector

Abstrac

Suffolk Journal, vol.83, no.9, 11/13/2019

https://dc.suffolk.edu/journal/1697/thumbnail.jp