Knowledge Management Activities and Strategic Planning Capability Development

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.While the strategic management literature extols the virtues of engaging in strategic planning for superior performance, how a dynamic strategic planning capability can be developed remains underexplored; a knowledge void addressed by the paper through applying knowledge-based theory. A mail survey was sent to high technology firms randomly sampled from the Kompass Directory of UK businesses. Firms were sampled at the SBU level, given the focus on strategic planning capability. An organization’s strategic planning capability derives from extensive information distribution and organizational memory. While learning values is non-significant, symbolic information use degrades the development of a strategic planning capability. By investigating the contributory activities that lead to strategic planning capability development, the findings establish how strategic planning materializes in organizations. Further, the differential effects found for knowledge management activities on strategic planning capability development extends empirical studies that suggest knowledge is always a central tenet of strategic planning. A set of key knowledge activities are identified that managers must address for strategic planning capability development: strategic planning routines and values of search, analysis, and assessment should be appropriately informed by investments in knowledge dissemination and memory on a continual basis. Meanwhile, information misuse compromises strategic planning capabilities and managers must protect against out-of-context or manipulated information from infiltrating into organizational memory. Despite the advent of the Knowledge-Based Theory and its core premise that capabilities derive from knowledge management activities, little research has been conducted into demonstrating the knowledge-based antecedents of a strategic planning capability

Export Performance in Small and Medium Enterprises in New South Wales: Sectoral and Regional Dimensions

This paper discusses the results from a survey of 146 value-adding exporters from regional New South Wales, Australia, the majority of whom were small and medium enterprises, using the Australian definition of having less than 200 employees. This study established that SME regional exporters were successful in gaining and maintaining sales in overseas markets in a variety of product areas. It thus raises the question of what factors lie behind this process. By identifying the causes of successful exporting in regional areas, policy-makers can design programs which best meet the needs of these firms and will encourage growth in their exports in the future.Export performance, small and medium-sized enterprises, sectoral and regional dimensions, Australia

SME Information Sourcing for Innovation and Export Market Development: From Local or External Networks?

A survey analysis of innovation information and input sourcing of New South Wales regional exporting firms indicates that the majority of regional exporters were small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The analysis shows that these SMEs have been able to establish their own extensive information linkages into the international economy. Consequently, the need to assess and develop the benefits of linkages between small and large firms is not highly significant within the New South Wales regions. The analysis indicates that international networking by SMEs brings knowledge to the regions, which facilitates intra-firm learning. However, it suggests that SME’s local or regional linkages are relatively underdeveloped, as a source of new knowledge for innovation activity. This is in contrast to the main body of economic literature, which argues that small regional exporters utilize local networks as a major input into their success. This research identifies intensification in the usage of regional networks as one means of improving SME performance in more remote regions. The analysis also indicates that a two-way effect results by the diversity of regional SME export sector base. Firstly, it restricts the client-supplier relationships preventing closer industry specific collaborations but secondly, it can be advantageous in that it restricts competition between regional exporters. This creates conditions allowing some information sharing regarding the opportunities and ways of entering overseas markets, which do not affect the competitive position of the mentoring firm. In concluding, the paper argues that the basic requirements for regional learning development are in place but requires an increase in the interaction intensity between local SMEs in order to achieve a higher level of collaboration and knowledge sharing.New South Wales, SMEs, small and medium enterprises, regional development, innovation, international networking

What is Strategic Competence and Does it Matter? Exposition of the Concept and a Research Agenda

Drawing on a range of theoretical and empirical insights from strategic management and the cognitive and organizational sciences, we argue that strategic competence constitutes the ability of organizations and the individuals who operate within them to work within their cognitive limitations in such a way that they are able to maintain an appropriate level of responsiveness to the contingencies confronting them. Using the language of the resource based view of the firm, we argue that this meta-level competence represents a confluence of individual and organizational characteristics, suitably configured to enable the detection of those weak signals indicative of the need for change and to act accordingly, thereby minimising the dangers of cognitive bias and cognitive inertia. In an era of unprecedented informational burdens and instability, we argue that this competence is central to the longer-term survival and well being of the organization. We conclude with a consideration of the major scientific challenges that lie ahead, if the ideas contained within this paper are to be validated

Stress Urinary Incontinence in the Human Female: Gravity and Ecomorphologic Influences on Bladder and Urethral Function of the Human Female

This study was undertaken to determine if the biped stale of the human female constituted a stress force in urethrovesical physiological function. To arrive at realistic conclusions, the ecomorphologic changes incidental to the conquest of gravity by the vertebrates have been reviewed. Accepting the evolutionary precepts as expressed by Hobart Smith that if all parts of the evolutionary chain were known, it would be impossible to draw a logical distinction between man and nonman, Romer slated Bone for bone, muscle for muscle, organ for organ, almost every feature of the ape is repeated in the human body. The differences are almost entirely differences in proportions and relations of parts Assumption of erect posture by man, as compared to the quadruped, sharply altered urethrovesical relationship. The relative position in the abdominal cavity of the bladder and urethra was changed from a lateral to an inferior position, resulting in an increase in intravesical pressure because the long diameter of the abdominal cavity was oriented vertically. More specifically, the relative position of the urethrovesical function was changed from a lateral to an inferior position when the pressure was the greatest. There is little doubt that this change has played a role in the development of stress urinary incontinence, and there is some evidence to suggest that deficient urethrovesical function to increased gravimetric stress may represent an example of deficient evolutionary adaptation

The mediation between participative leadership and employee exploratory innovation: Examining intermediate knowledge mechanisms

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.We examine mediation effects of coworker knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity on the participative leadership–employee exploratory innovation relationship in R&D units of Taiwanese technology firms. Deploying a time-lagged questionnaire method implemented over four business quarters, data is generated from 1600 paired samples (managers and employees) in R&D units of Taiwanese technology firms. The structural equation modeling results reveal that (1) participative leadership is positively related to employee exploratory innovation; (2) coworker knowledge and (3) absorptive capacity partially mediate the relationship between participative leadership and employee exploratory innovation independently; and, (4) coworker knowledge sharing in combination with absorptive capacity partially mediates this relationship. The results extend previous research on participative leadership and innovation by demonstrating that participative leadership is related to employee exploratory innovation (Lee and Meyer-Doyle, 2017; Mom et al., 2009).Results also confirm that participative leadership drives employee exploratory innovation through employee absorptive capacity. This reinforces the need highlighted by Lane et al. (2006) to investigate the role of absorptive capacity at the individual-level. Collectively, while participative leadership is important for employee exploratory innovation it is the knowledge mechanisms existing and interacting at the employee-level that are central to generating increased employee exploratory innovation from this leadership approach

Solid-state NMR studies of nucleic acid components

Recent applications of solid-state NMR to the characterisation of nucleic acid systems are reviewed. Developments in NMR methodology and DFT-based first-principles calculations have led to the emergence of “NMR crystallography”, where solid-state NMR provides information on local structure and dynamics that complements information on periodic ordering and overall structure provided by traditional diffraction crystallography. The solid-state NMR is shown to provide direct information on hydrogen-bonding arrangements, metal ion interactions and local molecular dynamics that is difficult to obtain by other techniques, including solution-state NMR

Examining evidence based resistance plus balance training in community-dwelling older adults with complex health care needs: Trial protocol for the Muscling Up Against Disability project

Available online 6 October 2016Abstract not availableJustin W.L. Keogh, Tim Henwood, Paul Gardiner, Anthony Tuckett, Brent Hodgkinson, Kevin Rous