Psychometric evaluation of Dynamic Managerial Capability scale in the context of early internationalizing firms from an emerging economy

Purpose: The research aims to perform a psychometric evaluation of dynamic managerial capability (DMC) scale in the context of early internationalizing firms from an emerging economy. Drawing on DMC theory, this study validates the measurement scales to operationalize DMC of entrepreneurs as managerial human capital, managerial social capital, and managerial cognition. Design/methodology: Sample firms were drawn from the apparel industry in Bangladesh, an emerging economy. Data was collected from entrepreneurs in two waves through a questionnaire-based survey. One hundred and eighty-five firms responded during the first wave and 223 firms responded during the second wave. The first wave of data was used to conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to uncover the underlying dimensions of DMC and the data from the second wave was used to test the validity of the DMC scale through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Findings: EFA suggested a 3-dimension scale which was supported by CFA. The findings of the study demonstrate that DMC is a valid and reliable scale to capture the individual-level capability of entrepreneurs. Originality/value: DMC is rooted in three underlying attributes as managerial human capital, managerial social capital, and managerial cognition. It is advisable to the practitioner and researcher to operationalize DMC as a second-order construct in future studies

The Performance of Export Manufacturing Firms: Roles of International Entrepreneurial Capability and International Opportunity Recognition

Purpose: The international entrepreneurial capability has achieved its legitimacy in international business literature. Leveraging capabilities to recognize opportunities are considered a pivotal strategy to achieve success. Drawing on entrepreneurship literature and opportunity perspective, this study investigates the role of international entrepreneurial capability in enhancing international opportunity recognition (IOR) process and the performance of export manufacturing firms. Design: Structural equation modelling has been used to test the hypothesised relationship on 388 export-manufacturing entrepreneurial firms operating in the apparel industry of Bangladesh. Findings: The results signify that three international entrepreneurial capabilities, namely, international networking capability, learning capability, and marketing capability positively enhance the IOR process of export manufacturing firms. IOR process positively mediates the relationships between these international entrepreneurial capabilities and firm performance. Originality: Merely having the international entrepreneurial capability is not sufficient to escalate the firm performance. It must be amplified by various strategic actions such as IOR process. Entrepreneurs need to capitalise on the international entrepreneurial capability to leverage IOR process and generate non-financial performance success. Entrepreneurial firms that focus more on stimulating non-financial performance can secure better financial performance

The Effect of Organisational Climate on Employees’ Creative Performance through Knowledge Sharing Behaviour

Malaysia has achieved significant industrial growth over the years due to the enterprising intervention of multinational companies (MNCs). The organisational climate in terms of its collaborative nature and innovative efforts has led to the enhancement of creativity among MNCs. The extent of knowledge sharing behaviour within MNCs, particularly in the Malaysian context, has not been thoroughly researched. A huge primary survey involving 20 MNCs with 155 respondents from both manufacturing and service sectors was included in this study. The findings of the study reveal that knowledge donating and knowledge collecting highly and positively influence creative performance. Interestingly, knowledge collecting mediates the relationship between an innovative climate and creative performance while a collaborative climate was found to highly and positively influence MNCs’ creative performance through knowledge donating. Thus, knowledge sharing behaviour is pivotal for the success of MNCs in terms of generating new ideas, promoting best practices, continuously improving and reducing the redundancy cost of learning to facilitate organisational effectiveness

Knowledge management librarians: Evolving competencies in knowledge capture and dissemination in an academic environment

In this paper, we examine the roles and responsibilities of Knowledge Management (KM) librarians in a University and outline the skills and knowledge to illuminate and maximize the possibilities of the position, to provide new content in new mediums to an increasingly discerning user community. This relatively new position is being created as libraries strive to manage collaborative knowledge management technologies, upgrade the service model in reference, in particular enhancing the skills of ‘liaison officers’ when engaging with their patrons’ point-of-need preferences at their site, quality of knowledge, device choice, and their knowledge sharing and seeking behavior. We draw upon our own experiences in implementing a virtual knowledge sharing community in the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) as well as referring to the latest literature on the topic. Our three-year implementation journey encompassing unforeseen problems and discussions in building workarounds, in how best to manage tacit knowledge amongst academic and non-academic staff, provided valuable insights, focusing in particular on KM training for all librarians, the development of an ‘unofficial’ knowledge management implementation curriculum (KMIC) and the formation of the IIUM KM Task Force to sustain KM initiatives in the academia. While many skills and experiences analyses have been conducted on other library positions, at the onset, the emerging KM librarian’s roles and responsibilities remained vague, leaving librarians interested in the position, unsure of what knowledge and skills to obtain. Hence, the need of a clear and robust KMIC policy framework was first seen to be crucial to sustain an effective KM implementation. Special emphasis was made in building the skills in intra-organisational cooperation and academic engagement for meeting the challenge of ‘capturing’ and codifying tacit knowledge and ultimately the successful cultivation of communities of practice in promoting a new form of ‘collective intelligence’ in the university

Antecedents and Consequences of Market Orientation in International B2B Market: Role of Export Assistance as a Moderator

Purpose: The significance of market orientation (MO) in the industrial marketing literature is immense. Separately, the role of dynamic managerial capability (DMC) as an individual-level capability has been found to be beneficial to B2B transactions. However, the assessment of DMC as antecedent to complement MO in achieving firm performance are rare. To address this knowledge gap, we build upon a research framework on the DMC theory and MO literature. Additionally, this study investigates how export assistance avails MO-firm performance relationship and assists entrepreneurs to thrive in the international market. Design: The research was conducted among the entrepreneurial export manufacturing firms in the apparel industry in Bangladesh. Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the hypothesized relationship among 329 firms. Findings: Two attributes of DMC namely, managerial social capital and managerial cognition of entrepreneurs improve the MO process of export manufacturing firms. MO mediates the relationship between DMC and firm performance. Additionally, export assistance positively moderates the relationship between MO and the financial performance of the firm. Originality/value: MO requires complementary capabilities to realize the value of it efficiently. This study strongly advocates entrepreneurs to nurture DMC to leverage MO and capitalize on emerging opportunities by productively utilizing export assistance. Firms in the emerging economies often suffer from resource-scarcity and export assistance mitigates barriers to expand international operations and yield financial liberty to the firms operating in the international B2B market

Sharing travel related experiences on social media – integrating social capital and face orientation

Tourists can share their travel experiences or related information freely through social media platforms. The purpose of this research is to explore the factors associated with sharing travel related experiences on social media by travellers in the context of social capital theory and person-context interaction theory. Data were collected among consumers in Malaysia using a structured survey; 423 responses were generated. The findings show that the social capital dimensions (social ties, trust, reciprocity and shared vision) positively impact sharing intention on social media while identification doesn’t impact the sharing intention. The results also partially support the hypothesis that protective face orientation negatively influences social capital dimensions and sharing intention while acquisitive face orientation positively influences them. The authors shed light on the construction of social capital dimensions and face orientation and the relative importance of the sharing intention on social media

Configuring foreign market knowledge and opportunity recognition capabilities to predict the performance of export-manufacturing firms

Export-manufacturing firms survive and ultimately succeed when they can accumulate, harvest,and utilise foreign knowledge to better marshal the capabilities to recognise opportunities. Prior studies are replete with a single solution by combining foreign market knowledge (FMK) and firm performance. A shift from contingent theory to the configurational approach suggests that there are multiple solutions available to achieve intended outcomes. Based on the equifinality assumption, we configure FMK in conjunction with opportunity recognition capabilities to predict performance. In total, 382 export-manufacturing firms were investigated by employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and necessary condition analysis (NCA). Salient findings suggest that young firms achieve superior performance from foreign business and institutional knowledge by enhancing opportunity exploration capability, whereas mature firms succeed from internationalisation knowledge and nurturing opportunity exploitation capability. The study is one of which that contributes to the methodology by introducing fsQCA and NCA in the knowledge management literature

A Survey of the Oversight of External Auditors through the Lenses of Audit Committee Chairmen

Project commissioned by Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority</p

Genomic Sequencing and Comparative Analysis of Epstein-Barr Virus Genome Isolated from Primary Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Biopsy

Whether certain Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) strains are associated with pathogenesis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is still an unresolved question. In the present study, EBV genome contained in a primary NPC tumor biopsy was amplified by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), and sequenced using next-generation (Illumina) and conventional dideoxy-DNA sequencing. The EBV genome, designated HKNPC1 (Genbank accession number JQ009376) is a type 1 EBV of approximately 171.5 kb. The virus appears to be a uniform strain in line with accepted monoclonal nature of EBV in NPC but is heterogeneous at 172 nucleotide positions. Phylogenetic analysis with the four published EBV strains, B95-8, AG876, GD1, and GD2, indicated HKNPC1 was more closely related to the Chinese NPC patient-derived strains, GD1 and GD2. HKNPC1 contains 1,589 single nucleotide variations (SNVs) and 132 insertions or deletions (indels) in comparison to the reference EBV sequence (accession number NC007605). When compared to AG876, a strain derived from Ghanaian Burkitt's lymphoma, we found 322 SNVs, of which 76 were non-synonymous SNVs and were shared amongst the Chinese GD1, GD2 and HKNPC1 isolates. We observed 88 non-synonymous SNVs shared only by HKNPC1 and GD2, the only other NPC tumor-derived strain reported thus far. Non-synonymous SNVs were mainly found in the latent, tegument and glycoprotein genes. The same point mutations were found in glycoprotein (BLLF1 and BALF4) genes of GD1, GD2 and HKNPC1 strains and might affect cell type specific binding. Variations in LMP1 and EBNA3B epitopes and mutations in Cp (11404 C>T) and Qp (50134 G>C) found in GD1, GD2 and HKNPC1 could potentially affect CD8+ T cell recognition and latent gene expression pattern in NPC, respectively. In conclusion, we showed that whole genome sequencing of EBV in NPC may facilitate discovery of previously unknown variations of pathogenic significance