Dynamic capabilities and knowledge management: an integrative role for learning?

Modern strategic management theories try to explain why firms differ, because new sources of competitive advantage are keenly sought in the dynamic and complex environment of global competition. Two areas in particular have attracted the attention of researchers: the role of dynamic capabilities, and the firm's abilities for knowledge management. In this paper, we argue that there is a link between these two concepts, which has not been fully articulated in the literature. The aim of the paper is therefore to ascertain the conceptual connection between them as a basis for future research. Our proposed framework acknowledges and critiques the distinct roots of each field, identifies boundaries, and proposes relationships between the constructs and firm performance

Making Boards Effective: An Empirical Examination of Board Task Performance

Despite the increasing attention of management scholars to boards of directors, there is still scant evidence on the antecedents of board task performance. The lack of significant results seems to be due to some theoretical and methodological choices followed by scholars, i.e. the almost exclusive reliance on agency theory and the use of demographic data. Following the call for dismantling the fortresses dominating past studies, this paper contributes to opening the \u2018black box\u2019 of boards of directors, developing a conceptual model that considers the impact of board members\u2019 diversity, commitment and critical debate on board task effectiveness in performing its service and control tasks. We collected primary data through a questionnaire survey, and we tested the model controlling for board, firm and industry characteristics. Our findings suggest that (i) the predictors we identified, and particularly the board members\u2019 commitment, are far more important than board demographics to predict board task performance; (ii) firm and industry contexts exert a significant influence on board task performance; (iii) predictors have a different impact on specific sets of tasks. Thus, our findings support the idea that several board characteristics and contingencies at both industry and firm level must be acknowledged in board design

Superluminal Recession Velocities

Hubble's Law, v=HD (recession velocity is proportional to distance), is a theoretical result derived from the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric. v=HD applies at least as far as the particle horizon and in principle for all distances. Thus, galaxies with distances greater than D=c/H are receding from us with velocities greater than the speed of light and superluminal recession is a fundamental part of the general relativistic description of the expanding universe. This apparent contradiction of special relativity (SR) is often mistakenly remedied by converting redshift to velocity using SR. Here we show that galaxies with recession velocities faster than the speed of light are observable and that in all viable cosmological models, galaxies above a redshift of three are receding superluminally.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Cosmology and Particle Physics 2000 Conference Proceedings; reference adde

Success Traps, Dynamic Capabilities and Firm Performance

Dynamic capabilities (DCs) are fundamental to the understanding of differential firm performance. However, the question remains why some firms are better at developing and applying DCs than others. In particular, successful firms have been warned against the tendency to fall into a success or competence trap, where success reinforces exploitation of existing competences and crowds out exploration of new competences, hindering the development of DCs. Therefore, this study examines the effects of success traps on DCs and consequently firm performance, taking into account firm strategy and market dynamism. To facilitate this, our study also identifies the commonalities of DCs across firms. Drawing on survey data from 113 UK high-tech small and medium-sized firms, we find that success traps have a significant, strong negative effect on DCs, which in turn have a weak positive effect on firm performance; DCs are manifested through absorptive and transformative capabilities as two common features across firms. We also find that the development and application of DCs is related to internal factors (such as success traps) rather than external factors (such as market dynamism)

Ownership characteristics as determinants of FDI location decisions in emerging economies

Building on agency theory and international business research, this paper explores how parent firm and subsidiary ownership factors affect FDI location decisions in emerging economies. Our analysis suggests that ownerships of block-shareholders in the parent firm (i.e., controlling family, non-family TMT members and institutional investors) and equity stake in a subsidiary owned by the parent company are positively associated with FDI location decisions in less-explored and risky areas. However, the effects of parent firm and subsidiary ownership factors may substitute for each other with respect to their integrated effect on dealing with risks associated with FDI location decisions

Family Businesses and Adaptation: A Dynamic Capabilities Approach

The main objective of this research was to propose a framework centred on the dynamic capabilities approach, and to be applied in the context of family businesses’ adaption to their changing business environment. Data were gathered through interviews with ten FBs operating in Western Australia. Based on the findings, the clusters of activities, sensing, seizing, and transforming emerged as key factors for firms’ adaptation, and were reinforced by firms’ open culture, signature processes, idiosyncratic knowledge, and valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable attributes. Thus, the usefulness of the proposed framework was confirmed. Implications and future research opportunities are presented. © 2018, The Author(s)

Dynamic capabilities: An exploration of how firms renew their resource base

The aim of this paper is to extend the concept of dynamic capabilities. Building on prior research, we suggest that there are three levels of dynamic capabilities which are related to managers‟ perceptions of environmental dynamism. At the first level we find incremental dynamic capabilities: those capabilities concerned with the continuous improvement of the firm‟s resource base. At the second level are renewing dynamic capabilities, those that refresh, adapt and augment the resource base. These two levels are usually conceived as one and represent what the literature refers to as dynamic capabilities. At the third level are regenerative dynamic capabilities, which impact, not on the firm‟s resource base, but on its current set of dynamic capabilities i.e. these change the way the firm changes its resource base. We explore the three levels using illustrative examples and conclude that regenerative dynamic capabilities may either come from inside the firm or enter the firm from outside, via changes in leadership or the intervention of external change

Theory Building at the Intersection: Recipe for Impact or Road to Nowhere?

Zahra and Newey (2009) argue for the importance of creative theory building in management research and suggest that this is best to be done via interdisciplinary research. We argue that the more management research goes down the road of pursuing interdisciplinary research for generating novel theories, the more likely it will compromise another worthwhile goal, which is to establish the discipline of management as a legitimate academic discipline that is distinguishable from other academic disciplines in its subject matter and its theoretical and methodological approach. We also argue against the implicit premise that the focus of management discipline should be on developing new theories. Copyright (c) Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2009.