The mediating effect of information technology business strategic maturity on the relationship between organizational behavior and firm performance: A study of the Jordanian maritime industry

This study aims to investigate the impact of organizational behavior and information technology business strategic maturity on firm performance within the Jordanian maritime industry. A quantitative research approach was employed, and data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to 157 IT managers and 190 managers from 347 operating maritime companies in Jordan. The research data underwent descriptive and analytical analysis to examine the proposed model. The findings indicate that organizational behavior significantly and positively affects firm performance, while information technology business strategic maturity also has a significant positive influence on firm performance. Additionally, the study reveals that IT-business strategic maturity mediates the relationship between organizational behavior and firm performance. These results highlight the significance of enhancing IT-business strategic maturity to strengthen the association between organizational behavior and firm performance in the Jordanian maritime industry. By leveraging effective organizational behavior practices and implementing robust information technology business strategic maturity, maritime companies can improve their performance, achieve operational efficiency, and facilitate strategic decision-making, ultimately enhancing their competitive position in the dynamic business environment

What is going on in entrepreneurship research? A bibliometric and SNA analysis

Entrepreneurship is a highly dynamic and fast-growing academic research field with a long intellectual tradition. It attracts scholars with different backgrounds and theoretical frameworks, and with different levels of analyses and methodological orientations. But where is the field headed next? What is going on in entrepreneurship research? The purpose of this paper is to take stock of the current research in the field, to map it using bibliometric methods and social network analysis (SNA), and to offer directions for future research. Bibliographic coupling analysis (BCA) is used in this study, due to its ability to unveil current trends and future priorities as they are reflected at the forefront of research (i.e., active research fronts). Data were collected from the WoS, comprising 5,393 peer-reviewed journal articles published in 273 journals and containing 470,262 cited references. The results provide an overall perspective of the research in the field, identifying 16 different research fronts. We believe that this study significantly contributes to the entrepreneurship field by revealing the advancement of the literature and some of the most active research fronts in this domain, providing insights not previously fully grasped or evaluated by previous literature reviews

Dynamic Capabilities View within the Field of Strategic Management Field: A Bibliometric Analysis

The dynamic capabilities view has been established as one of the most influential theoretical perspectives in contemporary strategic management, raising the need to use bibliometric tools. The work aims to identify the intellectual structure of dynamic capabilities view within the scientific field of strategic management by analyzing 823 research articles published on the Web of Science Core Collection. The results obtained from the analysis of 13,144 cited references have provided important conclusions to one of the most vibrant debates of this study approach, the confrontation between two of the seminal contributions of the dynamic capabilities literature. In addition to shedding light on the ongoing debate in the literature, this paper has achieved some research findings. First, it improves the comprehensive theoretical justification of the need to implement bibliometric techniques in the study field. It lets the researcher could better understand the foundations of the analyses performed. Furthermore, the author and co-citation analysis served to build the respective network and to group the most-cited references into four clusters. These results have been of great use in understanding the current intellectual structure and how to propose the relevant research currents in this field of study. Finally, the conclusions obtained are subject to certain limitations. On the one hand, this research is based on a sample of documents published on the Web of Science Core Collection database. On the other hand, emphasis must be placed on those limitations more closely associated with utilizing bibliometric techniques, which allows us to propose interesting lines of future research

On the basis of research on ‘green’ in the disciplines of management and business

In this research, we analyze and map the existing literature on ‘green’ in the disciplines of management and business by applying citation, co-citation, and bibliographic coupling analyses, i.e. using bibliometric methods, from two different perspectives: first, identifying and analyzing the works that have had the greatest impact on research and the changes that have taken place in the intellectual structure of this disciplinary area; and second, reviewing the most recent literature to unveil current trends and future priorities as they are reflected at the forefront of research. To carry out the study we used Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science Core Collection™ (WoS) –in particular, one of its indexes: the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). From this database, 4,888 articles published between 1968 and 2022 were retrieved. The sample period of 55 years was then divided into two sub-periods: 1968–2011 and 2012–2022 to longitudinally examine the data. To the best of our knowledge, no such study has dealt with this field and we believe the outcomes can help coordinate future research efforts

Driving Innovation by Managing Entrepreneurial Orientation, Cooperation and Learning for the Sustainability of Companies in the Energy Sector

Nowadays, the attitude of companies seems to play a relevant role in detecting and exploiting opportunities to create value, especially in terms of knowledge and cooperation. Thereon, the concept of entrepreneurial orientation has become relevant over the last years. Firms are entrepreneurially oriented when their decision-making, techniques, and procedures allow them to identify opportunities, develop a proactive mindset, and use creative ways to achieve their objectives. The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and companies’ innovation capacity, in addition to the mediating effect of entrepreneurial networks and firms’ learning capacity in this relationship. A sample of 197 Spanish companies in the energy sector is analyzed using the variance-based structural equation modeling technique (PLS-SEM), using the software “SmartPLS” in its version 3.9. The results show a direct positive and significant influence of entrepreneurial orientation on companies’ innovation capacity, as well as the existence of an indirect effect through the mediation of entrepreneurial networks and the learning capacity of firms. It is concluded that businesses must dedicate time and resources to develop a strong entrepreneurial orientation which, in addition to allowing them to exploit external entrepreneurial networks, boosts their learning and innovation capabilities, favoring the development of new sustainable possibilities for value creation

Explanatory Factors of Entrepreneurship in Food and Beverage Clusters in Spain

Research into entrepreneurship has gradually changed its perspective over recent decades, becoming a very relevant research topic. In the last few years, various lines of research have been developed to find new explanatory factors of entrepreneurial propensity in specific socioeconomic and institutional contexts, among which we can highlight local territorial agglomerations. The main objective of the study is to offer new knowledge about the factors that influence the entrepreneurial capacity of food and beverage clusters using different secondary sources. To reach this objective, we analyze how the degree of agglomeration, institutional thickness, and knowledge affects new companies created in the last five years within the 37 food and beverage clusters in Spain. Multiple regression results show that company agglomeration and the presence of supporting institutions positively influence entrepreneurial capacity in these clusters. However, available knowledge has a negative influence on entrepreneurial capacity in these specialized environments

The footwear industrial districts of the Spanish Vinalopo regions: A detailed analysis

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo contrastar si los distritos industriales zapateros de las comarcas españolas del Vinalopó siguen teniendo vigencia en la actualidad, o si, por el contrario, la actividad zapatera desarrollada en dichas aglomeraciones empresariales ha perdido relevancia en favor de otras actividades económicas. Además, se analiza cómo dichos distritos actúan como polo de atracción de la inversión extranjera.In this research, it is contrasted whether the footwear industrial districts of the Spanish regions of Vinalopo are still valid today, or if, on the contrary, the shoemaking activity carried out in these business agglomerations has lost relevance in favor of other economic activities. In addition, it is analyzed how these districts act as a pole of attraction for foreign investment

A Literature Review on the Effect of Industrial Clusters and the Absorptive Capacity on Innovation

In recent decades, the analysis of the effects of clustering as an essential factor for the development of innovations and the competitiveness of enterprises has raised great interest in different areas. Nowadays, companies have access to almost all tangible and intangible resources located and/or developed in any country in the world. However, despite the obvious advantages that this situation entails for companies, their geographical location has shown itself, increasingly clearly, to be a fundamental factor that positively influences their innovative performance and competitiveness. Industrial clusters could represent a unique level of analysis, positioned between the individual company and the industry, which makes them an ideal unit of analysis to determine the effects derived from company membership of a cluster. Also, the absorptive capacity (hereinafter 'AC') can mediate the process of innovation development by companies located in a cluster. The transformation and exploitation of knowledge could have a mediating effect between knowledge acquisition and innovative performance. The main objective of this work is to determine the key factors that affect the degree of generation and use of knowledge from the environment by companies and, consequently, their innovative performance and competitiveness. The elements analyzed are the companies' membership of a cluster and the AC. To this end, 30 most relevant papers published on this subject in the "Web of Science" database have been reviewed. Our findings show that, within a cluster, the knowledge coming from the companies' environment can significantly influence their innovative performance and competitiveness, although in this relationship, the degree of access and exploitation of the companies to this knowledge plays a fundamental role, which depends on a series of elements both internal and external to the company

Decisiones de localización y economías de aglomeración: empresas domésticas y extranjeras

The international expansion of multinational enterprises (MNEs) is one of the topics most frequently discussed amongst international business scholars. In particular, decisions regarding firm location and its effects on performance have received great attention. The results obtained in the study about this relationship are inconclusive, though, since a large number of studies have been conducted from very different perspectives. One of these perspectives suggests that the location in agglomerations allows MNEs to benefit from potential knowledge spillovers encouraging innovation and local adaptation. However, this co-location increases the risk of imitation by domestic companies as well. Furthermore, the acquisition by each firm of the external knowledge generated by means of concentration depends on its internal capabilities, and especially on its absorptive capacity. The aim sought with this work consists in analyzing the location decisions adopted by MNEs in an attempt to clarify the following issues: Are MNEs more likely to be established in agglomerations? Which companies benefit the most from geographical proximity in terms of innovation, domestic or foreign ones? What is the role of absorptive capacity? The results obtained in the analysis, carried out with a sample of firms and using data from a survey conducted in 2013 by PITEC, reveal the differences between foreign and local companies when it comes to using external knowledge.La expansión internacional de las empresas multinacionales (EMNs) constituye uno de los tópicos más analizados por los académicos e investigadores. En particular, una línea de investigación que ha recibido gran atención es la relativa a las decisiones sobre localización y sus efectos sobre la rentabilidad empresarial A pesar de este interés y como consecuencia de la diversidad de perspectivas adoptadas, los resultados sobre la relación entre localización y rentabilidad no son concluyentes. Una de estas perspectivas sugiere que la localización en aglomeraciones permite a la EMN beneficiarse de los flujos de conocimiento que allí se generan, lo cual facilita la innovación y la adaptación local. Sin embargo, la co-localización también aumenta el riesgo para las EMNs de ser imitadas por las empresas domésticas. Además, para cada compañía la adquisición del conocimiento externo generado con la concentración empresarial depende de sus capacidades internas, especialmente su capacidad de absorción. En este contexto, el objetivo de este trabajo consiste en analizar las decisiones de localización adoptadas por EMNs con la intención de clarificar los siguientes aspectos: ¿Tienden las EMNs a localizarse en aglomeraciones empresariales? ¿Qué empresas se benefician más de la proximidad geográfica en términos de innovación, las domésticas o las multinacionales extranjeras? ¿Qué papel juega la capacidad de absorción? Los resultados obtenidos en el análisis, el cual ha sido realizado con una muestra de empresas a partir de la base de datos del PITEC 2013, revelan las diferencias existentes entre las empresas multinacionales y locales en lo que se refiere al uso del conocimiento externo generado con las aglomeraciones

Analysis of the Relationship between Support Institutions and Industrial Districts in Spain: A Regional Approach

One of the constituent elements of the industrial district is the existence of local and regional institutions which offer information and support services to the firms based in the district. In addition to representing an important component of social capital, these institutions can play a key role in improving the joint operability of district firms (Parra-Requena et al. 2013). The aim of this paper is, consequently, to analyze the food industry districts and the institutions which support this industry nationally. With that aim in mind, the analysis is undertaken from a regional perspective that allows us to assess, on the one hand, the degree of proximity between districts and institutions and, on the other hand, the role played by the latter as knowledge generators. The results obtained show that, in general, the support institutions tend to be located in the vicinity of the industrial districts specialized in the aforementioned sector. It likewise becomes clear that the training offer aimed at meeting the training needs of the industry is greater in these specialized environments than in others where this production model does not prevail. Such results confirm the importance of institutions in business agglomerations shaped as industrial districts