Absorptive capacity and organizational performance : a study of banks in Turkey

The main aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between absorptive capacity (ACAP) and organizational performance. The thesis addresses the following research questions: 1) why are some firms better at managing their potential and realized absorptive capacity than others? 2) what is the link between ACAP and organizational performance? The empirical analysis using multi-level modelling technique is drawn on data obtained from 200 managers of the banking sector in Turkey. The thesis contributes to the progress of ACAP research in three ways. First, it provides a systematic review of the fragmented literature concerning the relationship between ACAP and organizational outcomes. It identifies and analyses 214 papers on ACAP and performance published between 1990 and 2015 in high impact business and management journals. The aim is to review, organize and synthesise the relationship between ACAP and organizational performance according to research approaches used and theories applied to understand the ACAP-organizational performance link. The review moves the literature review forward by highlighting the causes of inconsistencies, providing remedies and suggesting an agenda for future research. Second, the thesis examines the antecedents of a firm’s absorptive capacity. The two components of potential absorptive capacity (PACAP) and realized absorptive capacity (RACAP), are treated separately, in order to assess the moderating effects of market-sensing and responsiveness capabilities. The findings from multi-level analyses, show that while coordination facilitates the development of potential absorptive capacity, systems and socialization enhance the firm’s realized absorptive capacity. Further, market sensing capability moderates the relationship between coordination and PACAP, and market responsiveness capability moderates the relationship between socialization and RACAP. Also, market responsiveness capability moderates the relationship between systems and RACAP. Drawing on these findings, this study contributes to ACAP research by elucidating that market sensing and responsiveness are prerequisite capabilities for effective acquisition and exploitation of knowledge. Third, this research assesses how ACAP’s two components, PACAP and RACAP, separately and jointly affect organizational performance. The findings indicate that the combined effect of potential and realized absorptive capacities on organizational performance is greater than the separate effect of the two components. Further, this study reports that the combined effect becomes stronger when organizations operate at a low level of environmental dynamism, and possess a high level of network size. Drawing on these results, the study stresses that potential and realized absorptive capacities are complementary in enhancing superior performance, and indeed this relationship is context dependent

The human impact on the emergence of firm supply chain agility: a multilevel framework

Purpose The human element, especially its multilevel manifestation, has been overlooked in research investigating the antecedents of firm supply chain agility (FSCA). The purpose of this paper is to explore how a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation affect FSCA through individual capabilities and actions within the boundary conditions of individual identification with the firm and organizational work climate. Design/methodology/approach Following a multilevel approach and drawing on a cross-disciplinary reading of the literature, the authors analyze drivers and enablers of FSCA and advance a framework explaining the emergence of FSCA within the boundary conditions of transformational leadership, individual identification and organizational work climate. Findings The authors advance that relevant individual capabilities and intraorganizational actions underlie FSCA in the firms’ pursuit of realizing their strategic orientations as increased agile capacities. The effectiveness of individual capabilities and actions for the emergence of FSCA is contingent upon the extent to which managers identify themselves with their firm, transformational leadership and the nature of organizational work climate. Originality/value The original contribution of the paper is to explain the interplay between the multilayered attitudinal, behavioral and structural enablers of FSCA and incorporate the human element into the research on the antecedents of FSCA

Linking entrepreneurial orientation to environmental collaboration:A Stakeholder Theory and Evidence from Multinational Companies in an Emerging Market

Revisiting stakeholder theory as a potential theory of the firm giving rise to expectations about organizing, we analyze when and under what circumstances entrepreneurially oriented firms increase their environmental collaboration with suppliers. Specifically, we investigate the association between entrepreneurial orientation and environmental collaboration with suppliers by accounting for the degree of employees’ work engagement and market environment complexity as stakeholder-oriented moderators of this relationship. We test our hypotheses using multi-level analyses on 249 managers nested in 66 multinational companies (MNCs) in Turkey. We find that entrepreneurial orientation positively impacts environmental collaboration with suppliers. A high level of work engagement (as an organizing principle favouring a stakeholder focus) and a low level of market environment complexity (as an organizing principle favouring the customer as an instrumental stakeholder) moderate this linkage. We enrich the debate on entrepreneurial orientation, strategy, and environmental sustainability by providing logic rooted in stakeholder theory of the conditions under which MNCs’ entrepreneurial orientation in emerging markets prioritizes and privileges environmental collaboration with suppliers.WOS:0007448190000012-s2.0-8512307832

Developing potential and realized ACAP: The role of market sensing and responsiveness

This study explores how firms develop potential and realized absorptive capacity. In doing so, we extend the associations between organizational antecedents (coordination, system, and socialization capabilities) and potential and realized absorptive capacity by integrating market sensing and responsiveness as prerequisite contextual variables. The analysis is conducted using multilevel data obtained from 205 managers of 24 banks. Our findings show that coordination capabilities are positively associated with potential absorptive capacity while system and socialization capabilities are positively associated with realized absorptive capacity. Market responsiveness significantly moderates the relationship between socialization capabilities and realized absorptive capacity, such that the positive effect becomes weaker as market responsiveness increases. Also, market responsiveness significantly moderates the relationship between system capabilities and realized absorptive capacity, such that the positive effect becomes weaker when market responsiveness both increases and to a less extent decreases. The findings provide implications for research and practice on developing potential and realized absorptive capacity

Confronting the grand challenge of environmental sustainability within supply chains: How can organizational strategic agility drive environmental innovation?

Supply chains are interconnected, globally distributed, and complex systems that significantly impact the environment and human civilization. Achieving environmental sustainability in supply chains is a grand challenge that requires collaboration and innovation among multiple stakeholders. In this study, we combine the natural-resource-based view and the stakeholder-resource-based view (SRBV) to examine how organizational strategic agility can foster collaborative environmental innovation and enhance environmental sustainability in supply chains. We use data from 758 managers from 185 firms in Turkey, an emerging economy context. We find that organizational strategic agility, enabled by organic organizational structures and regional innovation initiatives, leads to more collaborative environmental innovation with supply partners and higher environmental sustainability performance. Our study contributes to the literature on grand challenges, organizational strategic agility, and innovation management by showing how for-profit firms can leverage their strategic agility to address the grand challenge of environmental sustainability in supply chains. We also find two interventions to promote this form of environmental innovation: developing organizational strategic agility and organic structures within firms and involvement in regional innovation initiatives to stimulate collaborative innovation for environmental sustainability among supply partners

Big data analytics management capability and firm performance: The mediating role of data-driven culture

The effect of big data analytics on firm performance and the effects of intermediary variables on this relationship are not yet clearly understood. Drawing on the dynamic capability view (DCV), this study investigates the mediating effect of a data-driven culture on the relationship between big data analytics management capability and firm performance (i.e., operational and financial performance). Drawing on survey data from 432 big data experts across 132 firms operating in Turkey, our findings indicate that big data analytics management capability and a data-driven culture have significant positive effects on both the operational and financial performance of a firm. In addition, a data-driven culture significantly mediates the links between big data analytics management capability and the measures of both operational and financial performance. Hence, our findings offer a valuable guide for managers utilizing big data or making big data investments to increase firm performance

Strategic Agility and Product Development in Emerging Markets : The Role of Employee Resilience and Self-efficacy as Microfoundations

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