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

Public leisure management : a strategic analysis of effectiveness and performance outcomes

Local government in England have reformed the management of their public services over many years. The increase in collaboration across the public sector between the public, private and voluntary sectors has been promoted under New Labour in public leisure provision, either through contracts or partnership arrangements. The transfer to collaboration has created significantly new modes of service delivery, including in-house, leisure trust, and private leisure management contractor arrangements. There is a need to examine and test in a more focused way the practices of those engaged in collaborative structures and reflect upon the implications these models present from a strategic management perspective. To this end, the thesis adopts a resource-based view of the firm and seeks to examine how the three approaches to public leisure provision develop strategies and effectively utilise and deploy resources through their strategic actions, with the overarching aim to achieve strategic outcomes. The main findings of the empirical analyses are two-fold. Firstly, of the three approaches examined, in-house provision has the most to gain from being more strategically aware. The case is made for significant strengthening oflocal government in-house managed facilities, which has often been viewed as the poor relation in public leisure provision and stands to lose the most in funding cuts and the subsidies provided to leisure trust rivals. Secondly, leisure trusts receive significant government funds and subsidies through tax breaks that are not forthcoming to rivals, which raises questions as to whether leisure trusts deserve such aid for delivering upon the social inclusion agenda of the government. Given that inclusion is not heavily emphasised or significantly achieved to any greater degree than rivals, it can be argued that this approach to provision does not justify the financial perks oftrust status provided to it. This thesis calls for a fundamental rethink of public policy and for the current public leisure management playing field to be levelled in a rebalance of opportunity and investment through the removal of anti-competitive measures in service delivery

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

The empirical link between export entry mode diversity and export performance: a contingency- and institutional-based examination

This study examines, for the first time, the critical issue of whether firms ought to adopt various entry modes in their export activities, i.e. whether firms ought to carry-out greater levels of export entry mode diversity, as a route to increase export performance. Underpinned by contingency and institutional theories this research also examines the role of institutional barriers, investment uncertainty, and geographical scope as moderators of the export entry mode diversity-export performance link. Findings suggest that greater export entry mode diversity is beneficial for export performance. Furthermore, higher export entry mode diversity levels are particularly recommended for firms that operate in export environments with higher institutional barriers, and for firms that have greater levels of export geographical scope. Results concerning the moderating role of investment uncertainty on the export entry mode diversity-export performance link are modest, and vary in signal across different levels of export entry mode diversity

Customer Experience Driven Business Model Innovation

Business model innovation (BMI) is critical to a firm's ability to achieve growth and long-term viability. It helps improve the value of products or services and/or delivery of these offerings to customers. Much of the academic literature to date however lacks customer-driven business model innovation frameworks. As such, the aim of this investigation is to propose a customer experience driven (CX) business model innovation framework that aligns customer values and the firm's strategic needs. This paper contributes to the literature by (a) conceptualizing the way in which business model innovation and customer experience are related (b) providing managers with a concrete framework to guide business model innovation that supports customer experience-driven new services and (c) highlighting opportunities for future research to advance business model innovation research and practice

Deep roots and soil structure

In this opinion article we examine the relationship between penetrometer resistance and soil depth in the field. Assuming that root growth is inhibited at penetrometer resistances > 2.5 MPa, we conclude that in most circumstances the increases in penetrometer resistance with depth are sufficiently great to confine most deep roots to elongating in existing structural pores. We suggest that deep rooting is more likely related to the interaction between root architecture and soil structure than it is to the ability of a root to deform strong soil. Although the ability of roots to deform strong soil is an important trait, we propose it is more closely related to root exploration of surface layers than deep rooting

Global orientation and export competitive advantage : a study of Malaysian firms

Recent globalization studies pinpoint to tracing the way that a global orientation is implemented and the effect it has on shaping firm's performance. The globalization literature connects the creation of competitive advantages with following a more standardized marketing approach across global markets, whereas the marketing adaptation literature declares that adaptation is necessary when consumers needs and wants differ significantly. Yet, there exists a lack of conceptual clarity and empirical evidence as to whether, and how, global export orientation and adaptation can be reconciled for competitive advantage. This study makes a step toward addressing this knowledge void by examining the interplay between global export orientation and product adaptation in realizing cost advantage and distribution advantage. Drawing on cross-sectional survey data from 144 Malaysian exporters, the results demonstrate that global export orientation has a positive impact on both cost and distribution competitive advantages. However, the quantity of export product adaptation pursued has a double-edged moderating effect. While on one hand adaptation weakens the global export orientation-cost advantage relationship, hindering the attainment of cost advantages, on the other it holds a positive moderating effect for the global export orientation-distribution advantage relationship

The empirical link between export entry mode diversity and export performance : a contingency- and institutional-based examination

This study examines, for the first time, the critical issue of whether firms ought to adopt various entry modes in their export activities, i.e. whether firms ought to carry-out greater levels of export entry mode diversity, as a route to increase export performance. Underpinned by contingency and institutional theories this research also examines the role of institutional barriers, investment uncertainty, and geographical scope as moderators of the export entry mode diversity-export performance link. Findings suggest that greater export entry mode diversity is beneficial for export performance. Furthermore, higher export entry mode diversity levels are particularly recommended for firms that operate in export environments with higher institutional barriers, and for firms that have greater levels of export geographical scope. Results concerning the moderating role of investment uncertainty on the export entry mode diversity-export performance link are modest, and vary in signal across different levels of export entry mode diversity

Quadratic effects of dynamic decision-making capability on innovation orientation and performance: Evidence from Chinese exporters

© 2018 Elsevier Inc. This study examines quadratic effects of three export decision-making approaches (planning, creativity and spontaneity) on innovation orientation, and the direct effect of innovation orientation on export market performance. The model, anchored in decision theory and dynamic capabilities, is tested on a sample of Chinese exporting firms using structural equation modelling. Findings indicate that while a greater proclivity to innovate is beneficial for export market performance, a more complex web of relationships is revealed between the three export decision-making approaches and innovation orientation, providing insights on the operationalization of a dynamic decision-making capability. Specifically, while an increasing level of export planning reduces an exporter's capacity to innovate, creativity has a positive direct effect on exporters’ innovation orientation, which also benefits from extreme spontaneity in export decision-making. We discuss theoretical contributions and export managerial implications of this dynamic decision-making capability for industrial marketing management