Examining the relationship between firm resources and firm performance : an insight into the airline industry

Several scholars have pointed to the benefits that can be acquired by the combination of strategic and entrepreneurial activities with the aim of creating wealth and increased performance outcomes (e.g. Ireland et al., 2003; Sirmon et al., 2007; Monsen and Boss, 2009). In this vein, we employ the Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm and examine whether the balanced implementation of both opportunity and advantage-seeking activities enhances the relationship between a firm’s resources and its performance outcomes. Using panel data from the airline industry, our findings reveal important implications for business success and for future research directions

Essential Micro-foundations for Contemporary Business Operations: Top Management Tangible Competencies, Relationship-based Business Networks and Environmental Sustainability

Although various studies have emphasized linkages between firm competencies, networks and sustainability at organizational level, the links between top management tangible competencies (e.g., contemporary relevant quantitative-focused education such as big data analytics and data-driven applications linked with the internet of things, relevant experience and analytical business applications), relationship-based business networks (RBNs) and environmental sustainability have not been well established at micro-level, and there is a literature gap in terms of investigating these relationships. This study examines these links based on the unique data collected from 175 top management representatives (chief executive officers and managing directors) working in food import and export firms headquartered in the UK and New Zealand. Our results from structural equation modelling indicate that top management tangible competencies (TMTCs) are the key determinants for building RBNs, mediating the correlation between TMTCs and environmental sustainability. Directly, the competencies also play a vital role towards environmental practices. The findings further depict that relationship-oriented firms perform better compared to those which focus less on such networks. Consequently, our findings provide a deeper understanding of the micro-foundations of environmental sustainability based on TMTCs rooted in the resource-based view and RBNs entrenched in the social network theory. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings, and we provide suggestions for future research

Corporate Entrepreneurship:From Structures to Mindset

Corporate entrepreneurship dispersed throughout an organization and leveraging the entrepreneurial potential of all its employees bears significant benefits for those organizations that embrace it. However, it appears more difficult to instill and requires strong investment in the development of human capital and entrepreneurial mindset among the employees and across the organization. In this chapter, we discuss the essence of corporate entrepreneurship mindset and show that across an organization, there might be different entrepreneurial mindsets that correspond to different people, opportunities, and contexts. Although different, they all lead to enactment of entrepreneurial projects. This chapter, thus, contributes to the discussion regarding the nature of corporate entrepreneurial mindsets, and their development and stimulation within an organization, from both academic and practical view

Measuring organisational performance - A case for subjective measures

We review the organisational performance (OP) measurement literature highlighting the limitations of both objective and subjective measures of performance. We argue that, with careful planning, subjective measures can be successfully employed to assess OP. This is because often consistent, reliable and comparable compatible objective data on OP measures—particularly across countries and sectors—is difficult to come by. Considering that an inflated OP measure can be cross-checked with the use of secondary data, managers have little incentive to report such figures. As a result, when quizzed over the stand-alone performance measures of their organisations or vis-à-vis their rivals, managers accurately assess and respond to questions on the performance of their organisations. An in-depth statistical exercise conducted on the subjective measures of OP as reported by managers of four sets of companies in four separate countries, show consistent results, thus lending support to this premise

A resource-based view of the build/buy decision: emergent and rational stepwise models of strategic planning

Two ideal models of strategy development are identified: one is rational stepwise; the other is emergent, ex-post, relying on experimentation where strategy is used to legitimize what has already been accomplished