The morphogenesis of organisational capabilities

The capabilities micro-foundation literature has been enjoying “celebrity” status appearing in many special issues of top ranked journals in recent years. In this paper we seek to add our voice to this burgeoning field. Traditional theorising in the field seems to have been polarised on the one hand by utility maximisation of the neoclassical school while on the other by the satisficing principle of bounded rationality. Of late the conversation has taken on an ontological turn and battle lines drawn between methodological individualism and methodological collectivism. Both schools of thoughts are variously illuminating in their own right. However, to the extent that transcending the individualism-collectivism divide offers a mutually inclusive solution we suggest looking at the problematic from a third perspective. In this paper we draw on the critical realist ontology to propose a morphogenesis approach to the study of capabilities and its origins. We argue that the emergent nature of capabilities is sympathetic to Archer’s notion of analytical dualism. As such we expose organisational capabilities as emergent social structures existing in a dialectical and reciprocal interplay between the emergent powers of structure, culture and agency. Defined in terms of patterns of action, we build our argument premised on the objective pre-existence of capabilities which serve to condition the situational logic of action. Organisational actors faced with objective situations exercise their own subjective properties to weigh the opportunity cost of one course of action over another. Actions endorsing the status quo lead to the reproduction of capabilities (morphostasis) while transformative actions lead to change or dynamic capabilities (morphogenesis). Given that organisations exist in a continuous flow of action the resulting morphostasis or morphogenesis constitutes the anterior conditioning forces for the new cycle of interaction. By maintaining the ontic differentiation between structure and agency the conditions of action are therefore rendered analytically separable from action itself, so enabling their interplay, as opposed to their mutual interpenetration, to be explored

Impact in networks and ecosystems: building case studies that make a difference

open accessThis toolkit aims to support the building up of case studies that show the impact of project activities aiming to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. The case studies respond to the challenge of understanding what kinds of interventions work in the Southern African region, where, and why. The toolkit has a specific focus on entrepreneurial ecosystems and proposes a method of mapping out the actors and their relationships over time. The aim is to understand the changes that take place in the ecosystems. These changes are seen to be indicators of impact as increased connectivity and activity in ecosystems are key enablers of innovation. Innovations usually happen together with matching social and institutional adjustments, facilitating the translation of inventions into new or improved products and services. Similarly, the processes supporting entrepreneurship are guided by policies implemented in the common framework provided by innovation systems. Overall, policies related to systems of innovation are by nature networking policies applied throughout the socioeconomic framework of society to pool scarce resources and make various sectors work in coordination with each other. Most participating SAIS countries already have some kinds of identifiable systems of innovation in place both on national and regional levels, but the lack of appropriate institutions, policies, financial instruments, human resources, and support systems, together with underdeveloped markets, create inefficiencies and gaps in systemic cooperation and collaboration. In other words, we do not always know what works and what does not. On another level, engaging users and intermediaries at the local level and driving the development of local innovation ecosystems within which local culture, especially in urban settings, has evident impact on how collaboration and competition is both seen and done. In this complex environment, organisations supporting entrepreneurship and innovation often find it difficult to create or apply relevant knowledge and appropriate networking tools, approaches, and methods needed to put their processes to work for broader developmental goals. To further enable these organisations’ work, it is necessary to understand what works and why in a given environment. Enhanced local and regional cooperation promoted by SAIS Innovation Fund projects can generate new data on this little-explored area in Southern Africa. Data-driven knowledge on entrepreneurship and innovation support best practices as well as effective and efficient management of entrepreneurial ecosystems can support replication and inform policymaking, leading thus to a wider impact than just that of the immediate reported projects and initiatives

Sentiment analysis using KNIME: a systematic literature review of big data logistics

Text analytics and sentiment analysis can help researchers to derive potentially valuable thematic and narrative insights from text-based content such as industry reviews, leading OM and OR journal articles and government reports. The classification system described here analyses the opinions of the performance of various public and private, manufacturing, medical, service and retail organizations in integrating big data into their logistics. It explains methods of data collection and the sentiment analysis process for classifying big data logistics literature using KNIME. Finally, it then gives an overview of the differences and explores future possibilities in sentiment analysis for investigating different industrial sectors and data sources

Factors Influencing Particulate Matter 2.5 Levels in Indoor Areas of Rural Houses: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Almost 3 billion of the world’s poorest people still rely on solid fuels, with a concomitant increase in indoor Particulate Matter (PM 2.5) concentration resulting in deaths from respiratory diseases. Increased prevalence of respiratory diseases among never smoking young individuals and fairly among women compared to men point towards a causal relationship between chronic smoke inhalation resulting from the burning of biomass fuels. Aim: To assess the quantitative exposure levels of PM 2.5 in a rural setting in South India and determine the association between PM 2.5, type of house, ventilation available and fuel used. Materials and Methods: This community-based cross-sectional study was conducted for three months from September to November 2020 in the rural field practice area of Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The houses were classified into three types Kutcha (roof, walls and floor made of poor quality materials), semi pucca (two components made of good quality material and one component is of poor quality) and pucca (roof, walls and floor made of good quality material) houses according to census of India 1991. The air quality inside 127 houses was assessed by measuring PM 2.5 levels for 24 hours in both kitchen and living rooms. The association between house characteristics, ventilation, type of fuel and indoor air quality was Studied using student t-test and one-way Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA). Results: Among 323 included residents, 168 were males and 155 females with the mean age 36.99±13.24 years. The difference in average house area and living area between the three types of houses were statistically significant (p-value <0.001). The mean concentrations of PM 2.5 were 290.07 μg/m3 and mean differences in PM 2.5 levels in living room and kitchen of semi pucca (t=7.32, p-value <0.001) and pucca houses (t=5.47, p-value <0.001) were significant. The association between cross ventilation in kitchen (OR 3.24, p-value=0.042), artificial ventilation (OR 3.23, p=0.026), type of fuel (firewood OR 2.85, p-value=0.042) and PM 2.5 levels is significant at 95% CI limits. Conclusion: Indoor air pollution is a silent killer responsible for several respiratory problems. Simple cost-effective measures could reduce indoor PM 2.5 levels and thereby indoor air pollution

Impact in networks and ecosystems: Building case studies that make a difference

This toolkit aims to support the building up of case studies that show the impact of project activities aiming to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. The case studies respond to the challenge of understanding what kinds of interventions work in the Southern African region, where, and why

Unpacking the left side of PsyCap: An Archerian analysis

Unpacking the left side of PsyCap: An Archerian analysi

Big data analytics-enabled supply chain management [Powerpoint Presentation]

This presentation showcases how big data analytics are being leveraged across the whole of the supply chain to build new or strengthen existing capabilities. The presentation was made to audience at the University of Seychelles to commemorate their first Interdisciplinary Research Conferenc

Professional learning: a morphogenetic approach to analysing managerial learning in the context of dynamic capabilities

Professional learning: a morphogenetic approach to analysing managerial learning in the context of dynamic capabilitie

The smart city production system

The smart city production syste

The application of digital twin technology in operations and supply chain management: a bibliometric review

PurposeApplication of digital twin to optimise operations and supply chain management functions is a bourgeoning practice. Scholars have attempted to keep pace with this development initiating a fast-evolving research agenda. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of the emerging research stream identifying trends and capture the value potential of digital twin to the field of operations and supply chain management.Design/methodology/approachIn this work we employ a bibliometric literature review supported by bibliographic coupling and keyword co-occurrence network analysis to examine current trends in the research field regarding the value-added potential of digital twin in operations and supply chain management.FindingsThe main findings of this work are the identification of four value clusters and one enabler cluster. Value clusters are comprised of articles that describe how the application of digital twin can enhance supply chain activities at the level of business processes as well as the level of supply chain capabilities. Value clusters of production flow management and product development operate at the business processes level and are maturing communities. The supply chain resilience and risk management value cluster operates at the capability level, it is just emerging, and is positioned at the periphery of the main network. These clusters variously help to shed light on the value-added potential of digital twin in operations and supply chain management.Originality/valueThis is the first study that attempts to conceptualise digital twin as a dynamic capability and employs bibliometric and network analysis on the research stream of digital twin in operations and supply chain management to capture evolutionary trends, literaturecommunities and value-creation dynamics in a digital-twin-enabled supply chain.</div