Knowledge management activities and strategic planning capability development

Purpose – 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. Design/methodology/approach – 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. Findings – 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. Research implications – 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. Practical implications – 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. Originality/value – 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

The performance implications of strategic capital for public leisure providers

Strategic capital has emerged as a key source of competitive heterogeneity in the private sector. Despite this, little is known about the performance implications of strategic capital in public organisations. Adopting a resource-advantage perspective, we examine the performance implications of strategic capital for public leisure providers. Analysing data generated from public leisure providers, we find that effective strategy implementation enables leisure providers to exploit comparative advantages, which is itself a source of sustained advantage. Furthermore, high performers are endowed with significantly greater levels of strategic capital - which include 'strategy commitment', 'implementation support', 'implementation effectiveness', and 'learning' - in contrast with low performers. Important differences between internal and external approaches to provision are also identified and discussed, along with the implications of this study for researchers and public policy. © 2012 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Post-acquisitions structures in cross-border M&As: An innovation-based perspective

Post-acquisitions structures in cross-border M&As: An innovation-based perspectiv

Developing dynamic transformation capabilities in high velocity environment: A study of industrial internet companies

Developing dynamic transformation capabilities in high velocity environment: A study of industrial internet companie

Re-examining the deployment of market orientation in the public leisure sector

This paper examines the moderating effects of market orientation's intelligence generation and dissemination components on the response-performance relationship. We offer valuable insight into the application of, and subsequent returns to, market orientation in the public leisure sector, thereby helping to broaden the appeal, relevance, and usefulness of this important marketing theory to other contexts. The research involved a national survey questionnaire to 1060 public leisure managers of local government leisure facilities in England. Empirical testing through structural equation modelling revealed two important findings. First, intelligence generation efforts of the organisation can in part affect the performance returns to an organisation from its responsiveness to market intelligence. Second, intelligence generation coupled with organisation-wide dissemination of intelligence can have a destructive impact on the response-performance relationship, demonstrated by a negative significant moderating impact on this relationship. This paper provides an alternative explanation to the deployment of market orientation as a means to create value and an explanation that transcends its current linear portrayal in public-service delivery. © 2012 Copyright 2012 Westburn Publishers Ltd

Absorptive capacity and market orientation in public service provision

The application of market orientation to public organisations does not adequately account for the unique features of this context. Drawing on absorptive capacity literature, this is the first study to examine the role of the organisation's learning environment on the market orientation-performance interface for two opposing public management contexts. The research involved a national survey questionnaire to 1060 internal and external public leisure service providers in England. Empirical testing through structural equation modelling revealed that not all dimensions of market orientation are universally positive and marketing scholars should seek to examine and understand market orientation in the context of the organisation and its learning mechanisms, as absorptive capacity has clear and different moderation effects under different management contexts. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Strategy, operations, and profitability: The role of resource orchestration

Purpose – Developing and implementing strategies to maximize profitability is a fundamental challenge facing manufacturers. The complexity of orchestrating resources in practice has been overlooked in the operations field and it is now necessary to go beyond the direct effects of individual resources and uncover different resource configurations that maximize profitability. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on a sample of US manufacturing firms, multiple regression analysis (MRA) and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) are performed to examine the effects of resource orchestration on firm profitability over time. By comparing the findings between analyses, the study represents a move away from examining the net effects of resource levers on performance alone. Findings – The findings characterize the resource conditions for manufacturers’ high performance, and also for absence of high performance. Pension and retirement expense is a core resource condition with R&D and SG&A as consistent peripheral conditions for profitability. Moreover, although workforce size was found to have a significant negative effect under MRA, this plays a role in manufacturers’ performance as a peripheral resource condition under fsQCA. Originality/value – Accounting for different resource deployment configurations, this study deepens knowledge of resource orchestration and presents findings that enable manufacturers to maximize profitability. An empirical contribution is offered by the introduction of a new method for examining manufacturing strategy configurations: fsQCA

Social capital and learning advantages: a problem of absorptive capacity

Theoretically, social capital allows entrepreneurial firms to capitalize on learning advantages of newness and gain access to knowledge as the foundation for improved performance. But this understates its complexity. We consider whether learning through social capital relationships has a direct effect on performance and whether absorptive capacity mediates and moderates this relationship. We find that network-based learning has no direct relationship with performance, but this is mediated in each instance by absorptive capacity and is moderated twice. Our findings challenge the learning advantages of newness thesis and reveal how absorptive capacity can enable business performance from a firm's network relationships

Planning for coopetition to mitigate risks: Findings from three studies

In an economic environment characterized by competitive intensity and uncertainty, many companies are turning to inter-organizational cooperation to acquire key resources and capabilities, and to share risk. Increasingly, some of these collaborations are undertaken with competitors (and labelled coopetition). Coopetition therefore is emerging as an attractive strategy to achieve economies of scale, obtain complementary resources, advance knowledge, and reduce distribution risks. However, coopetition can also be characterized by opportunistic behaviors and lack of trust between partners, which can hinder any positive effects that coopetition may have on organizational performance. The current study explores the decision-making process employed when establishing coopetition, while addressing the potential impact on both risks mitigation, and long term strategy. Our findings reveal two approaches to coopetition planning, namely formal and personal. Each approach bears a different impact on risks and future strategy

The influence of family firms on the sustainability of start-up/nascent enterprises

The influence of family firms on the sustainability of start-up/nascent enterprise