R. Andreu, L. Canós, S. de Juana, E. Manresa, L. Rienda and J.J. Tarí
The purpose of this paper is to present findings derived from research work carried out by a team of six university lecturers who are members of a teaching quality improvement…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present findings derived from research work carried out by a team of six university lecturers who are members of a teaching quality improvement network. The aim is to increase the motivation of the lecturers involved, so that better performance can be achieved, and the teaching‐learning process enriched.
Design/methodology/approach
Three complementary performance measures are used: students' active participation; lecturers' personal reflections; and lecturer peer‐to‐peer assessment.
Findings
These tools have provided the teaching staff with information about their strengths and weaknesses, as a consequence of which they have learned to deploy their skills inside the classroom and prepare their subjects more effectively. In this way, it is shown that the public teaching system can assess the potential of its human resources, and increase their motivation.
Originality/value
From an institutional point of view, performance quality assessment practices can also help to design training and development programmes that adapt the individual needs identified to the educational goals of today's universities.
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The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an ambitious plan led by the Chinese government aiming to reach a close integration between countries, is reshaping the global institutional…
Abstract
Purpose
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an ambitious plan led by the Chinese government aiming to reach a close integration between countries, is reshaping the global institutional landscape. Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) play a leading role in the BRI and they usually follow an unconventional behavior derived from the institutional influence of their home government. Prior research reports that institutional distance between home and host countries has an impact on multinational enterprises’ (MNEs’) ownership level in their foreign subsidiaries. Therefore, our aim is to investigate how institutional distance, the BRI and state ownership affect Chinese tourism MNEs' ownership level in their cross-border acquisitions.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the institutional theory, this study develops several hypotheses that are tested using a sample of Chinese MNEs from accommodation, travel agencies, transport and leisure/entertainment industries.
Findings
The results show that the idiosyncratic characteristics of being an emerging-market MNE belonging to a soft-service industry is associated with a positive relationship between institutional distance and a high ownership level in cross-border acquisitions. They also indicate that targeting a country included in the BRI and being an SOE negatively moderates that relationship.
Originality/value
This study extends institutional theory in the case of tourism firms from an emerging economy. It also addresses an under-research topic in the literature, namely, how the BRI is leading Chinese tourism MNEs to redesign their international strategies.
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Rodrigo Martín‐Rojas, Víctor J. García‐Morales and Encarnación García‐Sánchez
The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of different technological aspects of organizations on Spanish high‐technology firms' performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of different technological aspects of organizations on Spanish high‐technology firms' performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The relationships studied are confirmed empirically using a structural equation model to demonstrate our hypotheses. The sample was selected from the database “Dun & Bradstreet España” in the year 2005 and includes 201 Spanish firms. CEOs were our main informants.
Findings
The results obtained show that support from top managers will directly influence the organizational learning (OL) process and technological distinctive competencies (TDCs) (antecedents of corporate entrepreneurship) and that corporate entrepreneurship finally influences organizational performance.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is exploratory in character, and its goal is to show whether interrelations exist between the variables. The main limitations are: the sectors chosen refer only to Spain; the analysis is cross‐sectional in character; the study uses a single method and self‐reports (CEOs).
Practical implications
To obtain perfect adaptation of the firm to its environment, it is crucial that managers develop corporate entrepreneurship to improve high‐technology sector firms' performance. The paper shows the important role of the top manager's support in developing TDCs and OL. Success in such issues is of vital importance to corporate entrepreneurship in the firm.
Originality/value
The paper seeks to stimulate new lines of research on one variable (TDCs) and to relate it to other constructs, producing new relationships and observing their repercussions for the firm.
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Rodrigo Martín‐Rojas, Víctor J. García‐Morales and Antonio Mihi‐Ramírez
The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of different technological aspects of organizations for Spanish firms' performance through organizational learning and…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of different technological aspects of organizations for Spanish firms' performance through organizational learning and corporate entrepreneurship (where organizational innovation is essential).
Design/methodology/approach
The relationships studied are confirmed empirically using a structural equation model to demonstrate the hypotheses. The sample was selected from the database Dun & Bradstreet España for 2003, obtaining 201 Spanish firms. CEOs were the main informants.
Findings
The results show that the support adopted by top managers will directly influence the organizational learning process, technological distinctive competencies and corporate entrepreneurship. Technological distinctive competencies are also supported by organizational slack resources, technological skills and a technological infrastructure. Finally, corporate entrepreneurship influences organizational performance.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is exploratory in character, and its goal is to show whether interrelations exist between the variables. The main limitations are: the sectors chosen refer only to Spain; the analysis performed is cross‐sectional; and a single method and self‐reports are used.
Practical implications
The paper shows that to obtain perfect adaptation of the firm to its environment, it is crucial that managers develop corporate entrepreneurship, especially innovation, to improve high‐technology sector firms' performance.
Originality/value
The paper seeks to stimulate new lines of research regarding technological distinctive competencies, organizational learning and corporate entrepreneurship and to relate them to other constructs, observing their repercussions for the firm.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of changes in employment regulation in Spain on individual labour market trajectories. It is well known that the Spanish labour…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of changes in employment regulation in Spain on individual labour market trajectories. It is well known that the Spanish labour market has been strongly hit by the 2007 recession. Furthermore, after 2010 and in the benchmark of “austerity”, several reforms were implemented to further flexibilise employment regulation. At the same time, public sector budgets suffered severe cutbacks, that impacted working conditions and prospects of public sector workers. These reforms were implemented by different governments and substantially changed previous existing patterns of employment. This paper explains how these reforms have reinforced previous existing trends towards greater flexibility and weaker employment protection and how they lead to a shift in the position of work in society.
Design/methodology/approach
The emerging patterns that these changes provoked are illustrated thorough data from narrative biographies of workers affected by a job loss or a downgrading of working conditions. The workers of the sample had relatively stable positions and careers and were affected by changes that substantially modified their paths.
Findings
The paper shows how reforms have expanded work and employment insecurities and have broken career paths. It demonstrates how the reforms have weakened the position of work and organised labour in society and how, when institutional supports are jeopardised, the capacity to plan and act is harassed by the traditional social inequalities.
Originality/value
The paper enhances the knowledge about the impact of institutional changes by analysing their effects in individual working lives by means of narrative biographies.
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M. Alshawi and I. Faraj
There have been major efforts to develop the technology for integrated construction environments and the mechanisms needed to improve the collaboration between construction…
Abstract
There have been major efforts to develop the technology for integrated construction environments and the mechanisms needed to improve the collaboration between construction professionals. Evidently, the development and usage of such an environment is a complicated task. The two issues that can be among the main contributors to this are: the development of the technology and its effective implementation. These two issues are addressed separately in this paper. The paper first explains the approaches of sharing project information, followed by a review of a recent project in this area, the result of which is a distributed integrated construction environment based on the industry foundation class (IFC), capable of supporting a number of construction applications. This environment is capable of supporting a construction team to work collaboratively over the internet. It then discusses the difficulties facing the successful implementation of such environments in construction organisations. This is addressed within the context of two management models for effective implementation of IT: the resource‐based model and the Nolan model.
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Louis Raymond, François Bergeron, Anne-Marie Croteau, Ana Ortiz de Guinea and Sylvestre Uwizeyemungu
As purveyors of knowledge-based and high value-added services to the manufacturing sector, industrial service small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must develop the…
Abstract
Purpose
As purveyors of knowledge-based and high value-added services to the manufacturing sector, industrial service small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must develop the information technology (IT) capabilities that, in combination with other non-IT capabilities, enable their capacity for organizational learning (OL) and for explorative learning in particular. In this context, this study aims to identify the different causal configurations that account for the nonlinear complex interplay of IT capabilities for exploration and strategic capabilities for explorative learning as they affect these firms’ competitive performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data obtained from 92 industrial service SMEs were analyzed with a configurational approach, using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).
Findings
As it allows for equifinality, the fsQCA analysis identified two sets of causal configurations that characterize the sampled firms’ explorative learning capability as it relates to competitive performance. In the first set, two configurations were equally associated with high innovation performance, whereas in the second set, four configurations were equally associated with high productivity.
Originality/value
By viewing explorative learning as a dynamic capability that is enabled by the firm’s IT and strategic capabilities, the study contributes to OL theory by providing a more concrete or “operational” grounding, which allows for a greater practical applicability of this theory. By taking both the configurational and capability-based views of the OL-IT-performance causal framework, the authors provide an empirical basis for unraveling, explaining and understanding the complex non-linear relationships embedded within this framework.
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Majed Al‐Mashari and Mohamed Zairi
This paper presents a holistic review of the literature related to business process re‐engineering (BPR). It reviews some definitions of BPR and clarifies confusion around its…
Abstract
This paper presents a holistic review of the literature related to business process re‐engineering (BPR). It reviews some definitions of BPR and clarifies confusion around its concepts, traces the evolution of BPR and identifies its main drivers, and discusses issues of integrating BPR with TQM, benchmarking and change management. It then provides a strategic view of BPR implementation, conceptualises the major role of IT in BPR, reviews BPR approaches, methodologies, techniques and software tools, and discusses the scope of BPR and level of radicalness as indicators of degree of change. Aspects of improving business through BPR and the impacts of IT‐enabled change on organisations are identified and, finally, current and future development of BPR concepts and practice are also reviewed.
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Heinz‐Theo Wagner and Tim Weitzel
The goal of this paper is to identify core IT value drivers in firms and to model them as an IT production function to help disclose and measure the IT value creation process and…
Abstract
Purpose
The goal of this paper is to identify core IT value drivers in firms and to model them as an IT production function to help disclose and measure the IT value creation process and to guide managers in seeking adequate ways of employing the IT resource.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a critical review of the literature on the resource‐based view, an IT value framework based on the constructs IT capability, resource, and routine is developed and then formalized as an IT production function.
Findings
Organizational routines are decisive for turning firm resources into an IT capability and in turn into better business process performance. Shows how the IT value creation process in general and routines in particular can be measured and formalized.
Practical implications
As the interaction between IT and business units is crucial for IT value generation, organizational routines provide for important knowledge flows that turn firm resources into value generating capabilities. Proposes a concrete method to measure and evaluate these routines and thereby contribute to making the IT resource controllable.
Originality/value
The main contribution is the identification and analytical formalization of the role of routines for IT value creation. Shows how insights from the resource‐based view, microeconomic theory (Cobb‐Douglas/CES production function), and Granovetter's strength of ties argument can be used to describe, measure, and guide IT value creation and to develop an IT production function.
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Hazem Aldabbas and Niël Oberholzer
This study provides theoretical and empirical insights into how firms can enhance their performance strategically and financially by integrating learning and transformational…
Abstract
Purpose
This study provides theoretical and empirical insights into how firms can enhance their performance strategically and financially by integrating learning and transformational capabilities into research and development (R&D) activities based on the dynamic capabilities approach. To achieve this, the authors propose that transformational capabilities in R&D mediate the relationship between learning capabilities in R&D and competitive advantage.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a purposive sampling technique and standardized questionnaires, data were collected from 118 R&D and senior managers. To analyze the data, multiple regression analysis, along with SPSS PROCESS macro (Model 4), was used.
Findings
The results support the theoretical assumption that there are direct and indirect positive and significant effects between learning capabilities in R&D and competitive advantage as mediated by transformational R&D capabilities.
Originality/value
This study explores R&D from a dynamic capabilities perspective and suggests that learning capabilities should come first to enhance businesses’ competitive advantage. Furthermore, transformational R&D capabilities can explain the relationship between learning capabilities in R&D and competitive advantage. The authors recommend that researchers should investigate the contributions of R&D to promote competitive advantage.