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The purpose of this paper is to extend understanding of the success of the six sigma quality management initiative by investigating the effects of six sigma teamwork and statistical process control (SPC) on organizational‐shared vision.

The information used comes from a larger study, the data for which were collected from a random sample of 237 European firms. Of these 237 organizations, 58 have implemented six sigma. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses.

The main findings show that six sigma teamwork and SPC positively affect the development of organizational‐shared vision. A positive but not significant influence is also observed between shared vision and organizational performance.

Positive effects found in this study should be investigated further employing a larger sample of six sigma firms and including other variables such as organizational learning. Further, the effects of these variables on performance should be measured with real results from firms to test possible direct and indirect influence on performance.

The findings of this study offer a justification of six sigma implementation in firms. This study provides the authors with an in‐depth understanding of some structural elements that characterize the six sigma methodology, enabling the authors to provide an explanation for its success.

There is little empirical research on the positive effects of six sigma implementation and even less that explains the success of six sigma initiatives. This paper contributes to filling this gap. It also contributes to emerging literature on how the development of shared vision affects organizational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a nuanced understanding of international marketing agility by connecting organizational capability literature with that of standardization and adaptation. The focus of the research is to clarify whether managing the tension between product standardization and service customization generates an extra premium in international markets.

Two disaggregated Chinese data sets, the Annual Survey of Industrial Enterprises and the China Customs Database, are used for developing an econometric model. Export quality improvement is the outcome variable in reflecting the effect of international marketing agility on performance.

International marketing agility is reached through upstream FDI intensity, particularly in the context of service FDI. Manufacturing sectors with higher service intensity have more agility, being more likely to generate export quality.

This study makes three theoretical contributions by clarifying the concept of international marketing agility as an organizational capability generated by manufacturing standardization and service customization; investigating the influence of upstream FDI intensity for export quality while taking into account the industry contexts; and obtaining an enhanced understanding of the service intensity of manufacturing firms on export quality.

The authors offer a nuanced and contextualized understanding of international marketing agility and explore the complex relationships between FDI, service intensity and export quality.

The purpose of this paper is to distinguish clearly between industry (ILC) and product lifecycle (PLC) models and to elucidate their different ramifications for organizational learning and knowledge.

The authors examine existing knowledge on ILCs and PLCs to highlight the differences and similarities and develop a framework with implications for learning and innovation in digital manufacturing industries.

The authors identify and associate one dominant type of learning with each phase of the ILC: learning-by-participating in the introduction phase, learning-by-feedback in the growth phase, vicarious learning in the maturity phase and learning-by-memory in the decline phase. The study also provides insight into how different types of learning influence PLC in digital innovation. From this perspective, learning-by-feedback is crucial to co-creation, co-production and open innovation. Similarly, learning-by-doing and learning-by-memory are essential to production and usage stages, respectively.

The conceptual development in this paper follows a somewhat critical but ultimately elucidative analysis that highlights important research avenues in the interplay of PLC/ILC, organizational learning and digital innovation.

This paper clarifies a perennial theoretical problem by differentiating two concepts often conflated in the literature. More importantly, it contributes to the knowledge management literature by shedding light on the connection of ILC and PLC theories to different types of organizational learning.

This study seeks to analyze theoretically and empirically how different intermediate strategic variables related to knowledge (combinative capabilities and absorptive capacity) and strategic flexibility influence the relation between CEOs' social networks and organizational performance. To date, very little research has analyzed the direct and indirect relationships between these variables.

Based on the literature, a theoretical model is developed that shows the interrelations between these variables. The methodology used was LISREL analysis. The model is then tested using data from 203 Spanish organizations.

This investigation shows the influence of CEOs' social networks (larger networks with strong ties) and capabilities (combinative capabilities and absorptive capacity) on the level of strategic flexibility. It then shows the influence of their strategic flexibility level on organizational performance. It adds theoretical and empirical arguments to the importance of CEOs' social networks for the organization.

Today's information and knowledge society requires new CEOs who can confront a reality based on knowledge and foster strategic flexibility to achieve improvements in organizational performance. However, organizations sometimes fail to achieve sustainable competitive advantage due to their limited understanding of the relationships between these strategic variables. This paper develops a complete framework of the capturing of knowledge and information from outside the organization performed by CEOs and the process they use to assimilate, transform and use this knowledge in the organization.

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the influence that participation in a simulation experience based on the automobile industry has on the entrepreneurial attitude (entrepreneurship attitude orientation) through conflict management learning.

The sample used in this paper consists of 427 advanced undergraduate students majoring in Business Management and Administration, Economics, Tourism and Research, and Marketing. The data are collected by means of a structured questionnaire.

Results show that the simulation experience increases positive results for personal control and self‐esteem indicating that the participants applied the knowledge learned in the simulation improving their perception of control and conflict management approaches.

The paper is focused on a business game based on the automobile industry in order to involve the participants into a realistic business management experience.

Results encourage the incorporation of these simulation tools into educational programs related to entrepreneurship. Business simulations improves conflict management within and between groups, especially in the complementary activities and negotiations with real agents, it also fosters motivation and cooperative attitudes.

This paper contributes to increase knowledge in conflict management for workgroups maintaining intensive and relentless relationships over a relatively long period of time in which the simulation develops. At a more practical level, experience on conflict management generates acceptance of the conflict as a part of the decisions making process, which improves the entrepreneurial attitude for all participants.

This paper addresses the growing fragmentation between traditional and digital service innovation (DSI) research and offers a unifying metatheoretical framework.

Grounded in service-dominant (S-D) logic's service ecosystems perspective, this study builds on an institutional and systemic, rather than product-centric and linear, conceptualization of value creation to offer a unifying framework for (digital) service innovation that applies to both physical and digital service provisions.

This paper questions the commonly perpetuated idea that DSI fundamentally changes the nature of innovation. Instead, it highlights resource liquification—the decoupling of information from the technologies that store, transmit, or process this information—as a distinguishing characteristic of DSI. Liquification, however, does not affect the relational and institutional nature of service innovation, which is always characterized by (1) the emergence of novel outcomes, (2) distributed governance and (3) symbiotic design. Instead, liquification makes these three characteristics more salient.

In presenting a cohesive service innovation framework, this study underscores that all innovation processes are rooted in combinatorial evolution. Here, service-providing actors (re)combine technologies (or more generally, institutions) to adapt their value cocreation practices. This research demonstrates that such (re)combinations exhibit emergence, distributed governance and symbiotic design. While these characteristics may initially seem novel and unique to DSI, it reveals that their fundamental mechanisms are not limited to digital service ecosystems. They are, in fact, integral to service innovation across virtual, physical and blended contexts. The study highlights the importance of exercising caution in assuming that the emergence of novel technologies, including digital technologies, necessitates a concurrent rethinking of the fundamental processes of service innovation.