Mike Geppert and Ed Clark
The aim of this article is to develop the foundations of an actor‐centred, processual approach to examining the influence of cross‐border knowledge transfer and management…
Abstract
The aim of this article is to develop the foundations of an actor‐centred, processual approach to examining the influence of cross‐border knowledge transfer and management learning on transnational institution building in post‐socialist countries. We argue that there is a need for more research to understand how key social actors go about (re)structuring, (re)defining and sharing knowledge within new international ventures. We contend that social actors can play a significant role in creating and structuring the “transnational social space” in which the new venture takes shape, exercising strategic choice that can mediate, adapt or even reject the apparently constraining effects of technical‐economic or cultural‐institutional factors. The role of social actors is conceptualized as a socio‐political sensemaking process, a perspective that would complement the current structuralist bias in the discussion about the emergence of transnational social space in international management research literature.
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Helena Buhr and Jason Owen-Smith
Networks connecting two important supporting institutions – law firms and venture capital partnerships – explain regions’ disparate abilities to sustain diverse high-technology…
Abstract
Networks connecting two important supporting institutions – law firms and venture capital partnerships – explain regions’ disparate abilities to sustain diverse high-technology ventures. In order to explain the diversity of entrepreneurial activity in a region, we distinguish between institutional capacity (the number of law firms and venture capitalists in a locale), strong interinstitutional connections that span legal and financial domains, and cohesive structural communities of directly and indirectly connected supporting organizations. We argue that strong connections and cohesive communities are essential, but little examined contributors to the development of diverse research-based economies. We find support for the argument in an empirical analysis of initial public offerings (IPOs) by U.S. high-technology companies in five industries between 1993 and 2005. Linking regional outcomes to strong ties that span local legal and financial institutions and to cohesive structures that weld them into communities offers new insights for research on the institutional and network underpinnings of entrepreneurship and regional economic development.
Cassia Goulart Heinzen, Rosalia Aldraci Barbosa Lavarda and Christiane Bellucci
This study seeks to comprehend how sociomateriality influences the openness paradox within the context of open strategising.
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to comprehend how sociomateriality influences the openness paradox within the context of open strategising.
Design/methodology/approach
We adopted a qualitative approach and developed a case study as a research method. The data included 10 semi-structured interviews, direct observation and documentary analysis, including virtual documents, collaborative platforms and communication systems.
Findings
We found that sociomateriality influences the transition between openness and closure in open strategy (OS) dimensions, namely inclusion, participation and transparency, once organisational practitioners actively build on social relationships and engage with material elements within this paradoxical context.
Research limitations/implications
The primary limitation was the challenge of managing extensive data, especially tracking all meetings and interactions. Nonetheless, we aimed to provide a comprehensive view and meaningful insights from the data. Future research could employ mixed methods to achieve a more holistic understanding of the phenomenon.
Practical implications
By understanding the role of formalisation and legitimation played by sociomateriality during open strategising, practitioners can navigate the complexities of balancing openness and closure, fostering innovation and engagement while ensuring the legitimacy of strategising. Recognising the coexistence of exclusions in social practices enables society to comprehend this paradox and highlight the need to address it, fostering an inclusive environment and promoting balanced openness in various social contexts.
Originality/value
Our study contributes to the OS literature by highlighting the role of sociomateriality in shaping the openness and closure interplay. Additionally, we emphasise the importance of formalisation and legitimation practices involving materiality in the balance between openness and closure in a context where openness is deemed essential for strategic success.
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Suleika Bort, Marie Oehme and Florian Zock
To maintain and enhance innovation performance, many firms nowadays look for resources from external sources such as strategic alliances and regional network embeddedness. While…
Abstract
To maintain and enhance innovation performance, many firms nowadays look for resources from external sources such as strategic alliances and regional network embeddedness. While considering the important interdependencies among different alliances, research has established an alliance portfolio perspective. From an alliance portfolio perspective, firms can consciously configure the dimensions of their alliance portfolios such as partner characteristics, relational properties, or structural properties. However, within the context of alliance portfolio configuration, the role of regional networks has been largely overlooked. As most high-tech firms are regionally clustered, this is an important research gap. In addressing this gap, this study explores the link between regional network density, alliance portfolio configuration, and its contribution to firm innovation performance. We examine how regional network density and alliance partner diversity influences firm level innovation output. We also investigate the moderating effect of overall network partner status and partner diversity on the link between regional network density and innovation performance. Our empirical evidence is derived from a longitudinal quantitative study of 1,233 German biotechnology firms. We find that regional network density and alliance partner diversity has an inverted U-shape effect on firm level innovation performance. However, overall network status as well as alliance partner diversity negatively moderates the link between regional network density and innovation output. Thus, our study contributes to a better understanding of the link between regional networks, alliance portfolio configuration, and firm level innovation performance.
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R.M. THORPE and B. WHITTINGTON
In the past few years a new debate has started and blossomed among those concerned with British university administration. It has centred around the lack of specific provision of…
Abstract
In the past few years a new debate has started and blossomed among those concerned with British university administration. It has centred around the lack of specific provision of training for university administrators. This research is a reflection of this debate. In an attempt to provide, firstly, information which would facilitate the construction of a course appropriate for “middle grade” administrators and, secondly, knowledge of a more general kind on the weaknesses of present administrator training, the authors carried out an attitudinal survey by postal questionnaire of 52 university and university college institutions in Britain. Interest focussed upon the training needs perceived by middle range administrators. This information was used to construct a course for these administrators which was offered at the University of Bradford in September 1973. Further, biographical and attitudinal data were used to attempt to explain variations in perceived training need. A consideration of several propositions suggested to explain such apparent variations served to indicate the evident need for more training in these techniques, either through the perceived need of a majority of respondents, or through the respondents' self confessed lack of knowledge about the applicability of these techniques. The authors conclude with a call for more non‐survey data based research into training needs and the expansion of specific university administrative training in management techniques.
Dong Wu, Xiaobo Wu, Haojun Zhou and Mingu Kang
This paper represents an empirical study of how geographic proximity influences the search advantage and the transfer problem of interfirm networks.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper represents an empirical study of how geographic proximity influences the search advantage and the transfer problem of interfirm networks.
Design/methodology/approach
By using the data collected from 226 Chinese manufacturing firms, this study examines the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The authors’ findings suggest that (1) geographic proximity is an important antecedent for promoting knowledge transfer, whereas it lowers the degree of knowledge novelty; and (2) geographic proximity also moderates the effects of interfirm networks on knowledge novelty and knowledge transfer.
Originality/value
This study contributes the literature of interfirm network and provides practical implications by addressing the ways in which manufacturing firms can promote knowledge transfer and acquire novel knowledge.
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Tony Gear, Hong Shi, Barry J. Davies and Nagah Abdlelaziz Fets
The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze relationships between contextual factors, and micro-cognitive, emotional and relational factors, influencing the strategic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze relationships between contextual factors, and micro-cognitive, emotional and relational factors, influencing the strategic decision-making process.
Design/methodology/approach
The relative roles of “rationality,” “intuition” and “political behavior” in five recent and critical strategic decisions have been explored using 16 semi-structured interviews with senior decision-makers in three Middle Eastern Arabic commercial banks.
Findings
Context specific macro-factors were found to influence the emotional state of strategists, leading them to adopt a rational approach, rather than use intuitive judgment, to making all five decisions.
Research limitations/implications
The study was limited to one contextual situation and business sector in order to maintain these variables relatively constant, with proposals for extending studies to other business situations and contexts.
Practical implications
The paper provides evidence for the impact of micro emotional and relational factors on decision-making practice, which should lead to increased recognition for strategists, and organizations, of the importance of these influences on strategic decision practice.
Social implications
A social implication is that organizations should build a level of awareness of the impact of the mood of strategists who are involved with strategic decisions, perhaps through appropriately designed social processes of organizational learning.
Originality/value
The paper examines the little-researched influence of the mood of strategists on the nature of decision-making process, and demonstrates the importance of including emotional factors in future studies. An explanatory framework is developed which is consistent with an interpretation that places the emotional state (mood) of “concerned attention” which existed within the senior management groups as the dominant factor driving the nature of process. A generalized research framework is proposed to aid future studies of strategic processes.
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René Abel, Suleika Bort, Indre Maurer, Clarissa E. Weber and Hendrik Wilhelm
Portfolios of temporary organisations, particularly portfolios of R&D projects with different project partners, are a common yet understudied phenomenon. We know that these…
Abstract
Portfolios of temporary organisations, particularly portfolios of R&D projects with different project partners, are a common yet understudied phenomenon. We know that these portfolios suffer from tensions inherent in project portfolio ambidexterity (e.g. portfolios balancing R&D projects with new and recurrent partners), yet our understanding of what might lessen these tensions remains limited. This study introduces the idea of project portfolio maturity and theorises how it can mitigate the negative effects of ambidextrous project portfolios. We test our hypotheses by combining proprietary survey and archival data on 136 R&D project portfolios in the German biotechnology industry covering project partnerships with both new and recurrent partners. Our results show that ambidextrous project portfolios hamper firm performance and that portfolio maturity mitigates these negative effects. By introducing a new perspective on project portfolios that accounts for overlooked temporal dimensions, this study provides a new contingency that has the potential to ease the tensions that result from projects with new and recurrent partners. We thereby add to the literatures on temporary organising, project portfolios, and ambidexterity.
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This paper aims to present a comprehensive view of the assets recognition criteria by providing a coherent set of pre-measurement themes that should be taken into consideration to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present a comprehensive view of the assets recognition criteria by providing a coherent set of pre-measurement themes that should be taken into consideration to be a candidate asset.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a conceptual review paper.
Findings
This synthesis review results in seven themes; the social constructionist nature of the conceptual framework (CF), the nature of assets, the changing nature of asset recognition, asset measurement bases, entity-specific vs market-specific recognition, the economic resource comprising “rights”, and finally, the role of “separability” in asset recognition.
Originality/value
With the increasing importance of internally created assets and their implications on the financial position of the business entity, and with coinciding of revisiting the CF for financial reporting (at the time of writing this paper), this paper shows a synthesis and comprehensive themes of asset-based recognition criteria for tangible and intangibles assets.
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Mary L. Walshok and Josh D. Shapiro
Since the 1980s, US universities have greatly increased attention given to innovation and entrepreneurship out of a genuine commitment to enhancing American competitiveness…
Abstract
Since the 1980s, US universities have greatly increased attention given to innovation and entrepreneurship out of a genuine commitment to enhancing American competitiveness. Although regional innovation and entrepreneurship can be enhanced by universities in multiple ways, the primary metrics of “success” remain patenting, licensing rates, and university spin-outs. While these metrics can be a useful proxy for the entrepreneurial university they tend to understate the many important contributions universities, including non-research intensive universities, make to their regional economies. In this chapter, we introduce a framework of capabilities that are essential to nurturing ecosystems of innovation and entrepreneurship at the regional level. We then describe the varied ways in which universities can support the development of these capabilities. Finally, we provide a framework of metrics, which can more comprehensively capture the value that universities represent to innovation and entrepreneurship in their regions.