Laure Ambroise, Céline Bérard and Isabelle Prim-Allaz
This paper aims to explore the complex relationships between knowledge strategies (i.e. exploration and exploitation) and the performance of manufacturing SMEs by testing the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the complex relationships between knowledge strategies (i.e. exploration and exploitation) and the performance of manufacturing SMEs by testing the mediating role of customer relationship management capabilities, which are defined as a firm’s level of interaction orientation in this study.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a hypothetical deductive approach and using data collected from 793 French manufacturing SMEs, the measurement model and relationships among the constructs were examined with structural equation modelling, using the partial least squares approach.
Findings
The results support the expected mediating role of interaction orientation between exploitation and performance, and stress a competitive mediating role between exploration and performance. Complementary analyses demonstrate that while both exploration and exploitation are effectively antecedents of interaction orientation, which also acts as a lever to performance, they exhibit specific effects on the different dimensions of interaction orientation.
Originality/value
The results specifically highlight that interaction orientation counterbalances the negative impact of exploration on performance. Moreover, the findings underline the key role that customer interaction processes and tools play in making exploration and exploitation singularly effective. This is a real issue, as SMEs broadly tend to adopt opportunistic tools, not necessarily as part of a clearly defined strategic focus.
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Celine Berard and Marc Fréchet
Scholars have recognized that formal hierarchical structures and slack resources are at the core of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) attainment of ambidexterity…
Abstract
Purpose
Scholars have recognized that formal hierarchical structures and slack resources are at the core of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) attainment of ambidexterity. Surprisingly, few studies on SMEs have analyzed the extent to which these structural and resource attributes are associated with exploration and exploitation. This study aims to examine how two structural attributes, formalization and structural empowerment, and two resource attributes, financial slack and human resource slack, affect exploration and exploitation in SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered from a survey administered to the chief executive officers of 522 French SMEs. The research hypotheses were then tested using seemingly unrelated regressions to investigate the contrasts between the two components of ambidexterity.
Findings
The results show that structural empowerment and financial slack may be conducive to exploration and exploitation at the same time. By contrast, formalization and human resource slack impact only one of these two ambidexterity components in significant ways: the former may be a powerful lever for exploitation, while the latter may be a powerful lever for exploration.
Originality/value
Relying on a dual structure–resource perspective, this study allows us to discuss the distinct impacts that several organizational antecedents have on exploration and exploitation in the specific context of SMEs. It thus addresses the recent call to identify which antecedents are integrating and which are differentiating to help firms deal with ambidexterity.
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Céline Bérard and Hélène Delerue
This paper aims to examine the effect of national culture on the capacity of small and medium‐sized biotechnology enterprises to protect their intellectual assets by analysing the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the effect of national culture on the capacity of small and medium‐sized biotechnology enterprises to protect their intellectual assets by analysing the mediator role of environmental scanning behaviour. The extent to which environmental scanning behaviour helps firms to protect their intellectual assets is investigated, and the effects of national cultural values on environmental scanning behaviour are analysed.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypotheses are tested with survey data from 123 biotechnology SMEs located in 14 countries.
Findings
Environmental scanning appears to be an important step in the intellectual property strategy, as it enhances the firm's capacity to protect its intellectual assets. Nevertheless, the results show that firms located in cultures with high uncertainty avoidance, high power distance and low individualism do more scanning, whereas the capacity to protect intellectual assets is perceived as being more important in firms located in cultures with low uncertainty avoidance, low power distance and high individualism.
Research limitations/implications
Certain limitations should be noted. For instance, the research is based on cross‐sectional data, which provide limited insight into the temporal aspects of dynamic environments.
Practical implications
The study has important implications for practitioners. It demonstrates that, in international working relationships, cultural values have a direct effect on environmental scanning behaviour, and hence an indirect effect on intellectual property (IP) protection capability. Given the strategic importance of scanning and IP for innovative firms, the results could help managers to make strategic decisions, specifically in R&D internationalization through decentralization or partnership.
Originality/value
Although few studies have empirically analysed the role of environmental scanning in a particular domain, such as intellectual property strategic management, or adopted a comparative cross‐cultural design to do so, this paper investigates the role of environmental scanning in intellectual property strategy from a cross‐cultural perspective.
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Céline Bérard, L. Martin Cloutier and Luc Cassivi
If the use of information technology (IT) supporting clinical trial projects offers opportunities to optimize the underlying information management process, the intricacy of the…
Abstract
Purpose
If the use of information technology (IT) supporting clinical trial projects offers opportunities to optimize the underlying information management process, the intricacy of the identification and evaluation of relevant IT options is generally seen as a complex task in healthcare. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to examine the problem of ex ante information system evaluation, and assess the impact of IT on the information management process underlying clinical trials.
Design/methodology/approach
Combining Unified Modeling Language (UML) and system dynamics modeling, a simulation model for evaluating IT was developed. This modeling effort relies on a case study conducted in a clinical research organization, which, at that time, faced an IT investment dilemma.
Findings
Some illustrative results of sensitivity analyzes conducted on error rates in clinical data transmission are presented. These simulation results allow for quantifying the impact of different IT options on human resources' efforts, time delays and costs of clinical trials projects. Notably, the results show that although the technology has no real influence on the duration of a clinical trial project, it impacts the number of projects that can be carried out simultaneously.
Originality/value
The research provides insights into the development of an innovative approach appropriate to the evaluation of IT supporting clinical trials, through the use of a mixed‐method based on qualitative and quantitative modeling. The results illustrate two critical issues addressed in the IS literature: the necessity to extend IT evaluation beyond the quantitative‐qualitative dichotomy; and the role of evaluation in organizational learning, and in learning about business dimensions.
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Maïalen Gélizé and Nathalie Darras
The development of organizational collectives is a lever for innovation to meet the major challenges of technological, social and environmental change. The aim of this research is…
Abstract
Purpose
The development of organizational collectives is a lever for innovation to meet the major challenges of technological, social and environmental change. The aim of this research is to characterize the process by which organizational collectives.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a case study of six private healthcare establishments mobilized around an organizational project. A seven-month research-intervention was carried out with six healthcare establishments mobilized around an organizational human resources (HR) project. The transformative aim was to encourage the emergence of an organizational collective by playing a functionalist role in the project methodology while also reflecting on the organizational practices observed. Using an abductive and constructivist approach, the study material revolved around the mental representations of the practitioners involved in this collective, gathered through semi-structured interviews, participant observations and documentary research.
Findings
This research characterizes a process of emergence of a collective of organizations that includes an activation phase consisting of triggering factors contributing to the construction of shared mental representations and a phase of specific structuring of the collective action of the organization collective in the making. These two phases lay the foundations for the organizational collective responsible for managing not only the initial project but also other projects and operations, thus ensuring its longevity.
Research limitations/implications
It is based on a single exploratory case study with a limited sample of members of an organizational collective. In addition, it is specific to the healthcare sector, the HR field and the hierarchical level of the members we worked with. With a view to verifying, consolidating and generalizing knowledge, it would be pertinent to test these results in other empirical contexts.
Practical implications
The direct managerial interest of our study will therefore lie in the recommendations addressed to players wishing to become involved in a collective of organizations. The organizational collective is founded on a durability that goes beyond the temporary framework of the project. It would be interesting to know how to contribute to the durability of this collective from the outset, in particular through the “routinization” of organizational practices generated within the framework of this regulation by management systems. This collective of organizations also generates a value system which, if we refer to the results of our research, goes beyond the objectives of solving the project’s problem. It would also be timely to pursue research into the value creation of a collective of organizations.
Social implications
For a number of years, healthcare policies have been encouraging the development of collective organizations through greater coordination, supply chains, care networks, etc. (Valette, 2019). Nonetheless, we have to acknowledge the scarcity of management science research on the subject in this sector, despite the fact that public policy incentives to reorganize the healthcare system are constantly highlighting them. In concrete terms, since the 2016 Modernization Act, numerous organizational collectives in response to major public health challenges have been deployed, such as professional communities in healthcare territories, “Art 51” pathways, etc. (Observatoire National de la Qualité de vie au travail, 2021).
Originality/value
Despite extensive research into the characteristics and modes of operation of organizational collectives, little is known about their emergence process (Viollet and Dreveton, 2023). Moreover, there is little management science research on organizational collectives in the healthcare sector, even though public policy incentives are constantly encouraging them. Our aim is to fill this gap by answering the question: How does an organizational collective emerge?