Search results

The purpose of this article is to explore the association of the Relational Capital (RC) embedded in a medical specialist’s social–professional network with the specialist’s economic performance based on social network analysis (SNA).

Using health insurance claims data regarding ∼108,000 physicians treating ∼72,000,000 patients, social–professional networks (patient-sharing-networks (PSNs)) of ∼26,000 medical specialists were simulated. To explore the correlation of the network's characteristics (degree centrality, density, relative betweenness centrality and referrer concentration) with economic performance, ordinary-least-squares (OLS)-regression models were estimated for ten common specialties (gynecology, internal medicine, orthopedics, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, dermatology, urology, neurology, radiology and rehabilitative medicine).

The study confirms the applicability and strong explanatory power of SNA metrics for RC measurement in ambulatory healthcare. Degree centrality and relative betweenness centrality correlate positively with economic performance, whereas density and referrer concentration exhibit negative coefficients. These results confirm the argument that RC has a strong association with the economic performance of medical specialists.

The study pioneers SNA for RC measurement in healthcare. It is among the first publications on specialists' PSNs. Questions for future research are proposed.

The purpose of this study is to identify how firms' sustainability performance is affected by external knowledge sources and absorptive capacity, accounting for the influence of being located in a science and technology park (STP).

Drawing on data from the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel, the authors estimate the determinants of sustainability performance using fixed effects multiple linear regression models with robust standard errors. The analysis covers the period 2009–2016, with a total panel of 8,874 companies and a total sample of 47,870 observations.

This study highlights the heterogeneity in on-park firms’ sustainability performance, which can be explained by the different capacities of these firms when it comes to embedding themselves in STP networks and processes and effectively absorbing the knowledge from the many knowledge sources that may be on offer in the park.

This paper contributes to the literature by examining the influence of external sources of knowledge and absorptive capacity, and the relationship between them, on sustainability performance. This study approaches sustainability performance as an aggregate measure of firms’ competitiveness and potential for long-term survival from the triple bottom line perspective. In addition, this study examines the effect that location in an STP can have on business sustainability performance and, more specifically, the mediating effect that knowledge sources and absorptive capacity can exert on this relationship.

Research on Science parks (SPs) has attracted a growing interest in the last decades. This widespread innovation policy initiative pursues technology-based industrial and entrepreneurial growth through business development and technology transfer across new and mature firms. Despite the common agreement on SPs' potential benefits, literature have showed mixed results regarding the performance of SPs. To explain this findings, current research pointed out at the lack of a common guiding framework. To cover this knowledge gap, this manuscript proposes an integrative definition and research model together with a multidimensional measurement instrument suitable to encompass the diverse reality of this global phenomenon.

Based on a systematic literature review of 281 indexed journal articles published between 1990 and 2018, the paper provides an integrative framework of enabling factors of SPs' performance.

The results illustrate an integrative conceptual framework of SPs that allows further comparison and generalization of research. At the same time, this manuscript provides valuable insights for managers and entrepreneurs as it conveys a standardized view of SPs' internal context useful for benchmarking.

Grounded in the resource-based view (RBV), the paper conducts a thorough literature review to develop an integrative research model featuring three value streams: physical infrastructures, formal links and support services. In addition, a multidimensional measurement tool to operationalize these three dimensions is proposed.

This paper aims to uncover the combinations of knowledge sharing mechanisms that organizations in a science and technology park in Brazil use to share managerial and technical knowledge.

This research adopts a qualitative approach that uses a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to analyze data that are gathered from 51 managers of organizations in a science and technology park.

The results show that knowledge sharing happens regardless of the type of knowledge. There are more alternative paths that lead to knowledge sharing than to its absence. Regarding the type of knowledge shared, there are more alternative configurations that lead to managerial knowledge sharing than to technical knowledge sharing. Only the older organizations in the science and technology park abstain from knowledge sharing.

Due to the qualitative nature of the study, no generalization is possible. Additionally, the study’s limitation is that it involves organizations from a single science and technology park.

The results offer managers of organizations in science and technology parks to choose from alternative combinations of mechanisms to either boost their knowledge sharing or to promote knowledge protection.

The paper provides an original contribution by identifying the combinations of mechanisms that organizations in a science and technology park use that leads to the sharing of specific knowledge types. The findings also identify the combination of mechanisms that older organizations use that prevents them from sharing knowledge.

The purpose of this study is to explore and conducts a critical literature review to answer a fundamental question in the industrial district literature: are clusters and industrial (clusters/IDs) driving sustainability innovation? By intersecting different yet related strands of literature, the authors take stock of what the authors know about sustainability innovation in clusters/IDs.

This paper reviews the literature for conceptualizing sustainability innovation in clusters/districts.

Insights point out that the sustainability innovation process (development and diffusion) in clusters/IDs and their firms couples into mainstream cluster/IDs framework; clusters/IDs enable sustainability innovation through usual mechanisms, fostering collective change toward sustainability innovation, vis-à-vis other settings and strengthening firm sustainability innovation and performance. Sustainability innovation in clusters/IDs requires coupling different multi-scalar institutional systems effectively, and the cooperation of local organizations and policymakers for co-designing dedicated policies. Collective actions are important and firm heterogeneity needs to be considered in the clusters/IDs framework.

This study is original because it provides state-of-the-art on sustainability innovation in clusters/districts, enabling the topic to advance in this direction.

The phenomenon of intellectual capital in the firm has been deeply researched and immensely debated in the management literature in recent years. After three decades of evolution, it has become established as a mature field of research. At this point, a review of its theoretical foundations and current and future evolution provides us with the state of the art of intellectual capital in the firm. The purpose of this paper is to present a quantitative review of the existing literature on intellectual capital in the firm.

In this paper, the authors present a quantitative review of the existing literature on intellectual capital in the firm. To do so, the authors searched the JCR-SSCI database from 1990 to 2016 and identified 553 citing documents; these were split into three main periods in order to identify the interactions and path dependencies existing between different foundations of research. In addition, areas of current and future research connected with the theoretical foundations were identified. For these purposes, the authors used both co-citation analyses as well as bibliographical coupling.

In this paper, three main stages of IC evolution have been identified with the main topics and research frames, as well as their path dependencies. Additionally, four main areas of current and future development of IC have been identified: IC measurement, IC in new business models, IC disclosure, and its role in social capital and human resource practices.

The present bibliometric study is a quantitative review of papers published in the Web of Science database.

By its dimensions ‒ broad academic disciplines and longitudinal character ‒ this bibliometric study constitutes a new quantitative review of the IC discipline, both drawing its intellectual evolution in the last decades, and showing current and future research trends in IC and the firm.

Delivering premium services and quality products are critical strategies for success in manufacturing. Continuous improvement (CI), as an underlying foundation for quality management, is an ongoing effort allowing manufacturing companies to see beyond the present to create a bright future. We propose a novel integrated fuzzy framework for analyzing the barriers to the implementation of CI in manufacturing companies.

We use the fuzzy failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) and a fuzzy Shannon's entropy to identify and weigh the most significant barriers. We then use fuzzy multi-objective optimization based on ratio analysis (MOORA), the fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and fuzzy simple additive weighting (SAW) methods for prioritizing and ranking the barriers with each method. Finally, we aggregate these results with Copeland's method and extract the main CI implementation barriers in manufacturing.

We show “low cooperation and integration of the team in CI activities” is the most important barrier in CI implementation. Other important barriers are “limited management support in CI activities,” “low employee involvement in CI activities,” “weak communication system in the organization,” and “lack of knowledge in the organization to implement CI projects.”

We initially identify the barriers to the implementation of CI through rigorous literature review and then apply a unique integrated fuzzy approach to identify the most important barriers based on the opinions of industry experts and academics.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the benefits to firms arising from their geographical concentration; paying particular attention to the impact of specialized employees, information and knowledge spillovers and a collective reputation.

The authors have taken into account two main approaches: a cluster one, where location may increase firms’ competitiveness; and the resource-based view, where internal resources are the key for firms’ success. Empirical evidence has been gathered from the Ham cluster in Spain combining secondary and primary data. The authors undertook a Tobit regression model since the dependent variable is limited.

The authors observe that firms with human resources tend to benefit more from cluster externalities. On contrary, R&D and advertising investments induce firms to isolate themselves from crowded areas and prevent any local leakage.

It would be interesting to better understand the role that human resources play; undertake a longitudinal analysis; and take into account the resources of other proximate firms.

Local advantages depends the maturity of the industry by reducing the attractiveness of cluster locations through greater competition in the input and final markets; while internal resources may improve a firm's ability to absorb these externalities, they may also create leakage that benefits neighbouring firms.

It combines two approaches evaluating the moderating influence of internal resources on local externalities. It also offers new empirical evidence from a low-tech industry.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the process of entrepreneurial growth from the perspective of the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and transaction cost theory (TCT) and to formulate propositions regarding the entrepreneurs’ decisional rules and structural elements in this process.

The argumentation draws upon three fields of academic research, namely, entrepreneurship studies on firm growth as well as strategic management and organization science studies on company scope and size (boundary). A systematic review of the literature was performed that combines the RBV and TCT to explain a firm’s boundary.

Three levels of entrepreneurial decisional rules in the process of growth were identified. The first level includes main decisional criteria. The second level approaches the structural elements of growth process, namely, its motives, rationale, mechanism and modes. The third level assumes evolutionary approach to decision making, namely, feedback relationships among transaction costs, governance and capabilities to create value from growth.

The paper broadens the early stream of research in the process of entrepreneurial growth. It contributes to explaining the way growth is realized, instead of identifying its predictors, which has dominated in to-date studies. The entrepreneurs’ decisional rules and choices in the process of expansion were suggested. Moreover, the integrated RBV-TCT approach was proposed as a theoretical background for studying this phenomenon.