José Pinheiro, Graça Miranda Silva, Álvaro Lopes Dias, Luis Filipe Lages and Miguel Torres Preto
The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of manufacturing flexibility in the relationship between knowledge creation, technological turbulence and performance…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of manufacturing flexibility in the relationship between knowledge creation, technological turbulence and performance. In an increasingly competitive and changing environment, firms need to boost their technological and management know-how to adequately develop manufacturing flexibility.
Design/methodology/approach
This study analyzes survey data collected from 370 manufacturing firms. Validity and reliability analyses were conducted using SPSS and Amos. The research hypotheses were tested using covariance-based structural equation modelling.
Findings
The main findings show that knowledge creation positively and significantly affects business and operational performances directly, and indirectly, through manufacturing flexibility. Moreover, technological turbulence has a positive and significant effect on it. This finding contributes to understanding why some firms get better outcomes from manufacturing flexibility than others, a disputed issue in the literature.
Practical implications
This study highlights the need for manufacturing firms to foster cultures of knowledge creation, to better educate and train employees and to develop other instruments of knowledge creation.
Originality/value
This study makes several contributions to manufacturing flexibility literature: (1) establishing a link between technological turbulence and knowledge creation to develop manufacturing flexibility; (2) add empirical evidence on the relation between manufacturing flexibility and performance and (3) contributes to consolidating the mediation role of manufacturing flexibility in the relations between knowledge creation and business performance, as studies focussing on such a role are scarce in the literature.
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Bruno F. Abrantes, Miguel Torres Preto and Nelson Antonio
Dynamic capabilities yield positive effects to firm-specific advantage formation. Paradoxically, the body of literature on capability diffusion is scarce. The purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
Dynamic capabilities yield positive effects to firm-specific advantage formation. Paradoxically, the body of literature on capability diffusion is scarce. The purpose of this study is to focus, thus, on this dearth of literature with an emphasis on exploring the transferability function.
Design/methodology/approach
An integrative review of literature on the dynamic capabilities view covers the organizational context determining capability sharing, supported by strategic communication and business networking theories for the fashioning of global capabilities’ administration model (GCAM).
Findings
Individual motivations and formal modelling of capabilities’ transference have been overlooked in previous research. Largely with a top-down orientation, the current paradigm of their diffusion is profoundly shaped by the organizational structure and its global governance practices.
Research limitations/implications
The GCAM’s architecture, based on transnational administration and hybrid transferability, opens horizons for multinational companies to develop their own capability management systems and is at the same time a new scholarly avenue in the field.
Originality/value
This study explores an untapped research gap and the formal modelling of a GCAM, while reconciling some of the weaknesses of academic research and industry practices.
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Bruno Fernandes Abrantes, Miguel Torres Preto and Nelson António
This paper aims to explore the characteristics of capability exchange within internationalizing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of the Portuguese metallurgic and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the characteristics of capability exchange within internationalizing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of the Portuguese metallurgic and metal-mechanic sectors.
Design/methodology/approach
Multiple case research instrumentalizes a (manifest) content analysis based upon qualitative data gathered from the interviewing of the strategic apex of four multinational enterprises, codified in the light of the well-known Weber protocol.
Findings
The results uncover the existence of a multi-diffusional approach with a bi-directional regime of transferability, where reciprocal transference is non-simultaneous. Operational rigidities are asserted to be stifling the diffusion of capabilities across subsidiaries and hindering higher economies of learning.
Research limitations/implications
The current paradigm of international capabilization of the sector requires substantial enhancements in its design for the benefit of the firm’s international competitiveness, growth and wealth.
Originality/value
Organizational capabilities are a determinant of competitiveness. Hitherto, the phenomena of (capabilities) mobility and transferability are still acknowledged as a clear gap. This study opens, therefore, avenues on international capabilization in relation to the modeling and testing of global dynamic capabilities and its replicability across industries.
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José Pinheiro, Luis Filipe Lages, Graça Miranda Silva, Alvaro Lopes Dias and Miguel T. Preto
Shifting demand and ever-shorter production cycles pressure manufacturing flexibility. Although the literature has established the positive effect of the firm's absorptive…
Abstract
Purpose
Shifting demand and ever-shorter production cycles pressure manufacturing flexibility. Although the literature has established the positive effect of the firm's absorptive capacity on manufacturing flexibility, the separate role of the innovation competencies of exploitation and exploration in such a relationship is still under-investigated. In this study, the authors examine how these competencies affect manufacturing flexibility.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use survey data from 370 manufacturing firms and analyze them using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB–SEM).
Findings
The results indicate that absorptive capacity has a strong, positive and direct effect on exploitative and exploratory innovation competencies, proactive and responsive market orientations, and manufacturing flexibility. The authors’ findings also demonstrate that the exploitative innovation competencies mediate the relation between responsive market orientation and manufacturing flexibility. Essentially, these exploitative innovation competencies produce a direct positive effect on manufacturing flexibility while simultaneously being a vehicle for absorptive capacity's indirect effects on it. An exploration innovation strategy does not significantly affect manufacturing flexibility.
Originality/value
This study contributes by combining key strategic features of firms with manufacturing flexibility, while providing new empirical evidence of the mediation of the exploitative innovation competencies in the relation between responsive market orientation and manufacturing flexibility.
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Jorge Cunha, Carla Ferreira, Madalena Araújo and Manuel Lopes Nunes
This paper aims to investigate the relationship between creativity, entrepreneurial intention and social innovation tendency within academic community members (namely, students…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the relationship between creativity, entrepreneurial intention and social innovation tendency within academic community members (namely, students and professors/researchers).
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire was administered to nearly 300 students and professors/researchers in Portuguese higher education institutions, whereupon a mediation analysis was performed to understand the aforementioned relationship.
Findings
The results indicate a positive relationship between individual creativity, entrepreneurial intention and social innovation tendency and that entrepreneurial intention mediates the relationship between creativity and social innovation tendency.
Research limitations/implications
Firstly, the results obtained to fit the specific characteristics of the sample used, suggesting that it would be risky to extrapolate to other contexts. Secondly, although the constructs used to measure variable creativity are based on the extant literature, these may be open to debate and possibly, therefore, alternative measures could have been used.
Practical implications
The findings of the paper have important practical implications within the university context, namely: that study programmes should be designed to address the entrepreneurial potential of their students, teaching and research staff; that social entrepreneurship, volunteering activities and the development of creativity skills should be stimulated; and, finally, that social innovation should be at the core of a university’s mission.
Originality/value
To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first time that the relationship between creativity, entrepreneurial intention and social innovation tendency has been empirically tested. To do this, a conceptual framework is proposed which suggests that individual creativity can be perceived by means of three interconnected constructs (the self, family and university creativity), which, in turn, predict entrepreneurial intention and social innovation tendency.