Researchers have used the absorptive capacity construct to explain various organizational phenomena. In this article we review the literature to identify key dimensions of absorptive capacity and offer a reconceptualization of this construct. Building upon the dynamic capabilities view of the firm, we distinguish between a firm's potential and realized capacity. We then advance a model outlining the conditions when the firm's potential and realized capacities can differentially influence the creation and sustenance of its competitive advantage.

https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5629&context=lkcsb_research

Absorptive Capacity: A Review, Reconceptualization, and Extension

How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

The Social Psychology of Organizations.

The paper is concerned with spatial clustering of economic activity and its relation to the spatiality of knowledge creation in interactive learning processes. It questions the view that tacit knowledge transfer is confined to local milieus whereas codified knowledge may roam the globe almost frictionlessly. The paper highlights the conditions under which both tacit and codified knowledge can be exchanged locally and globally. A distinction is made between, on the one hand, the learning processes taking place among actors embedded in a community by just being there dubbed buzz and, on the other, the knowledge attained by investing in building channels of communication called pipelines to selected providers located outside the local milieu. It is argued that the co-existence of high levels of buzz and many pipelines may provide firms located in outward-looking and lively clusters with a string of particular advantages not available to outsiders. Finally, some policy implications, stemming from this argumen...

/pdf/clusters-and-knowledge-local-buzz-global-pipelines-and-the-29bsuyvekg.pdf

Clusters and knowledge: local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation

How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

The knowledge-creating company

In the last decade, the issue of competitiveness has captured an important position on the agenda of politicians and policymakers. The growing strength of Asian firms on the world market has been debated at some length in both the USA and in Europe. In the USA the focus of the debate was on the trade deficit and the weak performance of American firms compared to their Japanese competitors. In the European countries competitiveness became a buzzword in the discussions about rising unemployment. An increase in competitiveness was not only seen as a remedy against the lay-offs in mature industries but was believed to spur growth rates in new hightech sectors as well.

/pdf/porter-on-national-and-regional-competitive-advantage-1g71zc9dlb.pdf

Porter on national and regional competitive advantage

textIntroduction. Research and Development (R&D) is one of the most important business
activities of the next decade (Porter, 1990). Commercialization of technological
know how is essential for survival of firms (Teece, 1987). Organizational forms
of R&D are one of the main competitive advantages of firms. The importance
of cooperative agreements and networks as an alternative for in-house R&D
is increasing (E.C., 1991; OTA, 1990). Collaborative agreements are of strategic
importance for a firm (Hakansson, 1990). The number of international
cooperative agreements has increased. For example, more than 30% of
cooperative agreements in biotechnology are between companies from different
parts of the world (Hagedoorn & Schakenraad, 1990)....

/pdf/make-buy-or-cooperate-decisions-with-respect-to-research-and-2hui2uri82.pdf

Make, buy or cooperate decisions with respect to research and development in international business networks

Recente corporate governance initiatieven, zoals de ‘Sarbanes-Oxley Act’ en corporate governance codes, hebben voornamelijk de onafhankelijkheid en de controle-rol van commissarissen benadrukt. De aandacht voor de implicaties hiervan voor de service-rol van commissarissen is echter beperkt. Deze implicaties staan centraal in dit artikel. De analyse van longitudinale data van de top-100 beursgenoteerde ondernemingen in Nederland toont dat de service-rol inderdaad is veranderd als gevolg van twee corporate governance codes. De nadruk lijkt te zijn verschoven van de externe service-rol naar de interne service-rol, dat wil zeggen van waardecreatie door het commissarissennetwerk naar waardecreatie door het adviseren en begeleiden van bestuursleden door commissarissen. Deze ontwikkeling heeft belangrijke consequenties voor zowel ondernemingen als commissarissen.

https://mab-online.nl/article/21862/download/pdf/

Veranderingen in de service-rol van commissarissen in Nederland

textInleiding. Bij besluitvorming over strategische investeringsprojecten
kan het voortbestaan van de
betrokken onderneming in het geding zijn. Dan is
het van groot belang om naast de te verwachten
rentabiliteit van de investeringsprojecten, tevens
aandacht te schenken aan de belangen van betrokkenen
binnen en buiten de onderneming. Investeringsprojecten
worden van oudsher beoordeeld
vanuit een financieel-economisch perspectief op
basis van rationele selectiecriteria met betrekking
tot de investeringsbeslissing. In de jaren zeventig
is met name door Bowers (1970) studie 'Managing
the Resource Allocation Process' aan dit
financieel-economisch perspectief een management
perspectief toegevoegd. Bower bracht
daarmee het belang van het betrekken van het
interne besluitvormingsproces bij investeringsbeslissingen
in beeld. In de jaren tachtig en negentig
zijn de dynamiek en complexiteit van de interacties
tussen onderneming en omgeving verder
toegenomen. Het management van deze interactie
of 'interfaces' heeft de invloed van en de aandacht
voorexterne stakeholders ook met betrekking tot
strategische investeringsbeslissingen verder doen
toenemen.

/pdf/stakeholder-management-bij-besluitvorming-over-strategische-4smt0tuioq.pdf

Stakeholder management bij besluitvorming over strategische investeringsprojecten

Authorities of leading ports face two interrelated strategic challenges. The first is to contribute to the international competitive position of the port. This competitive position is usually indicated by a port’s market share with respect to its captive region in terms of volumes of containers and/or bulk goods handled. The second challenge, which is the focus of this chapter, is to contribute to the international competitive position of the region or country where the port is situated. This is particularly important for port authorities that are public organisations or, when corporatised, whose shares are (partly) held by a local, regional and/or national government. These port authorities are expected to improve the possibilities of organisations situated within and outside the port area to benefit, from an internationally competitive stance, from the port.

/pdf/how-ports-create-strategic-value-for-their-country-2wpe8jwh1x.pdf

Frans van den Bosch

Papers

Porter on national and regional competitive advantage

Make, buy or cooperate decisions with respect to research and development in international business networks

Veranderingen in de service-rol van commissarissen in Nederland

Stakeholder management bij besluitvorming over strategische investeringsprojecten

How ports create strategic value for their country