Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

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 article is intended as a contribution to the ongoing conceptual development of corporate sustainability. At the business level sustainability is often equated with eco-efficiency. However, such a reduction misses several important criteria that firms have to satisfy if they want to become truly sustainable.

This article discusses how the concept of sustainable development has evolved over the past three decades and particularly how it can be applied to the business level. It then goes on to describe the three types of capital relevant within the concept of corporate sustainability: economic, natural and social capital.

From this basis we shall then develop the six criteria managers aiming for corporate sustainability will have to satisfy: eco-efficiency, socio-efficiency, eco-effectiveness, socio-effectiveness, sufficiency and ecological equity. The article ends with a brief outlook towards future research. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment

Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability

This paper details an empirical pilot study that explores the development of several conceptual measures and models regarding intellectual capital and its impact on business performance. The objective of this pilot study is to explore the development of items and constructs through principal components analysis and partial least squares (PLS). The final retained, subjective measures and optimal structural specification show a valid, reliable, significant and substantive causal link between dimensions of intellectual capital and business performance. These results should help both academics and practitioners more readily understand the components of intellectual capital and provide insight into developing and increasing it within an organization. Suggestions are then made to advance and improve this research programme.

Intellectual capital: an exploratory study that develops measures and models

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

The purpose of this paper is to review the research into the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and business performance The paper examines the change of the HR function into HRM taking on its current strategic role Recent work on the links between HRM and business performance is reviewed highlighting the conclusion that while the links are not disputed by researchers using a variety of approaches, the ability to characterize definitive causal links has proved almost impossible The techniques and resource‐based approach of intellectual capital (IC) may provide the key to quantifying the links but again, work to date has proved that it may not be possible to clearly separate HRM from other management actions to quantify the effects of HRM A solution based on the IC approach involving rigorous measurement is suggested

Human resource management and business performance measurement

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide explicit thinking about the organizational elements that support or hinder innovation in the government sector as it increasingly faces demand for innovative solutions to policy areas. The paper aims to present the development and findings of an evaluative case method conducted for an Australian state government department's organizational innovation program.Design/methodology/approach – The evaluative case study was developed and conducted in two phases. First, an intellectual capital conceptual framework was applied to four independently sourced and discreet case organizations to represent multiple exemplars of innovation capacity building. These exemplars were suspended from their context in order to identify essential elements of the innovation capacity development process which in turn were then applied in phase two to the Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF), a Victorian (Australia) public policy organization.Findings – The case raises critical d...

Evaluating an Australian public policy organization's innovation capacity

Purpose




The purpose of this paper is to tie together the insights from the body of research relating to economic complexity theory, structural holes, non-price based competition, and knowledge management. The insights relating to generating national prosperity are synthesised through an intellectual capital lens.




Design/methodology/approach




The paper uses literature review combined with insights from an Australian project on state-based economic complexity.




Findings




The connectivist and autopoietic epistemological paradigms are found to be most aligned with the need to manage transformation between organisational and human resources that will achieve causal ambiguity and hence inimitability. This inimitability forms the basis for achieving non-price based competition and if there is a rich network of economic agents that, both individually and collectively through collaboration, have these characteristics a large share of the economy can operate on the basis of non-priced based competition. If all these agents have an export focus the economic complexity of the economy will be high, and likely increasing, which will enable both the creation and the appropriation of large amounts of value and hence result in increasing national prosperity.




Research limitations/implications




Findings are only relevant for OECD countries given the origins of the data used.




Practical implications




Managerial implications are outlined as are major implications for public policy.




Originality/value




This is the first time that these concepts are linked.

Knowledge management, intellectual capital, structural holes, economic complexity and national prosperity

Purpose



– The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the ICS intellectual capital methodology was developed starting from the underpinning academic theory.




Design/methodology/approach



– The approach is founded upon a number of theoretical strands. The basic intellectual capital approach is based on a development of the resource based theory of the firm. Most intellectual capital approaches have problems with meaningful measurement. ICS addresses the valuation of intellectual capital resources by using axiology and multi‐attribute value theory to produce a valuation framework and measurement theory to ensure that the results are reliable.




Findings



– The ICS intellectual capital approach generates navigators (maps) of how resources are used in companies which have proven to be very useful. It has also demonstrated the value of deeper analysis of the intellectual capital resources. The measurement part, which is often used independently (known as the Conjoint Value Hierarchy (CVH), is shown as a powerful aid to decision making as well as to more straightforward valuation.




Research limitations/implications



– The limitations are that the navigator and its associated analyses are non‐rigorous while the CVH is rigorous, transparent and auditable. This mismatch can lead to problem and the challenge is to integrate them.




Originality/value



– While parts have been reported previously, this paper is the first integrated review of ICS’ methodology.

Intellectual capital: Management approach in ICS Ltd

Bringing together some of the world’s leading thinkers, academics and professionals to provide practitioners, students and academicians with comprehensive insights into implementing effective service innovation. This book presents service innovation holistically and systemically across various service areas, including health, education, tourism, hospitality, telecommunications, and retail. It addresses contemporary issues through conceptual and applied contributions across industry, academia, and government, providing insights for improved practice and policy making. Featuring cutting-edge research contributions, practical examples, implementations and a select number of case studies across several growth service industries, this book also includes examples of failed service innovation attempts in order to demonstrate a balanced view of the topic and to make clear the pitfalls to be avoided. Culminating in a suggested step-by-step guide to enable service organization’s managers to understand and implement the concepts of service innovation and manage its evolutionary processes effectively, this book will prove a valuable resource to a wide reaching audience including researchers, practitioners, managers, and students who aspire to create a deeper scientific foundation for service design and engineering, service experience and marketing, and service management and innovation. Includes endorsements from professionals in the field of service innovation.

Göran Roos

Papers

Human resource management and business performance measurement

Evaluating an Australian public policy organization's innovation capacity

Knowledge management, intellectual capital, structural holes, economic complexity and national prosperity

Intellectual capital: Management approach in ICS Ltd

The Handbook of Service Innovation