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

Unstable market conditions caused by innovation and increasing intensity and diversity of competition have resulted in organizational capabilities rather than served markets becoming the primary basis upon which firms establish their long-term strategies. If the strategically most important resource of the firm is knowledge, and if knowledge resides in specialized form among individual organizational members, then the essence of organizational capability is the integration of individuals' specialized knowledge. This paper develops a knowledge-based theory of organizational capability and draws upon research into competitive dynamics, the resource-based view of the firm, organizational capabilities, and organizational learning. Central to the theory is analysis of the mechanisms through which knowledge is integrated within firms in order to create capability. The theory is used to explore firms' potential for establishing competitive advantage in dynamic market settings, including the role of firm networks...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2635098.pdf

Prospering in Dynamically-Competitive Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration

A role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders proposes that perceived incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles leads to 2 forms of prejudice: (a) perceiving women less favorably than men as potential occupants of leadership roles and (b) evaluating behavior that fulfills the prescriptions of a leader role less favorably when it is enacted by a woman. One consequence is that attitudes are less positive toward female than male leaders and potential leaders. Other consequences are that it is more difficult for women to become leaders and to achieve success in leadership roles. Evidence from varied research paradigms substantiates that these consequences occur, especially in situations that heighten perceptions of incongruity between the female gender role and leadership roles.

/pdf/role-congruity-theory-of-prejudice-toward-female-leaders-4ldbwpzzgm.pdf

Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders.

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

Fundamental changes in the competitive landscape triggered many firms to leverage and build competencies by focusing on transition processes towards internal network forms of organizing. These forms ameliorate exploration through knowledge creation and transfer. Internal networks are characterized by horizontal knowledge flows that supplement and supplant the vertical knowledge flows that characterize other organization forms like the functional and multi-divisional forms. As these horizontal knowledge flows facilitate knowledge integration, internal networks have an advantage over other organization forms in leveraging and building competencies. One characteristic that makes these horizontal knowledge flows work is the reciprocity ensuing them. Reciprocity relates to the interdependence and coordination modes that characterize internal networks. As reciprocity is influenced by managerial coordination, by the intention to deploy knowledge, and by goal attainment, creating and maintaining reciprocity of knowledge flows can be considered as a managerial competence. In this paper, the attributes of organization form that impact the reciprocity in a firm are explored from structural, managerial and knowledge perspectives. Hypotheses are developed which suggest that specialization and the use of formal meetings restrict reciprocity, whereas job rotation, the number of employees with a coordination function, and teams have a positive effect on the level of reciprocity. These hypotheses are tested by means of a questionnaire administered in a business unit of a multinational financial services firm. Reciprocity of knowledge flows was found to be dependent on the characteristics mentioned above in a predicted way. Since none of the hypotheses needed to be rejected, the evidence suggests that reciprocity is a fundamental feature of internal networks and the horizontal knowledge flows that characterize them. This suggests reciprocity to be an important managerial competence.

Reciprocity of Knowledge Flows in Internal Network Forms of Organizing

It is axiomatic that strategic flexibility is a key success factor in generating competitive advantage. Despite this maxim, often peddled in the normative literature, empirical studies have produced inconsistent results for the strength and direction of this relationship. We synthesize these results and provide empirical support for a general, moderate, and positive effect of strategic flexibility on firm performance. Moreover, we find that strategic flexibility indirectly affects financial performance through its positive effects on innovation capability and superior market position, and that strategic flexibility has a negative direct effect on financial performance. Importantly, the meta-analytic evidence also indicates that the strategic flexibility-performance relationship depends on measurement methods, the research context, and certain environmental characteristics. Exploratory analyses regarding the antecedents of strategic flexibility reveal many meaningful differences to the predominant expectations in prior research. Overall, our results provide the necessary nuance to discerning the specific antecedent and consequential effects of strategic flexibility, thereby providing valuable implications for managers, and outlining a research agenda for future inquiries.

A Meta Analysis of the Antecedents and Consequences of Strategic Flexibility

This article addresses the question of how firms should renew to cope with changing competitive environments. In their struggle for control, firms have to continuously identify and develop new advantages. This dynamic process requires new organizational forms that are able to explore new opportunities effectively as well as exploit those opportunities efficiently. How can firms reconcile these conflicting forces? On the basis of dynamic theories in strategic management, we develop a strategic framework that relates competitive environments, type of managerial capabilities and organizational conditions. The strategic framework helps to generate a rich typology of organizational forms, consisting of the rigid, planned, flexible, and the chaotic mode. From this typology, we derive several successful renewal trajectories through which large companies can mould themselves into flexible forms that balance corporate discipline with entrepreneurial creativity. Moreover, we discuss the managerial and theoretical implications of our framework and typology for the design of the multiunitfirm of the future: the network, the dual, the oscillating, and the balanced corporation. These superior new forms and underlying strategy of permanent renewal may open up new sources of competitive advantage.

Mastering strategic renewal : Mobilizing change in large multiunit firms

1 Inleiding In een businessmodel komen verschillende keuzes van een onderneming samen (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2009). Het businessmodel bestaat uit een aantal delen: de segmentatiegraad, de voornaamste klantrelaties en het distributiekanaal, de belangrijkste kernactiviteiten en hulpbronnen en de typering van de kostenen opbrengstenstructuur1. Een bekende indeling van businessmodellen in het mkb-accountancy maakt onderscheid tussen specialisten, dienstenhuizen en digicountants2. De specialist is gespecialiseerd in één of enkele diensten of bedient een specifieke niche. Het dienstenhuis combineert standaarddiensten met advies op maat. De digicountant biedt een klein aantal gedigitaliseerde standaarddiensten aan. Veel organisaties, ook mkb-accountantskantoren, zijn voortdurend bezig hun businessmodel te verbeteren en te laten groeien. Maar zijn zij ook in staat om – indien nodig – zichzelf en hun businessmodel opnieuw uit te vinden? Om een beeld te krijgen van het vermogen tot businessmodel-innovatie in de mkb-accountancy is een onderzoek verricht in opdracht van NEMACC, het kennisinstituut van de Nederlandse Beroepsorganisatie van Accountants (NBA) en de Erasmus Universiteit. Dit onderzoek concentreerde zich op de businessmodellen bij mkb-accountants en de omstandigheden waarin businessmodel-innovatie noodzakelijk is. Dit onderzoek betrof een literatuurstudie, een enquête3 en interviews met een vijftal kantoren (zie tabel 3 in de bijlage voor een overzicht). Hierdoor werd het mogelijk om zowel een cijfermatig beeld te schetsen als inhoudelijke voorbeelden te geven van de wijze waarop mkb-accountants hun businessmodel vernieuwen. De enquête werd verstuurd naar 2171 vennoten, waarvan bijna 10% reageerde. Na opschoning kwam de uiteindelijke respons op 212 bruikbare ingevulde vragenlijsten. Dit betrof 198 verschillende kantoren (bij enkele kantoren hebben meerdere vennoten de vragenlijst ingevuld). Van deze kantoren was slechts 15% groot (meer dan 50 werknemers), 34% behoorde tot de categorie micro met 1 tot maximaal 5 werknemers en de resterende 51% had een totaal aan werknemers tussen de 5 en maximaal 50. Het grootste gedeelte heeft een regionale focus, of een combinatie van regionale en nationale focus. Daarnaast zijn interviews afgenomen met een vijftal vennoten van kantoren die reeds een interessante vernieuwingsslag maakten. Hoe hebben zij dit voor elkaar gekregen? Wat moest er bij hun organisaties onder de motorkap veranderen? De lessen die we uit deze case studies leerden, worden in dit artikel samen met de cijfermatige inzichten uit het onderzoek gepresenteerd. In het vervolg van dit artikel beschrijven we in paragraaf 2 de noodzaak tot businessmodel-innovatie en de keuzes omtrent innovatie van het businessmodel. Bij deze keuzes inzake replicatie en vernieuwing zullen wij diverse praktijkvoorbeelden vanuit de casestuddies Businessmodel-innovatie in de mkb-accountancy; een empirisch onderzoek

Businessmodel-innovatie in de mkb-accountancy; een empirisch onderzoek

In this paper, we explore the factors that determine the longevity of firms. Five central factors were distilled from the literature: position in the supply chain, the nature of the technology used, structure, culture, and financial policy. We made an extensive case-study of the Dutch storage company Royal Pakhoed and its predecessors from the early seventeenth century to the present. We conclude that all five factors contributed to the longevity of Pakhoed, but to a different degree. Paradoxically, its dependent position in the supply chain enhanced Pakhoed’s longevity because it led to a high absorptive capacity. The technology used proved to be surprisingly flexible and versatile. The structure was characterized both by centralized and decentralized features throughout the ages; decentralization enhanced continuity in several cases. The company’s culture has been always rather ‘open’, but it restricted the range of successful diversification beyond storage and warehousing. A conservative financial policy helped one of Pakhoed’s main predecessors to survive throughout the nineteenth century, but this factor seems to have been of relatively minor importance after the Second World War. 5001-6182 Business 5546-5548.6 Office Organization and Management Library of Congress Classification (LCC) HC 321-329.5 HD 58.8 Economic History the Netherlands Organizational change and development M Business Administration and Business Economics L 20 Firm Objectives, Organization and Behavior: general Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) D 23 N 73 N 74 Organizational behavior Economic History: Transport and Trade: Europe pre 1913 Economic History: Transport and Trade: Europe after 1913 85 A Business General 270 A 100 G Strategic Management Organizational Growth European Business Schools Library Group (EBSLG) 25 G 100 G Business History: Transport and Trade Organizational growth Gemeenschappelijke Onderwerpsontsluiting (GOO) 85.00 Bedrijfskunde, Organisatiekunde: algemeen 85.10 Strategisch beleid Classification GOO 85.05 15.70 Management en Organisatie Geschiedenis van Europa Bedrijfskunde / Bedrijfseconomie Strategisch management, organisatievernieuwing

Henk W. Volberda

Papers

Reciprocity of Knowledge Flows in Internal Network Forms of Organizing

A Meta Analysis of the Antecedents and Consequences of Strategic Flexibility

Mastering strategic renewal : Mobilizing change in large multiunit firms

Businessmodel-innovatie in de mkb-accountancy; een empirisch onderzoek

Longevity in services: the case of the Dutch warehousing companies 1600-2000