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

Theory Building in Strategic Management: A Schools of Thought Approach

textIn this study we investigated 30 ventures in four large firms. We categorized four projects as characterized by "new economy" principles. These were projects that focused on increasing returns. We compared these four projects to four "traditional economy " initiatives in terms of their trajectories and characteristics. We found that the "new economy" initiatives involved more cooperation across firm boundaries, required flexible organizational forms of venturing, used more pilot projects, and involved top management as a crucial element in their success.

/pdf/how-well-established-firms-prepare-for-the-new-economy-an-4ltre3hfl8.pdf

How Well-Established Firms Prepare for the New Economy: An Empirical Study on the Development of New Economy Initiatives

Principal Topic Although corporate entrepreneurship is of vital importance for long-term firm survival and growth (Zahra and Covin, 1995), researchers still struggle with understanding how to manage corporate entrepreneurship activities. Corporate entrepreneurship consists of three parts: innovation, venturing, and renewal processes (Guth and Ginsberg, 1990). Innovation refers to the development of new products, venturing to the creation of new businesses, and renewal to redefining existing businesses (Sharma, and Chrisman, 1999; Verbeke et al., 2007). Although there are many studies focusing on one of these aspects (cf. Burgelman, 1985; Huff et al., 1992), it is very difficult to compare the outcomes of these studies due to differences in contexts, measures, and methodologies. This is a significant lack in our understanding of CE, as firms engage in all three aspects of CE, making it important to compare managerial and organizational antecedents of innovation, venturing and renewal processes. Because factors that may enhance venturing activities may simultaneously inhibit renewal activities. The limited studies that did empirically compare the individual dimensions (cf. Zahra, 1996; Zahra et al., 2000; Yiu and Lau, 2008; Yiu et al., 2007) generally failed to provide a systematic explanation for potential different effects of organizational antecedents on innovation, venturing, and renewal. With this study we aim to investigate the different effects of structural separation and social capital on corporate entrepreneurship activities. The access to existing and the development of new knowledge has been deemed of critical importance in CE-activities (Floyd and Wooldridge, 1999; Covin and Miles, 2007; Katila and Ahuja, 2002). Developing new knowledge can be facilitated by structurally separating corporate entrepreneurial units from mainstream units (cf. Burgelman, 1983; Hill and Rothaermel, 2003; O'Reilly and Tushman, 2004). Existing knowledge and resources are available through networks of social relationships, defined as social capital (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998; Yiu and Lau, 2008). Although social capital has primarily been studied at the organizational level, it might be equally important at top management level (Belliveau et al., 1996). However, little is known about the joint effects of structural separation and integrative mechanisms to provide access to social capital on corporate entrepreneurship. Could these integrative mechanisms for example connect the separated units to facilitate both knowledge creation and sharing? Do these effects differ for innovation, venturing, and renewal processes? Are the effects different for organizational versus top management team integration mechanisms? Corporate entrepreneurship activities have for example been suggested to take place at different levels. Whereas innovation is suggested to be a more bottom-up process, strategic renewal is a more top-down process (Floyd and Lane, 2000; Volberda et al., 2001). Corporate venturing is also a more bottom-up process, but due to the greater required resource commitments relative to innovation, it ventures need to be approved by top management (Burgelman, 1983). As such we will explore the following key research question in this paper: How do social capital and structural separation on organizational and TMT level differentially influence innovation, venturing, and renewal processes? Methodology/Key Propositions We investigated our hypotheses on a final sample of 240 companies in a variety of industries in the Netherlands. All our measures were validated in previous studies. We targeted a second respondent in each firm to reduce problems with single-rater data (James et al., 1984). We separated the measurement of the independent and the dependent variables in two surveys to create a one-year time lag and reduce potential common method bias (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Results and Implications Consistent with our hypotheses, our results show that configurations of structural separation and integrative mechanisms have different effects on the three aspects of corporate entrepreneurship. Innovation was affected by organizational level mechanisms, renewal by integrative mechanisms on top management team level and venturing by mechanisms on both levels. Surprisingly, our results indicated that integrative mechanisms on top management team level had negative effects on corporate entrepreneurship activities. We believe this paper makes two significant contributions. First, we provide more insight in what the effects of ambidextrous organizational forms (i.e. combinations of differentiation and integration mechanisms) are on venturing, innovation and renewal processes. Our findings show that more valuable insights can be gained by comparing the individual parts of corporate entrepreneurship instead of focusing on the whole. Second, we deliver insights in how management can create a facilitative organizational context for these corporate entrepreneurship activities.

https://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au/file/7f13ce96-ca5b-42ec-a76d-eb0f5d21696f/1/PDF (Accepted manuscript).pdf

Is the sum more than the corporate entrepreneurship parts? The different effects of social capital on innovation, venturing, and renewal processes

The purpose of this research was to develop a framework of how incumbent firms organize for adoption and implementation of an emerging disruptive business model. The framework, based on an in-depth...

Business model transformation and ambidexterity: Renewal through recursive structural alteration

Dit artikel geeft een overzicht van toezichthoudende
commissies (audit-, belonings- en selectie- en benoemings
commissies) in beursgenoteerde ondernemingen in Nederland
en stelt de centrale vraag in hoeverre ondernemingen onder
druk van omgevingsfactoren commissies hebben ingesteld
gedurende de laatste tien jaar. Het artikel concludeert dat het
gebruik van commissies in belangrijke mate is toegenomen sinds
1996 als gevolg van internationale corporate governance standaar
den, de introductie van gedragscodes waaronder de Code
Tabaksblat en de toenemende mate waarin ondernemingen
afstand nemen van het klassieke Nederlandse bestuursmodel.
Aan de hand van literatuur kan hierbij de kanttekening worden
geplaatst dat er niet een eenduidige relatie bestaat tussen de
marktwaarde en fi nanciele prestaties van ondernemingen en de
instelling van toezichthoudende commissies.

/pdf/het-gebruik-van-toezichthoudende-commissies-binnen-raden-van-2uas6ixken.pdf

Henk W. Volberda

Papers

Theory Building in Strategic Management: A Schools of Thought Approach

How Well-Established Firms Prepare for the New Economy: An Empirical Study on the Development of New Economy Initiatives

Is the sum more than the corporate entrepreneurship parts? The different effects of social capital on innovation, venturing, and renewal processes

Business model transformation and ambidexterity: Renewal through recursive structural alteration

Het gebruik van toezichthoudende commissies, binnen raden van commissarissen in beursgenoteerde ondernemingen