Showing papers on "Competitive advantage published in 1995"

The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Turnover, Productivity, and Corporate Financial Performance

Abstract: This paper comprehensively examined the linkages between systems of High Performance Work Practices and firm performance. Results based on a national sample of nearly one thousand firms indicate that these practices have an economically and statistically significant impact on both intermediate outcomes (turnover and productivity) and short- and long-term measures of corporate financial performance. Support for the predictions that the impact of High Performance Work Practices is in part contingent on their interrelationships and links with competitive strategy was limited.

The Impact Of Human Resource Management Practices On Turnover, Productivity, And Corporate Financial Performance

Abstract: This study comprehensively evaluated the links between systems of High Performance Work Practices and firm performance. Results based on a national sample of nearly one thousand firms indicate that these practices have an economically and statistically significant impact on both intermediate employee outcomes (turnover and productivity) and short- and long-term measures of corporate financial performance. Support for predictions that the impact of High Performance Work Practices on firm performance is in part contingent on their interrelationships and links with competitive strategy was limited. The impact of human resource management (HRM) policies and prac

A Natural-Resource-Based View of the Firm

Abstract: Historically, management theory has ignored the constraints imposed by the biophysical (natural) environment. Building upon resource-based theory, this article attempts to fill this void by proposing a natural-resource-based view of the firm—a theory of competitive advantage based upon the firm's relationship to the natural environment. It is composed of three interconnected strategies: pollution prevention, product stewardship, and sustainable development. Propositions are advanced for each of these strategies regarding key resource requirements and their contributions to sustained competitive advantage.

Market Orientation and the Learning Organization

Abstract: Effective organizations are configurations of management practices that facilitate the development of the knowledge that becomes the basis for competitive advantage. A market orientation, complemen...

Product development: past research, present findings, and future directions

Abstract: The literature on product development continues to grow. This research is varied and vibrant, yet large and fragmented. In this article we first organize the burgeoning product-development literature into three streams of research: product development as rational plan, communication web, and disciplined problem solving. Second, we synthesize research findings into a model of factors affecting the success of product development. This model highlights the distinction between process performance and product effectiveness and the importance of agents, including team members, project leaders, senior management, customers, and suppliers, whose behavior affects these outcomes. Third, we indicate potential paths for future research based on the concepts and links that are missing or not well defined in the model.

Overcoming the Liability of Foreignness

Abstract: This study addressed the question of whether firms in a competitive, globally integrated environment face a “liability of foreignness” and to what extent either importing home-country organizational capabilities or copying the practices of successful local firms can help them overcome this liability. Predictions were tested with a paired sample of 24 foreign exchange trading rooms of major Western and Japanese banks in New York and Tokyo. Results support the existence of a liability of foreignness and the role of a firm's administrative heritage in providing competitive advantage to its multinational subunits. They also highlight the difficulty firms face in copying organizational practices from other firms.

Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation

Abstract: From the Publisher: Why are some companies better at innovation than others? Drawing on the candid reflections of managers at leading technology-based companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Chaparral Steel, Microsoft, and Motorola, Wellsprings of Knowledge shows that the successful innovators are companies that build and manage knowledge effectively. The book reveals lessons for creating, nurturing, and growing the experience and accumulated knowledge of the organization into renewable assets and competitive advantage. Leonard-Barton illustrates the dimensions of the core capabilities along which all organizations must innovate: skills and knowledge base, physical systems, managerial systems, and values and norms of behavior. However, these capabilities can function as "core rigidities" if not constantly assessed. Managers must design capabilities as evolving, organic reservoirs. Wellsprings of Knowledge will help managers understand the long-term, systemic, and people-based nature of technological advantage and inspire them to think constantly about the potential knowledge-building import of every technology-related decision they make.

Total quality management as competitive advantage: A review and empirical study

Abstract: Total Quality Management (TQM) has become, according to one source, ‘as pervasive a part of business thinking as quarterly financial results,’ and yet TQM's role as a strategic resource remains virtually unexamined in strategic management research. Drawing on the resource approach and other theoretical perspectives, this article examines TQM as a potential source of sustainable competitive advantage, reviews existing empirical evidence, and reports findings from a new empirical study of TQM's performance consequences. The findings suggest that most features generally associated with TQM—such as quality training, process improvement, and benchmarking—do not generally produce advantage, but that certain tacit, behavioral, imperfectly imitable features—such as open culture, employee empowerment, and executive commitment—can produce advantage. The author concludes that these tacit resources, and not TQM tools and techniques, drive TQM success, and that organizations that acquire them can outperform competitors with or without the accompanying TQM ideology.

Information technology and sustained competitive advantage: a resource-based analysis

Abstract: The concept of IT as a powerful competitive weapon has been strongly emphasized in the literature, yet the sustainability of the competitive advantage provided by IT applications is not well-explained. This work discusses the resource-based theory as a means of analyzing sustainability and develops a model founded on this resource-based view of the firm. This model is then applied to four attributes of IT -- capital requirements, proprietary technology, technical IT skills, and managerial IT skills -- which might be sources of sustained competitive advantage. From this resource-based analysis, we conclude that managerial IT skills is the only one of these attributes that can provide sustainability.

Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation

Abstract: Since firms are knowledge institutions, or well-springs of knowledge, they compete on the basis of creating and using knowledge; managing a firm's knowledge assets is as important as managing its finances. A firm's expertise is acquired by employees and embodied in machines, software, and institutional procedures. Management of its core or strategic capabilities determines a firm's competitiveness and survival. Through decision-making and action, core technological capabilities can be built and changed. The author proposes to (1) help managers think about the knowledge-building consequences of their technology-related decisions and (2) provide academics materials usable in training managers to think about knowledge building. All aspects of product or process development must be viewed in terms of knowledge management and growth. Knowledge cannot be managed the same as tangible assets; to manage knowledge assets, one must understand them. Successful adaptation is an incremental re-direction of skills and knowledge. A set of four core technological competencies bestows competitive advantage on firms; these are the firm's skill and knowledge bases, physical technical systems, managerial systems, and values and norms that create a firm's special advantage. These may reside at any line-of-business level. Core capabilities must be managed to foster, not inhibit flow of critical knowledge. There is a dilemma: core capabilities are also core rigidities when carried to an extreme or when the competitive environment changes. Limited problem solving, inability to innovate, limited experimentation, and screening out new knowledge can undermine the development of competencies. Four key activities create and sustain flows of knowledge and direct them into core capabilities: (1) Integrated, shared creative problem solving across cognitive and functional barriers - shared problem solving achieves new level of creativity when managed for "creative abrasion." (2) Implementation and integration of new internally generated methodologies and technical processes and tools. These can move beyond merely increasing efficiency when managed for learning. (3) Formal and informal experimentation. Experimental activities create new core competencies that move companies purposefully forward and are guards against rigidity. (4) Importing and absorbing technological knowledge expertise from outside the firm. Technology alliances, for example, develop outwise wellsprings of knowledge (identify, access, use, and manage knowledge from external sources). Well managed, these enable companies to tap knowledge wellsprings consistently and continuously. Many dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors within firms inhibit these activities. These activities are oriented to present, internal, future, and external domains, and involve managers at all company levels and all functions. Specific managerial behaviors that build (or undermine) capabilities are identified. Managers must design an environment that encourages enactments of these four activities to create an organization that learns. Thereby, organizations and managers can create an atmosphere for continuous renewal; application to commercial ends is as important as managing it internally. The growth and nurturing of core capabilities (expressed in successful product development) requires learning from the market (understanding user needs), or feeding market information into new-product development. Identifying new product opportunities depends on empathic design, actual observed customer behavior, and technological capabilities. Technology transfer can also be understood as transferring technological capabilities to a new site, which is examined at four levels (assembly or turnkey, adaptation and localization, system, redesign, product design). Transfer of production development capability is illustrated with the cas

Looking inside for competitive advantage

Abstract: Executive Overview Strategic managers and researchers have long been interested in understanding sources of competitive advantage for firms. Traditionally, this effort has focused on the relationship between a firm's environmental opportunities and threats on the one hand, and its internal strengths and weaknesses on the other. Summarized in what has come to be known as SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, this traditional logic suggests that firms that use their internal strengths in exploiting environmental opportunities and neutralizing environmental threats, while avoiding internal weaknesses, are more likely to gain competitive advantages than other kinds of firms.1 This simple SWOT framework points to the importance of both external and internal phenomena in understanding the sources of competitive advantage. To date, the development of tools for analyzing environmental opportunities and threats has proceeded much more rapidly than the development of tools for analyzing...

The Impact of Quality Management Practices on Performance and Competitive Advantage

Abstract: As decision makers become more involved in implementing Total Quality Management, questions are raised about which management practices should be emphasized. In this exploratory investigation of the relationship of specific quality management practices to quality performance, a framework was constructed. It focuses on both core quality management practices and on the infrastructure that creates an environment supportive of their use. In addition, it incorporates two measures of quality performance and their role in establishing and sustaining a competitive advantage. Path analysis was used to test the proposed model, with multiple regression analysis determining the path coefficients, which were decomposed into their various effects. Weak linkages were eliminated. The trimmed model indicated that perceived quality market outcomes were primarily related to statistical control/feedback and the product design process, while the internal measure of percent that passed final inspection without requiring rework was strongly related to process flow management and to statistical control/feedback, to a lesser extent. Both measures of quality performance were related to competitive advantage. Important infrastructure components included top management support and workforce management. Supplier relationships and work attitudes were also related to some of the core quality practices and quality performance measures. The results were interpreted in light of Hill's concept of order winners and order qualifiers and Garvin's eight dimensions of quality. They indicate that different core quality management practices lead to success in different dimensions of quality, and that those dimensions function differently as order winners and order qualifiers.

Environmental technologies and competitive advantage

Abstract: In this decade and the coming century, the natural environment will be an important arena for economic, competition. Ecological issues regarding energy, natural resources, pollution, and waste offer both competitive opportunities and constraints, and are changing the competitive landscape in many industries. Corporations can gain competitive advantage by managing ecological variables. This paper explains the concept of ‘environmental technologies’ as a competitive force and a tool for competitive advantage. Environmental technologies offer a new substantive orientation and a management process for minimizing ecological impacts of economic production while enhancing Competitiveness of firms. The practical application of environmental technologies is illustrated using a mini case example of 3M Corporation. Strategic implications of environmental technologies for competitiveness are explored.

Reappraising The Eclectic Paradigm In An Age Of Alliance Capitalism

Abstract: This article discusses the implications of the advent of alliance capitalism for our theorizing about the determinants of MNE activity. In particular, it argues that, due to the increasing porosity of the boundaries of firms, countries and markets, the eclectic, or OLI, paradigm of international production needs to consider more explicitly the competitive advantages arising from the way firms organize their inter-firm transactions, the growing interdependencies of many intermediate product markets, and the widening of the portfolio of the assets of districts, regions and countries to embrace the external economies of interdependent activities.

Speed, Stealth, and Selective Attack: How Small Firms Differ From Large Firms in Competitive Behavior

Abstract: This study examined how small firms differ in their competitive behaviors from their large rivals in an industry and explored the implications of differences for performance. Data on competitive mo...

Collective efficiency: Growth path for small‐scale industry

Abstract: This study is concerned with the growth of small local industry in developing countries and explores one particular route for understanding and fostering such growth. It focuses on the clustering of firms and the competitive advantage which they derive from local external economies and joint action, captured in the concept of collective efficiency. Following a conceptual discussion, the article explores the economic and institutional conditions which enhance or hinder collective efficiency. This includes a case study which suggests that responding to opportunity and crisis requires shifting from mere reliance on external economies to joint action and from ascribed to earned trust.

Competitive Advantage Through People: Unleashing the Power of the Work Force.

Abstract: This text explores why, despite long-standing evidence indicating that a committed work-force is essential for success, firms continue to attach little importance to their workers. The answer, argues the author, resides in a complex web of factors based on perception, history, legislation and practice that continues to dominate management thought and action. He investigates each of these factors to get to the root of the problem. The work begins by examining why certain long-discredited perceptions of human behaviour persist in organizations. It then recounts the history of legislation and labour relations and their legacy of distrust and confrontation. Finally, it explores various aspects of the manager/employee relationship and highlights how it has been undermined. However, some organizations have been able to overcome these problems. Indeed, the five common stocks with the highest returns between 1972 and 1992 - Southwest Airlines, Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods, Circuit City and Plenum Publishing - were in industries that shared virtually none of the characteristics traditionally associated with strategic success. What each of these firms did share was the ability to produce sustainable competitive advantage through its use of managing people. The work documents how they, and others, resisted traditional management pitfalls, and offers frameworks for implementing these changes in any industry.

Producing sustainable competitive advantage through the effective management of people

Abstract: Executive Overview Achieving competitive success through people involves fundamentally altering how we think about the workforce and the employment relationship. It means achieving success by working with people, not by replacing them or limiting the scope of their activities. It entails seeing the workforce as a source of strategic advantage, not just as a cost to be minimized or avoided. Firms that take this different perspective are often able to successfully outmaneuver and outperform their rivals.

Inward technology transfer and competitiveness: the role of national innovation systems

Abstract: This paper examines the role of national innovation systems in the inward transfer of technology that has underpinned the transformation of Japan and other East Asian economies since 1945. The economies that have benefited most from inward technology transfer have national innovation systems that have strengthened their 'national absorptive capacity'. This capacity relies primarily on investments in scientific and technical training, and on economic policies that enforce competition among domestic firms. The particular channels for inward technology transfer, the identity of any 'strategic industries' targeted for public intervention, and the overall level of a nation's trade restrictions are ail of secondary importance. A central theme of global economic change during the postwar period has been the application in less developed countries of technologies developed within economically advanced regions. This phenomenon underpinned the post-1945 transformation of Japan and other East Asian economies, and influenced the reconstruction of Western European economies after World War II. The application of externally developed technologies within 'latecomer' economies is hardly unique to the postwar period, however. Samuel Slater's introduction of British textile manufacturing is but one example of inward technology transfer in the nineteenth century US economy, and David (1992) traces the origins of patent monopolies to efforts by medieval European city-states and nations to attract experts in industrial arts to practice their craft within these jurisdictions. Both international technology flows and government efforts to influence them for national competitive advantage thus have ample historical precedent. Several characteristics nevertheless distinguish the post-1945 era from earlier historical periods. The influence of international technology transfer on national economic development has increased, as the postwar development of such economies as Taiwan and South Korea has relied much less on natural resource endowments than nineteenth

Mass customization: Implementing the emerging paradigm for competitive advantage

Abstract: In many industries the dominant paradigm, ‘mass production,’ is being challenged by the emerging paradigm, ‘mass customization.’ Accordingly, many researchers posit that firms which replace ‘mass production’ with ‘mass customization’ will gain a significant competitive advantage. Based on an in-depth study of the National Bicycle Industrial Company (NBIC), this paper explores the dynamics of pursuing both mass production and mass customization strategies simultaneously. At the operational level, the paper discusses the organizational mechanisms instituted by the NBIC in order to benefit from the simultaneous pursuit of both approaches. At the competitive level, it isolates the relative contributions of both approaches to the overall competitive positioning of this firm in its industry. Based on this discussion, it provides a framework that illustrates the dynamics involved in the pursuit of both approaches. Implicitly, the paper argues that for firms competing in rapidly changing environments the ability to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage depends on the firm's capability to create knowledge by interacting both mass customization and mass production approaches. Finally, the paper concludes with managerial and research implications regarding the emerging paradigm of mass customization.

Information Technology for Management

Abstract: Information technology has changed how businesses operate and succeed in today's global economy. Organizations can now use IT to transform themselves and achieve a tremendous competitive advantage. "Information Technology for Management: Transforming Organizations in the Digital Economy, Seventh Edition" highlights how this new technology is changing the current business environment and what effect it has on today's students. The text addresses the major principles of MIS in order to prepare managers to understand the role of information technology in the digital economy. Revised and updated for a junior or senior level MIS or MBA course, this title will give students what they need to succeed in the emerging digital economy.

Defining and developing competence: A strategic process paradigm

Abstract: In this paper, competence is defined in operational terms as the degree to which the firm or its subunits can reliably meet or exceed objectives. Two antecedents to competence (and thus competitive advantage) are then developed and defined. These are the ‘comprehension’ of the management team working on developing competence and the ‘deftness’ of their task execution. Empirical results from a study of 160 new initiatives in 40 organizations from 16 countries suggest that: (1) it is feasible to operationalize and measure these constructs; (2) comprehension and deftness are important correlates of an organization's degree of competence as defined; and (3) a process-centered paradigm for understanding competence development shows promise.

What Really Makes Factories Flexible

Abstract: Manufacturing managers in a broad array of industries agree that achieving low cost and high quality is no longer enough to guarantee success. In the face of fierce, low-cost competition and an army of high-quality suppliers, companies are increasingly concentrating on flexibility as a way to achieve new forms of competitive advantage. Having acknowledged the importance of flexibility, however, managers in industry after industry are finding it frustratingly difficult to improve. In a quest to help manufacturing managers begin to understand why the improvement of flexibility has been so elusive, author David Upton embarked on a study of more than 60 factories in North America that manufacture fine paper. Upton found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the flexibility of the plants depended much more on the people in the operation than any technical factor. At many plants, managers have embraced computer integration as the solution to the growing need to forge new capabilities. In reality, computer systems are often a quick fix that helps managers to avoid the tremendously difficult task of defining precisely what kind of flexibility they require from a plant and then setting goals, revamping measurements and compensation systems, building training programs, and overhauling work practices in order to achieve that flexibility. If a plant manager is to set about improving a plant's flexibility, where should he or she start? The type of flexibility a given company should emphasize depends strongly on its competitive environment.

Competitiveness through Management of Diversity: Effects on Stock Price Valuation

Abstract: This study's premise is that firms that can lower their costs and enhance their differentiation through the effective management of their human resources have a competitive advantage. Using data fr...

Management Information Systems: Managing Information Technology in the Networked Enterprise

Abstract: From the Publisher: This market leading text is for business students,most of whom will become managers,entrepreneurs,or managerial-level professionals who will use and manage Information Systems. Students learn how Information Technology provides them with a powerful managerial resource that can help manage business operations,make better decisions,and gain competitive advantages. Its goal is to help students become managerial end users who can propose and participate in developing information systems solutions to business problems. This text is distinguished from the competition by its extensive use of up-to-date case material.

Asian Management Systems: Chinese, Japanese and Korean Styles of Business

Abstract: Part 1 Conceptual Framework: Major Comparative Management Models Understanding National Competitiveness - East-West Comparisons Sun Tzu's Strategic Thinking and Contemporary Business Guanxi Dynamics and Network Building. Part 2: The Overseas Chinese - Their Origins and Operational Environment The Chinese Family Business - Organizational Challenges and Competitive Edge Competitive Chinese Business - Strategies in ASEAN The Evolving Environment of Chinese State Enterprises (CSE) Reforming Managerial Mechanisms of Chinese State Enterprises (CSE) Comparative Chinese Managerial Systems. Part 3: Government-business relations in Japan and Korea Comparative Large Japanese and Korean Business Groups Japanese Management Style Developing Competitive Advantages of Japanese Companies Managerial Styles of Korean Companies Comparative Japanese and Korean Management Systems. Part 4 Coping with Different Management Systems: Understanding Chinese and Japanese Negotiating Styles Comparing Japanese General Trading Companies and Chinese Foreign Trade Companies The Japanese Distribution System in Transition Unlocking Joint Venture Potentials in China.

Organizational learning: dimensions for a theory

Abstract: Organizational learning (OL) is receiving increasing attention from researchers and practitioners alike. In fact, some have suggested that the only sustainable competitive advantage is a firm's ability to learn faster than its competitors. In spite of OL's promise, the field has been slow to evolve. The primary impediments to the development of OL theory are that inconsistent terminology is used for comparable concepts and that different definitions are used to describe the phenomenon. Furthermore, many theorists have neglected to make explicit their underlying assumptions about the phenomenon. Employing an inductive approach, this review surfaces the implicit and explicit assumptions of OL researchers, identifying three key dimensions that differentiate perspectives: (1) unit of analysis—individual, group, organizational, and inter organizational; (2) cognitive/behavioral emphasis; and (3) the learning‐performance relationship.