Showing papers on "Competitive advantage published in 2021"

1 The Social Structure of Competition

Abstract: My starting point is this: A player brings capital to the competitive arena and walks away with profit determined by the rate of return where the capital was invested. The market production equation predicts profit: Invested capital, multiplied by the going rate of return, equals the profit to be expected from the investment. Investments create an ability to produce a competitive product. For example, capital is invested to build and operate a factory. Rate of return is an opportunity to profit from the investment. Rate of return is keyed to the social structure of the competitive arena and is the focus here. Each player has a network of contacts in the arena. Certain players are connected to certain others, trusting certain others, obligated to support certain others, dependent on exchange with certain others. Something about the structure of the player's network and the location of the player's contacts in the social structure of the arena create a competitive advantage in getting higher rates of return on investment. This chapter is about that advantage. It is a description of the way in which social structure renders competition imperfect by creating entrepreneurial opportunities for certain players and not for others.'

Empirical investigation of data analytics capability and organizational flexibility as complements to supply chain resilience

Abstract: Supply chain resilience and data analytics capability have generated increased interest in academia and among practitioners. However, existing studies often treat these two streams of literature in...

Assessing the eco-environmental performance: an PLS-SEM approach with practice-based view

Abstract: Awareness of environmental issues is increasing, which is also putting pressure on firms, requiring their supply chain operations to be green. The objective of this article is to examine the impact...

Do Knowledge Management and Dynamic Capabilities Affect Ambidextrous Entrepreneurial Intensity and Firms’ Performance?

Abstract: Amidst a contemporary fast-changing business environment, scholars and practitioners alike increasingly recognize knowledge management (KM) and dynamic capabilities as key elements in the development of firms’ competitive advantage. Our understanding of the effect of KM on firm performance, nonetheless, is still limited, as in fact are the circumstances under which KM and dynamic capabilities affect firms’ ambidexterity, which reflects firms’ ability to conduct synchronous exploration and exploitation activities. Thus, building on KM and dynamic capability literature, and implementing a quantitative methodology, this paper aims to investigate the elusive relationship among KM orientation, dynamic capabilities, and ambidextrous entrepreneurial intensity (EI). Employing a dataset composed of 181 Italian firms operating in the ICT industry, and using structural equation modeling, the research subsequently investigates whether and how this relationship affects the overall firm performance. Results indicate that KM orientation has a positive and significant impact on ambidextrous EI and performance, especially when the firm has substantial dynamic capabilities. These findings further facilitate the identification and prescription of explicit scholarly and managerial implications.

Cutting-edge technologies for small business and innovation in the era of COVID-19 global health pandemic

Abstract: The adoption of cutting-edge technologies to steer business activities during community lockdown to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, even if involuntarily, provides evidence that technologies not only offer competitive advantages but also provides a means for survival, by improvising existing business models. In June 2019, we issued a call for papers to address the awareness, adoption, and implementation challenges of technologies that can drive businesses of all sizes in the fourth industrial revolution. We intended to identify as critical elements the “must-have” and a “nice to have” technologies for small businesses and innovation. Then the ongoing COVID-19 global health pandemic struck in December 2019, forcing the need for digitization of business activities and remote operations, which was considered a “nice to have” to immediately become a “critical to have” to survive in the ever increasingly uncertain business environment. This paper identifies the technologies, evaluates disruptive software platforms, and strategies needed for creating and managing small business innovation and highlighting the complexity of that process and the context within which this process takes place. We integrate this discussion alongside a summary of the articles included in the Special Issue. The current realities show that technologies that enable social business creation, customer relationship management systems, new communications channels, virtual reality technologies for remote operations, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are crucial to lowering the costs of doing business. Big data and predictive and visual analytics are critical enablers to aiding complex business decisions in the current challenging business climate.

Corporate social responsibility and financial performance of companies: The puzzle of concepts, definitions and assessment methods

Abstract: The definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) states that companies must not only pursue their main goal—to maximize profits, but also contribute to the well‐being of society through voluntary efforts. The importance of CSR in today's global world is growing. It is becoming mandatory for companies to engage in socially responsible activities to support the growth of their business. It is argued that companies pursuing CSR initiatives can gain a competitive advantage over other competitors due to creation of a good public image or reputation and generate higher profits and a return on investment however some authors disagree with this. The aim of this article is to analyse the benefits and drawbacks of CSR based on systematic literature review and to develop the conceptual framework for linking CSR with the financial performance of companies. The conducted analysis revealed that in most studies the positive or neutral relationship between CSR and financial results were claimed. Though the negative and alternative connections between these issues are less frequently identified in scientific articles, they cannot be excluded from the analysis and require certain attention and further consideration.

Achieving environmental sustainability through green transformational leadership policy: Can green team resilience help?

Abstract: The race to gain competitive advantage through the formulation of a sustainable business strategy is key for the survival in the global business sphere. Even more importantly is the quest to deploy an effective green strategy to combat the numerous negative impact industrialization has on the environment. Researches pointed out the role of leaders and stakeholder's engagement in bringing about reform. This research focuses on how to build a robust psychological capital within an organization through the leader's transformative ability in combating environmental issues. This is necessary because research related to green transformational leadership and the effect on green team resilience has not been considered in literature. Drawing from the combination of three theories; broaden‐and‐build theory, job demand–resource theory, and conservation of resource theory, this study contributes to the extant literature by testing the effect of green transformational leadership via the mediating role of green work engagement to green team resilience. Using Amos 20 version to analyze 351 questionnaires that were collected from employees in four and five star hotels in Turkey, the result reviews that green transformational leadership has a positive effect on green work engagement and green team resilience, and green work engagement fully mediates the relationship between the variables. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Expanding the resource based view model of strategic human resource management

Abstract: Strategic human resource management scholars have drawn on the resource-based view of the firm to argue that a high commitment human resource (HCHR) strategy leads to firm competitive advantage by ...

Does data-driven culture impact innovation and performance of a firm? An empirical examination

Abstract: Data-driven culture is considered to bring business-oriented cultural transformation to a firm. It is considered to provide substantial dividends to the firms’ product and process innovations. Recently, several firms have been using different advanced technology-embedded business analytics (BA) tools to improve their business performance. Again, advancement of information and communication technology has helped firms to explore the option to use BA tools with artificial intelligence. This has brought radical change in the business-oriented cultural landscape of the firms to arrive at accurate decision-making to improve their innovation and performance. In this perspective, the aim of this study is to show how a firm’s data-driven culture impacts its product and process innovation, which in turn improves its performance and provides better competitive advantage in the current business environment. With the help of background study, a resource-based view model and different theories, a conceptual model has been developed. The conceptual model has been validated with 456 usable responses from the employees of different firms using different business analytics tools. The study highlights that data-driven culture highly influences both product and process innovation, making the firm more competitive in the industry. In this study, leadership support and data-driven culture have been taken as moderators, whereas firm size, firm age and industry type have been taken as control variables.

Role of Government to Enhance Digital Transformation in Small Service Business

Abstract: In the digital economy era, small service business struggle to compete in a rapidly changing and dynamic market. Therefore, through digital transformation (DT), small service business seek to increase their competitive advantage, improve business performance, and achieve business growth. Having limited resources and capabilities, small service business must deal with several barriers and challenges. This study aims to discover the barriers, and the roles of government, for digital transformation in small service business. This study applied a qualitative approach involving semi-structured in-depth interviews with top management of small service business. Then, we employed the content analysis method to examine interview data and construct a model. This research reveals four main barriers to digital transformation in small service business: lack of funding, lack of digital capability, lack of human resources, and technical barriers. We found there are four government roles for supporting digital transformation in small service business: build a digital platform for small service business, promote mobile/digital payment, provide digital training, and build a digital collaboration ecosystem. Additionally, based on this study’s findings, a model for barriers and government support of digital transformation in small service business is presented. This study contributes to the conceptual framework and management implications in the digital transformation field. The study’s findings provide insights to practitioners and suggest that the government could alter the current policies and programs to support digital transformation in small service business.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosure, competitive advantage and performance of firms in Malaysia

Abstract: The objective of this research is to investigate the effects of firms’ ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) disclosures on firm performance, moderated by firm competitive advantage. The sample of the data is 3966 firm-year observations from year 2012–2017 of 661 firms listed in the Bursa Malaysia. To improve the robustness of our analysis we adopt clustering techniques in our regression analysis. The findings of this research indicate that ESG disclosure improves firm performance even after controlling for competitive advantage. We also find consistent evidence that an increase in ESG disclosure by one unit will increase firm performance by approximately 4 percent in Malaysia. The implication of this research is the need to re-examine the level of ESG disclosure and the financing incentive for firms with high ESG disclosure scores as high scores of ESG are associated with higher competitive advantage. Further, policymakers can enhance regulatory frameworks by incorporating ESG across various investment activities and value creation initiatives.

The transition from linear economy to circular economy for sustainability among SMEs: A study on prospects, impediments, and prerequisites

Abstract: The circular economy (CE) is a more holistic approach that advocates towards extracting the value from the waste and reaching sustainability goals. The objective of the present study is to highlight the prospects, impediments, and prerequisites while transiting from the linear economy (LE) to CE of SMEs. The study gathers information on prospects, impediments, and prerequisites for the transition of LE to a CE from recent studies. A semi‐structured interview questionnaire was prepared, and a survey was conducted on representatives of six SMEs. Further, six caselets were developed to understand the prospects, impediments, and prerequisites based on the findings of the interview and previous information gained from existing literature. The major prospects favoring transition from LE to CE found in the study are significance of 3R (reduce and reuse and recycling) approach, CE leads to competitive advantage, recycling attracts consumers in few cases, CE helps in achieving sustainability goals and reuse of materials are significant in resource conservation. There are certain impediments found such as issues associated with awareness, recyclability issues, financial challenges, and weak management vision of SMEs towards CE implementation. Other resource‐based impediments were found related to trained employees, lack of experience. Whereas, consumer acceptability is also a major concern towards implementing CE. The findings of the study suggest major prerequisites towards CE implementations such as strong “management will,” innovation, technology up‐gradation, training to employees, motivation, and appropriate guidelines. Government pressure to implement CE cannot be an effective step towards the transition of LE to CE.

Big data empowered agility for dynamic, volatile, and time-sensitive service industries: the case of tourism sector

Abstract: Purpose: Dynamic, volatile, and time-sensitive industries, such as tourism, travel and hospitality require agility and market intelligence to create value and achieve competitive advantage. The aim of the current study is to examine the influence of big data (BD) on the performance of service organizations and to probe for a deeper understanding of implementing BD, based on available technologies. Design/methodology/approach: An ethnographic study was conducted following an abductive approach. A primary qualitative research scheme was used with 35 information technology and database professionals participating in five online focus groups of seven participants each. Analytical themes were developed simultaneously with the literature being revisited throughout the study to ultimately create sets of common themes and dimensions. Findings: BD can help organizations build agility, especially within dynamic industries, to better predict customer behavioral patterns and make tailor-made propositions from the BD. An integrated BD-specific framework is proposed to address value according to the dimensions of need, value, time and utility. Research limitations/implications: Little research exists on the key drivers of BD use for dynamic, real-time and agile businesses. This research adds to the developing literature on BD applications to support organizational decision-making and business performance in the tourism industry. Originality/value: This study responds to scholars’ recent calls for more empirical research with contextual understanding of the use of BD to add value in marketing intelligence within business ecosystems. It delineates factors contributing to BD value creation and explores the impacts on the respective service encounters.

Charting a path between firm-specific incentives and human capital-based competitive advantage

Abstract: Research Summary Scholars have long recognized the theoretical and practical implications of firm‐specific human capital. However, we highlight that firm‐specific incentives (i.e., worker incentives that provide more utility to workers in the focal firm than similar incentives available at other employers) provide an important pathway to competitive advantages that has not been comprehensively examined in the extant organizational research. We address this gap by (a) defining firm‐specific incentives and showing why they are different from incentive conceptualizations and typologies in the extant literature, (b) articulating potential origins of firm‐specific incentives, and (c) formally proposing the conditions under which firm‐specific incentives facilitate human capital‐based competitive advantages. In so doing, we develop a cohesive theoretical framework of incentive‐based competitive advantage that integrates across multiple literatures. Managerial Summary Just as companies differentiate their products by creating unique value for customers, they also create unique value for their employees. Some companies do this by offering employee incentives, perks, and benefits that are highly unique to the company and difficult for other companies to imitate. These unique incentives, perks, and benefits can help these companies to attract, motivate, and retain top talent at a financial discount and, accordingly, can help these companies realize competitive advantages over their rivals.

The Mediating Role of Innovation Capability on the Relationship between Strategic Agility and Organizational Performance

Abstract: The changes in the business environment and the increase in competition have led organizations to focus greatly on improving their organizational performance in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage by relying on keeping pace with these changes and developing their innovation capability to meet their customers’ desires. Therefore, this research paper aims to explore the relationship between strategic agility and organizational performance through the mediating role of innovation capability. The research population consisted of senior managers in industrial corporations, and the sample comprised 224 senior managers. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used as a statistical method for testing hypotheses. The results showed that there is a significant influence of strategic agility on organizational performance and innovation capability. Furthermore, innovation capability plays a mediating role in improving the relationship between strategic agility and organizational performance. Accordingly, a set of recommendations are provided to corporations’ senior managers for supporting the organizational activities that lead to the creation of new products and services that are appropriate to the general context of the development of customer desires, realizing the importance of the corporation acquiring flexible re-sources that can be reallocated to meet the changes in the business environment, and adopting modern business models based on stimulating collaborative work and adopting creative ideas.

Hotel Service Quality: The Impact of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction in Hospitality

Abstract: Hospitality industry is a billion dollars industry, which includes many activities, from which main is hotel business, tourism services, event planning and transportation. This industry is a quick growing industry, where main factors are service quality and customer satisfaction. No any hospitality industry property will not survive if they are not oriented on their consumers, notably, to meet their needs, requirements and expectations, so that the image of the company will enhance. The hospitality industry faces with different difficulties than organizations which produce products due to the dissimilar nature of service in comparison with a product. In service industry there is a greater probability to fail, rather than in product sales. Service quality has been revealed as a key factor in search for sustainable competitive advantage. Satisfying and retaining customer has been recognized as an important factor in hospitality industry. Nowadays like never before, fulfilling consumers’ requests remains the greatest challenge. In the hospitality industry, the consumer is not only the part of the actual consumption process, but moreover often has preset service and quality perspectives. Today’s hospitality industry customer is increasing time poor, more sophisticated and more demanding. The main purpose of this study is to reveal the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction. The findings of the study will show influence of different service quality dimensions on satisfaction level in Hotels. A quantitative method used to analyze this study. A random sampling method used to distribute and gather data. 111 participants were involved in this study. This study proved that four of service quality dimensions (empathy, responsiveness, assurance and tangible) have positive relation with customer satisfaction, except reliability had negative relation with customer satisfaction.