322,864 research outputs found
Search Practices and Performance for Discontinuous Innovation: First Results of a Survey on High Tech Firms
No full textManagement literature has highlighted that under discontinuous conditions incumbents have encountered serious obstacles in identifying, develop and commercialize innovations as traditional and validated ‘good’ approaches are not adequate, or even counterproductive. It is therefore necessary to identify and deploy the capabilities and practices that organisations could apply for enhancing their capacity to manage discontinuous innovation (DI).
Based on a comprehensive literature review on search practices and on the empirical background of the Discontinuous Innovation Lab - a research network covering around 180 firms in 12 countries - we developed a questionnaire submitted to a 600 high tech Italian firm sample (respondents are R&D directors or general managers). This paper builds on the practice-based model for the search phase that we have previously tested by using the Structural Equation Modelling, and enlarges the analysis to empirically validate performance, both innovative and financial ones
Organizational Ambidexterity construct: a conceptual and operational review
No full textPurpose – Competitive pressure and a turbulent environment characterize many industries in a global economy. In such a context, firms should be able to continuously resolve a series of opposite strengths and develop skills in order to realize two different, sometimes opposite, things at the same time (Lewis, 2000). Firms, in other words, need to become ambidextrous, to use both hands with equal skills. Over the last two decades, the topic has been widely debated in literature and the organizational ambidexterity (OA) construct has attracted the growing attention of different literature streams. Such a rapid growth and expansion of the organizational ambidexterity concept has determined different nuances about the meaning and measurement of OA. There is in fact a lack of transparency in the vocabulary it is used, in the conceptualization and operationalization of the OA construct, and in respect of the different phenomena considered. The authors believe that this abuse has contributed to inefficient delivery system changes, construct validity problems in research methodology and tool development. This paper thus aims to analyse how the ambidexterity construct has been used by researchers till now and how it has been conceptualized and operationalized in the extant literature.
Design/methodology/approach – In order to reach our objective conducted a literature review by systematically sampling a large number and broad range of papers (more than 100 papers published in major impact factor management Journals between 1976 and 2009) rather than focusing on the consensus list of key papers. We first explored how central the construct is to the paper’s core topic and then we analysed how the construct has been characterized in the most relevant papers. Then, we analysed how the construct has been characterized in the most relevant papers by conducting a content analysis (Rossiter, 2008) of organizational ambidexterity definitions (limited to those papers that make a substantive use of the construct) in order to surface the construct’s key attributes. We also conducted a review of how researchers have operationalized the construct.
Value – Organizational ambidexterity is a 20 years old concept that has received a rapid growth of attention in particular in the last five years. The majority of papers published makes use of survey research strategy: such papers are mainly finalised to the demonstration of the “ambidexterity hypothesis” linking the ambidexterity to firm’s performances. Besides these empirical papers built on quantitative analysis, there are few qualitative papers which aim is to analyse the organizational mechanisms and processes at the basis of the construct. As a consequence, OA represents an interesting topic that can open wide spaces for additional researches. On this purpose, it is interesting to notice how the original conceptualization of ambidexterity as a capability has remain widely adopted by researchers, even if some differences in the conceptualization exist caused by the different fields of application and research streams that have approached the theme. Some future research can address the concept of OA as a capability, analysing the organizational mechanisms and practices that foster its development; in this context, longitudinal case studies are recommended as they go in depth in the process that lead to build on an ambidextrous organization.
Practical implications – We recommend to develop in depth case studies focused on organizational routines, in order to better delineate OA as a capability. In addition, we suggest that it could be interesting to analyse OA, by adopting the innovation process as level of analysis. Adopting such a perspective can in fact broaden and enrich this stream of the literature, by focusing the attention on practices and elementary actions and by allowing to study organizational ambidexterity involving different nested levels of analysi
How can human resource practices improve customer satisfaction on product quality? AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS
No full textAlthough research has addressed relationships between HRM practices and several firms’ performance variables, it remains rare for studies to assess process that may underlie such relationships: limited empirical studies has in particular estimated the mediating effect of organizational commitment on HRM practices and performances simultaneously. This study thus aims to investigate the relationships HRM practices and product quality hypothesizing a mediating role of organizational commitment.
A conceptual model is designed and hypotheses are constructed. In order to test the hypotheses, structural equation modeling is performed for the data collected from an international sample.
The study contributes to the theoretical development of a model to explain the relationship between skills-developing HR practices and quality performance. Additionally, this study is an attempt to consider the mediation role of commitment. If commitment is a significant determinant of quality performance, as suggested in this research, then understanding the factors leading to commitment is indeed critical. Our findings are thus expected to help managers better understand the key role of HR practices leading to higher product quality and the mechanism through which such practices contribute to meet customers requirements and achieving their satisfaction upon product quality
A MULTI-LEVEL MODEL FOR ORGANIZATIONAL AMBIDEXTERITY IN THE SEARCH PHASE OF THE INNOVATION PROCESS
No full textInnovation is one of the most critical means in supporting and improving the competitive
position of the firm, in particular, and a firm’s survival and growth depend greatly on its ability
to balance the exploitation of existing knowledge with the exploration of new possibilities, by
building ambidexterity capability. While different alternatives to realize the simultaneous
reconciliation of exploration and exploitation at an operational level have been proposed, how
organizations build ambidexterity capability is not fully understood. The aim of this paper is
thus to explore how exploration and exploitation balancing can be achieved in practice. We
decided to focus on the early phase of the process where firms search for new ideas with which
to renew themselves. To this end, we analysed the search phase of a highly innovative
technology-based company by investigating structural design choices combined with the
presence of specific roles and searching practices. The results show how the exploration and
exploitation balancing act can actually be achieved and maintained through a multi-level
approach that integrates both the operational and the strategic levels. Our findings thus
contribute to the organizational ambidexterity literature, by proposing a first interpretative
model for dealing with ambidexterity in the search phase of the innovation process
Linking human resource management practices and customer satisfaction on product quality
No full textAlthough research has addressed relationships between HRM practices and several firms’ performance variables, it remains rare for studies to assess process that may underlie such relationships: limited empirical studies has in particular estimated the mediating effect of organizational commitment on HRM practices and performances simultaneously. This study thus aims to investigate the relationships HRM practices and product quality hypothesizing a mediating role of organizational commitment.
A conceptual model is designed and hypotheses are constructed. In order to test the hypotheses, structural equation modeling is performed for the data collected from an international sample.
The study contributes to the theoretical development of a model to explain the relationship between skills-developing HR practices and quality performance. Additionally, this study is an attempt to consider the mediation role of commitment. If commitment is a significant determinant of quality performance, as suggested in this research, then understanding the factors leading to commitment is indeed critical. Our findings are thus expected to help managers better understand the key role of HR practices leading to higher product quality and the mechanism through which such practices contribute to meet customers requirements and achieving their satisfaction upon product quality
Linking human resource management practices and customer satisfaction on product quality
No full textAlthough research has addressed relationships between human resource management (HRM) practices and several firm performances, it remains rare for studies to assess the processes that may underlie such relationships. This study aims to investigate the relationships between HRM practices and product quality by hypothesizing a mediating role of organizational commitment. We design a conceptual model and construct hypotheses that are tested using structural equation modeling on data collected from an international sample. The study contributes to the theoretical and empirical development of a model to explain and open the black box between skill-developing HR practices and quality performance
The intellectual structure of organizational ambidexterity: a bibliographic investigation into the state of the art and future directions
No full textTHE INTELLECTUAL STRUCTURE OF ORGANIZATIONAL AMBIDEXTERITY: A BIBLIOGRAPHIC INVESTIGATION INTO THE STATE OF THE ART
No full textOrganizational ambidexterity, defined as the ability of a complex and adaptive system to attain and manage conflicting activities by achieving high levels of both in a simultaneous way, has gained increasing interest in recent years. The recent frenetic development of ambidexterity as well as the complexity of the questions posed, call for an analysis of the intellectual evolution of the construct.
This article, after analysing the evolution of the conceptualization of organizational ambidexterity, uses bibliometric techniques to explore the structure of the field.
The analysis provides a detailed overview on the current literature concerning the issue of ambidexterity, highlighting in particular the areas where research efforts have been more focused and those areas that require further study. Important issues for further research are therefore suggested
External technology sourcing: evidence from design-driven innovation
No full textPurpose - The purpose of the paper is to analyse the changing of governance modes for the acquisition of external technology in the context of design driven innovation. Design/methodology/approach - This is an explorative study drawing on cases of new product development (NPD) by six design-oriented Italian firms. In analyzing the cases a longitudinal approach is taken. Findings - The analysis of the cases shows a similar pattern for technology sourcing during the NPD process, starting with informal networks and ending with hierarchical structures. In the early stages of NPD, when market uncertainty and technological uncertainty are very high, these companies choose an informal network. However, once the product concept is defined and the companies need to become familiar with a technology, they move to strategic alliances with partners. In the final stages of NPD, more hierarchical structures seem to prevail. Research limitations/implications - There are two main limitations of the study. The paper investigates the influence of uncertainty on the choice of governance modes and does not consider other variables that could impact on choice such as assets specificity, frequency of transactions, product complexity, cultural distance among partners, etc. Another limitation of the study is the small set of cases. Practical implications - From a managerial point of view, this study suggests that firms which develop successful design-driven innovations follow an organizational pattern for technology sourcing during the NPD process, starting with informal networks and ending with hierarchical structures. Thus it is extremely important for these firms to have an open-minded management that fosters the creation of a wide external network. This openness shown by the firms towards collaboration with other organizations in order to acquire ideas, new materials and knowledge must be offset by the secure protection of the results of the innovation process. Managers must foresee these needs and find ways to safeguard the results obtained through experimentation by means of patents or exclusive contracts with the supplier. Originality/value - The paper contributes to the research on the theme of design-driven innovation, analyzing the evolution and change in governance modes across the new product development process. It thus differentiates from the existing literature adopting a dynamic view, where multiple transactions are taken into consideration
Discovering the basic strategic orientation of big Space Agencies
No full textThe aim of this paper is to identify the basic strategic orientations of some of the world’s main space agencies. This study focuses on the
Brazilian, French, European, Japanese, Indian and Russian agencies. Basic strategic orientations indicate the real space exploration objectives of
large countries. This is useful because there are some ambiguous areas in the formal strategic documents published by these agencies. The results
highlight the common objectives of the agencies studied, which is to have an important role in international political leadership even considering
the specific objectives related to the economic and social contexts of the individual countries
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