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R&D as Enterprise Strategy: Knowledge Management Drivers
and Highlights in Nordic Countries Compared to Italy
-- Marco Remondino and Stefano Bresciani
The inner nature of Research and Development (R&D) requires a solid Knowledge Management (KM) infrastructure, since it is required that knowledge and information are shared in innovative and effective ways. KM and sharing can power innovation and drive competitive advantage, if implemented effectively. It can directly impact the quality of innovations, endowing them with bigger strength and making them bolder and more creative. KM can also reduce information bottlenecks and spark new and unlikely collaborations. The main goal of this work is to examine both the importance of KM and R&D activities, within the private and public sector, and to propose an empirical comparison between the situation in the Nordic countries (Sweden and Finland in particular) and in Italy. On one side we have state, companies and universities investing a great part of their resources in innovation, on the other, lack in terms of investments in the innovation field. The paper examines the importance of R&D activities from theoretical and macroeconomics perspectives, highlighting the connection between innovation and welfare of a country, and showing the investments flow in innovation through state, academia and then enterprises. It focuses on the Scandinavian countries and their public policies in terms of innovation. As conclusion, a practical case is proposed, dealing with what happened in Kista through an ambitious long-term process based mainly on research and innovation.
© 2011 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Competences Found Important for Knowledge Sharing:
Investigation of Middle Managers Working
at Medium- and Large-Sized Enterprises
-- Lajos Szabó and Anikó Csepregi
Knowledge appears as an irreplaceable capital of organizations since nowadays it has become an increasingly important factor of organizational competitiveness. The way knowledge is shared within the organization is essential and central not only to the success of the organization where it takes place but also among those employees who share it, since those who take part in the knowledge sharing process also benefit from it. Knowledge cannot be shared efficiently without having the adequate competences. Thus, it is also important to be aware of those competences that are necessary for knowledge sharing. Furthermore being aware of the important position of middle managers (managers working under top managers) within the organization and their role in the process of knowledge sharing, this paper focuses on the competences these middle managers in Hungary find important for knowledge sharing. Since no scientific research has been carried out, especially in Hungary, measuring the competences that middle managers find important for knowledge sharing, this paper presents a measure with which the competence groups found important for knowledge sharing by Hungarian middle managers working at medium- and large-sized enterprises can be determined. A survey involving 400 middle managers working at medium- and large-sized enterprises in Hungary was conducted with the help of a questionnaire. The answers have been analyzed using principal component analysis, and seven different components regarding competence groups found important for knowledge sharing have been identified. As the result of the survey it is possible to define which competence groups and competences are important for knowledge sharing by middle managers.
© 2011 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Impact of Dynamic Capability on Innovation, Value Creation
and Industry Leadership
-- Rangarajan Parthasarathy, Chenglei Huang and Sonny Ariss
Dynamic capability is a product of the extension of the Research-Based View (RBV) to dynamic environments, and refers to the ability of the firm to reconfigure its resources to address rapidly changing environments. Most research literature on dynamic capability has focused on its general applicability to innovation. Dynamic capability is based on firm resources, which could be people resources and/or material resources. Product innovation primarily requires material resources and capital investment to be successful, while process innovation predominantly requires people resources to be successful. The authors argue based on extant literature that while material resource-based dynamic capability will positively impact product innovation, people resource-based dynamic capability (especially managerial resource-based) will positively impact process innovation. This conceptual paper presents a research model, and hypothesizes about the strength and nature of linkages between different types of dynamic capabilities and different forms of innovations, while ultimately tying these to value creation and industry leadership.
© 2011 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Social Network Research in Strategy and Organization:
A Typology
-- Angela Delli Paoli and Felice Addeo
This paper is an attempt to systematize what has been published in the field of social network research applied to strategy and organization. The main goal is to identify the dimensions along which social network studies vary. However, the terminological and conceptual confusion, together with the increase in the volume of social network research, makes such studies not easily accessible. Thus, in order to map and assess the existing intellectual territory, the paper aims at synthesizing scientific articles on network research in a systematic and reproducible manner through the adoption of a complex data analysis approach, content analysis in conjunction with multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis. Articles are classified according to dimensions extracted with multiple correspondence analysis, then a typology of network studies is created. Considering together the research streams emerged from this typology could be interpreted as specific dimensions of the more general research stream of social capital. In other words, social capital seems to be the very trait of union among social network studies in strategic and organizational research.
© 2011 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
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