Bricolage as a path to innovation for resource constrained new firms

Evidence suggests that both start-up and young firms (henceforth: new firms) – despite typically being resource-constrained – are sometimes able to innovate (Katila & Shane 2005). Such firms are seldom able to invest in expensive innovation processes, which suggests that they may rely on other pathways to innovation. In this paper, we test arguments that “bricolage,” defined as making do by applying combinations of the resources at hand to new problems and opportunities, provides a pathway to innovation for new firms. Our results suggest that variations in bricolage behaviors can provide an explanation of innovation under resource constraints by new firms.

An analysis of schema change intervention

Successful organizational transformation relies on being able to achieve paradigm or collective schema change, and more particularly, the ability to manage the interplay between pre-existing schemas and alternative schemas required for new environments. This conceptual paper presents an analysis and critique of collective schema change dynamics. Two schema change pathways are reflected in the literature: frame-juxtapose-transition and frame-disengage-learning. Research findings in each pathway are limited and/or contradictory. Moreover, research on schema change focuses primarily on social dynamics and less on the relationship between social schema change dynamics and individual schema change dynamics. One implication of this lack of focus on individual schema change dynamics is the masking of the high level of cognitive processing and cognitive effort required by individuals to effect schema change. The capacity to achieve organizational transformation requires that more attention is given to managing these dynamics, which, in turn, requires significant investment in developing the change leadership capabilities of managers and the organizations they manage.

Enlightening, balancing and transcending entrepreneurial orientation : the 4th annual EO3 research PDW

Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) has a 30 year history as one of the most used concepts in entrepreneurship research. “Recent attention in formal sessions at the Academy of Management conference programs confirm Entrepreneurial Orientation as a primary construct with a majority of Entrepreneurship Division sponsored sessions devoted to studies using EO related measures”, as reported by the 2010 division program chair, Per Davidson (Roberts, 2010: 9). However, questions continue to be raised concerning over-dependence on parts of one strategic scale, possible inappropriate or under-theorized adaptations, and the lack of theoretical development on application and performance variance in emergent, organizational, and socioeconomic settings. One recent area of investigation in analysis, methods, theory and application concerns an “EO gestalt”, focusing on the family of EO-related measures and theory, rather than on one or more dimensions, in order to explore the theory and process of the Entrepreneurial Orientation phenomenon. The goals of the 4th Annual EO3 PDW are to enlighten researchers on the development of Entrepreneurial Orientation theory and related scales, balance the use of Entrepreneurial Orientation current knowledge with new research frontiers suggested by EO3 scholars’ questions, and transcend boundaries in the discoveries undertaken in the shared interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research agenda currently developing for Entrepreneurial Orientation concepts. Going into its forth year, the EO3 PDW has been pivotal in formalizing discussion, pushing research forward, and gaining insights from experienced and cutting edge scholars, as it provides a point of reference for coalescing research questions and findings surrounding this important concept.

HRM’s impact on innovative work behavior

The importance of innovation to the long-term survival and growth of an organization has been well recognized and acknowledged, and HRM practitioners face a critical challenge to design and implement practices that ensure the behaviors and attitudes necessary for sustained innovation. In this paper, we present the findings from an exploratory study that establish initial indications of links between work design, training and dcvelopment, employee engagement, and innovative work behaviors, setting the agenda for lurther investigation of how spccific HR practices of work design and training and development can supp0l1 employee engagement, and facilitate sustained innovation.

Do Australian public and nonprofit nurses cope with administrative stressors?

The nursing profession in Australia and other OECD countries such as the USA and the UK, have focused on ways to recruit and retain nurses (e.g., Bartram, Joiner, & Stanton, 2004). Research has shown that the most common factors impacting negatively on retention include sources of nursing stress such as workload and work environment. While the literature has shown that nursing staff encounter these stressors, studies do not examine the effects of stress caused by an increasing degree of administrative demand placed on nurses, caused by the new public management (NPM) reform in public and nonprofit (PNP) health care organizations. At best, some studies have alluded to some aspects of administrative related stressors (vis-a-vis nursing related stressors such as death, sickness, etc), but they have not been examined in any detail. Similarly, extant research has not examined how nurses cope with these administrative stressors. These will be the main aims of the present study.

Managerial cognition and reputation : does communication about firms’ intangibles affect performance?

Corporate reputation is viewed as fundamental to firm performance, growth and survival and the maintenance and enhancement of that reputation is a key responsibility of senior executives. However, relatively little is known about the main dimensions of corporate reputation and the amount of attention given to them by senior executives. Based on the corporate reputation and intangible resources literatures, thirteen reputational elements were identified and the amount of attention given to those elements in a large, longitudinal sample of annual reports from Australian firms was measured using computer aided text analysis. This identified five, main reputational dimensions that were both stable over time and related to firms’ future financial performance.

Peer state assessment of TxDOT maintenance program and practices : workshop and road rally findings

In an effort to evaluate and improve their practices to ensure the future excellence of the Texas highway system, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) sought a forum in which experts from other state departments of transportation could share their expertise. Thus, the Peer State Review of TxDOT Maintenance Practices project was organized and conducted for TxDOT by the Center for Transportation Research (CTR) at The University of Texas at Austin. The goal of the project was to conduct a workshop at CTR and in the Austin District that would educate the visiting peers on TxDOT’s maintenance practices and invite their feedback. CTR and TxDOT arranged the participation of the following directors of maintenance: Steve Takigawa, CA; Roy Rissky, KS; Eric Pitts, GA; Jim Carney, MO; Jennifer Brandenburg, NC; and David Bierschbach, WA. One of the means used to capture the peer reviewers’ opinions was a carefully designed booklet of 15 questions. The peers provided TxDOT with written responses to these questions, and the oral comments made during the workshop were also captured. This information was then compiled and summarized in the following report. An examination of the peers’ comments suggests that TxDOT should use a more holistic, statewide approach to funding and planning rather than funding and planning for each district separately. Additionally, the peers stressed the importance of allocating funds based on the actual conditions of the roadways instead of on inventory. The visiting directors of maintenance also recommended continuing and proliferating programs that enhance communication, such as peer review workshops.

Automated recognition of drunk driving on highways from video sequences

A new method for the detection of abnormal vehicle trajectories is proposed. It couples optical flow extraction of vehicle velocities with a neural network classifier. Abnormal trajectories are indicative of drunk or sleepy drivers. A single feature of the vehicle, eg., a tail light, is isolated and the optical flow computed only around this feature rather than at each pixel in the image.

Sustaining and improving the social condition of river ecosystems

This study uses and extends the theory of planned behavior to develop and empirically test a model of the social condition of riparian behavior. The theory of planned behavior is applicable to understanding the complexity of social conditions underlying waterway health. SEM identified complex interrelationships between variables. Aspects of respondent’s beliefs impacted on their stated intentions and behavior and were partially mediated by perceived behavioral control. The way in which people used waterways also influenced their actions. This study adds to theoretical knowledge through the development of scales that measure aspects of the social condition of waterways and examines their interrelationships for the first time. It extends the theory of planned behaviour through the incorporation of an objective measure of participants knowledge of waterway health. It also has practical implications for managers involved in sustaining and improving the social condition of river ecosystems.

The contribution of leadership attributes to large scale, complex project success

Mismanagement of large-scale, complex projects has resulted in spectacular failures, cost overruns, time blowouts, and stakeholder dissatisfaction. We focus discussion on the interaction of key management and leadership attributes which facilitate leaders’ adaptive behaviors. These behaviors should in turn influence adaptive team member behavior, stakeholder engagement and successful project outcomes, outputs and impacts. An understanding of this type of management will benefit from a perspective based in managerial and organizational cognition. The research question we explore is whether successful leaders of large-scale complex projects have an internal process leading to a display of administrative, adaptive, and enabling behaviors that foster adaptive processes and enabling behaviors within their teams and with external stakeholders. At the core of the model we propose interactions of key attributes, namely cognitive flexibility, affect, and emotional intelligence. The result of these cognitive-affective attribute interactions is leadership leading to enhanced likelihood of complex project success.

Creating new narratives through shared time and space : the performer/audience connection in multi-site dance events

Site-specific performance provides choices in audience experience via degrees of scale, proximity, levels of immersion and viewing perspectives. Beyond these choices, multi-site promenade events also form a connected audience/performer relationship in which moving together in time and space can produce a shared narrative and aesthetic sensibility of collective, yet individuated and shifting meanings. This paper interrogates this notion through audience/performer experiences in two separate multi-site, dance-led events. here/there/then/now occurred in four intimate sites within the Brisbane Powerhouse, providing a theatricalised platform for audiences to create linked narratives through open-ended and fragmented intertextuality. Accented Body, based on the concept of “the body as site and in site” and notions of connectivity, provided a more expansive platform for a similar, but heightened, shared engagement. Audiences traversed 6 outdoor and 2 indoor Brisbane sites moving to varying levels of a large complex. Eleven, predominantly interactive, screens provided links to other sites as well as to distributed presences in Seoul and London. The differentiation in scale and travel time between sites deepened the immersive experiences of audiences who reported transformative engagements with both site and architecture, accompanied by a sense of extended and yet quickened time.

The development of a conceptual framework for a district 4-Year Pavement Management Plan, implementation of network-level project screening process

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is concerned about the widening gap between preservation needs and available funding. Funding levels are not adequate to meet the preservation needs of the roadway network; therefore projects listed in the 4-Year Pavement Management Plan must be ranked to determine which projects should be funded now and which can be postponed until a later year. Currently, each district uses locally developed methods to prioritize projects. These ranking methods have relied on less formal qualitative assessments based on engineers’ subjective judgment. It is important for TxDOT to have a 4-Year Pavement Management Plan that uses a transparent, rational project ranking process. The objective of this study is to develop a conceptual framework that describes the development of the 4-Year Pavement Management Plan. It can be largely divided into three Steps; 1) Network-Level project screening process, 2) Project-Level project ranking process, and 3) Economic Analysis. A rational pavement management procedure and a project ranking method accepted by districts and the TxDOT administration will maximize efficiency in budget allocations and will potentially help improve pavement condition. As a part of the implementation of the 4-Year Pavement Management Plan, the Network-Level Project Screening (NLPS) tool including the candidate project identification algorithm and the preliminary project ranking matrix was developed. The NLPS has been used by the Austin District Pavement Engineer (DPE) to evaluate PMIS (Pavement Management Information System) data and to prepare a preliminary list of candidate projects for further evaluation.

Investing in the future : analysis of TxDOT 1547 Over-Axle Weight Tolerance Permits

The trucking industry has played a significant role in the economic growth in Texas by transporting and distributing commodities using commercial motor vehicles. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), however, has recognized that the large number of overweight trucks operating on the state highway system has resulted in the deterioration of pavement condition. In addition, the permit fee to carry higher loads above legal limits is much lower than the cost to treat the increase in pavement damage. The primary purpose of the research presented in this paper is to investigate current TxDOT overweight permit structures to support pavement management. The research team analyzed the TxDOT “1547” Over-axle Weight Tolerance Permit structure to support an increase in the fee structure, bringing it more in line with the actual pavement damage. The analysis showed that the revised overweight permit structure could provide an additional $9.3 million annually for pavement maintenance needs by increasing current permit fees. These results were supported by the 2030 Committee for recommendation to the Texas Transportation Commission and consideration by the State Legislature [1]. The research team recommends conducting further research to identify methods for working cooperatively with the trucking industry to develop improved methods for assessing weight damage relationships and developing more effective and accurate means for assessing overweight permit fees.

Peer state assessment of TxDOT maintenance program and practices, part II : test section survey findings and recommendations

This paper presents a road survey as part of a workshop conducted by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to evaluate and improve the maintenance practices of the Texas highway system. Directors of maintenance from six peer states (California, Kansas, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, and Washington) were invited to this 3-day workshop. One of the important parts of this workshop was a Maintenance Test Section Survey (MTSS) to evaluate a number of pre-selected one-mile roadway sections. The workshop schedule allowed half a day to conduct the field survey and 34 sections were evaluated. Each of the evaluators was given a booklet and asked to rate the selected road sections. The goals of the MTSS were to: 1. Assess the threshold level at which maintenance activities are required as perceived by the evaluators from the peer states; 2. Assess the threshold level at which maintenance activities are required as perceived by evaluators from other TxDOT districts; and 3. Perform a pilot evaluation of the MTSS concept. This paper summarizes the information obtained from survey and discusses the major findings based on a statistical analysis of the data and comments from the survey participants.

Peer state assessment of TxDOT maintenance program and practices, part I : workshop findings and recommendations

To assess and improve their practices, and thus ensure the future excellence of the Texas highway system, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) sought a forum in which experts from other State Departments of Transportation could evaluate the TxDOT maintenance program and practices based on their expertise. To meet this need, a Peer State Review of TxDOT Maintenance Practices project was organized and conducted by the Center for Transportation Research (CTR) at The University of Texas at Austin. CTR researchers, along with TxDOT staff, conducted a workshop to present TxDOT’s maintenance practices to the visiting peer reviewers and invite their feedback. Directors of maintenance from six different states—California, Kansas, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, and Washington—participated in the workshop. CTR and TxDOT worked together to design a questionnaire with 15 key questions to capture the peers’ opinions on maintenance program and practices. This paper compiles and summarizes this information. The examination results suggested that TxDOT should use a more state-wide approach to funding and planning, in addition to funding and planning for each district separately. Additionally, the peers recommended that criteria such as condition and level of service of the roadways be given greater weight in the funding allocation than lane miles or vehicle miles traveled (VMT). The Peer Reviewers also determined that TxDOT maintenance employee experience and communications were strong assets. Additional strengths included the willingness of TxDOT to invite peer reviews of their practices and a willingness to consider opportunities for improvement.