Towards a model of dynamic capabilities in innovation-based competitive strategy : insights from project-oriented service firms

With the growing significance of services in most developed economies, there is an increased interest in the role of service innovation in service firm competitive strategy. Despite growing literature on service innovation, it remains fragmented reflecting the need for a model that captures key antecedents driving the service innovation-based competitive advantage process. Building on extant literature and using thirteen in-depth interviews with CEOs of project-oriented service firms, this paper presents a model of innovation-based competitive advantage. The emergent model suggests that entrepreneurial service firms pursuing innovation carefully select and use dynamic capabilities that enable them to achieve greater innovation and sustained competitive advantage. Our findings indicate that firms purposefully use create, extend and modify processes to build and nurture key dynamic capabilities. The paper presents a set of theoretical propositions to guide future research. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. Finally, directions for future research are outlined.

Conceptualizing the interplay of knowledge accumulation and integration capabilities in service innovation-based competitive strategy : a project-oriented firm context

While past knowledge-based approaches to service innovation have emphasized the role of integration of knowledge in the provisioning of solutions, these approaches fail to address complexities involved with knowledge integration in project-oriented context, specifically, how the firm’s capability to acquire new knowledge from clients and past project episodes influence the development of new service solutions. Adopting a dynamic capability framework and building on knowledge-based approaches to innovation, this paper presents a conceptual model that captures the interplay of learning capabilities and the knowledge integration capability in the service innovation-based competitive strategy. Implications to theory and directions for future research are discussed.

A conceptual model to link deep customer insights to both growth opportunities and organisational strategy in SME’s as part of a design led transformation journey

Although Design Led Innovation activities aim to raise the value of design within the business, knowledge about which tools are available to support companies and how to apply them to make the connection between design for new product development and design as a strategic driver of growth is needed. This paper presents a conceptual method to supplement existing process and tools to assist companies to grow through design. The model extends the authors’ previous work to explore how through storytelling, customer observation can be captured and translated into new meaning, then creating new design propositions shaped into product needs, which can drive internal business activities, brand and the strategic vision. The paper contributes to a gap in the theoretical frameworks and literature by highlighting the need to align and scale design processes which match the needs of SME’s as they transition along a trajectory to become design led businesses.

Key competitiveness indicators for new real estate developers

Purpose – The paper aims to explore the key competitiveness indicators (KCIs) that provide the guidelines for helping new real estate developers (REDs) achieve competitiveness during their inception stage in which the organisations start their business. Design/methodology/approach – The research was conducted using a combination of various methods. A literature review was undertaken to provide a proper theoretical understanding of organisational competitiveness within RED's activities and developed a framework of competitiveness indicators (CIs) for REDs. The Delphi forecasting method is employed to investigate a group of 20 experts' perception on the relative importance between CIs. Findings – The results show that the KCIs of new REDs are capital operation capability, entrepreneurship, land reserve capability, high sales revenue from the first real estate development project, and innovation capability. Originality/value – The five KCIs of new REDs are new. In practical terms, the examination of these KCIs would help the business managers of new REDs to effectively plan their business by focusing their efforts on these key indicators. The KCIs can also help REDs provide theoretical constructs of the knowledge base on organisational competitiveness from a dynamic perspective, and assist in providing valuable experiences and in formulating feasible strategies for survival and growth.

The first global entertainment company : explaining Pathe's dominance in the pre-Hollywood film industry

For almost a decade before Hollywood existed, French firm Pathe towered over the early film industry with estimates of its share of all films sold around the world varying between 50-70%. Pathe was the first global entertainment company. This paper analyses its rise to market leadership by applying a theoretical framework drawn from the business literature on causes of industry dominance, which provides insights into how firms acquire and maintain market dominance and in this case the film industry. This paper uses evidence presented by film historians to argue that Pathe "fits" the expected theoretical model of a dominant firm because it had a marketing orientation, used an effective quality-based competitive strategy and possessed the six critical marketing capabilities that business research shows enable the best performing firms to consistently outperform rivals.

The first global entertainment company : explaining Pathe's global dominance in the pre-Hollywood film industry

For almost a decade before Hollywood existed, French firm Pathe towered over the early film industry with estimates of its share of all films sold around the world varying between 50-70%. Pathe was the first global entertainment company. This paper analyses its rise to market leadership by applying a theoretical framework drawn from the business literature on causes of industry dominance, which provides insights into how firms acquire and maintain market dominance, and in this case the film industry. This paper uses evidence presented by film historians to argue that Pathe “fits” the expected theoretical model of a dominant firm because it had a marketing orientation, used an effective quality-based competitive strategy and possessed the six critical strategic marketing capabilities that business research shows enable the best performing firms to consistently outperform rivals

Explaining Pathe's global dominance in the pre-Hollywood film industry

For almost a decade before Hollywood existed, French firm Pathe towered over the early film industry with estimates of its share of all films sold around the world varying between 50-70%. This paper analyses Pathe’s rise to market leadership by applying a theoretical framework drawn from the business literature on causes of industry dominance, that provides insights into how firms acquire and maintain market dominance. This paper uses evidence presented by film historians to argue that Pathe “fits” the expected theoretical model of the dominant firm because it had a marketing orientation, used an effective quality- based competitive strategy and possessed the six critical strategic marketing capabilities that business research shows enable the best performing firms to consistently outperform rivals.

The role of marketing in today's enterprises

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of marketing in today's enterprises and examines the antecedents of the marketing department's influence and its relationship with market orientation and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from the West (i.e. the USA and Europe) and the East (i.e. Asia). Partial least squares (PLS) was used to estimate structural models. Findings The findings support the idea that a strong and influential marketing department contributes positively to firm performance. This finding holds for Western and Asian, and for small/medium and large firms alike. Second, the marketing department's influence in a firm depends more on its responsibilities and resources, and less on internal contingency factors (i.e. a firm's competitive strategy or institutional attributes). Third, a marketing department's influence in the West affects firm performance both directly and indirectly (via market orientation). In contrast, this relationship is fully mediated among Eastern firms. Fourth, low-cost strategies enhance the influence of a firm's marketing department in the East, but not in the West. Research limitations/implications The paper assumes explicitly that a marketing department's influence is an antecedent of its market orientation. While the paper finds support for this link, the paper did not test for dual causality between the constructs. Originality/value Countering the frequent claim in anecdotal and journalistic work that the role of the marketing department diminishes, the findings show that across different geographic regions and firm sizes, strong marketing departments improve firm performance (especially in the marketing-savvy West), and that they should continue to play an important role in firms.

Technology strategy and competitive performance in bridge construction

Pragmatic construction professionals, accustomed to intense price competition and focused on the bottom line, have difficulty justifying investments in advanced technology. Researchers and industry professionals need improved tools to analyze how technology affects the performance of the firm. This paper reports the results of research to begin answering the question, “does technology matter?” The researchers developed a set of five dimensions for technology strategy, collected information regarding these dimensions along with four measures of competitive performance in five bridge construction firms, and analyzed the information to identify relationships between technology strategy and competitive performance. Three technology strategy dimensions—competitive positioning, depth of technology strategy, and organizational fit—showed particularly strong correlations with the competitive performance indicators of absolute growth in contract awards and contract award value per technical employee. These findings indicate that technology does matter. The research also provides ways to analyze options for approaching technology and ways to relate technology to competitive performance for use by managers. It also provides a valuable set of research measures for technology strategy.

Technology strategy and competitive performance : A study of bridge construction

Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, California, 1993

Identifying and implementing adaptive strategy in the U.S. military

Changes in the environment, including increased environmental complexity, require military supply units to employ a more adaptive strategy in order to enhance military agility. We extend the Lumpkin and Dess (1996) model and develop propositions that explore the interrelationships between/amongst entrepreneurial orientation (EO); opportunity recognition, evaluation and exploitation; environmental and organizational factors; and organizational performance. We propose that the innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking dimensions of EO are of primary importance in identifying adaptive solutions and that these relationships are moderated by environmental factors. The autonomy and competitive aggressiveness dimensions of EO are important in implementing solutions as adaptive strategies, especially in a military context, and these relationships are moderated by organizational factors. This chapter extends existing theory developed primarily for the civilian sector to the military. Military organizations are more rigid hierarchical structures, and have different measures of performance. At an applied level, this research provides insights for military commanders that can potentially enhance agility and adaptability.

Modeling the effects of strategic flexibility, organisational learning on e-business adoption and competitive advantage : an empirical investigation

The role of intangible firm capabilities as a source of competitive advantage has come into prominence in marketing strategy literature, due to the Resource Based View. This paper applies the Resource Based View and hypothesizes that strategic flexibility and organisation learning, conceptualised as capabilities, positively effect e-business adoption and competitive advantage. Partial Lease Squares analysis suggest that theoretical constructs function as hypothesised and explain a significant variation on e-business adoption and competitive advantage. Firms adopting e-business should develop capabilities such as strategic flexibility and organisation learning and that vendor firms may segment their potential clients based on these capabilities.

Marketing VM services to achieve competitive advantage in the Malaysian Construction Sector

Value Management (VM) has been proven to provide a structured framework, together with supporting tools and techniques that facilitate effective decision-making in many types of projects, thus achieving ‘best value’ for clients. It is identified at International level as a natural career progression for the construction service provider and as an opportunity in developing leading-edge skills. The services offered by contractors and consultants in the construction sector have been expanding. In an increasingly competitive and global marketplace, firms are seeking ways to differentiate their services to ever more knowledgeable and demanding clients. The traditional demarcations have given way, and the old definition of what contractors, designers, engineers and quantity surveyors can, and cannot do in terms of their market offering has changed. Project management, design and cost and safety consultancy services, are being delivered by a diverse range of suppliers. Value management services have been developing in various sectors in industry; from manufacturing to the military and now construction. Given the growing evidence that VM has been successful in delivering value-for-money to the client, VM would appear to be gaining some momentum as an essential management tool in the Malaysian construction sector. The recently issued VM Circular 3/2009 by the Economic Planning Unit Malaysia (EPU) possibly marks a new beginning in public sector client acceptance on the strength of VM in construction. This paper therefore attempts to study the prospects of marketing the benefits of VM by construction service providers, and how it may provide an edge in an increasingly competitive Malaysian construction industry.

The impact of managers' characteristics on the use of public relations strategy : an exploratory study in Queensland schools

While previous positive and normative studies have focused on the role public relations should play in organisations and the need for management in all organisations to attend to public relations (Cutlip et al., 2006), there has been little discussion in the public relations literature on why or how managers choose to enact public relations strategies for their organisations. If the discipline of public relations is to cement itself as a management function, then researchers must gain a better understanding of managers themselves given that they are the ones who decide if and how public relations strategies should be employed in the organisation. This study has sought to explore evidence of a relationship between management characteristics and their impact on decisions managers make when choosing which public relations strategies to adopt in response to changes in the organisation’s operating environment. This exploratory research study has been conducted within a specific context of schools in Queensland, Australia. Queensland schools have been facing a number of changes within their operating environment due to changes in Federal funding models in Australia’s education system. This study used an exploratory, qualitative approach to understand the management characteristics demonstrated by managers in schools and how these have impacted on the selection of public relations strategies for responding to their changing and increasingly competitive environment. The unit of analysis for this research study was principals in State (government) schools and in non-government schools. Ten principals were interviewed from four different types of schools in Queensland – the more traditional, elite, private schools (GPS Schools); other Independent Schools; Catholic Schools; and State (or public) schools. These interviews were analysed for quantitative comparisons of the managers’ characteristics across the different schools (in terms of the number of principals in each age bracket, those holding postgraduate qualifications, years of experience etc.); and for qualitative data to provide a greater sense of their understanding of public relations. The 10 schools were selected within a geographic area from Brisbane’s inner city to its outer western suburbs to include an element of competition amongst those managers being interviewed. A detailed review of government, school and other public documents was also conducted to gain an insight into the environment in which principals made decisions about public relations strategy to respond to increasing competition. This study found support for the literature on the relationship between management characteristics and strategy. However, there was also variation in findings warranting further investigation of the literature on the relationship between management characteristics and strategy in a school setting. Key relationships found in this study were between: management characteristics themselves; age and the use of public relations strategies; and gender and the use of public relations strategies. There was also evidence of support for the literature linking the impact that the combination of managers’ age, education and experience had on the use of public relations strategies. While this study was exploratory in nature, it did reveal a number of areas that require further investigation to gain a deeper understanding of how and why managers choose public relations strategies as a response to changes in their operating environment. It also provided a different framework to gain a better understanding of managers’ understanding and support of public relations in schools, which, in conjunction with an analysis of their management characteristics, will hopefully allow public relations scholars and practitioners alike gain an understanding of how and why managers use public relations strategies.

Providing a better work environment for competitive advantage – conceptual considerations linking commitment and firm-specific human resources

Managing for uncertain futures is a major concern in the area of strategic management with environmental stability fading and increasing global impacts on local decisions. One critical resource that has attained special interest lies in talented and qualified employees. It is a challenge to motivate such employees to invest in firm-specific assets that may form a valuable basis for competitive advantage. Short term contracts and a lack of care for employees make it hard to establish a committed workforce. The aim of the paper is the elaboration of a conceptual framework showing the links and contributing to a better understanding of how the alignment of interests of employees and firms maybe a valuable contribution to the understanding of competitive advantage.