Business intelligence and analytics as a driver of dynamic and operational capabilities in times of intense macroeconomic turbulence

Despite growing investments in Business Intelligence and Analytics (BI&A), the business value generation process associated with the adoption of these technologies is still unclear. Consequently, managers face difficulties in justifying such initiatives and subsequently evaluating their results. For companies that operate in extremely turbulent environments, the outcomes of BI&A investments may be even harder to estimate. In this study, we propose and statistically evaluate a causal model that connects the availability of BI&A resources and capabilities in a company to its operational marketing capabilities. Marketing processes are critical for the generation of innovations in products and services, and operational revenues, and thereby, for a firm's performance and competitiveness. In order to assess our model, we applied structural equation modeling techniques to data collected in multiple units of a large Brazilian telecommunications company during the worst economic and institutional crisis faced by the country. Our results suggest that the dynamic capabilities of a company fully mediates the positive effect of BI&A resources and capabilities on its marketing capabilities. In contrast to what is usually found in the literature, turbulence did not moderate the effect of dynamic capabilities on marketing capabilities.     

组织结构、知识吸收能力与研发团队创新绩效:一个跨层次的检验

面对全球化的竞争,研发团队在企业中的价值已经受到普遍关注,但是它与组织结构的关系及内在机制还有待进一步研究.本研究论述了企业组织结构通过知识吸收能力中介影响研发团队创新绩效的过程.研究结果显示:集权程度、反馈速度、部门整合能力对知识吸收能力具有正向影响;知识吸收能力对研发团队创新绩效具有正向影响;知识吸收能力在集权程度、反馈速度与团队创新绩效的关系之间具有部分中介效用,在部门整合能力与团队创新绩效之间具有完全的中介效用.本研究在推进相关理论研究的同时,也为企业研发团队创新实践提供了一定的启示.     

Global human burden and official development assistance in health R&D: The role of medical absorptive capacity

We investigate country-level determinants of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in health R&D with a focus on levels and types of human suffering as well as levels and types of medical absorptive capacity. Using latest data from a range of sources and various tests on large numbers of countries in receipt of health R&D ODA, we find support for the central assertions that human burden has a direct positive impact on receipt of health R&D ODA and that medical absorptive capacity in the recipient country moderates this relationship. The relationship between human burden and health R&D ODA receipt does not hold for countries low in medical absorptive capacity. Additional analysis reveals: (1) medical absorptive capacity that involves regular patient contact has the strongest moderating effect on the burden – funding relationship, (2) receipt of health R&D ODA under low levels of medical absorptive capacity explained not by human burden but by small country bias, and (3) the importance of nurses to health R&D ODA in countries with high levels of human suffering and health R&D ODA but voids of doctors and clinical trials.     

从个体吸收能力到组织吸收能力的演化——以知识共享为中介

吸收能力是如何从个体层次上升到组织层次的，一直是理论关注的焦点。与既往研究采取相对静态的解释视角不同，本研究基于个体间互动的视角，提出个体间知识共享是由个体吸收能力向组织吸收能力演化的中介变量，通过运用275家企业数据的实证检验，本研究部分证实了这一假设。同时，实证结果还表明，知识交流平台和组织共同愿景正向影响个体间知识共享绩效，组织决策集中化程度负向影响组织吸收能力。本研究在理论上揭示了由个体吸收能力向组织吸收能力演化的内在机制，研究结论对于指导企业提升吸收能力具有现实指导意义。     

国际化行为对高新技术企业创新绩效的影响机理——基于吸收能力的中介效应

国际化已成为新兴经济体国家实现创新追赶的重要战略选择。本文利用2014-2016年879家高新技术企业相关数据,针对企业多种国际化行为对创新绩效的影响进行理论分析与实证检验。并突破传统资源观和学习观,验证企业吸收能力在国际化行为与创新绩效间的中介作用及研发投入的调节作用。结果表明：1.国际化行为显著促进企业创新绩效提升,其中海外人才促进效果最强,海外出口次之,海外研发最弱。2.企业吸收能力在部分国际化行为与创新绩效间存在中介作用。3.研发投入在不同国际化行为与吸收能力间均存在调节作用,效果不同。     

Crowdsourcing for innovation: How related and unrelated perspectives interact to increase creative performance

In recent years, several organizations have opened up their innovation processes to individuals from outside of the organization by means of digital crowdsourcing. The literature on crowdsourcing has emphasized the importance of using digital technology to reach far beyond organizational boundaries and include individuals with (educational) backgrounds that are very different and unrelated to those within the organization in its innovation process. It has been argued that such individuals will contribute novel insights because they consider an organization's innovation challenge from different perspectives. Building on the literature on creativity and absorptive capacity, we instead argue that having a related perspective will positively affect an individual's idea performance, while unrelated perspectives only positively contribute to idea performance in combination with a related perspective. Analyses of 2178 ideas contributed by 948 crowd members to 68 crowdsourced idea challenges show that it is important to consider how (educational) backgrounds can provide individuals with multiple perspectives, which can be either related or unrelated, and study how the interplay of related and unrelated perspectives affects the value of ideas in organizational open innovation initiatives.     

服务外包企业创新能力提升路径——知识共享与吸收能力的中介作用

将提高服务外包企业创新能力作为研究目标,根据对上海浦东软件园、北京中关村软件园以及西安软件园内20多家服务外包企业437名员工的调查数据,以知识管理视角,探究组织学习、知识共享、吸收能力与服务外包企业创新能力间的关系,并重点分析知识共享和吸收能力的中介作用。结果表明:提高服务外包企业的组织学习能力、知识共享水平和吸收能力可以促进企业创新能力的提升,其中吸收能力和知识共享在组织学习与创新能力之间起中介作用,且吸收能力在知识共享对服务外包企业创新能力的影响中起中介作用。     

Extreme case learning: the manager perspective on rare knowledge and capabilities development

International strategy is enhanced by organizations’ ability to learn in host markets; yet, it remains ambiguous how post-entry knowledge gaps between home – and host country shape MNE’s absorptive capacity. This article builds on the specific contributions of ‘extreme case’ internationalization to advance literature in this field. We foster the understanding of the role of rare knowledge and the mechanisms that link knowledge acquisition to absorptive capacity dynamics used in the internationalization path of multinational enterprises (MNEs). We opt for in-depth qualitative research into the post-entry phase of ‘extreme’ (thus particularly crude) international joint venture (IJV) investment, and analyze the perspective of managers from a developed economy MNE located in a high-risk, weak-institutions host country. The firm’s absorptive capacity and its interaction with external environments that are categorized into four distinct contexts are found to be contingent upon pro-active experiential learning, concurrent to managerial willingness and simultaneous organizational commitments to learning and to exploiting rare knowledge. We thus uncover managerial perceptions of a knowledge gap identified as host-country challenges and resulting managerial solutions, which reveal rare learning opportunities and knowledge exploitation dynamics. The capacity to compensate for knowledge gaps is a critical key within the design and consolidation of an alternative internationalization path for developed-country MNEs. This challenges the traditional risk–return–commitment dependencies in prior literature.     

学习意图、吸收能力与产品创新绩效的关系研究

本文调查了学习意图、吸收能力和产品创新绩效对中国珠三角后发企业的作用。通过结构方程模型,来自制造业的143份有效问卷实证检验了学习意图、吸收能力和产品创新绩效之间的关系。研究结果显示,学习意图对吸收能力产生一个积极的作用,而吸收能力在学习意图和产品创新绩效之间起到了一个调节作用。     

Absorptive capacity and new product development

New product development, specifically the ability of a company to develop products that outperform their competitors in the marketplace has been shown to benefit from the acquisition and use of external information. In this paper, we examine the relationship between absorptive capacity and new product development performance. Absorptive capacity is defined as the ability to acquire external information, assimilate it, and exploit it for commercial ends [Adm. Sci. Q. 35 (1990) 128]. We would expect that greater absorptive capacity, which provides a greater capability to acquire and exploit external information, would lead to more effective new product development. In this paper, we test this proposition using data from the computer modem industry over a 24-year period. Absorptive capacity is operationalized by R&D intensity, and new product development performance is measured by the technical performance of new products. Our results indicate that the relationship between absorptive capacity and new product development performance is nonlinear. An “inverted-U” shape suggests diminishing returns for absorptive capacity. Implications and possible directions for future research are discussed.     

The impacts of different R&D organizational structures on performance of firms: Perspective of absorptive capacity

To speed up strategic alliance in R&D activities, different forms of R&D organization structures can be summarized into different roles including the input-oriented, the output-oriented, and the matrix organization structure. The most common mode of strategic alliance consists of horizontal and vertical integrations. However, the study adopting absorptive capacity to examine the impacts of different R&D organization structures on the performance of firms at different alliance modes has never been discussed. Therefore, the paper employs absorptive capacity to mediate the relationships between different R&D organization structures and the performance of firms. Since the theory of transaction cost economics is inadequate for addressing how well the technological knowledge develops in the organization. A conceptual model to analyze the tension between product strategies and their strategy implementation is proposed to challenge the vacancy. Practical investigation shows that a matrix R&D organizational structure mainly transfers knowledge to input-oriented R&D organizational structures in horizontal integration, and mainly integrates capabilities from output-oriented organizational structures in vertical integration. The result implies that stronger institutional environments lead to a stronger link between product strategies and their performance in vertical integration. Oppositely, the link is strengthened if more favorable attitudes and weaker management controls are present in horizontal integrations.     

吸收能力对产学研合作效率调节作用的实证研究

整合社会创新资源,进行产学研合作是中国企业打破国外技术壁垒、实现产业升级的一条捷径。不同的企业在进行产学研合作时其绩效存在着差异。从吸收能力理论的视角认为这些差异来源于企业自身吸收能力的差别,即吸收能力是产学研合作影响创新绩效的调节变量。为了验证这个假设,本研究利用珠三角企业的客观数据对模型进行了检验。分层多元回归结果表明△R2显著,调节作用存在。     

Teams’ innovation: getting there through knowledge sharing and absorptive capacity

This study addresses the contribution of knowledge sharing behaviour and absorptive capacity to innovation at team level. Although the hypotheses reflect the dominant literature, the study’s novelty lies in the data collected from several industries in Portugal, avoiding possible industry bias. Relationships are tested outside sectors where traditionally team effects are studied, for example healthcare. Data were collected from 141 employees working in organizational teams, excluding top management teams, which are often the object of research addressing phenomena leading to innovation. There is no evidence in support of organizational size effect, team’s geographic concentration effect or gender effect. However, team tenure duration is positively related to increased knowledge sharing, that is, recent teams do not share as much knowledge as older ones. Structural Equation Modelling was used to test the mediation effect of absorptive capacity between individual knowledge sharing behaviour and team innovation. Evidence in support of full mediation was found.     

Absorptive capacities approaches for investigating national innovation systems in low and middle income countries

This review article covers some of the founding literature that helps develop our understanding of the National Innovation System (NIS) concept. Subsequently, several versions of NIS, including system-functional approaches, are discussed and compared with narrow research and development (R&D) and market-based approaches. Finally, the article contends that the system-functional and other narrow approaches are limited in application to the developing low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Thus, it makes a case for more inclusive absorptive capacity approaches and explains how they might be more relevant in investigating the NIS of an LMIC. Such approaches suggest LMICs be strategic in building their innovation base and plead for strong local conditions (capacities) to produce knowledge as well as capture and improvise on incoming knowledge from abroad. The research is important as it provides insights into analyzing and capturing innovation processes in LMICs, which are prime candidates for development and innovation studies and practice.     

研究生工作站驻属企业创新绩效基于吸收能力变量共演进机制

目前企业研究生工作站作为校企研发联盟,其驻属企业创新绩效研究注重整体定性分析,多以人才培养质量保障为视角,实证研究较为鲜见;企业吸收能力不同变量对企业创新绩效的影响是理论研究热点。本研究以高校作为外部知识注入源,以457家企业研究生工作站所驻企业为样本,基于结构方程模型,研究企业吸收能力变量及其不同组合动态共演进对企业创新绩效的作用机制。研究表明：企业吸收能力影响因素不同变量组合对企业创新绩效作用与单因素相比明显改善,具体表现在企业研发活动、外部知识源在组织环境和沟通机制协同作用下,效应值显著提升并显示出明显的路径机制。本研究在基于企业研究生工作站的企业吸收能力对企业创新绩效作用机制研究方面以及企业研究生站建设方面有理论和现实参考价值。     

知识吸收能力的内涵和构成维度：基于人体消化吸收视角

知识吸收能力自1990年提出以来,其定义、内涵与构成维度等内容一直都是学者们关注的焦点,但并没有形成共识。从人体消化吸收的视角来探讨和分析知识吸收能力,对其重新进行定义,在Zahra和George研究的基础上提出吸收能力的5个维度,即知识获取能力、消化能力、转化能力、利用能力和知识清除能力,并构建了知识吸收能力的概念模型。     

技术转移、新产品开发与企业绩效

本文聚焦中国情境下制造业和高新技术企业的新产品开发过程，研究合作伙伴间两种不同的技术转移方式对技术接受企业绩效的影响，并探索新产品创新性及新产品开发速度在其中扮演的中介作用。同时，引入实际吸收能力作为调节变量，从而构建了本研究理论模型。之后，运用249家企业的调研数据进行模型验证，并采用AMOS和SPSS软件进行数据分析。研究结果表明，相对于技术交流而言，技术转移对新产品开发速度及企业绩效的正向影响均更加显著。相对于技术转移而言，技术交流对新产品创新性的正向影响更加显著。新产品创新性在技术交流与企业绩效之间起中介作用。新产品开发速度在技术转移与企业绩效之间起中介作用。同时，实际吸收能力增强了新产品创新性对技术交流与企业绩效的中介效应。     

基于知识管理的新产品开发影响因素实证研究

摘要：加强组织间的合作、对外部知识的有效整合、增强吸收能力将有利于组织促进新知识的创造,促进自有知识的形成,从而构建起核心能力和竞争优势。本研究选取华南地区117家高科技企业为样本,探讨吸收能力、合作能力、知识整合与新产品开发绩效之间的关系。实证结果表明：（1）吸收能力与合作能力存在显著的正向相关关系;（2）吸收能力与合作能力对知识整合有显著的直接正向影响;（3）知识整合对新产品开发绩效有显著的直接正向影响;（4）吸收能力与合作能力对新产品开发绩效没有显著的直接正向影响。该结果对于正确理解企业吸收能力、合作能力、知识整合在新产品开发中的作用具有重要的参考价值。     

技术转移、新产品开发与企业绩效

本文聚焦中国情境下制造业和高新技术企业的新产品开发过程,研究合作伙伴间两种不同的技术转移方式对技术接受企业绩效的影响,并探索新产品创新性及新产品开发速度在其中扮演的中介作用。同时,引入实际吸收能力作为调节变量,从而构建了本研究理论模型。之后,运用249家企业的调研数据进行模型验证,并采用AMOS和SPSS软件进行数据分析。研究结果表明,相对于技术交流而言,技术转移对新产品开发速度及企业绩效的正向影响均更加显著。相对于技术转移而言,技术交流对新产品创新性的正向影响更加显著。新产品创新性在技术交流与企业绩效之间起中介作用。新产品开发速度在技术转移与企业绩效之间起中介作用。同时,实际吸收能力增强了新产品创新性对技术交流与企业绩效的中介效应。     

创新绩效、R&D资本存量与吸收能力的增长路径

本文使用差分方程组分析了创新绩效、R&D资本存量与吸收能力的增长路径。分析结果表明:当R&D资本存量的现值比率与上期创新绩效对当期创新绩效的总贡献率之和小于1时,创新绩效、R&D资本存量与吸收能力的增长受到限制,且增长速率越来越小;当R&D资本存量的现值比率与上期创新绩效对当期创新绩效的总贡献率之和大于1时,创新绩效、R&D资本存量与吸收能力的增长不受限制,且增长速率越来越大。此外,折旧率、其他因素共同作用所产生的创新绩效、同一期的R&D资本存量对吸收能力的边际贡献与同一期的R&D资本存量对创新绩效的总贡献率对这三者的增长速率也有影响。