Knowledge transfer in alliances: the moderating role of the alliance type

We analyse how the impact of determinants of inter-firm knowledge transfers in alliances can be moderated by the proximity of the resources pooled by partners. Six factors are examined: relative absorptive capacity (RAC), inter-partner trust, cultural distance between allies, knowledge ambiguity, knowledge protection, and the partners’ learning intent. We distinguish alliances mobilizing similar resources by partners (called ‘endogamies’ as allies build on their similarities) from alliances pooling different resources (called ‘exogamies’ as allies build on their differences). We propose that: (a) the impact of RAC on knowledge transfers is reinforced in exogamies, but reduced in endogamies; (b) the knowledge ambiguity and cultural distance effect is less in endogamies than in exogamies; (c) the trust and knowledge protection impact is stronger in exogamies than in endogamies; (d) the learning intent impact on knowledge transfers is similar in endogamies and exogamies.     

Knowledge workers’ perceptions of potential benefits and challenges of inter-organizational knowledge sharing systems: a Delphi study in the health sector

Inter-organizational knowledge sharing systems (IOKSS) can serve as strategic systems for knowledge-based sectors. Most prior research on inter-organizational systems (IOSs) focuses on organizations’ adoption of such systems; they reveal little about knowledge workers’ adoption of IOS, especially in horizontally linked firms. Knowledge workers’ perception is critical to the deployment of IOKSS at all stages. On the basis of a Delphi technique in the health sector, this study demonstrates that IOKSS can benefit individuals, customers, organizations, the sector, and the knowledge sharing process, and that the challenges of IOKSS arise from individuals, peers, IOKSS, organizations, and the sector.     

Absorptive capacity: a proposed operationalization

The concept of absorptive capacity has already been considerably studied from a theoretical perspective, but few, if any, attempts at operationalizing the concept have been studied in ways that would allow its full assessment. The more specific focus provided by the four dimensions identified in some recent literature – acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation – opens up some promising avenues for operationalizing the concept. This exploratory research studies and describes case studies of ten innovative companies using a cross-sectional research design. In the first part of the article, we re-examine the concept of absorptive capacity in terms of dynamic capabilities and provide a review of the relevant literature. The second part describes the work accomplished to operationalize the concept of dynamic capability and analyses the possible relationship between the business strategies adopted by the companies studied and their particular strategic capacity.     

Strategy development based on intangibles in SMEs – an integrated approach

The approach in this paper is based on the principles of action research and rapid prototyping. The paper shows the current status of a ‘bottom-up’ research process dedicated to continuously developing and improving management instruments that suit the requirements of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): pragmatic, easy-to-use and generating direct practical benefit. As a result, this paper links the concept of intangibles to the practical strategy development process in SMEs. The integration shown concerns several challenges: (1)?Integrate the internal and external perspective on intangibles, and, by that, link the concept of intellectual capital (IC) as a resource-based view with the concept of customer value as a market-based view. (2)?Integrate the theoretical concept of IC with a methodology for comprehensive strategy development. (3)?Integrate the formulation and implementation of business strategies taking into account the actual practice in SMEs.     

Towards an econophysics view of intellectual capital dynamics: from self-organized criticality to the stochastic frontier

The paper begins with research studying the concept and nature of Intellectual Capital (IC), as well as how close IC firms are to the stochastic frontier. Then basic concepts of complexity theory – such as agents, self-organized criticality (SOC), connectivities, fractals, and power laws (PLs) – are used to distinguish between two kinds of IC firms’ success: traditional SOC applications to how firms maintain their position in a changing industry vs. how an IC firm (such as Apple) creates a new stochastic frontier. The research sets up PLs as indicators of whether or not firms and industries are SOC-effective and includes propositions about: (1) How IC firms benefit from complexity dynamics and SOC; (2) How PL distributions are indicators of efficacious SOC and adaptivity; and (3) Why IC attributes serve to create more transient dynamics pertaining to the stochastic frontier and the rest of the industry's rank/frequency distribution.