Shared inventions and the evolution of capabilities: Examining the biotechnology industry

Do capabilities evolve differently as a function of the firm's unique ties or through the cumulative exposure to specific types of knowledge? We view capability evolution with respect to a firm's accumulation of knowledge-derived assets—patents. This study proposes that capabilities evolve by way of a firm's solo and joint invention experiences, and contends that these capabilities are uniquely shaped by the firm's history of patenting with two specific types of ties, upstream and downstream partners. Using a sample of 11,593 patents produced by 256 biotechnology firms from 1985 to 2006, we find that prior joint invention experience diversifies the capabilities of the firm and broadens its strategic options. In uncovering an inverted ‘U’ relationship, we also find that capabilities evolve differently according to the firm's unique joint invention experiences. Moreover, firms that continue to engage in more joint invention experiences develop broader capabilities than firms that retreat from this strategy and pursue solo inventions, whereby more specialized capabilities develop. Focusing on how R&D strategies impact capability development, our findings extend research on capabilities by accounting for how the path dependent role of shared property rights influences the technological trajectory of the firm.     

农村远程教育条件下中小学教师的信息化教学能力培训的探讨

山西省农村远程教育实施3年内,教师信息技术能力得到不同程度的发展,但也存在一些问题。在对山西省12个行政辖区中小学信息化教学能力培训现状及培训后实施效果进行了调研,分析了信息化教学能力培训存在的问题及成因,并结合调研对象的实际状况,有针对性提出了改进的建议和对策。     

Managing open incremental process innovation: Absorptive Capacity and distributed learning

In this conceptual article, we extend earlier work on Open Innovation and Absorptive Capacity. We suggest that the literature on Absorptive Capacity does not place sufficient emphasis on distributed knowledge and learning or on the application of innovative knowledge. To accomplish physical transformations, organisations need specific Innovative Capacities that extend beyond knowledge management. Accessive Capacity is the ability to collect, sort and analyse knowledge from both internal and external sources. Adaptive Capacity is needed to ensure that new pieces of equipment are suitable for the organisation's own purposes even though they may have been originally developed for other uses. Integrative Capacity makes it possible for a new or modified piece of equipment to be fitted into an existing production process with a minimum of inessential and expensive adjustment elsewhere in the process. These Innovative Capacities are controlled and coordinated by Innovative Management Capacity, a higher-order dynamic capability.     

管理学习的研究现状及其未来研究展望

管理学习(managerial learning)是后发企业学习先进管理知识、技术、规范、方法和程序等的过程,是企业提高管理能力的重要途径,但目前该领域缺乏深入、系统化的研究。通过综述国内外管理学习领域的研究进展,为未来的学术研究夯实基础;与此同时,识别制约该领域学术进步的障碍,并指出该领域未来需要研究的问题。     

Making knowledge visible: Using expert yellow pages to map capabilities in professional services firms

Professional services firms survive by exploiting the skills and knowledge of their employees to deliver a range of projects for clients. As a result of working on these projects, an organization's capabilities evolve in unpredictable and often divergent ways. In order to help their staff conduct these projects, services firms have invested heavily in knowledge management systems. To date, few attempts have been made to use the information contained in these knowledge management systems to understand the nature and evolution of capabilities in professional services firms. Using the expert yellow pages of Arup, one of the world's leading engineering consultancies, we develop a new approach based on co-word and proximity analysis to map the knowledge and skills of professional services firms. This approach provides a mechanism to allow such firms to better understand what they know and help them to deploy their skills in new and potentially lucrative ways.     

Economic perspectives on the development of complex products for increasingly demanding customers

Rival firms produce products with a variety of characteristics. It is typically assumed that consumers purchase those products that most closely match their ideal set of characteristics. Orthodox production theory economics offers no analysis of how to divide limited product development budgets between different characteristics. Furthermore, orthodox consumer economics assumes buyers make compensatory trade-offs between different product characteristics; this approach ignores problems caused by bounded rationality that, in complex choice environments, leads buyers to formulate simplifying heuristics such as hierarchical (non-compensatory) preferences over characteristics. An integrative analytical framework is developed, drawing upon orthodox economics, behavioural economics and evolutionary economics. Implications for the relationship between incremental product development and the firm's evolving capabilities are emphasized.     

Negotiating meanings of gender justice: Critical reflections on dialogs and debates in a non-governmental organization (NGO)

In this paper, we reflect upon how dialogs and debates in a non-governmental organization (NGO) – CARE India in the context of a girls’ education project shaped staff members’ understandings of gender justice. As CARE India staff shared their experiences in the field, in the organization, and in domestic spaces during gender training sessions and other forums, their different politics in these spaces shaped how they translated global discourses of gender justice to produce fluid, contested, and contextual understandings. While these dialogs included the voices of diverse social actors in identifying the capabilities needed for gender justice in education, they were often reframed by local NGO actors.     

A Competence-Based Science Learning Framework Illustrated Through the Study of Natural Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction

This article proposes a competence-based learning framework for science teaching, applied to the study of ‘big ideas’, in this case to the study of natural hazards and disaster risk reduction (NH&DRR). The framework focuses on new visions of competence, placing emphasis on nurturing connectedness and behavioral actions toward resilience and sustainability. The framework draws together competences familiarly expressed as cognitive knowledge and skills, plus dispositions and adds connectedness and action-related behaviors, and applies this by means of a progression shift associated with NH&DRR from abilities to capabilities. The target is enhanced scientific literacy approached through an education through science focus, amplified through the study of a big idea, promotion of sustained resilience in the face of disaster and the taking of responsibilities for behavioral actions. The framework is applied to a learning progression for each interrelated education dimension, thus serving as a guide for both the development of abilities and as a platform for stimulating student capabilities within instruction and assessment.     

What determines knowledge sourcing from host locations of overseas R&D operations?: A study of global R&D activities of Japanese multinationals

What determines knowledge sourcing from host locations of overseas R&D operations? We investigate factors that influence the extent to which overseas R&D laboratories source knowledge from host locations. Drawing on both the capabilities perspective and the embeddedness perspective, we have developed a conceptual model and then examined it empirically focusing on overseas R&D labs of Japanese multinationals. Statistical findings from negative binomial regressions show that both technological capabilities of the lab and external embeddedness in the local scientific and engineering communities matter.     

Social media in Chinese government: Drivers,challenges and capabilities

By the end of 2012, Chinese microblogging accounts had reached 309 million. Among them, over 176,000 accounts were opened and managed by Chinese government agencies, as new channels to disclose government information provide public services and interact with citizens. This study investigates the external drivers and challenges that Chinese government agencies are faced with and the internal capabilities of Chinese government agencies in using social media. The study further discusses the relationship and dynamics between the external environment and internal capabilities of Chinese government agencies in using social media. Based on the findings, the paper provides some recommendations to government agencies in China and other countries faced with similar challenges.