Learning by Interaction: Absorptive Capacity, Cognitive Distance and Governance

This article analyses problems and solutions in thegovernance of knowledge exchange and joint knowledgeproduction. The analysis is based on a theory whichcombines elements of transaction cost economics,social exchange theory and theory of knowledge. Thetheory of knowledge yields an analysis of absorptivecapacity, communicative capacity and learning byinteraction. In that setting, the paper analysesproblems of governance: hold-up problems as a resultof specific investments in setting up knowledgeexchange, spill-over problems, a trade-off betweenstability and change of exchange relations, and atrade-off between novelty and understandability(`cognitive distance'). A survey is given ofcontingencies that affect the size of problems and theefficacy of instruments for their governance.     

FDI溢出、吸收能力与东道国IT产业的发展

通过构建东道国企业与跨国公司在IT产业的Bertrand博弈竞争模型,探讨东道国企业的技术能力、内外资企业市场竞争、行业特征、知识产权等微观、中观、宏观因素对跨国公司技术转移的吸收利用,并以分位数回归法分析吸收能力对FDI溢出效应的影响.研究结果表明,在内外资企业技术差距不大、竞争充分的条件下,竞争机制和东道国企业的技术创新能力是决定FDI溢出效应和技术转移的有效机制.东道国变量对处于不同分位的FDI溢出存在非对称性影响,具体而言,研发投入对FDI溢出的正向影响在条件分布的高端和低端最为显著,FDI的溢出效应随着技术差距和人力资本存量由条件分布的低端向高端变动都呈现出先增后减的变化趋势,知识产权保护程度的加大虽能促进FDI的流入,但不利于FDI的技术溢出,网络效应对FDI技术溢出具有较小但平稳的正向影响.     

组织学习导向、知识转移和吸收能力对国际企业绩效的影响研究

利用组织学习理论,对国际企业在动态的海外市场如何维持竞争优势、提高绩效进行了探讨.实证分析结果发现,学习导向和吸收能力对国际企业的绩效产生显著的正向影响,而知识转移对绩效的影响是通过与吸收能力的交互作用实现的.     

Gender and Management: A Critical Review of Research

This article selectively reviews gender and management research. A flavour of what it can be like to research in this area is offered alongside a more substantive account. The article maps the many strands of work potentially relevant to exploring gender and management. It covers aspects of the field such as its diversity, emerging development, potential marginality and increasing clarity of definition, and considers implications for researchers. The appropriate integration of gender awareness into mainstream theorizing, alongside its separate development, is advocated. Major themes and issues in gender and management research are summarized and briefly addressed. Dilemmas about seeking to promote change but needing to speak within current conventions of management and academia are noted.     

企业内部知识转移中个体中心度、吸收能力对绩效的影响

以往关于社会资本对企业内部知识转移影响的研究,通常提取一些基本的人口统计学特征作为控制变量,考察联系特征和结构特征对知识转移的影响,而对吸收能力的讨论却较少。本文将个体在社会网络中的结构特征和个体吸收能力结合起来,分别考察在情感网络和咨询网络中,个体的中心度以及中心度与吸收能力的交叉对个体绩效的影响。结果发现情感网络对个体绩效没有显著影响。在咨询网络中,个体出度对绩效有正作用,而且该作用依赖于个体吸收能力。     

Research on the Elements of Firm's IS Absorptive Capacity

In this paper, we explore the capacity during the process of a firm's information system adoption and implementation from knowledge management perspective, based on a firm's level construct. According to the di- mensions of absorptive capacity proposed by Zahra and George, we point out that the concept of IS absorptive ca- pacity, analyze and summarize the elements of potential absorptive capacity and realized absorptive capacity. We use data from two manufacturing organizations, analyze two firm's realities of IS absorptive capacity. The study indicates differing antecedents may have differing effects on potential absorptive capacity and realized ab- sorptive capacity.     

知识共享路径选择策略与员工创新绩效关系研究

通过对知识共享路径选择策略的划分,构建了基于知识吸收能力的员工创新绩效增长模型,并分析了不同选择策略对员工自有知识水平和创新绩效增长的影响。研究结果表明,渐进式策略更有利于提高员工的创新绩效,但同时还应提升员工自身的基本素质,并根据员工与知识本身的特点,灵活地制定相应的路径选择策略。     

吸收能力和网络惯例形成演化视角下的突破性产品创新研究

基于组织间学习过程的演化情境,从吸收能力和网络惯例在组织间的形成过程视角,研究吸收能力、网络惯例与突破性产品创新的关系.通过分析珠三角地区的161家科技型中小企业的样本数据,研究发现:吸收能力和网络惯例对突破性产品创新均有显著正向影响,而网络关系稳定度正向调节吸收能力与突破性产品创新的关系.此外,网络惯例的两个子维度对突破性产品创新的影响存在差异,即行业默契对突破性产品创新有显著的正向影响,而规范接受对突破性产品创新的负向影响不显著.     

An Examination of the Relationship Between Absorptive Capacity and Organizational Learning,and a Proposed Integration

Since its inception, the concept of absorptive capacity has been closely linked with notions of organizational learning. Yet the precise nature of the relationship between these two concepts has never been established. This relationship is examined in a variety of ways, and it is suggested that the literature on these two concepts shares a conceptual affinity which needs to be delineated. It is suggested that absorptive capacity (a dynamic capability) is a concrete example of organizational learning that concerns an organization's relationship with new external knowledge. Using the 4I Model for organizational learning ( Crossan, M.M., Lane, H.W. and White, R.E. (1999 ). An organizational learning framework: from intuition to institution. Academy of Management Review, 24, 522–537) and Zahra and George's conceptualization of absorptive capacity ( Zahra, S.A. and George, G. (2002 ). Absorptive capacity: a review, reconceptualization, and extension. Academy of Management Review, 27, 185–203), this paper proposes an integration of the two concepts.     

互动公平研究评述

反映人们对组织内部沟通质量感知的互动公平,将引领组织公平研究的第三次浪潮。互动公平的测量均采用间接测量方式,并以Colquitt的量表最为广泛应用。互动公平受上下级人格特征、行为以及上下级相似性影响,并在个体层次和群体层次产生影响。互动公平未来研究应着重本土化研究、前因变量的探索和纵向研究。     

Small Business Social Responsibility: A Critical Multilevel Review,Synthesis and Research Agenda

Small‐business social responsibility (SBSR) related research is rapidly increasing in quantity, but is found in divergent literatures and disciplines. It is time to offer a comprehensive review that identifies, synthesizes and integrates previous research, and highlights the knowledge gaps and the way forward. This methodical search of the literature helped to identify 115 multidisciplinary peer‐reviewed academic articles appearing in high‐quality journals over the 1970–2016 period. Using a systematic and in‐depth content analysis technique, the authors reviewed the articles and identified the theories used, the national contextual focus and the methodological orientations in these articles. They also identified the predictors, outcomes, mediators and moderators of SBSR at the institutional, organizational and individual levels of analysis. This review helps to identify significant knowledge gaps in terms of the theoretical orientation, the national contextual focus, the core content under study, and the methods used. The authors offer numerous suggestions across these topics to help address the knowledge gaps and raise important questions for future research. The primary contributions of this paper are: delineating and summarizing a multilevel analysis of an emerging literature on SBSR; integrating contributions from a wide range of management disciplines and geographical contexts; extracting the potential theoretical contributions in this field; and informing directions for future research. The authors propose a research agenda that is theoretically relevant and innovative, and call for context‐ and size‐aware research on SBSR, using small‐business‐specific methodologies and measurements.     

网络嵌入、吸收能力与企业绩效——基于甘宁青老字号企业的实证研究

吸收能力的强弱直接影响到老字号企业利用社会网络资本获得有价资源和信息所创造价值的大小。通过对甘宁青地区的32家老字号企业实地调查和实证分析,结果显示:网络嵌入对企业绩效有显著正向影响,吸收能力在网络嵌入与企业绩效之间起到中介作用,本文研究成果对老字号企业适应消费市场变化具有重要启示。     

Work–Life,Diversity and Intersectionality: A Critical Review and Research Agenda

Work–life issues have important implications at both organizational and individual levels. This paper provides a critical review of the work–life literature from 1990 onwards through the lens of diversity, with a particular focus on disparities of power induced by methodological and conceptual framings of work and life. The review seeks to answer the following questions: What are the gaps and omissions in the work–life research? How may they be overcome? To answer these questions, the review scrutinizes blind spots in the treatment of life, diversity and power in work–life research in both positivist and critical scholarship. In order to transcend the blind spots in positivist and critical work–life research, the review argues the case for an intersectional approach which captures the changing realities of family and workforce through the lens of diversity and intersectionality. The theoretical contribution is threefold: first, the review demonstrates that contemporary framing of life in the work–life literature should be expanded to cover aspects of life beyond domestic life. Second, the review explains why and how other strands of diversity than gender also manifest as salient causes of difference in experiences of the work–life interface. Third, the review reveals that social and historical context has more explanatory power in work–life dynamics than the micro‐individual level of explanations. Work–life literature should capture the dynamism in these contexts. The paper also provides a set of useful recommendations to capture and operationalize methodological and theoretical changes required in the work–life literature.     

The Effect of Absorptive Capacity on Innovativeness: Context and Information Systems Capability as Catalysts

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between absorptive capacity and company innovativeness and to identify potential contexts and capabilities that can act as catalysts for these relationships. We also examine the relationship between absorptive capacity and the existence and enhancement of innovativeness. These relationships are examined through an empirical investigation of 286 large Spanish companies. Our results show that absorptive capacity is an important dynamic determinant for developing a company's innovativeness. Moreover, this relationship is best explained by two related constructs. First, the company's unlearning context is a crucial determinant for both potential capacity and realized absorptive capacity. Second, the results also indicate a tangible means for managers to enhance their absorptive capacity through information systems capabilities.     

Developing Absorptive Capacity Theory for Public Service Organizations: Emerging UK Empirical Evidence

A strong public policy focus on high performance means that utilizing management knowledge effectively is at a premium for UK public service organizations. This study empirically examined two English public agencies to explore the inter‐sectoral transfer of a strategic management model originally developed in the private sector – absorptive capacity – which is one way of conceptualizing an organizational competence in such knowledge mobilization. Two theoretical contributions are made. First, a new absorptive capacity framework for public service organizations is developed which recognizes the participation of public agency project teams during an innovation process proceeding over time with phases of co‐creation, testing, metamorphosis and diffusion. Second, our novel framework modifies an early influential model of absorptive capacity. Counter to this model, we argue that realized absorptive capacity requires agency from skilled and embedded actors to turn ‘curbing routines’ into ‘enabling routines’ in all four stages. Project (middle) managers have flexibility in their roles to seize episodic moments of opportunity to innovate and achieve service delivery goals, and to build absorptive capacity capability. Absorptive capacity capability develops organically over time. Future research directions are discussed.     

外部搜寻、联结强度、吸收能力与创新绩效的关系

从企业边界理论和知识基础观出发,研究搜寻宽度和搜寻深度对组织探索式创新绩效和应用式创新绩效的影响;引入联结强度和吸收能力作为情景变量,探讨二者对主效应的调节作用;利用三项交互方法,探讨外部搜寻战略、联结强度和吸收能力三者的交互作用对创新绩效的影响;以281家本土制造业企业为样本,利用分层回归分析和三项交互分析方法进行实证研究。 研究结果表明,搜寻宽度与探索式创新绩效正相关,与应用式创新绩效呈倒U形关系,搜寻深度与应用式创新绩效正相关;联结强度负向调节搜寻宽度与探索式创新绩效之间的关系,正向调节搜寻深度与应用式创新绩效之间的关系;实际吸收能力正向调节搜寻宽度与探索式创新绩效之间的关系,潜在吸收能力正向调节搜寻深度与应用式创新绩效之间的关系;搜寻宽度、联结强度和实际吸收能力三者交互项与探索式创新绩效负相关,搜寻深度、联结强度和潜在吸收能力三者交互项与应用式创新绩效正相关。 通过探讨外部搜寻、联结强度和吸收能力的三项交互作用对创新绩效的影响,发现搜寻宽度和搜寻深度对创新绩效的显著差异化影响,有助于从一个新的视角解释外部搜寻与创新绩效之间的“关系争论”;已有外部搜寻研究往往忽略组织间的联结机制,通过引入联结强度,弥补了联结机制的缺失;区别于已有吸收能力的直接效应研究,将吸收能力作为调节变量分情景讨论,丰富了吸收能力的权变视角研究。研究结果有助于加强外部搜寻理论研究,并一定程度上有利于指导中国企业具体创新实践。     

Closed‐Loop Supply Chains: A Critical Review,and Future Research*

In this article, I present a review and tutorial of the literature on closed‐loop supply chains, which are supply chains where, in addition to typical forward flows, there are reverse flows of used products (postconsumer use) back to manufacturers. Examples include supply chains with consumer returns, leasing options, and end‐of‐use returns with remanufacturing. I classify the literature in terms of strategic, tactical, and operational issues, but I focus on strategic issues (such as when should an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) remanufacture, response to take‐back legislation, and network design, among others) and tactical issues (used product acquisition and disposition decisions). The article is written in the form of a tutorial, where for each topic I present a base model with underlying assumptions and results, comment on extensions, and conclude with my view on needed research areas.     

Interorganizational Relationships in Marketing: A Critical Review and Research Agenda

Over recent decades, the area of marketing interorganizational relationships (IORs) has received increasing attention from both academics and practitioners, even if a comprehensive portrayal of past research is still lacking. Hence, the aim of the present paper is to review the literature on marketing IORs in order to develop a framework meant to organize the different contributions in this area and suggest new paths for future research. The analysis suggests that three main streams of research can be identified with regard to the type of relationship between variables investigated by each article. Moreover, taking into account the purpose of the IOR, common patterns within each stream may be identified. A critical analysis of articles grounded on both the streams and the purpose of marketing IORs suggests there are still substantial gaps in knowledge, which open new paths for future research regarding both methodological issues and hot topics.     

中国企业吸收能力对竞争优势的影响

以企业资源基础理论为基础,从企业吸收能力这一概念入手.剖析企业吸收能力与企业竞争优势的关系,研究组织管理机制对企业吸收能力构建和发展的影响.依据吸收能力经典文献对吸收能力的前因进行重新梳理和归类,对现有文献中各种思路有一定的整理和明示作用;通过模型的构造和分析,采用实证研究方法.在286个中国企业样本的基础上进行统计分析;通过研究两种吸收能力的4类影响因素,辨识出中国企业在吸收能力培养和发展方面的优势和弱势,通过实证方法全面衡量和验证潜在吸收能力与实际吸收能力两者之间以及两能力与企业竞争优势的关系.研究结果表明,潜在吸收能力和实际吸收能力均是中国企业竞争优势的重要来源,其中代表创新的实际吸收能力对竞争优势的贡献更大.探讨中国企业应用外部知识的特点和规律,为中国企业如何提高知识学习效果和效率提供理论根据与实践建议.     

创业情境、关键学习事件与利益相关者影响力分析

在比较网络化成长、合法化成长与学习成长3种企业成长理论的基础上,认为创业情境学习理论更适合解释复杂背景下的新企业成长现象。利用结构化理论的脚本分析框架,梳理了国内外创业与新企业成长等相关文献,提出基于创业情境学习视角的新企业成长概念模型,并总结该模型对新企业成长研究的启示及未来研究方向。