Toward a smarter enterprise

Muthusamy, Senthil Kumar; Dass, Parshotam

doi:10.1108/cr-12-2012-0031

Cited by 10 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 79 publications

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“…Individual competence is directly related to generation and introduction of innovative ideas (Wojtczuk-Turek & Turek, 2015). It is acknowledged that giving employees more freedom, a sense of ownership and self-determination is essential for workplace learning and long-term sustainability and dynamism in innovations (Muthusamy & Dass, 2014). When it comes to firms' overall performance, innovation helps in numerous ways to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness (Toner, 2011).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of on-the-Job Learning for Enterprises’ Innovativeness

Kusum¹

2017

IRJMIS

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The mode of on-the-job learning -one of the methods of acquiring competencies still remains one of the main modes of acquiring workplace competencies in conventional industries in developing countries. This paper explores the impact of aforesaid mode of competency acquisition for enterprise innovativeness of an industry of Sri Lanka. A structured questionnaire was used to gather primary data related to modes of acquiring competencies. Before data collection, it was reviewed by industry experts and piloted later on for validity. The paper analyses and presents effectiveness of onthe-job learning on the innovativeness of enterprises in this industry. The research has found that the main mode of acquiring enterprise competencies remains on-the-job learning. It has been found that the level of innovations in enterprises in the industry remains at low attributed to the traditional way of acquiring competencies. As a result, the industry stagnates and faces challenges for sustainability. No similar research study was done before in this industry and thus is an original work. The study has implications to policy, theoretical and practical aspects of the industry.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of on-the-Job Learning for Enterprises’ Innovativeness

Kusum¹

2017

IRJMIS

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Shoaling (School of Fish) As Competitive Strategy

Muthusamy

2015

Strategic Change

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A s firms are witnessing uncertain business conditions and more thrust is being given to agility, speed, and market responsiveness rather than scale and size, operating in a shoaling form is a desired strategy across many industries.Managers of established firms as well as those of emerging industry challengers continually seek new strategies that ensure better returns with minimal risk. While incumbent industry leaders struggle to sustain innovativeness and market responsiveness with firm size built to primarily secure cost advantages, emerging industry challengers search for innovations to break industry barriers. A 'shoaling strategy' (also referred to as disaggregation here), that will enable firms to operate in a synchronized manner like a school of fish to concurrently achieve scale economies as well as market responsiveness is proposed in this article. Shoaling strategy, on the one hand, reduces the opportunity cost of not exploiting emerging market opportunities and, on the other hand, reduces the investment risk that accrues due to large-scale integration.There is a traditional saying in business that 'big fish eats small fish,' which suggests that a firm's large scale will ensure higher returns and competitive advantage over rivals. A shoaling strategy, on the contrary, challenges this notion with the contention that 'quick fish -albeit smaller -can eat large fish.' The main premise of this argument is that a shoaling strategy (school of fish) to organize the value chain will be the most effective way to accomplish competitive advantage without large-scale investment commitment.'Small is beautiful,' argued Schumacher (1973) while proposing an aesthetic and humanistic approach for designing economic, business, and production systems. With a similar rationale, it is suggested that the small scale has emerged into an alternative paradigm for building efficient, innovative, and dynamic models of business. Recent studies attest to this phenomenon, indicating the emergence of knowledge-centered global enterprises operating as 'dispersed network[s] of smaller units' and large firms being disaggregated and their boundaries becoming shrunk and permeable (Birch, 1987;Contractor et al., 2010; 1 JEL classification codes: B20, D23, D24, L22, L23, M11, M21.Shoaling can be considered a unique business strategy, because it enables a large firm to operate with the nimbleness of a smaller firm or it can allow small firms to effectively rally their resources against large rivals.A shoaling strategy, on the one hand, reduces the opportunity cost of not exploiting emerging market opportunities and, on the other hand, reduces the investment risk that accrues due to large-scale integration.A shoaling form enables multipronged competitive strategies, permitting a firm to develop unique or optimal strategy for each rival it encounters in the respective market or region.

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Organizational ambidexterity in policy networks

Heras

Estensoro

Larrea

2020

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Purpose This paper aims to propose an analytical framework in which to study ambidexterity in the management of policy networks. The paper is inspired by the concept of organizational ambidexterity in the public sector (Smith and Umans, 2015). By focusing on policy networks fostered by public administration with the aim of supporting small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) innovation, the paper elaborates on the links between firm innovation and performance and regional development. The cases analyzed are policy networks fostered by two publicly owned county development agencies in the Basque Country (Spain). An analytical framework emerges from bridging the gap between theory and practice. By understanding ambidexterity as a dynamic capability, the authors found that key ambidexterity drivers are related to network features (motivation to balance exploration and exploitation and diversity in terms of participants) and the individual feature of diversity within the network management group. However, other individual characteristics (leadership style) and territorial features (local institutional capacity) did not provide conclusive insights, calling for a deeper analysis and complex models to capture specific nuances. Design/methodology/approach The method used in the empirical part of the paper is the case study, as it considers the contextual conditions pertaining to a phenomenon (Yin, 2009) and helps understand present dynamics in specific contexts (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2009). Flyvbjerg (2006) examines common misunderstandings about case studies to conclude that social science may be strengthened by the execution of greater number of good case studies. Following his arguments, the authors consider that practical knowledge is also valuable together with theory, that is why the framework is not derived exclusively form theory but from the interaction and mutual influence of theory and practice. Findings The case studies lead to a discussion on the effect of network, territorial and individual characteristics (including management/facilitation modes) on network outcomes, including innovation performance of firms and network sustainability. Additionally, these cases show the importance of different factors as necessary conditions and key discriminants when supporting ambidextrous networks. The case analysis and the integration of the theory in this analysis allow observing the evolution of both networks, developing some conclusions on the core factors that influenced these trajectories, thus proposing an analytical framework. Specifically, it can be seen that some of the factors conditioned the ambidextrous strategy of the network. Practical implications The main implication of the paper in practice is that the concept of ambidexterity and the framework developed to understand some of its features are a useful tool to diagnose policy networks. The impact in society inspired in this implication is that authors, through the discussion workshops mentioned in the methodology section, have helped the community of policy network managers in Gipuzkoa reflect and improve their strategies and consider the potential of not exclusively focusing on exploration or exploitation. Consequently, the impact on society, in this case on policy networks in the region, has gone beyond the cases studied. Originality/value The paper proposes the concept of ambidexterity as one that helps analyze the ability of policy networks to foster SMEs innovation. Managerial literature has extensively analyzed the importance of modes to foster ambidexterity within organizations (Gibson and Birkenshaw, 2004; He and Wong, 2004; Levinthal and March, 1993; Lubatkin et al., 2006) and also its individual dimension (Volery et al., 2015). Managerial focus on policy networks and its link to organizational ambidexterity thus remain understudied. Although private sector literature has explored both concepts, the relation between them has not been analyzed (Smith and Umans, 2015).

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Toward a smarter enterprise

Cited by 10 publications

References 79 publications

Effectiveness of on-the-Job Learning for Enterprises’ Innovativeness

Effectiveness of on-the-Job Learning for Enterprises’ Innovativeness

Shoaling (School of Fish) As Competitive Strategy

Organizational ambidexterity in policy networks

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