scholarly journals Fostering knowledge creation to improve performance: the mediation role of manufacturing flexibility

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 1871-1892 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Pinheiro ◽  
Graça Miranda Silva ◽  
Álvaro Lopes Dias ◽  
Luis Filipe Lages ◽  
Miguel Torres Preto

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the mediating role of manufacturing flexibility in the relationship between knowledge creation, technological turbulence and performance. In an increasingly competitive and changing environment, firms need to boost their technological and management know-how to adequately develop manufacturing flexibility.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzes survey data collected from 370 manufacturing firms. Validity and reliability analyses were conducted using SPSS and Amos. The research hypotheses were tested using covariance-based structural equation modelling.FindingsThe main findings show that knowledge creation positively and significantly affects business and operational performances directly, and indirectly, through manufacturing flexibility. Moreover, technological turbulence has a positive and significant effect on it. This finding contributes to understanding why some firms get better outcomes from manufacturing flexibility than others, a disputed issue in the literature.Practical implicationsThis study highlights the need for manufacturing firms to foster cultures of knowledge creation, to better educate and train employees and to develop other instruments of knowledge creation.Originality/valueThis study makes several contributions to manufacturing flexibility literature: (1) establishing a link between technological turbulence and knowledge creation to develop manufacturing flexibility; (2) add empirical evidence on the relation between manufacturing flexibility and performance and (3) contributes to consolidating the mediation role of manufacturing flexibility in the relations between knowledge creation and business performance, as studies focussing on such a role are scarce in the literature.

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 803-815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Zhang ◽  
Longwei Wang ◽  
Jie Gao ◽  
Xin Li

Purpose To obtain in-depth explanations of the effects of servitization, this paper aims to analyse the benefits and costs at different servitization levels. The authors also investigate the moderating roles of demand uncertainty and technological turbulence on such effects. Design/methodology/approach The authors use the resource-based view (RBV) and transaction cost economics (TCE) to analyse the varying benefits and costs associated with servitization at its different levels and proposes the hypotheses. Then they use the survey data of 239 Chinese manufacturing firms to empirically test these hypotheses. Findings The interplay among service benefits, adjustment costs and coordination costs results in a nonlinear relationship between servitization and business performance. A negative servitization–performance relationship is observed at low levels of servitization as adjustment costs would be dominant. At moderate servitization levels, a positive relationship is observed because service benefits increase substantially and outweigh the increase in adjustment and coordination costs. As servitization levels further increase, coordination costs become dominant and a negative servitization–performance relationship reappears. The study further shows the significant moderating role of demand uncertainty and the insignificant moderating role of technological turbulence. Research limitations/implications This study provides a nuanced understanding of the curvilinear effects of servitization on business performance in response to the calls for detailed insights from quantitative studies. Practical implications The findings provide guidance on the degree to which the manufacturing firm should extend its service businesses based on demand and technological environments. Originality/value This is one of the pioneering empirical studies applying RBV and TCE to examine the varying benefits and costs across different servitization levels. The findings provide insight into the ongoing discussion about “service paradox” and “deservitization”.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 296-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thi Hong Nguyen ◽  
Angelina Nhat-Hanh Le

Purpose The paper aims to explore the role of climate for creativity and innovation as the situational variable to lead to both expected and unexpected consequences (e.g. performance and unethical behavior), by discovering the relationships among task characteristics (e.g. difficulty, clarity and performance pressure), individual psychological aspects (e.g. mindfulness and self-justification) and work environmental conditions (e.g. peer behavior and climate for creativity and innovation). In this study, task characteristics are proposed to positively associate with unethical behavior via mindfulness. Moreover, climate for creativity and innovation is proposed to moderate the relationship between self-justification and unethical behavior. Finally, unethical behavior is predicted to positively influence on performance. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from the sample of salespeople, who are working for variety of companies in Vietnam. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and SmartPLS 3 are implemented to test the path model. Findings Emphasizing both bright and dark sides of promoting creativity and innovation, the study highlights the role of climate for creativity and innovation in strengthening the positive relationship between self-justification and unethical behavior. In turn, unethical behavior positively influences performance. Further, the findings indicate that mindfulness contributes in explaining unconscious unethical behavior. Originality/value Exploring the relationships among climate for creativity and innovation, unethical behavior and performance, this paper contributes for deeper understanding of variety aspects of innovation. Demands for an intelligent management in modern workplaces are suggested.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 446-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adeel Tariq ◽  
Yuosre Badir ◽  
Supasith Chonglerttham

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of green product innovation performance (GPIP) on a firm’s financial performance (i.e. a firm’s profitability and risk). In addition, it has adopted the resource-based view and contingency theory to explore how GPIP and a firm’s financial performance relationship is manifested when subject to the moderating role of a firm’s market resource intensity and certain environmental factors, such as technological turbulence and market turbulence. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 202 publicly listed Thai manufacturing firms. This research has used hierarchical regression analyses to empirically test the proposed research hypotheses. Findings The findings reveal that GPIP exerts a significant influence on a firm’s financial performance, i.e. higher the GPIP, higher the firm’s profitability and lower the firm’s financial risk. Moreover, findings support the theoretical assertions that the higher level of market resource intensity, market turbulence and technological turbulence further strengthens GPIP and a firm’s financial performance relationship. Originality/value By considering the independent moderating role of market resource intensity, market turbulence and technological turbulence, this research has contributed to reconcile the previously disparate findings regarding the GPIP and a firm’s financial performance relationship. Moreover, this research has highlighted the role of the essential moderators that business managers must understand and adjust to capitalize on and achieve superior financial performance.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Imtiaz Mostafiz ◽  
Murali Sambasivan ◽  
See Kwong Goh

PurposeThe international entrepreneurial capability has achieved its legitimacy in international business literature. Leveraging capabilities to recognise opportunities is considered a pivotal strategy to achieve success. Drawing on the entrepreneurship literature and opportunity perspective, this study aims to investigate the role of international entrepreneurial capability in enhancing the international opportunity recognition (IOR) process and the performance of export manufacturing firms.Design/methodology/approachStructural equation modelling has been used to test the hypothesised relationship on 388 export manufacturing entrepreneurial firms operating in the apparel industry of Bangladesh.FindingsThe results signify that three international entrepreneurial capabilities, namely, international networking, learning and marketing capability, positively enhance the IOR process of export manufacturing firms. The IOR process positively mediates the relationships between these international entrepreneurial capabilities and firm performance.Originality/valueMerely having the international entrepreneurial capability is not sufficient to escalate the firm performance. It must be amplified by various strategic actions such as the IOR process. Entrepreneurs need to capitalise on the international entrepreneurial capability to leverage the IOR process and generate non-financial performance success. Entrepreneurial firms that focus more on stimulating non-financial performance can secure better financial performance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-297
Author(s):  
Francisco Trincado-Munoz ◽  
Leslier Valenzuela-Fernández ◽  
Melany Hebles

PurposeWhile companies have increasingly encouraged employees to adopt a customer orientation, less attention has been given to the impact that customer orientation has on employees' job outcomes and performance. Previous research has used job demands-resource theory (JD-R) and proposed several mechanisms through which customer orientation influences performance, yet the intervening variables in the process have shown inconsistent results. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contextual role of organizational justice on the relationship between customer orientation and performance through work engagement. In this way, offering more understanding of the contingent effects that intervene in the customer orientation–performance relationship.Design/methodology/approachUsing a structural equation model (SEM) in a sample of 249 marketing, sales and management managers in Chilean companies, this paper tested different hypotheses concerning the role of work engagement, organizational justice and customer orientation in relation to perceived performance.FindingsThis study informs that organizational justice (procedural and distributive justice) moderates the relationship between customer orientation and performance through work engagement. Precisely, the findings reveal that at lower values of organizational justice, changes in customer orientation negatively influence work engagement and in turn performance.Originality/valueThe results contribute to strengthening customer orientation theory by integrating a contextual variable often omitted: organizational justice. By exploring the moderation effect of organizational justice on customer orientation, this paper reveals contingent effects of employees' perceived fairness on the organization in the relationship between customer orientation and performance through work engagement. The findings encourage managers to look after employees' perceived organizational justice when they implement customer-oriented approaches, in particular, of those employees who work in the frontline sales and service positions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laila Marouf

Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate the role of knowledge sharing (KS) culture in leveraging knowledge management (KM) strategy and human resource (HR) strategy to improve business performance (BP). Design/methodology/approach A structured questionnaire survey was distributed to 120 randomly selected companies in Kuwait. A total of 392 valid responses were collected and tested using a structural equation model. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS and LISREL software to verify the research hypotheses. Findings The results revealed the impact of the mediating variable KS culture on the enhancement of BP. Both KM strategy and HR strategy were observed to have a positive direct effect on KS culture. Practical implications The results indicate that top management should make efforts to cultivate a KS culture to achieve better BP and future success. Originality/value The primary research contribution is the conceptual model for the role of KS culture as a mediator between KM strategy, HR strategy and BP.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Carmona-Márquez ◽  
Antonio G. Leal-Millán ◽  
Adolfo E. Vázquez-Sánchez ◽  
Antonio L. Leal-Rodríguez ◽  
Stephen Eldridge

Purpose – Prior studies by Salaheldin (2009) and Talib et al. (2011) have assessed the relationships between TQM critical success factors (CSF) and business results. The purpose of this paper is to build upon this research by considering the relationships between these CSFs and their sequencing during the implementation of TQM. Furthermore, the influence exerted by the maturity of TQM implementation on the link between instrumental drivers and performance is explored. Design/methodology/approach – The TQM drivers are clustered by means of three constructs: strategic enablers, tactical drivers and instrumental drivers and a model employed in which the strategic and tactical factors are treated as antecedents of the instrumental drivers. The direct effect of each cluster on business results and the indirect relationship of strategic and tactical factors via the mediating role of the instrumental drivers are assessed. These assessments use the partial least squares (PLS) approach which is a variance-based structural equation modeling technique using a sample of 113 Spanish organizations with experience of implementing a TQM program. Findings – The findings confirm the existing relationships among the CSFs and business performance identified by studies Salaheldin (2009) and Talib et al. (2011). However, the results reveal that instrumental drivers possess the highest variance explanation power over business performance outcomes and it is possible to identify a CSF implementation sequence that generates the greatest impact on business performance. Furthermore, the study was inconclusive with regard to the influence exerted by the number of years of TQM implementation on the link between the instrumental drivers and performance. Research limitations/implications – The first is related to organizational bias. It seems likely that those firms which are not satisfied with their TQM system performance would be less likely to be motivated to contribute to the development of this study. Therefore, the authors have included in the sample a higher proportion of “good” systems than is the case in the population at large. Second, although the authors provide evidence of causality, causality itself has not been proven. Third, this research relies mainly on perceptions and the authors only used a single method to elicit these perceptions. Finally, this research was carried out in a specific geographical setting (Spanish companies) and the authors must be cautious about generalizing these results in other contexts. Practical implications – This study offers a substantial number of practical implications. First firms’ managers should emphasize that continuous improvement, benchmarking and zero-defects mentality is a never-ending process. Especially, they should understand that reliable product/service design is critical to exceed the customers’ expectations, leading to improved business success. The results of this study should also lead managers to seeing a “return on investment” in their efforts to implement a TQM program by first, paying more attention on how to implement the instrumental factors, and second, avoiding the belief that the passage of time and experience-based learning will bring business performance enhancement and success on their own. Social implications – Although, the literature agrees that strategic factors are valuable assets and have a crucial role in the deployment of TQM systems, the study empirically validates this assertion. However, at the same time it shows that this impact on performance is stronger and much more significant by reconfiguring instrumental factors. This implies that strategic and tactical factors do have an effect on business success, but they do so indirectly, by reconfiguring and reinforcing instrumental factors that better fit the stakeholders’ needs and expectations. Originality/value – The results suggest the need to consider whether all the CSFs are equally relevant on the basis of their contribution to business success. For example, strategic enablers are generally considered to be of primary importance with tactical and instrumental drivers assuming a secondary position. The study challenges this view and highlights the role of instrumental drivers over strategic and tactical factors with the clear implication that managers should focus strongly on daily implementation tasks such as benchmarking, zero-defects mentality and continuous improvement processes in order to achieve good business performance outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
José Pinheiro ◽  
Luis Filipe Lages ◽  
Graça Miranda Silva ◽  
Alvaro Lopes Dias ◽  
Miguel T. Preto

PurposeShifting demand and ever-shorter production cycles pressure manufacturing flexibility. Although the literature has established the positive effect of the firm's absorptive capacity on manufacturing flexibility, the separate role of the innovation competencies of exploitation and exploration in such a relationship is still under-investigated. In this study, the authors examine how these competencies affect manufacturing flexibility.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use survey data from 370 manufacturing firms and analyze them using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB–SEM).FindingsThe results indicate that absorptive capacity has a strong, positive and direct effect on exploitative and exploratory innovation competencies, proactive and responsive market orientations, and manufacturing flexibility. The authors’ findings also demonstrate that the exploitative innovation competencies mediate the relation between responsive market orientation and manufacturing flexibility. Essentially, these exploitative innovation competencies produce a direct positive effect on manufacturing flexibility while simultaneously being a vehicle for absorptive capacity's indirect effects on it. An exploration innovation strategy does not significantly affect manufacturing flexibility.Originality/valueThis study contributes by combining key strategic features of firms with manufacturing flexibility, while providing new empirical evidence of the mediation of the exploitative innovation competencies in the relation between responsive market orientation and manufacturing flexibility.


Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (17) ◽  
pp. 2099
Author(s):  
Rafael Sancho-Zamora ◽  
Isidro Peña-García ◽  
Santiago Gutiérrez-Broncano ◽  
Felipe Hernández-Perlines

The purpose of this study was to understand how proactivity can affect the relationship between absorptive capacity and organisational performance. Most previous studies have ignored the role of proactivity in this relationship and have not considered the multidimensional nature of absorptive capacity. A questionnaire was sent to 800 CEOs of Spanish companies from different sectors, procuring a response rate of 38.25%. A structural equation model was applied to test the hypothesis. This study confirms the positive effect that absorptive capacity has on business performance and the moderating role of proactivity in this relationship. Companies that develop their capacity to absorb information from the environment achieve better results. Furthermore, if they engage in proactive behaviour within their company, this relationship is stronger. Future research should include more capacities that are related to knowledge and business performance (i.e., learning capability, innovation capacity, etc.). This study contributes to the understanding of how to manage a company’s knowledge in an appropriate way. It sheds new light on how knowledge management should be conducted, emphasising not only the gathering of information but also the promotion of a proactive attitude on the part of employees to achieve the goal of better performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nagwan Abdulwahab Alqershi ◽  
Wan Fauzia Wan Yusoff ◽  
Md Asrul Nasid Bin Masrom ◽  
Norhadilah Binti Abdul Hamid ◽  
Sany Sanuri Mohd Mokhtar ◽  
...  

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of intellectual capital (IC) on the performance of Malaysian automotive manufacturing firms. It also examines the role of strategic thinking (ST) as a moderating variable in the relationship between IC and performance in these firms.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a quantitative approach, with an initial sample of 228 firms in Malaysia. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the study hypotheses.FindingsThe results of the PLS-SEM analysis are as follows: Human capital (HC) and relational capital (RC) have significant effect on performance, but not structural capital (SC). ST has no moderating effect on the relationship between RC or SC and performance although it does moderate the relationship between performance and HC.Research limitations/implicationsTogether with the government, CEOs hold responsibility for ensuring that organizations practice effective ST and IC. With the assistance of government, CEOs should exert every effort to be leaders in this matter. In addition, CEOs of automotive manufacturing firm should reduce their emphasis on classical ways of managing organizations processes.Practical implicationsThe findings offer guidance to automotive firms considering how to develop IC and ST to improve performance, especially in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.Originality/valueThis is the first study to examine the moderating effect of ST on the relationship between IC and performance worldwide.


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