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Absorptive capacity: A new perspective on learning and innovation
- ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE QUARTERLY
, 1990
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The architecture of complexity
- Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
, 1962
"... A number of proposals have been advanced in recent years for the development of “general systems theory ” that, abstracting from properties peculiar to physical, biological, or social systems, would be applicable to all of them. 1 We might well feel that, while the goal is laudable, systems of such ..."
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Cited by 772 (1 self)
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A number of proposals have been advanced in recent years for the development of “general systems theory ” that, abstracting from properties peculiar to physical, biological, or social systems, would be applicable to all of them. 1 We might well feel that, while the goal is laudable, systems of such diverse kinds could hardly be expected to have any nontrivial properties in common. Metaphor and analogy can be helpful, or they can be misleading. All depends on whether the similarities the metaphor captures are significant or superficial. It may not be entirely vain, however, to search for common properties among diverse kinds of complex systems. The ideas that go by the name of cybernetics constitute, if not a theory, at least a point of view that has been proving fruitful over a wide range of applications. 2 It has been useful to look at the behavior of adaptive systems in terms of the concepts of feedback and homeostasis, and to analyze adaptiveness in terms of the theory of selective information. 3 The ideas of feedback and information provide a frame of reference for viewing a wide range of situations, just as do the ideas of evolution, of relativism, of axiomatic method, and of
The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration
, 2000
"... Recent empirical and case study evidence documents a strong association between the adoption of computers and increased use of college educated or non-production workers. With few exceptions, the conceptual link explaining how computer technology complements skilled labor or substitutes for unskille ..."
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Cited by 643 (28 self)
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Recent empirical and case study evidence documents a strong association between the adoption of computers and increased use of college educated or non-production workers. With few exceptions, the conceptual link explaining how computer technology complements skilled labor or substitutes for unskilled labor is less well developed. In this paper, we apply an understanding of what computers do – the execution of procedural or rules-based logic – to develop a simple model of how the widespread adoption of computers in the workplace might alter workplace skill demands. An essential contention of our framework is that, to a first approximation, computer capital substitutes for a limited and well-defined set of human activities, those involving repetitive information processing (cognitive) and routine manual tasks. This observation leads to a set of hypotheses that we test using samples of workers from Census and CPS files for 1960 – 1998 augmented with Dictionary of Occupational Title variables describing their occupations ’ requirements for routine and non-routine cognitive and manual skills. We find that computerization is associated with declining relative industry demand for routine manual and cognitive skills and increased relative demand for non-routine cognitive skills (both interactive and analytical). We document that these demand shifts are evident both in changes in occupational distributions within
Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing
- Journal of Marketing
, 2004
"... Marketing inherited a model of exchange from economics, which had a dominant logic based on the exchange of “goods, ” which usually are manufactured output. The dominant logic focused on tangible resources, embedded value, and transactions. Over the past several decades, new perspectives have emerge ..."
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Cited by 520 (12 self)
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Marketing inherited a model of exchange from economics, which had a dominant logic based on the exchange of “goods, ” which usually are manufactured output. The dominant logic focused on tangible resources, embedded value, and transactions. Over the past several decades, new perspectives have emerged that have a revised logic focused on intangible resources, the cocreation of value, and relationships. The authors believe that the new perspectives are converging to form a new dominant logic for marketing, one in which service provision rather than goods is fundamental to economic exchange. The authors explore this evolving logic and the corresponding shift in perspective for marketing scholars, marketing practitioners, and marketing educators.
Aggregate Productivity Growth: Lessons from Microeconomic Evidence
, 2000
"... Recent research using establishment and firm level data has raised a variety of conceptual and measurement questions regarding our understanding of aggregate productivity growth. 1 Several key, related findings are of interest. First, there is large scale, ongoing reallocation of outputs and input ..."
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Cited by 472 (49 self)
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Recent research using establishment and firm level data has raised a variety of conceptual and measurement questions regarding our understanding of aggregate productivity growth. 1 Several key, related findings are of interest. First, there is large scale, ongoing reallocation of outputs and inputs across individual producers. Second, the pace of this reallocation varies over time (both secularly and cyclically) and across sectors. Third, much of this reallocation reflects within rather than between sector reallocation. Fourth, there are large differentials in the levels and the rates of growth of productivity across establishments within the same sector. The rapid pace of output and input reallocation along with differences in productivity levels and growth rates are the necessary ingredients for the pace of reallocation to play an important role in aggregate (i.e., industry) productivity growth. However, our review of the existing studies indicates that the measured contribution of such reallocation effects varies over time and across sectors and is sensitive to measurement methodology. An important objective of this paper is to sort out the role of these different factors so that we can understand the
Relative absorptive capacity and interorganizational learning
- STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
, 1998
"... Much of the prior research on interorganizational learning has focused on the role of absorptive capacity, a firm’s ability to value, assimilate, and utilize new external knowledge. However, this definition of the construct suggests that a firm has an equal capacity to learn from all other organizat ..."
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Cited by 463 (2 self)
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Much of the prior research on interorganizational learning has focused on the role of absorptive capacity, a firm’s ability to value, assimilate, and utilize new external knowledge. However, this definition of the construct suggests that a firm has an equal capacity to learn from all other organizations. We reconceptualize the firm-level construct absorptive capacity as a learning dyad-level construct, relative absorptive capacity. One firm’s ability to learn from another firm is argued to depend on the similarity of both firms ’ (1) knowledge bases, (2) organizational structures and compensation policies, and (3) dominant logics. We then test the model using a sample of pharmaceutical–biotechnology R&D alliances. As predicted, the similarity of the partners ’ basic knowledge, lower management formalization, research centrali-zation, compensation practices, and research communities were positively related to interorgani-zational learning. The relative absorptive capacity measures are also shown to have greater explanatory power than the established measure of absorptive capacity, R&D spending.
A resource-based perspective on information technology capability and firm performance: An empirical investigation
- MIS Quarterly
, 2000
"... The resource-based view of the firm attributes superior financial performance to organizational resources and capabilities. This paper develops the concept of IT as an organizational capability and empirically examines the association between IT capability and firm performance. Firm specific IT reso ..."
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Cited by 439 (1 self)
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The resource-based view of the firm attributes superior financial performance to organizational resources and capabilities. This paper develops the concept of IT as an organizational capability and empirically examines the association between IT capability and firm performance. Firm specific IT resources are classified as IT infrastructure, human IT resources, and IT-enabled intangibles. A matched-sample comparison group metho-dology and publicly available ratings are used to assess IT capability and firm performance. Results indicate that firms with high IT capability tend to outperform a control sample of firms on a variety of profit and cost-based performance measures. 1Sirkka Jarvenpaa was the accepting senior editor for this paper.
Manufacturing Firms in Developing Countries: How Well do they do and Why
- Journal of Economic Literature
, 2000
"... The manufacturing sectors of less developed countries (LDCs) have traditionally been relatively protected. They have also been subject to heavy regulation, much of which is biased in favor of large enterprises. Accordingly, it is often argued that manufacturers in these countries perform poorly in s ..."
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Cited by 392 (9 self)
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The manufacturing sectors of less developed countries (LDCs) have traditionally been relatively protected. They have also been subject to heavy regulation, much of which is biased in favor of large enterprises. Accordingly, it is often argued that manufacturers in these countries perform poorly in several respects: (1) markets tolerate inefficient firms, so cross-firm productivity dispersion is high; (2) small groups of entrenched oligopolists exploit monopoly power in product markets; and (3) many small firms are unable or unwilling to grow, so important scale economies go unexploited. In this paper I assess each of these conjectures, drawing on plant and firm-level studies of LDC manufacturers. I find none to be systematically supported. Turnover is substantial, unexploited scale economies are modest, and convincing demonstrations of monopoly rents are generally lacking. Nonetheless I find some evidence that protection increases firms ’ price-cost margins and reduces average efficiency levels at the margin. Finally, although the econometric evidence on technology diffusion in LDCs is limited, it does suggest that protecting “learning ” industries is unlikely to foster productivity growth. All of this suggests that the general trend toward trade liberalization has yielded larger benefits that the traditional gains from trade.
Knowledge transfer: A basis for competitive advantage in firms Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes
"... This concluding article in the special issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes on the foundations of knowledge transfer in organizations argues that the creation and transfer of knowledge are a basis for competitive advantage in firms. The article builds on a framework of knowl ..."
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Cited by 391 (4 self)
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This concluding article in the special issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes on the foundations of knowledge transfer in organizations argues that the creation and transfer of knowledge are a basis for competitive advantage in firms. The article builds on a framework of knowledge reservoirs to show why knowledge transfer can be difficult and to identify the kinds of knowledge that are most difficult to transfer to differ-ent contexts. The article develops the proposition that interac-tions among people, tasks, and tools are least likely to fit the new context and hence are the most difficult to transfer. This theoretical result illuminates how organizations can derive com-petitive advantage by transferring knowledge internally while preventing its external transfer to competitors. Because people are more similar within than between organizations, interactions involving people transfer more readily within than between firms. By embedding knowledge in interactions involving people, organizations can both effect knowledge transfer internally and impede knowledge transfer externally. Thus, knowledge embed-ded in the interactions of people, tools, and tasks provides a basis for competitive advantage in firms. q 2000 Academic Press The ability to transfer knowledge from one unit to another has been found to contribute to the organizational performance of firms in both the manufacturing
