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Productivity gains are not only important for competitiveness but also for other welfare gains. And, importantly, industry structure matters in driving the productive gains. This study examines the labor productivity of food manufacturing firms in Malaysia and the effect of capability and human capital on productivity. The findings show productivity heterogeneity among firms, and as capabilities and human capital grow, productivity gains become much higher. Importantly, it shows that bundles of capability, namely, innovation, information and communication technology (ICT) and marketing as well as human capital become more relevant as firms move to the higher end of the productivity distribution. The findings are robust to different measures of human capital and capabilities. Examining the effects separately indicates that innovation matters the most in driving labor productivity. The coefficient of ICT declines as firms move up the conditional productivity distribution. Likewise, market creating capability of the firms enhances productivity, but the coefficient does not vary across the lower and upper productivity quantiles. The study concludes the implications for persistent labor productivity differences across capabilities and human capital by drawing policy implications.

Understanding variation is critical to quality (CTQ) of product or service delivery, which is the key to success. Six Sigma is the business process improvement strategy that extensively focuses on variation reduction thereby reducing number of defects. One of the major constituents of Six Sigma definitions is 1.5 sigma shift, which is attributable to random error. It is not possible to understand Six Sigma thoroughly by overlooking the concept of 1.5 sigma shift. A conventional 3.4 defect per million opportunity (DPMO) capability of Six Sigma process is based on 1.5 sigma shift. This paper aimed at explaining ancestry of 1.5 sigma shift in connection with quality engineering methods. Origin of 1.5 sigma shift factor with reference to producibility analysis, worst-case sampling error and other quality engineering methods has been discussed in this paper.

By considering the nilpotent Lie algebra with the derived subalgebra of dimension $2$, we compute some functors including the Schur multiplier, the exterior square and the tensor square of these Lie algebras. We also give the corank of such Lie algebras.

The capability of a one-dimensional four-qubit cluster state for teleportation is extensively investigated in the condition that the four qubits are non-averagely distributed between two locations. Because of the inherent qubit orientation of the cluster state, we found that only in eight distributions can an arbitrary single-qubit state be perfectly teleported from a sender to a receiver. For each case, the necessary local operations and classical communication (LOCC) are explicitly shown.

A changing industry structure in the media and ICT industries requires not only new collaborative organizational forms but also new resources and capabilities to manage the new business. The objective of this paper is to create and test a framework for assessing the robustness of the firm's business model enabled by its resources in future scenarios. We have used a media delivery service as a case service platform. The framework includes building industry scenarios, defining the market environments in the different scenarios, business concept and resource mapping and connecting the business concepts and resources to the scenarios.

In recent years, there has been growing interest in studying design thinking from a capability perspective, given the need for deep implementation at the organizational mindset level. However, the impact of the cognitivist paradigm on design thinking has led to a narrow conceptualization of it as a problem-solving process, which overlooks some of its essential capacities. As a result, the ability of design thinking to extract the real capabilities of designers has been weakened. To address this shortcoming, this study focused on extracting designerly capabilities from the original resource by engaging with designers themselves. In-depth interviews were conducted, and the results were thematically analyzed. The findings reveal that designerly capabilities are significantly different in depth and scope from those derived from the conventional academic view of design thinking. The study identifies some key features of design thinking as practiced by real designers, as follows: Engaging with multiple layers of a problem, Skipping and releasing ideas, Adjusting iteratively, Recognizing patterns, Translating concepts, Incorporating and extending existing solutions, and Balancing ambiguity and clarity, as well as Envisioning and imagining possibilities, Expanding the scope of inquiry and Facilitating confrontation and feedback. These features can be grouped into four dimensions: (1) reflection, (2) generation, (3) inspiration and (4) engagement, which show the dynamic capability of design thinking. This complements previous research and suggests ways to improve the innovation potential of design thinking in organizations.

The study examines the mediating role of competitive strategies (cost leadership and differentiation) in the marketing capability-performance relationship using data from 264 micro and small family firms in Ghana. The bootstrap method for exploring mediating relationships was used to examine the hypotheses. The findings indicate that although differentiation influence performance, cost leadership does not influence performance after controlling for firm age and firm size. However, marketing capability significantly influence performance. The findings further revealed that marketing capabilities do not have any indirect relationship on performance through cost leadership. However, the results indicated that marketing capability influenced firm performance through differentiation strategy. The findings indicate the need to implement both competitive strategy and marketing capability to enhance performance of micro and small family businesses.

While there is quite some literature on the relationship between market orientation and product development, it is still unclear what market-oriented product development really is. In this article the authors present a conceptual framework detailing the elements of market-oriented product development and the relationships between these elements. More specifically, market-oriented product development is conceptualised as a combination of specific capabilities and market information processing activities. These capabilities encapsulate the values and norms, knowledge and skills, technical and managerial knowledge systems, which enable learning about markets through information processing behaviour in product development and improve this market learning behaviour. As such it is argued that market-oriented product development may be regarded as an organisational learning capability.

This paper focuses on how organisations utilise external capabilities to procure high-technology products and services. It is argued that the conceptual frameworks developed in the context of organisations which manufacture such products need to be modified to explain the behaviour of organisations that buy them. The use of third-party consultants in the procurement process is explored and a new class of temporary capabilities, termed Contingent Capabilities, is proposed. This class of capabilities occupies the boundary between accepted notions of core and non-core, and play an essential role in the innovation process. The roles of two distinct categories of Contingent Capabilities, strategic and tactical, within the innovation process are explored. The paper concludes with an agenda for further work in this area.

We investigate the extent to which product innovation moderates the relationship between capabilities and competitive advantage among small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Using resource-based and capabilities theories, we examine capabilities as organisational routines, focusing on job rotation and multi-skilling. We examine competitive advantage by using logistic regression to assess the probability of top performance in productivity relative to most other firms in the same industry. Considering the path-dependence in developing capabilities and innovation, we use a longitudinal sample of 300 UK manufacturing SMEs in traditional and high-technology industries to evaluate the effects of innovating and using capabilities continuously over time. The results suggest that firms using job rotation or multi-skilling and introducing product innovations consistently from 2002 through 2004 are more likely to be top performers in 2004. The findings support a theoretical model according to which the association between capabilities and competitive advantage is moderated by innovation.

This paper explores orchestration capability as a concept defining the firm's ability to purposefully build and manage innovation networks. Due to the lack of empirical research on the subject as well as the focus on the organizational level in earlier studies, we approach the issue from a multi-level perspective. By utilizing expert panel discussions and an in-depth case study in an innovation network, we show that orchestration capability consists of both organizational and individual level determinants. Distinct capabilities and skills are identified and illustrated. Furthermore, we identify mechanisms suggesting that the two levels are interconnected in several ways.

Recent shifts in technology have created a data-rich environment and made it necessary for firms to develop new capabilities to cope with these changes. To address this challenge, this study introduces marketing-enabled data analytics capability, a specific type of information technology (IT) capability that enables firms to better understand customer needs and achieve a competitive advantage in the digital era. Using empirical results collected via online survey, we argue that marketing-enabled data analytics capability, which comprises data analytics infrastructure, marketing-oriented analytics expertise, and IT–marketing social capital, positively influences a firm’s organisational agility and innovation success. Moreover, the results show that organisational agility partially mediates the relationship between marketing-enabled data analytics capability and innovation success. By developing the construct of marketing-enabled data analytics capability, this paper lays a foundation for future research on this new type of IT capability, which is critical in the digitization process.

COVID-19 pandemic has drawn great attention to environmental uncertainty. The current paper attempts to conceptually develop and empirically validate a research framework that explains how the firms’ environmental uncertainty influences their innovation capability and stakeholder value. Drawing on contingency theory, resource dependence theory, and stakeholder theory, this study develops a conceptual framework for the related constructs and employs a partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the suggested framework. The empirical results validate both measurement (outer) and structural (inner) models. They indicate that environmental uncertainty is negatively associated with the innovation capability and stakeholder value while innovation capability is positively related to both internal and external stakeholder value. The results also show that internal stakeholder value positively affects external stakeholder value. Providing valuable insights into logistics and supply chain management, our study contributes to research in environmental uncertainty and innovation management based on the stakeholder theory.

We investigate the extent to which product innovation moderates the relationship between capabilities and competitive advantage among small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Using resource-based and capabilities theories, we examine capabilities as organisational routines, focusing on job rotation and multi-skilling. We examine competitive advantage by using logistic regression to assess the probability of top performance in productivity relative to most other firms in the same industry. Considering the path-dependence in developing capabilities and innovation, we use a longitudinal sample of 300 UK manufacturing SMEs in traditional and high-technology industries to evaluate the effects of innovating and using capabilities continuously over time. The results suggest that firms using job rotation or multi-skilling and introducing product innovations consistently from 2002 through 2004 are more likely to be top performers in 2004. The findings support a theoretical model according to which the association between capabilities and competitive advantage is moderated by innovation.

At present, capacity is the prevailing paradigm for covert channels and most of current researches are based on Shannon’s channel theory. With respect to steganography, however, capacity is insufficient. Ira S. Moskowitz et al propose “capability” paradigm in [1], but they had not given a feasible algorithm for “capability” description. In this paper, a new capability description for audio information hiding is proposed and a feasible mathematic method is given to determine how much information can be hiding. The proposed capability description can be used to give a prediction framework of steganographic communication in our speech steganography system.

Software development should be a disciplined activity, which means that it is to be driven by well-defined processes. An organization that is to be effective in defining such processes must acquire certain capabilities, and, as it acquires the capabilities, the organization becomes more mature. Capability models define the capabilities and assign them to capability levels. This chapter centers on the Software Capability Maturity Model (SW–CMM) and Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), developed by the Software Engineering Institute. Inspired by the SW–CMM, specialized capability models have been developed for individual parts of the software process and specific application domains. Two such models, for requirements engineering and information systems development, are examined in some detail.

Organization is an incorporate form of MAS. We study CGF modeling and simulation based on multi-agent from the viewpoint of organization, and establish an organization meta-model based on the four-layer architecture of mission/role/capability/agent. Basic elements of the meta-model were defined and described, the formalization description of the organization model was found out and an example to validate the model was given. The capability concept for organization role and agent was presented to improve the mission distribution flexibility and adaptability.

This article discusses the nature and mechanism of corporation soft power and analyzes the relationship between soft power and competitiveness.