Narrow Results

The common argument for the small business is that there simply is no strategy; that small businesses react heuristically to events, guided by the whims and passions of the owner-manager. Strategy, however, can be looked at from a behavioural perspective, as opposed to the more normative strategic planning schools that small firms rarely abide by. This concept of strategy as 'behaviour' encompasses the actions of the owner-manager, the context of the small firm, and the consequences of the actions taken. It looks at strategy as part deliberate and part emergent, allowing for the inclusion of both external influences and internal decision making. Grounded theory research on small firms in Malta has in fact shown strategy to be a dynamic phenomenon, one that can be viewed as a set of defined pathways between identifiable life cycle states. The paper shall outline the research findings that have identified five distinct patterns of small firm strategic behaviour, each with its own unique trajectory and performance implications. Understanding which strategic pathway a small firm belongs to allows for a comprehensive insight into the firm's competitive behaviour, and a prediction of the consequences of that behaviour.

In this paper we present a first attempt to represent the social behavior of actors in a resource sharing context in such a way that different forms of solidarity can be detected and measured. We expect that constructing agent-based models of water-related interactions at the interface of urban and rural areas, and running social simulations to study the occurrence and consequences of solidary behavior, will produce insights that may eventually contribute to water and land resource management practice. We propose a typology for solidary behavior, present the agent-based architecture that we are using, show some illustrative results, and formulate some questions that will guide our future work.

The paper investigates the quantitative distribution of language types across languages of the world. The studies are based on three large-scale typological data bases: The World Color Survey, the Automated Similarity Judgment Project data base, and the World Atlas of Language Structures. The main finding is that a surprisingly large and varied collection of linguistic typologies show power law behavior. The bulk of the paper deals with the statistical validation of these findings.

Many scholars mentioned various dimensions and complex relations for manufacturing flexibility that implementing all of them is not possible for a manufacturing firm. On the other hand, today’s dynamic environment convinces flexible organizations to create capabilities in order to take over competitors. Hence, the aim of this study is to determine dominant groups of flexibility for manufacturing firms and to prioritize them under the influence of dynamic organizational capabilities. In this research, firstly components of dynamic organizational capabilities and flexibility of manufacturing are identified by content analysis method. Then, based on that, taxonomy for Iran’s manufacturing firms was determined using support vector machine algorithm. In the next step, based on experts’ view using FDEMATEL method, conceptual model for relationship of manufacturing flexibility dimension as well as dynamic capabilities are provided. Conceptual model in three flexibility clusters was tested by structural equation modeling, and dominant groups were prioritized based on dynamic organizational capabilities. Results show that the best number of clusters is three. Results also show that dynamic organizational capabilities not only affect flexibility dimensions of manufacturing but also this influence is different in manufacturing firms with various industry fields.

Differences between male and female entrepreneurs provide compelling reasons to study the latter separately. Especially in rural areas, research shows that women are a remarkable and unexplored source of the labor force. Nevertheless, few researchers have examined rural women and the issues pertaining to their entrepreneurship separately. The contribution of this study to the debate of women entrepreneurship is the closer examination of women in Greek rural areas. This research aims to examine factors that must be considered independently with recognition to the variances of rural areas with different geomorphologic and economic profiles. The characteristics of women entrepreneurship in Greek rural areas and the women's motives for the undertaking of the entrepreneurial activity are used to identify a typology of women entrepreneurs in the Greek countryside.

Interest in the concept of open innovation (OI) has increased during recent years; yet, this line of inquiry remains limited due to the lack of a more comprehensive conceptual framework. As a first step toward a unifying framework, we provide a critical review of previous research on the conceptualization, antecedents, and consequences of OI. We then offer a typology describing four OI strategies: (i) innovation seeker, (ii) innovation provider, (iii) intermediary, and (iv) open innovator, which emerge through unique combinations of sources of innovation, firm attributes, and mechanisms of inter-organizational exchange, and produce varying outcomes. Finally, we discuss our typology's implications for theory and practice, and advance potential research avenues.

A stream of servitisation research has focused on the construction of taxonomies and typologies of product–service system business models (BMs). However, their relevance in the context of increased utilisation of digital technologies may be questioned. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to empirically revisit the existing product–service system BM taxonomies to explore the following research question: How can the BMs of servitised manufacturing firms be categorised in the digital era? The question is addressed through an embedded case study of five servitised firms. We found that the firms’ BMs varied with regard to the degree of the suppliers’ ownership of delivered products, degree of smartness of the services provided and degree of performance orientation of contracts. Based on these findings, we derived a new product–service system BM taxonomy with eight categories, presented in a 2 × 2 × 2 matrix, that significantly extends earlier taxonomies.

In innovation ecosystems, actors from various industries co-create innovations within a complementary and modular architecture. Due to the uniqueness of any innovation ecosystem, research, specifically on actors, is context-specific, posing challenges in generalising results. To address this challenge, and to advance the understanding of actors and the underlying mechanisms influencing them, we conducted a systematic literature review. We identify and analyse 81 peer-reviewed articles on actors in innovation ecosystems, that we organise in a research framework. By doing so, we synthesise literature, provide a comprehensive overview of internal- and external-factors on organizational- and ecosystem-level influencing actors in innovation ecosystems, and identify outcomes and performances of this setting. Further, we propose a typology of actors in innovation ecosystems in terms of the interplay of their activities. By critically evaluating current literature, we determine gaps of knowledge, that hinder a holistic understanding of innovation ecosystems, and offer approaches to address them.

Innovation hubs are a promising new way to foster innovations in rural areas. However, research in this field is still at a preliminary stage. The literature neither provides a clear definition, nor a systematic overview of roles and types of these hubs. To help close this research gap, we first conducted expert interviews with 10 different innovation hubs in rural areas in Germany. Based on our qualitative content analysis, we were able to identify four central roles of such hubs (supporters, knowledge brokers, networkers, and physical experiment spaces) and develop an analysis scheme for evaluating hubs regarding these roles. Second, we applied these findings to a total sample of 45 innovation hubs in rural areas in Germany which enabled us to provide a detailed characterisation and comparison of different types of innovation hubs. Further, we offer first insights into the specific role of these types in regional development as well as requirements for their long-term survival. With these insights, our study provides a useful basis for future research on the concept and impact of innovation hubs as well as the successful management of innovation hubs in practice.

Instead of attempting to find a generic solution to improve new product development (NPD) performance, this paper explores contingent approaches to effective NPD. A modified repertory grid analysis technique is used to analyse 30 new product cases, of which all the development processes are identified as effective. The result yields six different approaches which adhere to different contexts. It therefore suggests that there is no unique way to achieve effective NPD. Managers should react differently according to the contexts the NPD is engaged in. Though not comprehensive, the results may serve as a guide to effective NPD in relevant contexts.