Development of Dynamic Capabilities for Automotive Industry Performance under Disruptive Innovation

Dynamic capabilities are creating dramatic change for the industry around the world. Resource-Based View (RBV) theory and Operational capability theory are the basic capabilities of an organization under a normal changing environment. This creates a competitive advantage and organizational success in a relatively short period of time, in which the dynamic environment is not sufficient to cope with this change. Dynamic capability is a concept for managing change under this dynamic environment. Past research supports a direct positive relationship between dynamic capability and firm performance but it did not focus on the mediator variables. This research emphasizes the influences of competitive advantages and innovation capabilities as mediators of dynamic capabilities and firm performance were investigated. A cross-sectional design study was utilised and questionnaires were submitted to 326 firms to test the proposed relationships. IBM SPSS Statistics Base 26, IBM SPSS AMOS 21, and PROCESS macro 3.6 were used for statistical analysis. Results revealed that competitive advantages and innovation capabilities were partially mediated by dynamic capabilities and firm performance. Findings contribute to the literature on empowering leadership and innovative firm performance by highlighting that competitive advantages and innovation capabilities act as mediators to improve dynamic capabilities and enhance innovative firm performance.

Achieving innovative firm performance through human capital and the effect of social capital

For the past decade, human capital has been recognized as one of the crucial assets of any firm’s overall performance. Previous studies widely advocated a linear link between human capital and innovative firm performance, arguing that there are a variety of factors to examine if the relationship between human capital and innovative firm performance is to be properly understood. The focus of this study was to examine the effect of social capital on the relationship between human capital and innovative firm performance. Specifically, it examined the relationship between human capital and social capital and between human capital and innovative firm performance. It also examined the relationship between social capital and innovative firm performance. A total of 294 questionnaires were obtained from managerial staff in automotive companies in Malaysia and the data was analysed using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) test. The results indicated a direct effect between human capital and innovative performance. It was found that human capital is significantly related to social capital and that there is a significant relationship between social capital and innovative firm performance, indicating the ability of social capital to improve innovative firm performance. Finally, it revealed that innovative firm performance could be achieved by human capital through the role of valuable social capital and that good innovative firm performance leads to more prudent and sustainable organisations. The results provide pertinent implications for academia, policymakers and market players while also contributing to the research fields of strategic management, human capital, social capital and performance.

The Designing of Organization Structure in Innovative Firms

Globalization and information technolgy are key factors for altering all dynamics of the business life. These factors push firms to create new tools for struggle with competitive markets. Nowadays, one of the key tools is innovation and to become an innovative firm. The firms focus on differantiation and offering a higher value to their customer. So, they must have suitable numbers of creative employees and infrastructure such as buildings, machines, so on. But, unless these factors integrate each other, it does not create a synergy of them. The structure is like that skeleton for a firm. The structure should coordinate all its factors so that it gets higher effectiveness as a result of the firm's operations. In other words, the firm's aims and strategies determine its structure. For this reason, innovative firms can prefer one or two of their organization structure's types simultaneously such as matrix organization based on projects, ambidexterous structure with its explorary and exploratative sides, or starfish structure with decentralization. In the chapter, innovative firm and its features are described. Then the innovative organization structure is analyzed. Which factors affect the organization structure, what types of innovative structure are, and why the choiced structure type is ideal for innovative operations are explored.

INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL IN INNOVATIVE FIRM

This research was conducted to investigate the influence of intellectual capital on overall innovation and R&D activities in an innovative firm. The firm is a leader in natural goat’s milk-based cosmetics and health products in Malaysia. Intellectual capital consists of four components, human capital, structural capital, relational capital and spiritual capital. This research was a case study and qualitative approach was applied to gather data. The Marketing Manager, Human Resource Manager, Factory Operation Manager, administrative workers, factory workers, IT personnel and customers of the firm were interviewed. The information from the interviews was analyzed using codes and transcription. Finding of the study indicates that among the intellectual components, structural capital is the highest contributor to the firm’s innovation. Among the recommendations made to the firm are to increase human capital with high expertise, to have a systematic documentation, to cooperate with organization’s external environment and strengthen spiritual value. Future researches are suggested to use instruments other than interviews and widen the scope to more than one firm or industry.

Gap analysis for innovative firm acquisition – acquirer and acquired party perspectives

Purpose Companies often aspire to create advantages for their businesses through acquisitions. Their participation has increasingly been documented to include different motives for acquirers, while focusing less on the ambitions of acquired parties with the acquisitions. The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss gaps and the handling of gaps between acquirers and acquired parties in acquisitions of innovative firms. Design/methodology/approach In the paper, the authors specifically focus on acquisitions of innovative firms. Four case studies illustrate gaps between the acquirers and the acquired parties. Findings The authors conclude that gaps may be present from the start as latent gaps, and become activated in integration or as the consequence of non-integration decisions. Gaps between the acquirer and the acquired party may be further manifested in external parties’ reactions to the integration. The handling of gaps emphasizes a transition time and communication about expectations between the acquirer and the acquired party. Originality/value The paper contributes to previous research on mergers and acquisitions in general, and acquisitions of innovative firms in particular. Prior literature on acquisitions is scarce on descriptions of gaps or the handling of gaps. Gaps complement ideas on differences in culture between acquirers and acquired parties. It also highlights how acquired parties have as much intention with an acquisition as acquirers.