Antonio L. Leal-Rodríguez

IT and relationship learning in networks as drivers of green innovation and customer capital: evidence from the automobile sector

Purpose Despite the positive effects of customer capital (CC), questions remain over how managers enable CC growth by applying their skills and capabilities through managerial actions and strategies, such as developing information technology (IT) capability, fostering relationship learning (RL) activities and developing green innovation performance (GIP) with clients. These questions are especially pertinent in small and medium-sized enterprises and automotive industry companies that operate through supply chains, where knowledge about customers is likely to result from personal contact between customers and organisational members. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the extent to which these managerial actions were more likely to lead to the successful creation of CC. Design/methodology/approach Using the partial least squares technique, this paper studies how these three managerial actions impact on CC. To do so, data from 140 companies in the Spanish automotive components manufacturing sector have been used. Findings The findings support the influence of RL on both GIP and CC. RL is a key managerial action in exploiting customer information and knowledge advantages, enabling firms to structure and reconfigure resources to produce new ways to compete and to satisfy stakeholders. In addition, results show that GIP is a determinant of CC because of its contribution to achieving sustainable competitive advantage, with GIP performing a mediating role in the relationship between RL and CC. A second contribution shows that IT is not in itself able to yield a competitive advantage, thereby validating the existence of complementary or co-focused strategic assets such as RL and GIP, which enhance IT’s influence on CC. Research limitations/implications The authors were unable to explore the subtleties of the processes over time. Future research should include a longitudinal study. Practical implications This study considers RL an essential factor in achieving both GIP and CC. Consequently, managers should seek to build strong RL cultures. In addition, this study shows that IT is not in itself able to yield a competitive advantage, thereby validating the existence of complementary or co-focused strategic assets such as RL and GIP. Originality/value No study has ever examined these three antecedent variables (IT, RL and GIP) together, with the aim to examine their effects on CC.

Knowledge management, relational learning, and the effectiveness of innovation outcomes

This paper proposes a conceptual model to test the moderating effect of relational learning on the link between knowledge strategies and innovation. To accomplish this, this study is carried out on healthcare organizations. It has been generally accepted that both explicit and tacit knowledge play a basic role in organizational innovation. However, although there are plenty of research works that study the existing relationship between knowledge management (KM) and the effectiveness of the innovation process, there are certain peculiarities with regard to this link, which have yielded some inconclusive results. This paper revisits this research topic with data on KM, relational learning and innovation outcomes from a sample of Spanish hospitals. The results show that a deep and broad knowledge base leads to better innovation outcomes. In addition, this study found that hospitals and/or units that invest and involve themselves in relational learning mechanisms are more likely to foster innovations.

Workplace Bullying among Managers: A Multifactorial Perspective and Understanding

The aim of this paper is to study certain factors that may be determinant in the emergence of workplace bullying among managers—employees with a recognized and privileged position to exercise power—adopting the individual perspective of the subject, the bullied manager. Individual, organizational, and contextual factors integrate the developed global model, and the methodology utilized to accomplish our research objectives is based on the binary logistic regression model. A sample population of 661 managers was obtained from the micro data file of the 5th European Working Conditions Survey-2010 (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions) and utilized to conduct the present research. The results indicate that the chance for a manager to refer to him/herself as bullied increases among women that hold managerial positions and live with children under 15 at home, and among subjects that work at night, on a shift system, suffering from work stress, enjoying little satisfaction from their working conditions, and not perceiving opportunities for promotions in their organizations. The present work summarizes an array of outcomes and proposes, within the usual course of events, that workplace bullying could be reduced if job demands were limited and job resources were increased. The implications of these findings could assist directors/general directors in facilitating, to some extent, good social relationships among managers.

TQM and business success: Do all the TQM drivers have the same relevance? An empirical study in Spanish firms

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 st...

Workplace bullying among teachers: an analysis from the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model perspective

This paper adopts the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model to analyze workplace bullying among teachers. The data used for this research are obtained from the 5th European Working Conditions Survey. Given the objective of this work, a subsample of 261 education employees is collected: 48.7% of these teachers report having experienced workplace bullying (N = 127), while 51.3% indicate not considering themselves as bullied at work (N = 134). In order to test the research model and hypotheses, this study relies on the use of partial least squares (PLS-SEM), a variance-based structural equation modeling method. The study describes a workplace bullying prevalence rate of 4.4% among education employees. This work summarizes an array of outcomes with the aim of proposing, in general, that workplace bullying may be reduced by limiting job demands and increasing job resources.

A comparative study of workplace bullying among public and private employees in Europe

Objectives: Workplace bullying emerges from a set of individual, organizational, and contextual factors. The purpose of this article is hence to identify the influence of these factors among public and private employees. Methods: The study is carried out as a statistical–empirical cross-sectional study. The database used was obtained from the 5th European Working Conditions Survey 2010. Results: The results reveal a common core with respect to the factors that determine workplace bullying. Despite this common base that integrates both models, the distinctive features of the harassed employee within the public sector deal with age, full-time work, the greater nighttime associated with certain public service professions, and a lower level of motivation. Conclusions: The present work summarizes a set of implications and proposes that, under normal conditions, workplace bullying could be reduced if job demands are limited and job resources are increased.

Information systems capabilities and organizational agility: Understanding the mediating role of absorptive capacity when influenced by a hierarchy culture

Organizational agility (OA), as a key dynamic capability, is a firm’s ability to enable sensing environmental changes and responding efficiently and effectively to them. This study explores this topic further by analyzing the part played by the information systems capabilities (ISC) variable as an antecedent of OA, and absorptive capacity (AC) as a mediator construct. Furthermore, we test the negative moderating role of hierarchy culture (HC) in the AC–OA link. Using partial least squares (PLS) and the PROCESS macro, we find evidence of these relations proposed, and the existence of a conditional mediating situation generated by HC.

The Route Towards Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship: An Overview

To what extent can the introduction and proactive embracement of proactive corporate environmental strategies, processes and activities lead to more innovative and entrepreneurial firms? Might sustainability be a core issue while attempting to cope with some of the world’s main challenges? This chapter presents some insights with regard to sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship, two topics that are receiving increased attention at the academic and managerial levels. Moreover, we underline the key contributions of the different chapters included in this book.

Assessing the links between organisational cultures and unlearning capability: evidence from the Spanish automotive components industry

Within the current business environment, knowledge management, organisational learning and unlearning mechanisms are becoming critical factors in the process of reaching lasting competitive advantages. Our research model employs the competing values framework (Cameron and Quinn, 1999) to empirically assess the influence of the firms own cultural typology on organisational unlearning. Our hypotheses are tested using a sample of 145 firms drawn from the Spanish automotive components manufacturing sector. The relationships between the constructs are assessed through the use of partial least squares (PLS) path-modelling, a variance-based structural equation modelling technique. The outcomes reveal that certain types of culture exert a higher influence on unlearning than others. This suggests in turn that some cultural typologies are better positioned to face the current turbulent situation than others.

Excellence and Organizational Institutionalization: A Conceptual Model

Organizations, while dealing with the institutionalization process, seek the way to assure their long-term survival. With this aim, firms try to further the economic-managerial dimension in order to turn themselves into institutions capable of satisfying the needs and expectations of all their interest groups. Nevertheless, there is a lack of concrete guidelines and a defined waybill. Hence, there exists a need for a transformation model that could turn into a set of structured processes which organizations would systematically implement. This model aims to serve as a guide for firms in their intention of becoming institutions. The EFQM excellence model is a non-prescriptive framework that helps organizations in their purpose of meeting the needs and expectations of all their stakeholders and thus achieving outstanding, sustainable, long-term results. In our chapter, we reveal how organizations use the EFQM model and implement the fundamental concepts of excellence as a roadmap for the conversion from organizations to institutions. Moreover, firms approach this in a structured, consistent, measurable, open and flexible way. In order to endorse our findings, we propose a conceptual model that considers all the drivers that characterize organizational institutionalization and the fundamental concepts of excellence as a result of the implementation of conceptual maps with a panel of first-level experts in Excellence in Management in Spain.