Ra’ed Masa’deh

The impact of knowledge management on innovation: An empirical study on Jordanian consultancy firms

Purpose The paper aims to examine the effect of knowledge management processes (knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing and knowledge utilization) and knowledge management approaches (social network, codification and personalization) on innovation in Jordanian consultancy firms. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire that targets 266 respondents resulted in 216 usable ones with a response rate of 81.2 per cent. To test the research hypotheses, a multiple regression analysis was conducted, in addition to descriptive statistics that provide a background about the respondents. Findings The analysis showed that there is a significant and positive impact of knowledge management processes on innovation in Jordanian consulting firms, as well as a significant and positive effect of codification and personalization approaches on innovation, while the social network approach has a significant negative impact with innovation. Originality/value This is the first study that examines the effect of knowledge management processes (knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing and knowledge utilization) and knowledge management approaches (social network, codification and personalization) on innovation in Jordanian consultancy firms.

The impact of knowledge management on job performance in higher education: The case of the University of Jordan

This is an empirical study of knowledge management performance (KMP) at a university and the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between knowledge management process (KMPR), KMP and job performance (JP).,The data were collected using a questionnaire, as the instrument for the primary data collection, with total collected back responses of 207 from university lecturers who have actually participated. Structural equation modeling technique was used to fully analyze the data in order to determine what level of the relationship between knowledge management (KM) and JP existed.,The main findings were related to confirming the two main hypotheses of the research that were related to testing if there were relationships between the KMPR (represented by seven surrogate measures, namely, knowledge identification, knowledge creation, knowledge collection, knowledge organizing, knowledge storage, knowledge dissemination and knowledge application) and KMP, as well as if the KMP was related to the JP.,This paper focuses on investigating the actual role of KM at a university, which is assumingly a knowledge factory. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that presumes the importance of KM and specially when there is no proper KM regiment in place, the paper reports the limited influence KM has on staff JP. It is one of the few studies that fills the gap in the literature concerned with the relationship between KM and JP and perhaps the first to provide insights about the KM intricacies at a Jordanian University.

The Impact of Information Technology Infrastructure Flexibility on Firm Performance : An Empirical Study of Jordanian Public Shareholding Firms

Most of the Information Systems (IS) research considered Information Technology (IT) as infrastructure flexibility construct in terms of connectivity, compatibility, modularity, and IT personnel competency. Chanopas et al. (2006) expanded the construct by adding other five elements; namely scalability, continuity, rapidity, facility, and modernity. Indeed, since no research validates Chanopas et al.’s (2006) study, which was the first describing a new framework represents IT infrastructure flexibility. The current research aims at examining their investigation on the nine variables that reflect the construct. In addition, as research has neglected the association between IT infrastructure flexibility and firm performance besides some researchers calls (e.g. Chanopas et al., 2006; Tanriverdi, 2006; Fink and Neumann, 2009; Zhang et al., 2009; Bhatt et al., 2010) who emphasised that very little theoretical and practical research occurs on studying the relationships among IT infrastructure flexibility, IT-based competitive advantage, and firm performance. This paper is the first that empirically tested the associations among them. Several statistical techniques were conducted on data collected from a sample of 98 firms. Empirical results did not find a direct relationship between IT infrastructure flexibility and firm performance. However, causal links were founded between IT infrastructure flexibility and IT-based competitive advantage; and IT-based competitive advantage and firm performance. The conclusions of the current study are provided, and areas for further research are also addressed.

The role of employees’ empowerment as an intermediary variable between knowledge management and information systems on employees’ performance

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interrelationships among knowledge management (KM), information systems (IS) and employees’ empowerment (EE) on employees’ performance (EP).,Accordingly, a structural model is developed that delineates the interactions among these constructs and explores the mediating effect of EE on the relationship between KM, IS and EP. A questionnaire-based survey was designed to test the aforementioned model based on dataset of 287 employees’ pharmaceutical industries in Jordan. The model and posited hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling analysis.,The results indicated that KM and IS positively and significantly affect EE, in which the latter impact EP as well. However, neither KM nor IS proved to be positively related to EP. Additionally, EE positively and significantly mediated the relationship between KM and EP, besides the relationship between IS and EP.,This is one of the few studies which investigate the interrelationships among KM, IS and EE on EP, and the first to test the model on companies in the pharmaceutical industries in Jordan.

Factors affecting strategy implementation: A case study of pharmaceutical companies in the middle east

The purpose of this paper is to study the operational process factors that affect successful strategy implementation in the Middle East.,Five operational process factors were studied (resource availability, communication, operational planning, people, control and feedback). Data were collected using a self-administrated questionnaire from employees who implement and/or are responsible for strategy implementation in 17 pharmaceutical companies. In total, 330 questionnaires were distributed, and a total of 259 were responded with a response rate of 78 per cent.,Findings revealed that four of the operational process factors, namely, resource availability, communication, operational planning in addition to control and feedback, strongly affect the success of strategy implementation. Further, resource availability was ascertained to be the most influential factor, followed by control and feedback, then by communication, while people factor showed no effect on the implementation process.,It is advised that, during the implementation phase, company management should provide staff employees with the necessary training and instructions to link employee performance with the overall reward and compensation system in the organization and to strengthen effective communication and coordination.,This is one of the few studies that cover operational process factors and successful strategy implementation and is the first study to test the model on companies in the pharmaceutical sector in the Middle East.

Factors influencing students’ adoption of e-learning: a structural equation modeling approach

Purpose This research aims to examine the factors that may hinder or enable the adoption of e-learning systems by university students. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual framework was developed through extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, hedonic motivation, habit, social influence, price value and facilitating conditions) by incorporating two additional factors, namely, trust and self-efficacy. Data were collected from students at two universities in England using a cross-sectional questionnaire survey between January and March 2015. Findings The results showed that behavioral intention (BI) was significantly influenced by performance expectancy, social influence, habit, hedonic motivation, self-efficacy, effort expectancy and trust, in their order of influencing the strength and explained 70.6 per cent of the variance in behavioral intention. Contrary to expectations, facilitating conditions and price value did not have an influence on behavioral intention. Originality/value The aforementioned factors are considered critical in explaining technology adoption but, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has been no study in which all these factors were modeled together. Therefore, this study will contribute to the literature related to social networking adoption by integrating all these variables and the first to be tested in the UK universities.

The impact of employee’s perception of implementing green supply chain management on hotel’s economic and operational performance

Purpose This study aims to quantify the associations among employees’ perception of implementing green supply chain management (i.e. through seven variables, namely, internal environmental management, green information systems, green purchasing, tourist perceptions, environmentally friendly activity, employee emotional behavior and environmental legislation) with hotel’s economic and operational performance. Design/methodology/approach A survey instrument is used to examine the relationships in the proposed model by using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. An analysis of the primary data (n = 150) collected from employees in Aqaba hotels located in Jordan is conducted to test the relationship between exogenous and endogenous constructs expressed in the proposed structural model. Findings The findings revealed that while green information systems, employee emotional behavior and environmental legislation affected hotels’ economic performance, internal environmental management, green purchasing, tourist perceptions and environment-friendly activity did not. Also, hotels’ economic performance positively impacted hotels’ operational performance. However, as the coefficient of determination (R²) for the endogenous research variables for economic performance and operational performance was 0.16 and 0.17, respectively, the relationships between the exogenous and endogenous constructs were not supported. Practical implications This study will contribute towards a better understanding of employee perceptions of implementing green supply chain management and hotel performance in Aqaba City. Originality/value This is the first study that adequately covers the associations among employee perception of implementing green supply chain management on hotel’s economic and operational performance in the Middle East.

The effect of promotional mix on hotel performance during the political crisis in the Middle East

This paper aims to investigate the effects of promotional mix in terms of advertisement, website and direct sale on job performance during the political crisis in the Middle East.,Data were collected from 121 Jordanian employees working in hotels in Aqaba city, using a self-administrated questionnaire including 35 items. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to test the research hypotheses.,The results of the current study revealed that there is a significant impact of hotels’ advertisement and hotels’ direct sale on hotel performance, whereas hotels’ website has no significant impact.,This is the first study that examines the effect of promotional mix on hotel performance during the political and economical crises in the Middle East and clarifies the most important elements that affect the countries’ economy, especially those involved in political conflicts.,本论文主要研究中东地区政治危机时期的促销组合对酒店绩效的各种影响, 其中促销组合是指广告、网站、和直接销售。,本论文采用35个问题的自助问卷形式采集数据。数据样本取自亚喀巴城的121名约旦员工。本研究采用多元回归分析法以测量研究假设。,本研究结果表明酒店的广告和直接销售对酒店绩效有显著作用, 但是酒店网站对于酒店绩效的作用并不显著。,本论文是首篇研究中东地区政治危机时期的促销组合对酒店绩效影响的文章。

The Impact of Work Ethics on Decision Making Efficiency in the Jordanian Public Sector

This study aims at investigating the impact of work ethics on the effectiveness of administrative decision making in the Jordanian public sector. The focus was mainly on the determination of the effect of elements such as integrity, justice, work proficiency, abiding by rules and regulations and preserving institutions’ properties on decision efficiency. In order to achieve the objective of the study, a questionnaire was designed to act as one scientific suitable tool to gather data and apply to a random sample. The questionnaire was distributed to over 400 public servants in four ministries: education, health, finance and ICT. The number of answered questionnaire suitable for the analysis purposes was 307 which is equivalent to 77% of the total distributed. The responses were processed and analysed using appropriate statistical techniques to answer the questions and assumptions posed by the study in the light of using analytical descriptive methodology. The findings of the study show that there is an impact with significant statistical evidence of the work ethics elements. It was evident that the elements of proficiency of achieving work, abiding by rules and regulations and preserving institution properties had a clear impact on the efficiency of administrative decision making, while there was no such evidence for integrity and justice. On the other hand, there was no impact with significant statistical evidence of the work ethic elements that can be attributed to demographic factors such as age, education, sex, experience, and professional level, except for the latter with statistical-based impact related to justice.On the light of these results, a national strategy may be drafted by the ministry of development of the public sector, in cooperation with other ministries and representatives of the sector, aimed at rooting, implanting and promoting ethics in the public sector. Specialized programs may also be designed for public sector leaders to lead by example and to create a proactive organizational environment that advocates for virtues and attitudes. In addition, there is a need to establish a mechanism to ensure adherence to rules and regulations and to secure justice for public servant in matters such rewards incentives, evaluation and promotion.