Resources: The effect of Top Management team characteristics and outside influences on the knowledge management of small entrepreneurial firms
Genre
Thesis/DissertationDate
2009Author
Bewaji, TolulopeAdvisor
Hamilton, Robert D. (Robert Devitt)Committee member
Mudambi, Ram, 1954-Zeitz, Gerald Joseph, 1942-
Blackstone, Erwin A., 1942-
Di Benedetto, C. Anthony
Department
Business AdministrationSubject
Business Administration, ManagementKnowledge Creation
Knowledge Management
Outside Influences
Patents
Top Management Team
Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/789Metadata
Show full item recordDOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/771Abstract
This study examines small entrepreneurial firms and factors that influence their level of knowledge management and knowledge creation. The dissertation investigates the effect of top management team as a resource in small entrepreneurial firms. Stepping outside of the internal resources of a firm, this paper also delves into the effect of outside sources of capital and knowledge of firm knowledge creation. The paper enriches research on the factors that increase knowledge creation and knowledge management of small entrepreneurial firms. First, in response to evidence that Top Management Team (TMT) characteristics affect performance of high technology firms, this examined TMT average age, education and founder presence effect on the research and development (R&D) intensity, in a cross-sectional sample of software and pharmaceutical firms, with IPOs between the years 2002 and 2004. Average education is positively associated with R&D intensity. The interaction of TMT education and TMT average age negatively affects R&D intensity. TMT education in founders is positively associated with R&D intensity. The first set of results enriches extant research on TMT characteristics’ effect on R&D intensity, which ultimately affects firm performance. Continuing, extant research posits that the research and development (R&D) intensity of firms is highly correlated with knowledge creation as measured by patent citation. This paper argues that there are unexplained variables that moderate the effectiveness of research and development knowledge creation. Using the resource-based view, the top management team (TMT), is examined as an intangible asset. Hypotheses are developed on how high-technology firms’ creation of knowledge, operationalized as their patent citations output, is affected by the TMT characteristics of average age, education level, education background, founder presence, and TMT industry experience. The findings show that TMT education background and TMT industry experience are significant influences on firm patent citation. When controlling for the TMT variables, R&D intensity was not significantly related to patent citation. Finally, research on research and development intensity demonstrates a strong association with patents. At the same time, there is an unexplained gap in the move from research and development to patents in explaining innovation. Prior research assumes that internal resources are preeminent, ignoring the role of external factors. This paper reviews outside resources to assess their effect on patent citation and patent rates. It was found that partnerships with universities and firm geographic location improve innovative activity, whilst grants from the government and partnerships with large firms are not significantly associated with innovative activity. The Board of directors (BOD) has no significant impact on innovative activity. In terms of interaction effect, BOD has a negative interaction effect with geographic clusters. This paper enriches research on the outside resources that increase innovative activity.ADA compliance
For Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation, including help with reading this content, please contact scholarshare@temple.eduCollections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
THE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT BID PROCESS: AN EXAMINATION OF PROPOSAL RESPONSE AND BIDDING DECISIONSThis research is intended to examine transportation suppliers coming up short due to participation in and response to bidding procedures. A mixed-methods approach is utilized to investigate the bid process and related outcomes for the transportation supplier. This study explores the bid process from the perspective of the transportation supplier. The first study is based on a quantitative approach, utilizing the Analytical Hierarchy Process methodology (AHP). The second study uses qualitative methodology, specifically utilizing semi-structured interview protocol. For the quantitative analysis, key factors related to the bidding process were studied, as the basis of the review. These factors were found through a systematic review of the literature, and are internal and external in nature. The results are that, of the factors studied, the Firm Related Internal Factor of Need for Work and Tender Related External Factor of Type of Bid are of the greatest significance when determining to bid. Key themes emerge from the semi-structured interviews, leading to the Assertation of Bid Submission Assessment, including a systematic review of relationships, current market conditions, and risk appraisal for the transportation supplier. This research explores economic, relational and strategic impacts on supplier performance aligned with the bid process, and how supply chain companies can build effective bid responses to enable practitioners to improve stability and financial performance, while avoiding supply chain disruptions. To better understand proposal response will aid the transportation supplier with restoring profitability levels lost, due to the bidding process (buyer to transportation supplier).
-
Dealing with Uncertainty in the Advance Ticket Sales Environment: An Empirical Examination on the Adaptive Nature of Consumer’s Intertemporal Choice DecisionsTiming is everything. There are ideal times for essentially in everything we do. Every day we face questions of timing, but we have limited guiding principles to answer those questions. There is a science behind ‘when we buy’ and the advance ticket sales market provides a ripe laboratory for research. Consumer’s deal with myriads of uncertainty finding the ideal time to book that vacation they have been long time waiting for. Prices change daily based on real time demand and the information asymmetry between buyers and sellers further complicates this problem for consumers as decisional agents. Given this emerging research opportunity, this dissertation conducts a series of experimental studies to examine the underlying process consumers undergo when booking and purchasing sporting event tickets. Study 1 begins exploring two key decisional factors (sellout risk and opportunity cost) consumers use to guide their temporal choice under uncertainty. A selective attention bias was elicited where sport fans and casual consumers placed subjective weighted values on these uncertainty cues. Study 2 further examines distinct biases in temporal choice due to emotion and motivation of consumers. The study found that consumers with higher involvement led to the belief to find better priced deal in the future which was mediated by their overconfidence. Lastly, Study 3 examines the boundary conditions and tests how the information frame and structure of the environment can further influence consumer’s booking and purchase decision. The empirical findings from the dissertation highlight the importance of consumer’s decisional biases in inter-temporal choice and provides theoretical and practical implications for both marketing and pricing research. Unlike normative assumptions of rationality, the studies find that there is no one size fit all optimal decision model on whether to wait or purchase. The optimization strategy of temporal choice ultimately lies within the interaction between the individual and how they cope with uncertainty cues in their surrounding purchase environment.
-
THE DOVETAILING OF THE SPORT AND ESPORTS INDUSTRIES: THREE ESSAYS ON THE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF SPORT ORGANIZATIONSEsports, or competitive video gaming competitions, have grown in popularity to have millions of global fans, spectators, and participants. Sport organizations, including leagues and teams, are increasingly affiliating, or dovetailing, with esports organizations. Although the meteoric rise of esports presents sport organizations with growth opportunities to connect with these markets, esports remain shrouded in uncertainty, stigma, and stereotypes that impede the convergence of industries. The growing affiliation between these two industries allows researchers to gain insight into the strategic actions of sport organizations despite the institutional constraints that influence their behavior. This dissertation includes three essays that address—with respect to esports—the (1) strategic resources and core competencies of sport organizations; (2) sensemaking of actors within sport organizations; and (3) institutional creation strategies within heavily regulated fields. Essay one consists of an explanatory, qualitative study of professional sport teams diversifying into the esports industry. As sport organizations mature, they will need to seek growth opportunities beyond their core industry and compete with formally tangentially related firms. The nascent esports industry has been embraced by sport organizations (e.g., leagues, teams), many of whom use existing resources and best practices from traditional sport to manage their esports property. This trend provides a salient context to identify how sport organizations are using their resources in a new marketspace and what they can provide to non-sport organizations. Guided by strategic management perspectives of the resource-based view (RBV), knowledge-based view (KBV), and resource orchestration (RO), the purpose of essay one is to examine how sport organizations leverage their core competencies to create a sustainable competitive advantage. The findings support the hypothesis that the existing resources of sport organizations such as physical venues and existing departments (e.g., legal, marketing, sales departments) are used to support sport organizations operations in the esports industry. Moreover, the findings identify that the tacit knowledge embedded in the human capital of sport organizations is a salient resource that helps them generate a competitive advantage against non-sport organizations. While tacit knowledge is a driver of competitive advantage, it is the supporting structures and departments that allows sport organizations to use this knowledge efficiently and effectively. Thus, by operating at the intersection of sport, entertainment, and media, sport organizations are increasingly competing with formally tangentially related firms, and can use their embedded resources and structure when competing with these firms. Essay two focuses on the integration of esports by a first-mover sport organization. Essay two employs an exploratory case study of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball League (NBA) and their integration of an esports team. The 76ers were the first North American professional sports organization to purchase and integrate an esports team. Novel technologies and practices, such as esports, are surrounded by uncertainty and are generally met with resistance (Huber, 1990) with their integration contingent upon internal and external constituent support. Actors, individuals within the 76ers, had to position and garner support for esports, which are representative of the novel practices and technologies influencing the way sport organizations are managed. In essay two an institutional creation work perspective is linked with sensemaking and related constructs to examine how actors within the 76ers helped create and give meaning—sensemaking—to esports. The findings of essay two support how actors within the 76ers were able to foster a progressive culture to create a shared understanding of esports and use this understanding to influence the sensemaking of others—sensegiving. In particular, the 76ers linked the managerial components of operating a sports team to operating an esports team. Yet the 76ers were deliberate in their approach, limiting cross-promotions between the fanbases of the 76ers and their esports team. By connecting institutional creation work with sensemaking, essay two contributes to how actors can proactively take actions to garner constituent support. Moreover, the findings of essay two support that sensemaking is a critical antecedent of sensegiving, as a shared understanding within an organization is a necessary prerequisite to influence the sensemaking of others (i.e., sensegiving). Essay two provides actors within the field of sport integrating novel practices and activities (e.g., augmented and virtual reality, in-game sports betting, wearable fitness devices, mediated sports consumption) strategies to proactively garner support for their integration. Essay two focuses on the integration of esports by professional sport organizations. Essay three utilizes an exploratory qualitative approach to identify the institutional creation strategies associated with integrating collegiate esports programs within the heavily regulated field of U.S. collegiate athletics. The findings of essay three support how actors need to go beyond creating a shared understanding to integrate novel activities. Actors must also influence the cognitive schema of other actors to facilitate the integration of novel practices and activities. Specifically, they can build on the concept of sportification (Heere, 2018) to both communicate and present esports in a manner consistent with traditional sports, using the concept of sport as a legitimizing agent. Collectively, the three essays support how sport organizations can seize growth opportunities with respect to their institutional environment. Sport organizations must recognize their institutional confines, but also can be strategic in their actions by focusing on their financial performance and sustainability in lieu of their constraints. This research contributes to a deeper understanding regarding how the institutional and strategic concerns of sport organizations influence their efficient and effective management. The research lays a foundation for a stream of future research on the strategic growth and long-term viability of sport organizations both within and beyond the esports industry.
