Performance In Turbulent Environment Research Articles

The relationship among informational diversity, dynamic capabilities, and innovative performance in turbulent environments: evidence from R&D teams

The study examines the link between informational diversity and innovative performance, with a specific emphasis on the importance of a team's dynamic capabilities in turbulent environments. Utilizing 131 research and development teams, with 289 members from 87 manufacturing firms, our findings reveal that environmental turbulence not only influences the development of dynamic capabilities necessary to leverage diverse information among team members but also amplifies the positive relationship of these capabilities with innovative performance. The results demonstrate the significant roles of both environmental turbulence and dynamic capabilities in the diversity–performance relationship, providing fresh insights into this area of literature. For example, merely possessing diverse informational resources is not correlated with performance improvements. Instead, teams appear to require a catalyst to cultivate dynamic capabilities that effectively transform these resources into innovation.

THE MODERATING EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL DYNAMISM IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INNOVATION CAPABILITY AND PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN NAIROBI CITY COUNTY, KENYA

The manufacturing sector is well known for its significance in upholding the economic prosperity of many nations. However, the manufacturing sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product has been consistently falling across the last few years, giving rise to fears of a premature de-industrialization phenomenon in Kenya. A growing research literature posits that the innovation capability can be considered a theoretical answer to the question of how organizations in various industries are able to achieve and sustain superior performance in turbulent environments. However, scholars still lack a complete understanding of the specific innovation capability that sustain superior firm performance over time in the dynamic environment. The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating effect of environmental dynamism in the relationship between innovation capability and performance of manufacturing firms in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The study employed the correlational, cross-sectional survey research design. The proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 228 manufacturing firms from a target population of 526 manufacturing firms in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The Pearson’s product moment correlation analysis results indicated that product innovation capability, process innovation capability, marketing innovation capability and technological innovation capability had positive and significant relationship with performance of manufacturing firms in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The standard multiple regression results showed that product innovation capability, process innovation capability, marketing innovation capability and technological innovation capability had a positive and significant effect on performance of manufacturing firms in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The moderated multiple regression results showed that environmental dynamism had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between innovation capability and performance of manufacturing firms in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The study recommended that it is imperative for the managers to implement innovation capability and strategically manage the environmental dynamism to foster the performance of manufacturing firms. Policy makers should consider initiating policy review to encourage stakeholders to implement innovation capability and strategically manage the environmental dynamism to foster the performance of manufacturing firms. The study pointed to several intriguing paths for future research.

How Transformative Operations and Ubuntu Values Impact Organization Performance in Turbulent Environments: A Literature Review

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to provide organization leaders and managers with an understanding of transformative operations as a practical approach to successfully navigate chaotic business environments in Africa.
 Methodology: The researcher conducted a review of available academic literature, journals, research findings, authoritative policy documents, library books and online business publications related to emergent transformative leadership theory, ubuntu values, organization performance and environmental turbulence in the business context. The author used a thematic analysis of text, qualitative interpretivism of published information and grounded theory to develop a conceptual framework to guide future research in the field.
 Findings: The author examined modern societal and scholarly calls for transformative leadership as a suitable model to address the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous conditions of a chaotic global environment in the 21st century. The literature and empirical research review suggest that implementing transformative operations, alongside practicing ubuntu values, equips organizations to navigate a strategic path through turbulent conditions. These approaches secure a business organization’s survival, sustainability, profitability and market leadership. The author proposes that leading organization performance in an evolving environment is neither a linear process nor a simple planning routine. Rather, it is a transcendent approach to navigating immediate, disruptive, short, medium and long-term challenges to arrive at desired goals. In the process, organizations change, adapt, innovate and transform themselves in order to thrive in the face of evolving environmental conditions. The study proposes a conceptual model for further empirical research on the impact of transformative operations on organization performance.
 Recommendations: The study recommend leaders and managers to 1) adopt transformative operations as a strategy to successfully navigate environmental turbulence, 2) to harness the free social energy available in the ubuntu philosophy to leverage institutional performance in public and private business in Africa, 3) use environmental mapping to configure and navigate surrounding force fields, 4) adopt additional performance measures, alongside financial results, to provide a wholistic picture of business success. And finally, the study invite researchers to conduct empirical tests to evaluate the efficacy of the conceptual framework.

A Qualitative Study on Business Performance in Turbulent Environment

The combination of business strategies and practices that tends to enhance sustainability of performance has been the subject of only a modest number of scholarly studies, but has been at the forefront of corporate agendas for decades. Dramatic shifts in performance and industry standing occur frequently among firms that develop technology products and services, the ‘technology innovators,’ in part because these firms operate in external business environments that tend to be turbulent. This exploratory study focuses on the integration of these five elements through case studies of three medium to large technology innovator firms operating under medium or high environmental turbulence. Interviews of 10 managers, directors and executives based on a semi-structured guide were augmented by qualitative self-assessment of leadership style, a validated instrument for assessing culture type, pre-interview surveys and secondary data. The results are: a single predominant leadership style setting an expectation of high performance was seen among managers in all three firms, a high presence of Aggressive/Defensive cultural style existed among the firms, and sustainability of performance was believed by interviewees to depend on effective integration of strong leadership style and culture, structure appropriate for innovation, and balanced emphasis on strategic positioning and operational effectiveness.

Optimization analysis of straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbines in turbulent environments by wind tunnel testing

Although freestream turbulence is believed to improve the efficiency of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs), few studies have systematically assessed VAWT performance in turbulent environments. In this study, steel and aluminum grids were used to simulate the turbulence field. Three turbulence levels of Iu = 5.1%, 10.9% and 14.6% were generated, together with one low turbulence level of 0.9%. First, the parametric effects of solidity ratio σ, pitch angle β, and aspect ratio η were examined in 48 cases in various flow regimes. Then, the Taguchi method with an L16(44) orthogonal table was implemented to comprehensively and effectively investigate the parametric effects and their extent of impact on VAWT turbine performance. This reduced the number of cases from 256 to 16. Unlike smooth flow, turbulence enhanced the efficiency of the VAWTs, with improvements ranging from 7.9% to 38.0%. The factors influenced efficiency in the following order: β > σ > η > Iu. The VAWT performance peaked at β = −6.5°, and revealed that a toe-out pitch ranging from −9.5° to −6.5° is required for maximal performance. The improvements in VAWT efficiency caused by turbulence decreased as a factor approached its optimal value.

The mediating role of personnel training between innovation and performance: Evidence from the German pharmaceutical industry

Purpose – The need for companies to become more innovative has never been greater, because innovation helps them deal with a turbulent environment by providing them a sustainable competitive advantage. In this sense, it has been generally accepted that a successful innovative environment requires a welltrained work force. Nevertheless, the literature showing how personnel training drives the innovationperformance relationship in industries where innovation is a key factor is scarce, especially in high-tech industries such as the pharmaceutical industry. Thus, we build upon existing studies to contribute to the innovation and training-related literature by considering the latter as a mediating variable between innovation and business performance. Hence, we aim to assess the impact of innovation on performance, and bring new insights into the innovation-performance link by including training as a variable that drives the aforementioned relationship. Design/methodology – We apply the partial least squares structural equation modeling technique to a sample of German pharmaceutical firms. The data were collected in mid-2014 by means of a computerassisted telephone interviewing (CATI) procedure. As a result, 200 valid responses were obtained from CEOs. Findings – First, this study demonstrates that both innovation and personnel training have a significant, positive impact on performance. Second, the results suggest that training personnel does indeed positively mediate the innovation-performance link. Hence, our study helps explain how innovation effectively translates into greater levels of performance. Originality / value – We answer calls to clarify about the innovation-personnel training relationship to generate greater levels of performance in turbulent environments. Furthermore, we assess this fact in the pharmaceutical industry, where paradoxically there is a lack of studies within the aforementioned framework.

Dynamic strategy: Investigating the ambidexterity–performance relationship

Purpose: This study aims to determine whether organisations in emerging economic contexts demonstrate ambidexterity for sustainable performance in the long term and what the effects of environmental turbulence are on the ambidexterity and sustainable performance relationship. Design/methodology/approach: This study used self-administered questionnaires and telephonic surveys. The sample consisted of profit-seeking organisations from many different industries within South Africa, including, but not limited to, manufacturing, business services, finance, hospitality and tourism, and retail and wholesale. The research was conducted during the 2017 financial year. Findings/results: It was found that moderate to strong relationships exist between the two sub-dimensions of ambidexterity and sustainable performance. The findings depict a strong relationship between exploration and exploitation as the sub-dimensional constructs of ambidexterity, reinforcing existing literature on simultaneous exploration and exploitation. There was no statistically significant information, indicating that environmental turbulence moderates the ambidexterity and sustainable performance relationship. Practical implications: Considering the strong positive relationship between the two sub-dimensions of ambidexterity and sustainable organisational performance, it is advisable for management of South African organisations to focus on ambidextrous strategies for sustaining performance in turbulent environments. Originality/value: This study contributes to the limited body of knowledge investigating ambidexterity as a dynamic capability in an emerging economic context. Moreover, this study contributes to clarify the ambidexterity and sustainable performance relationship in terms of whether organisations can simultaneously explore and exploit and what type of relationship exists between ambidexterity and sustainable performance as previous studies delivered mixed results.

Organization Performance in Turbulent Environments: The Contingent Role of Administrative Intensity in Hurricane Rita

This study uses a natural experiment of school performance during Hurricane Rita in 2005 to investigate the impact of administrative intensity on student achievement in turbulent environments. Admi...

TMT Heterogeneity and Firm Performance in Turbulent Environments: Evidence from the Financial Crisis

This study analyzes the moderating effect of environmental turbulences on the relationship between top management team (TMT) heterogeneity and firm performance. Prior studies have produced mixed re...

Is market learning the missing link between family involvement – firm performance relationship? A resource-based perspective

Drawing on previous literature on proposing that there exists a positive relationship between family involvement and firm performance, this study refines the explanatory role of market learning in explaining the relationship between family involvement and firm performance to be conditional to firm age and environmental turbulence. The data from 344 small-medium enterprises show that family involvement is positively related to market exploitation while family involvement is negatively related to market exploration as family firms age. Also, we provide empirical evidence that family involvement is positively related to firm performance in turbulent environments through market exploration irrespective of the firm’s age. Conversely, family involvement is positively related to firm performance through market exploitation in less turbulent environments irrespective of firm age. This study provides empirical evidence of the market exploration and exploitation capabilities may be the capabilities that glue family involvement to firm performance.

Contabilidad de gestión para controlar o coordinar en entornos turbulentos: su impacto en el desempeño organizacional

This study explores management accounting systems’ (MAS) effect on organizational performance in turbulent environments. The information generated by MAS has a different impact on organizational performance depending on its main purpose of use (control or coordination) according to transaction costs theory. Data from a survey with 42 complete answers from medium sized organizations operating in the province of Cordoba (Argentina) show that MAS positively impact organizational performance in turbulent environments if used to coordinate up to a certain level. Their purpose of use is better modeled as another independent variable but not as a mediator between external factors and organizational performance. Previous case studies suggested that MAS's purpose of use was mediating between external factors and organizational performance, but this study shows that in turbulent environments the idea is not valid as managers’ decisions do not affect uncontrollable external factors (market and technology). Performance in medium sized organizations operating in Latin America improves if MAS are used to coordinate, while limiting their use for control purposes to certain and definite tasks such as cost measurement, compensation and incentive mechanisms.

Individual Performance in Turbulent Environments: The Role of Organizational Learning Capability and Employee Flexibility

Organizational learning capability (OLC) and employee flexibility help firms navigate the challenges faced by organizations operating in turbulent environments. OLC includes dimensions such as experimentation, risk taking, openness, dialogue, and participative decision making. Employee flexibility is considered a crucial tool for strategic human resource management in tackling environmental turbulence. Accordingly, we pose the following research question: how, and to what extent, is individual performance enhanced by OLC and employee flexibility in turbulent environments? The major impact that environmental turbulence has on change and flexibility requirements suggests that employee flexibility plays an important role in the impact OLC has on individual performance. However, we found no prior studies that explicitly analyzed this mediating function of employee flexibility. In this study, we tested three hypotheses that link OLC and individual performance, OLC and employee flexibility, and employee flexibility and individual performance. We applied a structural equation methodology, using partial least squares path modeling, to a sample of 174 academics at a Latin American university (a highly turbulent context). Our results show employee flexibility fully mediates the relation between OLC and individual performance given the presence of environmental turbulence. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Design Policies in Virtual Cellular Manufacturing Systems by Multi-Domain Simulation Environment

In today’s competitive market, customer demand is characterized by high fluctuations and it is more difficult to forecast. Therefore, the classical cellular manufacturing systems need to be revised in order to stay competitive. Among the different approaches to support the cellular manufacturing systems, the concept of virtual cellular manufacturing systems can improve the performance in turbulent environment. This paper proposes two policies to support the problem of the reconfiguration of machines in a virtual cellular manufacturing system. The policies proposed are tested developing a multi-domain simulation environment in ExtendSim®. The experiments conducted show how the proposed approach improves the performance of the manufacturing systems especially when some disturbances occur as demand fluctuations, machine failures and processing time are uncertain.

Unpacking firm effects: modeling political alliances in variance decomposition of firm performance in turbulent environments

Unpacking firm effects: modeling political alliances in variance decomposition of firm performance in turbulent environments

Unpacking firm effects: modeling political alliances in variance decomposition of firm performance in turbulent environments

In this paper, firm heterogeneity in turbulent environments is addressed. It is argued that previous studies have not taken into account effects of a turbulent environment, like the Brazilian context, in which firms must face a weak and erratic government. In such an environment, the large portion of variance usually attributed to firm effects may be explained, not by the usual assumptions of mainstream scholars, but by a more political view of firm differences, namely, the ability to manage valuable political alliances. To account for these differences, a multivariate performance measure was construed and a new factor, politics effects, has been introduced to the usual model. Company donations for campaign funds in elections was used as a proxy for this factor. A sample of 607 observations, of 177 firms in 15 sectors was used. Results suggest that the presence of politics effects were found to be not significant (using COV and Hierarchical ANOVA). However, different from previous studies, transient industry effects appear to be more important than stable effects. Findings also indicate that a better model specification for turbulent environments is needed and highlight the importance of the cost of capital.

How Organizational Resources Affect Strategic Change and Performance in Turbulent Environments: Theory and Evidence

This study examines how historical resource endowments and competencies affect strategic change and its outcomes amid environmental turbulence. Drawing from both behavioral and economics-based literatures, we develop four distinct perspectives regarding the likely effect of resources on strategic change. These four perspectives offer alternative predictions about how and why resource endowments should affect the likelihood or magnitude of strategic change, and how and why they should moderate the relation between strategic change and performance. We examine the predictive power of these four alternative arguments using extensive longitudinal data from a single industry context characterized both by substantial resource heterogeneity and environmental turbulence. Results indicate that organizations possessing greater stocks of historically valuable resources were much less likely to engage in adaptive strategic change, but also that this resource-driven disinclination towards change tended to have a benign or even beneficial effect on performance. We discuss the implications of our theory and findings for the strategic change literature and also for the literature on the resource-based view of the firm.