Resource Leveraging Research Articles

Preparing health systems in Southeast and East Asia for new paradigms of care/personalized medicine in cancers: are health systems ready for evolving cancer management?

ABSTRACTRoughly 9.7 million people are living with cancer in East and Southeast Asia. Once viewed as a virtual death sentence, cancer is increasingly treatable with the advent of personalized medicine, and even preventable in some cases through genetic screening and certain lifestyle changes. With the increasing prevalence and application of personalized medicine and diagnosis, more and more cancers will become ‘rare’. Thus, it is thus important to promote societal awareness and discussion around how best to manage care of rare cancers today. Are health systems in Asia prepared for this paradigm shift in oncology care? Is there a functioning ecosystem, which encompasses information, patient support, genetic screening of families and surveillance for other cancers? What needs to be done today to prepare for tomorrow’s reality? This article examines Asian health systems state of readiness and how they can prepare for the anticipated demand for access to personalized medicine in cancer care and suggests opportunities for expanded efforts to address resource gaps and leverage individual country expertise at a regional level.

Performative family: homosexuality, marriage and intergenerational dynamics in China.

Using in-depth interview data on nominal marriages - legal marriages between a gay man and a lesbian to give the appearance of heterosexuality - this paper develops the concept of performative family to explain the processes through which parents and their adult children negotiate and resolve disagreements in relation to marriage decisions in post-socialist China. We identify three mechanisms - network pressure, a revised discourse of filial piety and resource leverage - through which parents influence their gay offspring's decision to turn to nominal marriage. We also delineate six strategies, namely minimizing network participation, changing expectations, making partial concessions, drawing the line, delaying decisions and ending the marriage, by which gay people in nominal marriages attempt to meet parental expectations while simultaneously retaining a degree of autonomy. Through these interactions, we argue that Chinese parents and their gay adult children implicitly and explicitly collaborate to perform family, emphasizing the importance of formally meeting society's expectations about marriage rather than substantively yielding to its demands. We also argue that the performative family is a pragmatic response to the tension between the persistent centrality of family and marriage and the rising tide of individualism in post-socialist China. We believe that our findings highlight the specific predicament of homosexual people. They also shed light on the more general dynamics of intergenerational negotiation because there is evidence that the mechanisms used by parents to exert influence may well be similar between gay and non-gay people.

David M. Anderson (ed): Leveraging. A Political, Economic and Societal Framework

This book sprang from the well of a personal revelation of some kind and its main author does not play hide and seek about that. The opening sentence of the book reads: BI had an insight in the middle of the summer of 2010, almost 2 years after the onset of the financial crisis.^ (p.XI). It occurred to the author that the most talked about feature of the financial crisis, leveraging, was actually as relevant to our understanding of politics, international, relations, and family life as it was to our understanding of the U.S. economy and the global economy overall. The author thus discovered in one breath both the dominant theme of our times and a perennial basic principle of human conduct (p.XIII). This sudden and even quite unexpected discovery of a hitherto unknown ‘principle’ of human conduct is likely to meet with a healthy dose of skepticism. To this, the testimonials for the book just add leverage: one academic greets the book with asserting that it uncovers Bthe One Big Thing that explains many smaller things – like economics, national security, political gridlock, family structure, government regulation, diplomacy, information technology and labor relations.^ (p.VII). Indeed, all these domains and many more are touched upon, either in depth or in passing, by Anderson and his eight contributors. We are theoretically and practically familiar with the concept of leverage in physics. Here as well as in the other domains mentioned, leverage involves getting maximum effect from exerting a minimum effort. In societal spheres, Anderson distinguishes three different but related concepts of leveraging: bargaining leverage, resource leverage and financial leverage. In finance as in physics, the concept seems quite clear cut because it can be calculated and thus ‘exactly’ quantified as a ratio of a balance sheet. However, it is somewhat less obvious how this financial leverage relates to Bgetting maximum effect from exerting a minimum effort^. Any balance sheet needs to be fully funded anyway – in my mind, financial leveraging does not imply that less effort or less funding is involved; it consists in designing different pay off schemes for the different financial contributors to the company or to the project at hand. There Philosophy of Management (2016) 15:171–173 DOI 10.1007/s40926-016-0026-x

Strategy-making for innovation management and the development of corporate universities

Innovation is now seen as a question of corporate survival and international competitiveness. While most innovation fails, companies that don’t innovate in the long term die. The importance of crafting a sound and coherent innovation strategy appears crucial in many industries, even more in turbulent environments where clear guidelines help managers allocate RD it is the quest to overcome resource constraints through a creative and unending pursuit of better resource leverage with the corporation conceived as a portfolio of competencies as well as a portfolio of businesses, and innovation projects. Incumbents that focus their network strategy on exploiting complementary assets through alliances generally outperform incumbents that focus on exploring the new technology. The technological strategies of corporate firms have several similarities to the investment strategy of venture capitalists. They are looking for complementarities between investments to nurture specialized knowledge and extract greater value with synergies. Appendix 2 proposes a new integrative model by making the connections between the strategy-making process and the R&D strategic resource allocation management process. Top managers should try to control the initial cost structure of new growth business, because it influence greatly the critical resource allocation decisions in that business, and also recognize emergent strategies through process such as discovery-driven planning and select the right mix of emergent versus deliberate strategies for each businesses in the organization. The determinants of product innovation in firms are mainly explained by the strategy being pursued and managers should be careful to not drift toward excessive conservatism or excessive entrepreneurship over innovation management. Some experts argue that strategic management, when continuously practised may develop in a firm core capability may have more enduring effects on the firm’s long-term performance than one-time strategies. Flexible strategic planning for innovation management appears more efficient, particularly in turbulent environments. A bottom-up approach of technology strategy-making favorizes the crafting of emergent strategies. One tool, communities of practice has an important influence on strategy-making for innovation management due to empowerment. A corporate university can become another influent knowledge management strategic tool, only if enough resources are devoted to its development and managers adopt a long-term perspective.

Opportunities and Challenges for Innovations in Qatar

Opportunities and Challenges for Innovations in <scp>Q</scp>atar

Advancing the application of systems thinking in health: sustainability evaluation as learning and sense-making in a complex urban health system in Northern Bangladesh.

BackgroundStarting in 1999, Concern Worldwide Inc. (Concern) worked with two Bangladeshi municipal health departments to support delivery of maternal and child health preventive services. A mid-term evaluation identified sustainability challenges. Concern relied on systems thinking implicitly to re-prioritize sustainability, but stakeholders also required a method, an explicit set of processes, to guide their decisions and choices during and after the project.MethodsConcern chose the Sustainability Framework method to generate creative thinking from stakeholders, create a common vision, and monitor progress. The Framework is based on participatory and iterative steps: defining (mapping) the local system and articulating a long-term vision, describing scenarios for achieving the vision, defining the elements of the model, and selecting corresponding indicators, setting and executing an assessment plan,, and repeated stakeholder engagement in analysis and decisions . Formal assessments took place up to 5 years post-project (2009).ResultsStrategic choices for the project were guided by articulating a collective vision for sustainable health, mapping the system of actors required to effect and sustain change, and defining different components of analysis. Municipal authorities oriented health teams toward equity-oriented service delivery efforts, strengthening of the functionality of Ward Health Committees, resource leveraging between municipalities and the Ministry of Health, and mitigation of contextual risks. Regular reference to a vision (and set of metrics (population health, organizational and community capacity) mitigated political factors. Key structures and processes were maintained following elections and political changes. Post-project achievements included the maintenance or improvement 5 years post-project (2009) in 9 of the 11 health indicator gains realized during the project (1999–2004). Some elements of performance and capacity weakened, but reductions in the equity gap achieved during the project were largely maintained post-project.ConclusionsSustainability is dynamic and results from local systems processes, which can be strengthened through both implicit and explicit systems thinking steps applied with constancy of purpose.

Accelerated internationalization and resource leverage strategizing: The case of Chinese wind turbine manufacturers

Accelerated internationalization is an important phenomenon in international business (IB), where it has been linked mainly with studies of born globals and patterns of internationalization utilized by small and medium-sized enterprises. Building on recent research on the (redefined) concept of speed of internationalization, we seek to extend the domain of accelerated internationalization to encompass cases where large firms in certain industries from emerging markets such as China and India globalize at an accelerated pace. We utilize cases from the Chinese wind turbine manufacturing industry to illustrate the process, and apply strategic reasoning based on resource leverage as a means of explaining such phenomena – complementing the extant frameworks based on microeconomic reasoning. We argue that both approaches are needed to make sense of the important empirical phenomena revealed by examination of the patterns of internationalization exhibited by emerging market multinationals.

The Co-evolution of Technology and Institutions in the Catch-up Process: The Case of the Semiconductor Industry in Korea and Taiwan

This paper explores the industrial specialisation of latecomer countries, particularly Korea and Taiwan, which are often referred to as successful catch-up cases. The traditional wisdom is that the ‘developmental state’, resource leverage, and technological sophistication in an export-oriented strategy have been the factors for success. However, firm strategies and a supportive government are not sufficient to explain the different features of catch-up patterns. In this paper we propose that differences in industrial specialisation of catch-up countries are attributable to the interaction between technological characteristics and institutional settings, including corporate organisation, industrial structure, and the role of the public sector.

Resources in NPD: An Investigation of Resource Capabilities

In this paper we examine the role of resources in improving new product process outcomes. We propose amodel where resource flexibility and augmentation serve as mechanisms to identify and accumulate resourcesthat increase the firm’s ability to respond to opportunities and challenges in the new product developmentprocess. Important to the development of this resource base is the need to also leverage accumulated resources.Thus, the model is further developed to incorporate the role of resource leveraging as a moderator to theresource base and performance link. Using a cross-industry sample, a series of hypotheses are tested to evaluatethe moderating role of resource leveraging on the link between a firm’s resource base and its performance.Results suggest that resource flexibility and augmentation improves new product outcomes, and that resourceleveraging can lead to enhanced performance.

The Effect of Entrepreneurial Marketing on Firms’ Innovative Performance in Turkish SMEs

Merging two formerly distinct disciplines, the term entrepreneurial marketing is used to describe the marketing processes of firms pursuing opportunities in uncertain market circumstances, often under constrained resource conditions. The aim of the study is to identify the effect of entrepreneurial marketing on firms’ innovative performance. The hypothesized relationships between dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing and innovative performance are tested with data collected through structured questionnaires administered face-to-face to managers of 560 SMEs in the Turkish manufacturing industry. Analyses results revealed that proactiveness, innovativeness, customer intensity, resource leveraging dimensions of entrepreneurial marketing are positively related with innovative performance. Finally, the limitations of the study and the suggestions for future research will be presented.

The Roles of Recruiter Political Skill and Performance Resource Leveraging in NCAA Football Recruitment Effectiveness

The recruitment and selection of human resources represent the most important activities in which organizations of all types engage. However, there is much scholars still need to know about the predictors of recruitment effectiveness. Using a sample of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) university football coaches ( N = 175) and their recruiting outcomes, the authors hypothesized that recruiting effectiveness is specifically affected by the individual qualities of the recruiters, in addition to the past performance of the team under the current head coach. The results supported the hypothesis, demonstrating that the interaction of recruiter political skill and head coach performance explained significant variance in recruitment effectiveness. Implications of these results and directions for future research are discussed.

Contracts as a facilitator of resource evolution

The formality of contracts is not external to the substance of business interactions, but a way of articulating, facilitating and simplifying the complexity of business interactions. An umbrella contract, in particular, is an abstraction of possibility and a refined version of the substance of business interaction in which resource leveraging may or may not occur. Umbrella contracts circumscribe an in-built platform or ‘architecture’ that enables regular and repeated knowledge-intensive interactions. Today's business landscape is characterized by the heterogeneity of resources, activities and actors and contracts have become a key element in the interconnected path of resource evolution, activity specialization and actor co-evolution.

Leveraging knowledge-based resources: The role of contracts

Every firm faces the challenge of leveraging valuable resources in the form of the intellectual assets, know-how and expertise of itself and others around it. They can only achieve this through interaction with other idiosyncratically capable firms. But through interaction, resources, activities and actors themselves evolve in relation to each other. In this situation of complex business interaction and uncertainty, the conditions under which the respective knowledge and expertise can be leveraged often need to be expressed and manifested as joint consent between the involved parties. Designing an agreed platform for using knowledge-based resources of others poses a real challenge for many companies because the knowledge that firms need to access is inherently indeterminate and continually evolving. This study addresses this issue by investigating the role of contracts in leveraging knowledge-based resources. The study builds on an interactive view of resource leveraging in general and on ideas on knowledge-based resources in particular ( Håkansson et al., 2009). The paper reports on empirical research conducted between 2003 and 2007 that examined real-world contracts in manufacturer–retailer networks. The study draws conclusions on the role of contracts in leveraging knowledge-based resources and more widely on the dialectic nature of resource transformation.

Unleashing synergies in strategic networks of SMEs: The influence of partner fit on corporate entrepreneurship

An increasing number of firms participate in inter-firm networks to improve their innovation, renewal, and venturing; efforts that can be termed ‘corporate entrepreneurship’. This article contributes to the literature by developing and testing explanations for how partner fit (that is, complementary capabilities and organizational compatibilities) influences networking firms’ corporate entrepreneurship. Using survey data on SMEs engaged in strategic networks with multiple partners, we found support for an argument suggesting that partner fit requires mediating variables to unleash the potential synergies of partner fit for corporate entrepreneurship. Specifically, our results suggest partner fit triggers resource leverage through processes of both combining resources and accumulating resources from interaction with network partners. Thus, a positive indirect relationship between partner fit and corporate entrepreneurship is present.

Networks and Customer Relationships in a Small Software Technology Firm: A Case Study

This paper attempts to further knowledge of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) from the SME network perspective. It offers valuable in-depth insights into personal contact networks (PCNs), illustrating their value in resource leveraging for software technology SMEs. This research is important because networking has been identified by EM researchers as central to this developing concept, while there is a paucity of research concerning software marketing and marketing in SME technology firms. An extended case study was conducted; methods used included participant-observation, desk research, and interviews with owner-managers and employees. The research focus was on firm usage and outputs of PCNs. Identified networks included business and customer networks. Findings offer insights into the role of PCNs in enhancing business, innovation and marketing capacities, areas of overlap of these networks, and the role of customer relationships in building innovation and marketing capacity.

K-State's Distributed Learning Commons: Achieving Long-Term Sustainability Through Strategic Partnerships

Kansas State University (K-State) has adopted a distributed learning commons model characterized by physically disbursed tools and services, with a growing emphasis on virtual learning spaces. It has been shaped, since the commons opened in 2001, by a combination of factors, including advancing technology, evolving student- and faculty-use requirements, and significant ongoing economic constraints. In lean times for academic budgets, K-State's experience serves to demonstrate how innovative resource leveraging among campus partners and continuous collaboration with users can produce flourishing environments that remain relevant to today's learners even when funds are scarce.

Gender, Social Networks, and Entrepreneurship in Ghana

This article reports the results of an exploratory study on gender-based differences in the motives underlying entrepreneurial activities in Ghana, the barriers and opportunities that the operational environment presents, and the manner in which entrepreneurs leverage resources. The evidence suggests that female entrepreneurs tend to have more difficulties in accessing bank financing but they compensate by cultivating social relationships and using the social capital derived from them as a resource leveraging mechanism. Women also tend to depend more on their social relationships for moral and emotional support during the initial stages of their enterprise development. No other substantial gender-based differences have been noted.

VAIC™ Method – Identifying Links Between Human Capital Investment and the Efficiency of Creating Added Value by Enterprise Assets

This paper explores the connection between investments in human capital (trainings and inservice courses) and efficiency in creating added value by tangible and intangible assets of enterprise conditioned by resource leverage (transformation of human capital in structural one). Implementing the research objectives, the Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAICTM) was used, the comparative analysis of indicators and indices was made (188 business entities traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange) and in enterprises selected due to investment intensity in development of human capital. The method of comparative analysis was used. The research was carried between 1998 and 2003. This measuring model would be also useful to estimating efficiency of added value by tangible and intangible assets in Ukrainian enterprises.

Entrepreneurial Marketing in West Bengal: A Study on Arambagh Hatcheries Limited

The purpose of this article is to examine the concept of Entrepreneurial Marketing. This concept needs a marketer to be innovative, risk-taking and proactive in performing managerial responsibility. It entails six core dimensions that have been identified and explored in the article. Its advantages and potential deserve its bright prospects. Resource leveraging and entrepreneurial marketing relationship has been adequately and appropriately highlighted. Conclusions have been drawn pointing out the need for more researches in this area for its potential to develop competitive advantage on sustainable basis. The results of a study on Arambagh Hatcheries Limited, a poultry firm in West Bengal, seem to be an entrepreneurial marketer, have been shared.

Ricardian rents or Knightian profits? More on Austrian insights on strategic organization

How firms pursue strategies that take advantage of time-specific opportunities, such as whether to enter an industry during an upturn or a downturn, is one of the great unexplored themes of strategic organization. The interesting feature of such strategic issues is that they arise only in conditions of disequilibrium. In such conditions the usual arguments utilized in strategy discourse, namely whether firms are capturing rents or not, provide little traction. This essay is concerned to explore such an issue and its implications for strategy reasoning and strategy research. While neoclassical economic orthodoxy is firmly focused on what happens at equilibrium, the Austrian tradition by contrast is concerned with disequilibrium, and specifically with the market process through which firms move towards an equilibrium position. As such, the Austrian tradition in economics continues to exercise, quite rightly, a fascination for scholars of strategy (Jacobson, 1992; Foss, 1994; Phelan and Lewin, 2000; Roberts and Eisenhardt, 2003). Most recently, Roberts and Eisenhardt (2003) compare Austrian insights for strategy with those from prevailing approaches to strategic organization. They argue that the competitive forces framework that relies on ‘a logic of positioning in relatively stable markets’ or the resource-based view, which relies on ‘a logic of resource leverage in incrementally changing markets’ may miss important features of modern business reality that are associated with market turbulence, uncertainty and disequilibrium. They suggest as an alternative to these established approaches an approach to strategy that relies on ‘a logic of sensing and seizing opportunities in turbulent markets’ in keeping with the tenets of Austrian economics and entrepreneurial dynamics. Their message is simple: the Austrian economic approach has much to offer strategy in that it provides a fresh view of the market as a process in disequilibrium, where real strategizing in conditions of uncertainty takes place. STRATEGIC ORGANIZATION Vol 4(1): 97–108 DOI: 10.1177/1476127006061034 Copyright ©2006 Sage Publications (London,Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi) http://soq.sagepub.com