Focusing on a firm level analysis, RBV suggests that differences in firms’ capability are primarily the result of resource heterogeneity across firms (Peteraf, 2006). Firms that can accumulate resources and capabilities that are rare, valuable, no substitutable, and imperfectly imitable will achieve an advantage over competitors (Barney, 1996). A distinction is normally made between resources and capabilities, in that "resources are stocks of available factors that are owned or controlled by the organization and capabilities are an organization’s capacity to deploy resources" (Freiling, 2008). Resources tend to be tradable in markets and can be divided into tangible assets, such as financial and physical capital, and intangible assets, such as human and organizational capital (Barney, 1986). By contrast, capabilities reside in routines that are intrinsically intangible and embedded in the firm, and thus cannot be traded on factor markets (Kogut & Zander, 1992).
Drawing on the evolutionary theory of a firm, the innovation capabilities approach to a firm emerged as an extension of RBV. Specifically the processes to integrate, reconfigure, gain and release resources, use resources to match and even create market change (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000). Moreover, they are vital to gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage in industries where both technology and the market change (Verona & Ravasi, 2003). As such, they are considered as antecedent organizational and strategic routines that enable managers to acquire resources, which they then modify, integrate, and recombine to generate new value creating strategies. Eisenhardt and Martin (2000), and Zahra and George (2002) maintain that a firm’s routines or processes and organization culture and information technology advance can form unique innovation capabilities which allow the organization to make strategic changes that give it the flexibility to operate in innovation markets. Lawson and Samson (2001) applied an innovation capabilities approach to the investigation of innovation. Many authors highlighted the differences between an organization’s well established or mainstream activities and its innovative or new stream activities (Badawy, 1993). Lawson and Samson (2001) proposed a model that operationalizes this global innovation capability as seven elements: vision and strategy; harnessing the competence base; organizational intelligence; creativity and ideas management; organizational structure and systems; culture and climate; and management of technology. The concept of innovation capabilities proved useful in some other marketing areas. Previous studies considered their use in the analysis of a firm’s international expansion (Griffith & Michael, 2001; Grant, 1996), while Hart and Sharma (2004) analyzed the capabilities required to address the challenges of globalized and rapidly changing markets.
Innovation has rapidly assumed a position of prominence in world competition on a global scale. To compete in this environment, organizations need a level of innovation. As competition becomes more global and time-based, organizations must develop and deliver new and superior products or services in less time. The challenge for modern organizations is to revitalize them so they can successfully and continuously develop newer products and enhance business development.
To do so companies have to have access to certain tools, those tools that are called resources and capabilities. Resources are stock or supply of money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be drawn on by a person or organization in order to function effectively. For example, some tangible resources include land, equipment, and technology. Intangible resources include, but are not limited to human capital, intellectual property, and brand image. Capabilities are the abilities of a firm to perform by using a collection of people, processes, and technology gathered for a specific purpose. For example, Nike has the capabilities to technologically innovate their products. Having both resources and capabilities provides a company with a competitive asset or sustainable competitive
Convergent evolution is the process in which organisms which are not closely related derive akin traits separately due to the need for adaptation to similar environments or ecological niches. According to the neo-Darwinian view, species with similar environmental living settings experience similar selection pressures. Natural selection then acts on the arbitrary changes or current genetic variability leading to identical phenotypic solutions. There may be resemblances at a phylogenetic level, but the basic DNA sequences are different. Convergent evolution gives rise to characteristics which are referred to as “analogous structures”. They are often contradicted with “homologous structures” which have the same ancestors. Convergent evolution
Innovation, what is innovation? Innovation is the creation and implementation of new ideas, methods, or strategies that facilitate a process, add value, or improve quality (Tidd & Bessant, 2013). In fact, innovation is the reason for all the new amenities of today’s 21st century. Moreover, innovation has brought forth new perspectives and ideas that have inspired numerous of businesses to expand and improve their daily operations, increase productivity, resolve dilemmas, and attain a level of success. However, such success cannot be attained without properly examining, planning, embracing, and managing innovation. In other words, organizations must carefully map the process of innovation in order to succeed.
The Modern evolutionary synthesis is combination of Darwinian evolutionary theory and Mendelian genetics. It is impossible to understand the theory and it's importance to the scientific community unless one understands the history behind the theory.
animal with four toes on the front feet and three toes on the hind feet. This
In relation to this report a businesses capabilities will be referring to the organisations, in this case 3M, ability to use their resources, expertise and capacity to perform core functions (Elgar, 2005, pp. 17-21). (Woods, 2012, pp. 2-5) State that strategy is the long-term direction of an organisation, furthermore strategic capability is the capabilities that contribute to long term survival or competitive advantage (Woods, 2012, pp. 50-52). Competitive advantage is...
Evolutionary Psychology is the theoretical approach to psychology that explains useful mental and psychological traits such as perception, memory, language, and human behavior. Evolutionary psychology started a revolution of new ideas being articulated and being built on top of one another like stairs. It is incredible to think that this is a relatively new science in our history as humans. Evolutionary psychology started with a basic idea of simple organisms and has combined into the study of human nature.
The book has used peer-reviewed resources to enhance the use of professional approaches to innovation and management strategies by the readers who uses the book. The authors have given different management strategies and their practical application in business fields. As the title states, a strategy in business require innovative strategies for efficient development of the firm. More importantly, the book offers modern innovative ideas that need to be integrated with management strategies to develop modern businesses. The innovative approach provides a practical guide to the management strategies easing the execution of the strategies in the respectful environment. The book has given the strong relationships between innovation and strategies. These relationships are known to increase profitability in business organizations that use them efficiently. It offers how business managers can create successful value through innovation. Value creation in companies is done through examining untapped markets, clients ' needs and investing in new businesses. Therefore, this remarkable book helps readers in innovating and managing business
The evolution theory, one of the most significant theories, laid groundwork for the study of modern biological science. This theory has lead scientists into unending debates due to lack of empirical supports. Until the mid-eighteenth century, when Charles Darwin came up with an explanation to evolution, scientists, then, began to endorse this hypothesis. In “Natural Selection,” Darwin explains the natural selection, a plausible mechanism that causes evolution, to gain approval of his cynical audience for his evolution theory. He supports his claim with numerous examples of animals and plants that have developed traits beneficial for survival. A century later, Stephen Jay Gould, influenced by Darwin’s work, supports the evolution theory with a different method. In “Evolution as Fact and Theory,” Gould, in contrast to Darwin, criticizes his detractors, the creationists who believe that every life form is the creation of a supernatural being, to reinforce the validity of the evolution theory. Gould undermines creationism by emphasizing its misused concepts of theory and popular philosophy, proving that it is not science. Besides denouncing creationism, Gould also provides theoretical examples as evidence to prove evolution is a theory. Despite their different approaches, both Darwin and Gould effectively prove the existence of evolution.
Thus institutional influences induce a certain degree of resemblance in structures and practices across organizations. Opposite to that is the resource-based view, which emphasizes an individual company’s capability to capitalize on its own internal resources and know-hows to differentiate itself from competitors in the same environment and build competitive advantage (Barney, 1991; Carmeli & Tishler, 2004; Collis & Montgomery, 1998; Wernerfelt,
Technologies and customers are firm competences that can be leveraged to build new firm competencies (Danneels, 2002). In order to have product innovation, companies should have technical competence, integration competence and market knowledge competence (Sheperd & Ahmed, 2000). Responsiveness to market intelligence improves innovation speed (Carbonell & Escudero, 2010). The faster the response, greater is the innovation speed. It has been researched that efficiency and efficacy are the dimensions of product innovation (Alegre, Chiva, & Lapiedra, 2006). Innovation speed plays an important role directly and indirectly, through the creation of positions of advantage, in enhancing new product performance (Carbonell & Rodriguez, 2006). Proactive market orientation and responsive market orientation have a positive total effect in improving product innovation performance (Zhang & Duan, 2010). In their study Espallardo & Ballester (2009) found that product innovation is found to be effective in influencing performance in firms with higher pressure from the five competitive forces, whereas no significant influence is found in firms in less hostile environments. If technology capable firms develop strategic flexibility in their resource allocation
Resources are organization’s productive assets and capabilities are what an organization is capable of doing. The relationship between resources and capabilities of a company forms a competitive advantage. Capabilities and resources help in gaining value and competitive advantage over competitors.
Without evolution, and the constant ever changing environment, the complexity of living organisms would not be as it is. Evolution is defined as a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations (8).Scientists believe in the theory of evolution. This belief is based on scientific evidence that corroborates the theory of evolution. In Figure 1 the pictures of the skulls depict the sequence of the evolution of Homo-sapiens. As the figure shows, man has evolved from our common ancestor that is shared by homo-sapiens. The change of diet of homo-sapiens over time has thought to contribute to the change in jaw structure and overall skull shape.
This strategy emphasizes the use of an organization’s resources and capabilities to achieve a core competence that cannot be imitated by competitors. Furthermore, the resource based school argues that if an organization distinctively improves its internal capability; that is being able to have effective inside machinery to deliver products and services to customers, the organization will enjoy a massive advantage in the market. This school also argues that in order to have a competitive advantage, an organization must have resource and capabilities that are sophisticated to those of competitors (QuickMBA, 2010).