Africa has long been considered as the next big growth market, according to both experts and economic organisations alike (World Economic Forum, African Union, The Economist, McKinsey). With a youthful population, a burgeoning consumption market, and its increased digital advancement, Africa has unrivalled potential. However, economic progress has lagged, necessitating the need to leapfrog, i.e., harness technological innovation to accelerate economic growth, to contribute towards realising the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal “Decent Work and Economic Growth”. Additionally, Africa cannot afford not to, given the downsides of the lack of economic growth (instability and extremism). In academic research, technological innovation is driven by firms’ and individuals’ absorptive capacity (AC), i.e., their ability to recognise new knowledge, assimilate it, and apply it for commercial ends. However, there remains a lack of understanding on how to operationalise and leverage AC. The research was undertaken with the aim to understand AC from a micro-foundational perspective within the Africa and 4IR contexts. Qualitative research was conducted across 6 African countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa), with 16 social actors, to gain insights on the processes, mechanisms and factors that contribute towards micro-foundational AC. The key findings of this research underscore the importance of the individual within the AC process. Additionally, the importance of contextualising AC to a developing market is highlighted. Other key findings reveal the enabling and hindering factors for successful AC. This research aimed to offer a contribution towards AC micro foundational research, and to offer practical insights for African firms, within the context of the 4IR era. / Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

The ability of firms to innovate has become a cornerstone in the economy of many developed and developing countries. The performance of firms is not exclusively linked to their internal capability. Other external factors, such as technology, globalisation of the market, knowledge, and evolving approaches to value offering, force them to constantly change their approaches to wealth creation. Innovation is vital for firms’ competitive advantage. Hence, a firm with higher innovation prosperity compared to its rivals has a crucial advantage that enables it to compete in local and global markets. However, innovation is a complex phenomenon, and a holistic view is required for a deep understanding of the factors that influence firms’ innovation performance. Day after day, markets are becoming more dynamic, increasing the necessity to understand how such momentum affects innovation performance. With a focus on how they develop strategic routines that enhance their assessment of opportunities and resource-configuration capabilities, firms may better align their products and services with market demands. Using state-of-the-art dynamic-capability theory, this research highlights the routines of firms that influence their abilities to acquire and multiply knowledge and technology consistent with market status, leading to more novel and successful innovative products and processes as well as better economic advantage. This research aims to provide a framework that comprises factors that may influence Saudi firms’ innovation performance. Furthermore, the research aim attempts to understand the impact of information technology on firms’ innovation performance. The research is based on survey data from 203 Saudi firms registered at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The empirical results suggest that firms may enhance their ability to acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit knowledge by increasing their breadth of knowledge sources and by internationalizing their searching activities for knowledge and skills. Moreover, both explorative and exploitative innovation strategies, although paradoxes, are significant to increasing firms’ overall innovative performance. Mutually, information technology (IT) plays a critical role in complementing firms’ dynamic capabilities through better provision of IT infrastructure, while IT effectiveness and IT flexibility are vital to increasing firms’ abilities to maintain both long-term and short-term competitiveness.

Public sector organizations are in need of new approaches to development and innovation. There is a need to develop a capability to better understand priorities, needs and wishes of public sector service users and become more proactive, in order to meet the demands on keeping costs down and quality high. Design is increasingly put forward as a potential answer to this need and there are many initiatives taken across the world to encourage the use of a design approach to development and innovation within public sector. In relation to this trend there is a need to improve the understanding of how public sector organizations develop ability to exploit design; how they develop design capability. This is the focus of this thesis, which through an exploratory study has observed the two initiatives aiming to introduce design and develop design capability within healthcare and social service organizations. One main contribution of this work is an understanding of the design capability concept based on a structured review of the use of the design capability concept in the literature. The concept has previously been used in relation to different aspects of designs in organizations. Another important contribution is the development of an understanding for how design capability is developed based on interpretations founded in the organizational learning perspective of absorptive capacity. The study has identified how different antecedents to development of design capability have influenced this development in the two cases. The findings have identified aspects that both support and impede the development of design capability which are important to acknowledge and address when aiming to develop design capability within a public sector organization. In both cases, the set up of the knowledge transferring efforts focus mainly on developing awareness of design. Similar patterns are seen in other prior and parallel initiatives. The findings however suggest that it is also important to ensure that the organization have access to design competence and that structures like routines, processes and culture support and enable the use of design practice, in order to make design a natural part of the continuous development work.

A capacidade de absorção está relacionada com a maneira pela qual uma organização desenvolve processos estratégicos e rotinas de internalizar e aplicar o conhecimento externo. Esse processo organizacional é descrito por quatro dimensões: aquisição, assimilação, transformação e aplicação. Estudos recentes colocam que o ambiente influencia o modo como às empresas se organizam, expandem e transferem conhecimento. Este estudo pretende avançar nessa linha de pesquisa; em específico desenvolve uma análise comparativa sobre a capacidade de absorção em redes de franquias brasileiras e estrangeiras que operam no Brasil. A pergunta principal da pesquisa busca compreender se as redes de franquias brasileiras e estrangeiras desenvolvem a capacidade de absorção de maneira diferente. Para resolver essa questão foi desenvolvida uma metodologia com abordagens qualitativas e quantitativas, tendo uma amostra de 103 empresas. Os resultados mostram aspectos importantes do processo de transferência de conhecimento e do desenvolvimento da capacidade de absorção das empresas analisadas. De forma geral, as unidades franqueadas em redes brasileiras apresentaram níveis menores nas variáveis relativas à aquisição e aplicação do conhecimento. Assim, esta pesquisa pretende contribuir para a literatura existente sobre o processo de gestão estratégica e do conhecimento, centrando-se sobre o desenvolvimento da capacidade de absorção em redes de franchising, especificamente em uma economia emergente como o Brasil. / Absorptive capacity is related to the way in which an organization develops strategic processes and routines to internalize and apply external knowledge. This organizational process is described by four dimensions: acquisition, assimilation, transformation and application. Since recent studies state that the institutional environment influences the way firms organize, expand and transfer knowledge. This thesis seeks to advance in that research path developing an analysis on the absorptive capacity in networks of Brazilian and foreign franchises operating in Brazil. The main research question seeks to understand: do Brazilian and foreign franchise networks develop absorptive capacity differently? To address this issue we developed a methodology with qualitative and quantitative approaches in a sample of 103 companies. The results show important aspects of the knowledge transfer process, and the development of absorptive capacity by the companies analyzed. Overall, the franchisees in Brazilian networks showed lower levels in the variables concerning the acquisition and application of knowledge. Thus, this research aims to contribute to the existing literature on the strategic and knowledge management process, focusing on the development of absorptive capacity in franchising networks, specifically for an emerging economy like Brazil.

Obtaining customer knowledge represents a key task across all firms given its importance for potential competitive advantage, improving service quality and achieving long-term relationships with agents. However, despite the fact that the interaction between customers and frontline employees during service encounters is considered a valuable source of customer knowledge, our understanding of the role of frontline employees as brokers in this respect remains embryonic. The purpose and motivation of this research are to explore the factors-namely, enablers and barriers-that influence frontline employees' motivation to serve as knowledge brokers. The process through which knowledge brokers transfer customer knowledge during service encounters is also considered important. This study further contributes to the theory of knowledge management by formulating a valid conceptual framework that illustrates the process of knowledge-brokering during these service encounters. This thesis adopted a qualitative research approach using an in-depth multiple case study analysis. In total, 30 semi-structured interviews with different informants (i.e. managers and employees) from three top commercial banks in Jordan were undertaken. In addition, other data sources, including documents and observations, were also informed the primary data collection. Contextually, Jordan's service-oriented economy combined with its developing nature provided a rich research environment for exploring these issues. The study reveals that frontline employees engage in knowledge-brokering during service encounters transfer through three types of customer knowledge, namely, knowledge about customers, knowledge for customers, and knowledge from customers. Furthermore, the main findings demonstrate four critical sets of factors facilitating or impeding knowledge-brokering during these events, i.e.; organisational-level factors (e.g. organisational culture, organisational structure, and organisational support), individual-level factors (e.g. job experience, prior customer knowledge, ability to understand customer knowledge, self-efficacy, and workload), technological-level factors (e.g. bank information system and a lack of a customer-relationship management system) and knowledge-level factors (e.g. tacit or explicit). It was also found that the process of knowledge-brokering during service encounters is accomplished in two ways: knowledge-brokering for the customer and knowledge-brokering for the organisation. This study also reports a set of managerial implications that provide a better understanding of the influential factors inherent in establishing and seeking to succeed in knowledge-brokering during the course of frontline bank employees' interactions during service encounters. Keywords: knowledge-brokering, frontline employees, customer knowledge, service encounters.

The capability of the organisation in capturing customer value of experience (VoE) has led to continuous social interaction and spawned innovative ways to collaborate and co-create with the customers. This notion of reciprocal engagement is referred to as social co-creation. The co-creation paradigm represents value and is referred to as a function of experience other than the product itself. However, there is a critically needs for the organisation to formulate a 'value capture strategy' through the lens of social co-creation. It is evident that the fundamental question of the causal relationship between social media and co-creation has not been fully explained. The research developed a value capture framework in order to have a clear need to understand the various perceptions of four important conditions, social co-creation, customer engagement, engagement platform and organisation capability on value capture. The theoretical aspect of 'Absorptive Capacity Theory (ACT)' is used to demonstrate the organisational capability in order to recognise, identify, assimilate and implement the VoE in the organisation as part of competitive advantage along with existing of social technologies. In this respect, an original conceptual framework was formulated based on evidence within the current literature where a series of constructs are reported to guide the empirical fieldwork in identifying a 'value capture strategy'. The research adopted a qualitative methodology for the data collection approach which consequently enabled an exploratory and interpretive investigation. This included three pilot studies, twentyeight semi-structured interviews and one validation phase with experienced senior managers involved in co-creation within the technology and services industry who were regarded as valid respondents. The findings addressed external and internal conditions of value capture framework for VoE as a result of the analysis. The external condition focuses on organisation capability in recognising a customer active participation with the engagement platform. The internal condition enables an organisational strategy to assimilate and implement the VoE through co-creation initiatives in capturing the VoE. The research considers the organisation role as an actioner purposes on using a social co-creation for direct communication as part of the organisations practice. 9 The study not only contributes to the knowledge of social co-creation generally, but also extending the needs for the organisation on considering the internal condition for the organisation to identifies the VoE from customer participation. With that regards, the social co-creation engagement works as the interface before extending on cocreation stages which more direct, in-depth conversations with customers internally. The evidence is presented which confirms that a value capture strategy in cocreation is important for organisations stability and enhanced service delivery. By formulating a value capture framework, it creates a much deeper understanding of how each element were related and correlated to reach potential end result for the organisation. The implications of the study are that organisations should carefully consider the role of social media on engaging with the customers and propose to develop an online engagement network with their customers in order to have more direct and effective communication tools. This would allow them to have the right strategy on selecting the right customer to engage, for the right purposes at the right time is far more important from creating a massive communication.

Abstract Innovational behavior is one of the main sources of an organization¡¦s competitive advantage which is verified by many scholars. Peter Drucker¡]1985¡^said that two of the most important issues in knowledge age are knowledge management and innovation. Therefore, organizations have the chance to develop the ability of innovation when they are able to control knowledge. Only with the innovation of product and management skills, hi-tech companies could catch up the changing environment. This study focuses on the relationship between innovative behavior, leadership, absorptive capacity, and psychological contract between units. In the meantime, leadership style contains transactional leadership and transformational leadership; absorptive capacity contains the ability of acquisition, assimilation and exploitation; psychological contract contains transactional, relational and balanced relationship. The result of the research indicates that: 1. The differences of employees¡¦ gender, marriage and the function of occupation have significant difference on innovative behavior 2. In addition to difference analysis, relationship between transactional leadership, transformational leadership, acquisition ability, assimilation ability, exploitation ability and balanced relationship of psychological contract have significant influence on innovative behavior.

This study presents a conceptual model, based on absorptive capacity and affordance theory, for investigating the e-Top facilitation and knowledge representation required by the e-Top platform and the impact of such functions in enhancing knowledge assimilation and then knowledge exploitation. A scale that measures above constructs is developed and validated. Survey data from e-Top platform members is tested. The partial least squares (PLS) method is empirically used to test the conceptual model and hypotheses using the collected survey data. The empirical results support the proposed model. The analysis provides evidence that the e-Top facilitation and knowledge representation positively effect on knowledge assimilation; the knowledge assimilation has a positive effect on knowledge exploitation. This study provides initial insights into factors that are likely to be significant antecedents of knowledge exploitation for the e-Top platform. Besides, the consultant support positively amplified the effect of e-Top facilitation on knowledge assimilation. The findings are particularly valuable to the e-Top platform development team and administrators. The e-Top platform development team can develop the e-Top platform in accordance with these findings to ensure better knowledge assimilation and exploitation through the exploitation of e-Top platform. Thereby, with this platform the effectiveness of industry-university collaboration will be enhanced.

The 21st century is the time for network economic with hyper-competition. The well-developed information technology makes information flow smoothly among suppliers, retailers, competitors, and entrants. Thus, that lowers the barrier for entry, imitation, and then increases the difficulty in long-term competitive advantage. Under such circumstances, Teece et al. (1994) published the Dynamic Capabilities Theory, DCT, for the incomplete description of former competitive strategies such as Competitive Forces, Strategic Conflict, and Resource-Based Theory (RBT). DCT is referred to a firm¡¦s capabilities to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external competences to address rapidly changing environments. The purpose of this study is to apply the absorptive capabilities to investigate the affecting factors of organizations¡¦ dynamic capabilities from the knowledge management perspective. In addition, the path-dependence of absorptive capabilities is discussed and verified in this study as well. The empirical results show that absorptive capabilities have strong influence on organizations¡¦ dynamic capabilities and the path-dependence of absorptive capabilities is supported in this study. From the academic application, the results of this study provide the research model of absorptive capabilities and dynamic capabilities to the following researchers who are interested in these topics. And, from the practice implication, firms can adopt this results and suggestion of this study to build dynamic capabilities throuth knowledge absorption.

Thesis (doctor of public administration)--University of the Philippines). / Includes bibliographical references (p. 284-286).