Changing trends in customer preference, competitors’ offerings, new technologies and development techniques may disrupt a firm from its current leading market position and may favor other firms that prioritize innovation. Once a market opportunity is identified (i.e., find an answer to the ‘what to do’ question), firms need to engage in a series of activities and information processing to determine an appropriate way to monetize that opportunity – that is, firms need to find an answer to the ‘how to do’ question. Alternately, a firm may first identify a technological opportunity (i.e. find an answer to the ‘how to do’) and then find a market opportunity (i.e. find an answer to the ‘what to do’ question) to make use of the technological opportunity. Two scales that measure the capabilities of firms to address the following two questions – ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do’ - were reported; these were labelled as market-scanning capability (MktScan) and technology-scanning capability (TechScan); and these two scales were also tested in a broader research model. In turbulent environments, marketing and R&D become more challenging, since they face an uncertain future. Firms need to learn systemic scanning and decoding of apparently random changes in their business environment and imagine a pattern that makes sense. One cannot plan for uncertainty. A better strategy is to be prepared for it. One way to prepare is to develop the capabilities that would help the firm to become more adaptive. Drucker (1992) also argued that instead of planning for the long term that is uncertain, firms needed to become adaptive to tackle uncertainty. The ability of a firm to adapt to the changes depends on its ability to sense the nature of the changes in its business environment and respond to those. Sense-and-respond framework (Haeckel 1999; Haeckel 2000; Day and Schoemaker 2006) was proposed to emphasize the identification of weak signals (Ansoff 1975) to tackle increased uncertainty in business environment. In current days, effectiveness of firm’s activities often depends on the richness of its sources of information and its capability to process the collected information to identify the patterns of change happening in its business environments. Information processing may happen in two dimensions: in market dimension and in technology dimension. Firms’ capabilities for information collecting and processing in these two dimensions were measured using two firm-level constructs. These are market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability. Resource-based theory helped to understand how firms use their tangible and intangible resources to compete in the market. Specific problem-solving aspects of the processes, activities, and cultural norms enable firms to make decisions about engaging the available resources and capabilities in ways that maximize customer value, by realizing the identified opportunities into product and service offerings. This research identified the characteristic strength of this problem-solving approach of firms – collecting information both internally and externally about possible market opportunities and technological options, organization-wide processing of that information, and taking actions to respond using insights gained – as two latent constructs called ‘market-scanning capability’ and ‘technology-scanning capability’. The concepts of ‘market-scanning capability’ and ‘technology-scanning capability’ were first defined and then, scales were developed to enable researchers and managers to measure these firm-level constructs. Next, the predictive roles of these capabilities on firm performance were examined. Empirical analysis for scale development and validation of the research model were performed with data collected through a web-based survey of Canadian manufacturing firms. Firm performance was captured in two stages – first, by product innovation performance, and second, by overall firm performance. Product innovation performance was used as an intermediate performance measure to examine the direct influence on it of market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability, and then, to relate product innovation performance to final business outcome measured using ‘overall firm performance’ scale. The study validated the notion of resource-based theory by supporting the belief that higher levels of market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability would lead to improved product innovation performance. The role of environmental turbulence was also examined for its possible moderating effect. Two measures of environmental turbulence, namely, technology and market turbulence were used to test the moderation effect. The technology turbulence construct was found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between technology-scanning capability and product innovation performance, indicating that firms needed to focus more attention on the changes in the technology landscape when turbulence in the technological field was perceived to be higher, in order to keep the same level of product innovation performance. Insight gained from the study contributed to a knowledge-base that might be useful to both practitioners and researchers. The combination of TechScan and MktScan scales could be used as a benchmark tool by managers to assess firms’ readiness to take advantage of the opportunities that existed. On the theoretical side, the study contributed to the understanding by showing that both market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability had direct and indirect influences on firm performance. Also, it was found that the indirect influence of a certain scanning capability became important when firms were pre-disposed to emphasize the other scanning capability.

近年來，學者對於有關產業創新的研究積極投入，提出許多足以促進企業創新的影響因素。過去台灣企業競爭力靠的是降低成本以爭取客戶，現在必須思考的是如何利用本身資源的建構，產生創新，並且在創新的過程中，累積更多的資源，逐步達到新的策略定位。 在社會需求改變與產業技術發展等因素下，數位出版產業興起。數位出版產業是許多廠商欲進入的新興產業，本身即包含了許多的創新。本研究以數位出版產業為例，訪談印刷支援廠商、傳統出版業者、資訊系統廠商三種類型的廠商。廠商在進入數位出版產業時，依其本身資源不同，產生不同的創新，創新過程中選擇建構不同的新資源，使其達到產業中新的策略定位。本研究以數位出版產業為例，探討在不同策略定位下，資源建構與產業創新之關係。 研究發現廠商初期擁有之核心資源有助於創新的產生。並利用創新過程中，建構出更多相關之資源。藉由資源稟賦為引發創新之產生點，過程中產生創新。研究中之五個廠商個案中，數種資源稟賦引發14種創新案例，歸類為五種創新形式，包括產品、流程、策略、組織、行銷五種創新。 此外，研究發現廠商以不同之策略定位進入新產業，核心資源建構過程中，利用各種創新形式，達成其所預定之新產業中「數位出版內容加值者」、「數位出版技術提供者」、「數位出版整合營運者」三種策略定位。 數位出版產業尚屬新興產業，市場需求與技術發展變化快速。產業之競爭態勢亦尚未明朗，尚須密切注意潛在競爭者動態。除了本研究觀察之傳統出版業者、印刷支援廠商、資訊系統廠商之外，擁有眾多會員數或網路流量的入口網站是潛在競爭者。然而，各廠商核心資源不同，因此能在產業中佔有適當的位置。廠商應著重本身核心資源建構與創新，並且積極與其他廠商合作，共同推動市場發展，跨越市場鴻溝才是當務之急。 / Recently, there has been a number of studies pertaining to the industrial innovation, and many factors that contribute to the industrial innovation have been proposed. Cost down used to account for the competitiveness of the industries in Taiwan while now it must be considered that how to utilize the existing resources to create innovation, proliferate new resources, and achieve the new strategic positions. Digital publishing is springing up as a result of the change of social demand and the development of industrial technology. This attractive and innovative industry is taken as an example in this study, and one printing company, three publishers, and one computer firm were interviewed. Entering the digital publishing, the enterprises with different natural resource quality create various innovations, generate their own resources, and accomplish the new strategic position. The relation between the resources construction and the industrial innovation in digital publishing are studied in this research. The research discovers that the initial core resources are helpful for the creation of the innovation and the generation of related resources. Numerous natural resource endowments contribute 14 innovative cases which can be categorized into 5 types – product, process, strategy, organization, and marketing. In addition, it is also noted that enterprises construct different strategic positions while entering into new industries. In course of construction of the core resources, they attain the three strategic positions – the digital publishing content adder, the digital publishing technology provider, or the digital publishing integrated operator. Digital publishing is still an emerging industry.Therefore, the market demand and the technical development change drastically. Considering the unclear competitive situation, it may as well pay more attention to the competitors. Apart from the interviewed firms in this study, portal websites that have numbers of members or a large deal of flow are potential competitors. Owing to different core resources, however, those enterprises can stand in their own strategic positions. A company is supposed to focus on the accumulation of its core resources and innovation and to cooperate with other firms to develop the market.

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This dissertation examines the strategic choices of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in host countries that become engaged in war. By combining the resource-based view and resource management theory, and drawing additional insights from research on real options and foreign strategic exit, I link the costs attributable to war to the strategic responses of the MNE at the subsidiary level in a novel firm-vulnerability framework. In particular, I develop theory regarding whether a subsidiary will exit from a host country, and if so, the timing (early or late) and mode (whole or partial) of exit. I test my hypotheses on a sample of 626 subsidiaries from 386 Japanese MNEs representing 51 industries in 23 countries at war, both interstate and civil, over the period 1988 to 2006. In analyzing the exit likelihood and timing decisions with time-varying covariates, I employ an extended Cox proportional hazard model, which allows for random-effects modeling of predictor variables at the subsidiary, parent MNE, and host country levels. To determine the exit mode of subsidiaries that choose exit over staying, I use binomial logit models. To correct for potential sample selection bias, I replicate my exit mode results with a Heckman probit model. My findings suggest that iv increasing strategic flexibility can counterbalance the potential disadvantages associated with leveraging strategically salient resources in high-risk locations. In examining war as a broad-based perturbation capable of destroying not only institutionalized values, but also the physical infrastructure and human capital of firms, this dissertation empirically demonstrates how political violence influences the strategies of MNEs. Furthermore, my interdisciplinary approach in integrating theoretical lenses from climate change and natural environment sustainability with existing management literatures to examine the effect of war on firms serves to enhance our understanding of individuals and collectives in extreme conditions.

Changing trends in customer preference, competitors’ offerings, new technologies and development techniques may disrupt a firm from its current leading market position and may favor other firms that prioritize innovation. Once a market opportunity is identified (i.e., find an answer to the ‘what to do’ question), firms need to engage in a series of activities and information processing to determine an appropriate way to monetize that opportunity – that is, firms need to find an answer to the ‘how to do’ question. Alternately, a firm may first identify a technological opportunity (i.e. find an answer to the ‘how to do’) and then find a market opportunity (i.e. find an answer to the ‘what to do’ question) to make use of the technological opportunity. Two scales that measure the capabilities of firms to address the following two questions – ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do’ - were reported; these were labelled as market-scanning capability (MktScan) and technology-scanning capability (TechScan); and these two scales were also tested in a broader research model. In turbulent environments, marketing and R&D become more challenging, since they face an uncertain future. Firms need to learn systemic scanning and decoding of apparently random changes in their business environment and imagine a pattern that makes sense. One cannot plan for uncertainty. A better strategy is to be prepared for it. One way to prepare is to develop the capabilities that would help the firm to become more adaptive. Drucker (1992) also argued that instead of planning for the long term that is uncertain, firms needed to become adaptive to tackle uncertainty. The ability of a firm to adapt to the changes depends on its ability to sense the nature of the changes in its business environment and respond to those. Sense-and-respond framework (Haeckel 1999; Haeckel 2000; Day and Schoemaker 2006) was proposed to emphasize the identification of weak signals (Ansoff 1975) to tackle increased uncertainty in business environment. In current days, effectiveness of firm’s activities often depends on the richness of its sources of information and its capability to process the collected information to identify the patterns of change happening in its business environments. Information processing may happen in two dimensions: in market dimension and in technology dimension. Firms’ capabilities for information collecting and processing in these two dimensions were measured using two firm-level constructs. These are market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability. Resource-based theory helped to understand how firms use their tangible and intangible resources to compete in the market. Specific problem-solving aspects of the processes, activities, and cultural norms enable firms to make decisions about engaging the available resources and capabilities in ways that maximize customer value, by realizing the identified opportunities into product and service offerings. This research identified the characteristic strength of this problem-solving approach of firms – collecting information both internally and externally about possible market opportunities and technological options, organization-wide processing of that information, and taking actions to respond using insights gained – as two latent constructs called ‘market-scanning capability’ and ‘technology-scanning capability’. The concepts of ‘market-scanning capability’ and ‘technology-scanning capability’ were first defined and then, scales were developed to enable researchers and managers to measure these firm-level constructs. Next, the predictive roles of these capabilities on firm performance were examined. Empirical analysis for scale development and validation of the research model were performed with data collected through a web-based survey of Canadian manufacturing firms. Firm performance was captured in two stages – first, by product innovation performance, and second, by overall firm performance. Product innovation performance was used as an intermediate performance measure to examine the direct influence on it of market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability, and then, to relate product innovation performance to final business outcome measured using ‘overall firm performance’ scale. The study validated the notion of resource-based theory by supporting the belief that higher levels of market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability would lead to improved product innovation performance. The role of environmental turbulence was also examined for its possible moderating effect. Two measures of environmental turbulence, namely, technology and market turbulence were used to test the moderation effect. The technology turbulence construct was found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between technology-scanning capability and product innovation performance, indicating that firms needed to focus more attention on the changes in the technology landscape when turbulence in the technological field was perceived to be higher, in order to keep the same level of product innovation performance. Insight gained from the study contributed to a knowledge-base that might be useful to both practitioners and researchers. The combination of TechScan and MktScan scales could be used as a benchmark tool by managers to assess firms’ readiness to take advantage of the opportunities that existed. On the theoretical side, the study contributed to the understanding by showing that both market-scanning capability and technology-scanning capability had direct and indirect influences on firm performance. Also, it was found that the indirect influence of a certain scanning capability became important when firms were pre-disposed to emphasize the other scanning capability.

In their highly influential work on the labour market impact of unions termed the collective voice/institutional response model (CVIR), Freeman & Medoff (1984) proposed that whether the unions monopoly or voice face would prevail greatly depended on the unions and managements willingness to compete or cooperate, respectively. However, these authors and the researchers that tested their ideas afterwards neither theorized about nor tested this key moderating condition of a unions impact. The result has been a confusing, mixed and generally inconclusive litany of research findings about the impact of unions at both the individual and organizational levels of analysis. I attempt to resolve this gap in CVIR by using the appropriateness framework (March 1994) to identify when and under what conditions management and unions, along with their members, will respond cooperatively or competitively toward each other. My empirical results are consistent with the idea that management response is a key moderating mechanism of a unions power and thus impact, contributing to zero or negative sum outcomes when management chooses to compete (i.e., union power is exerted in the direction of harmful monopoly effects) and positive sum outcomes when management chooses cooperation (i.e., union power is exerted in the direction of beneficial voice effects). In particular, when environmental cues lead the union and/or unionized employees to believe that management values voice, they will consider cooperation an appropriate response under the circumstances and reciprocate in-kind with other-regarding behaviors. On the other hand, when environmental cues lead the union or unionized employees to believe that management may potentially behave opportunistically, they will consider competition appropriate under the circumstances, and respond in-kind with self-serving, competitive behaviours. Drawing upon the resource-based view of the firm, I argue how a cooperative union-management relationship can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage for the organization (Barney, 1991). / Human Resources Management and Industrial Relations

中小企業一向是經濟成長的主力，然而受限其資源的短缺，往往無法提供顧客更好的商品或服務。雖然文獻指出中小企業可以透過資訊科技與夥伴和顧客合作來克服它先天的弱勢並提供更好的服務，但仍有許多模糊未解的問題。例如，哪一種中小企業較願意導入以資訊科技為基礎的協同合作模式(IT-enabled Collaboration)？而這樣的合作模式是否能真正的提升他們的績效表現呢？本研究以資源基礎理論和服務導向邏輯理論(service-dominant logic)為基礎，將資源分為operant資源、operand資源、資源互補性及資源相似性，試圖找出在何種資源模式下，中小企業會偏向使用以資訊科技為基礎的協同合作模式。研究方法採用個案研究，並以宜蘭縣枕頭山休閒農業區的八家中小型業者為目標進行訪談。在資料蒐集和分析之後，本研究發現operand資源與operant資源皆會正向的影響到中小企業對科技化合作的參與，其中又以operant資源的影響為更大。此外，從研究中也驗證了科技化合作能促成中小企業績效的提升。根據研究結果，本研究將operant資源視為影響中小企業導入科技化合作模式進而達成績效提升的主要關鍵資源。 / Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are the main force to economic growth, but they usually restricted by resource shortage when they want to upgrade goods or services. Past literature has indicated collaboration with partners and customers through information technology (IT) may overcome their weakness and serve better. However, there still are blurs, like what kind of SMEs are more likely to engage IT-enabled collaboration? Will IT-enabled collaboration really enhance SMEs performance? Our research framework based on resource-based view and service-dominant logic categorizing SME resources into (1) operand resources, (2) operant resources, (3) resource complementarity and (4) resource similarity. We attempt to find out what key resources in SMEs are related to the usage of IT-enabled collaboration and the contributions to SME performance. We conduct case study with 8 SMEs in Mt. Pillow Leisure Agriculture Area. After data collection and analysis, we figure out that both operand and operant resources have positive impact on IT-enabled collaboration; furthermore, operant resources contribute more for SMEs to communicate and coordinate with each other and customers. In addition, from our research, we demonstrate that IT-enabled collaboration helps SMEs to perform better. Therefore, we suggest operant resources as important resources for SMEs engaging in IT-enabled collaboration and consequently enhancing their performance.

汽車貨運業一直以來都為台灣的經濟帶來極大的貢獻，雖然之前相關的研究提供了這個產業許多價值，但是目前還沒有是針對汽車貨運公司主要所載的商品來做研究，如此的把所有汽車貨運公司一視同仁忽略了承載不同的商品有不同的競爭程度的事實，倒置這些研究所提出來的架構無法解釋許多這個產業裡發生的現象。 將會焦點放在承載鋼鐵的汽車貨運公司，這份研究延伸策略管理的相關文獻來了解這個產業的運作，以質性研究之案例研究法來了解是什麼因素影響了公司表現、公司行為，以及產業所衍生的問題。研究發現產業的狀態，公司所擁有的資源，與正式和非正式的制度錯中交雜的影像了產業間的行為與競爭程度，所以管理者應該避免過度專注於某一層面的策略，他們應該在擬定策略時考慮到策略管理中的產業基礎理論、資源基礎理論、與制度基礎理論。 / The trucking industry has been a major contributor to Taiwan’s economy for decades. Previous research concerning strategic management practiced in the industry, while insightful, did not pay enough attention to the specific commodity primarily carried by trucking companies. The generalization that all trucking companies carry the same commodity neglects the fact that competitive intensity varies considerably within the industry depending on the commodity carried. Consequently, many phenomenons could not be explained using frameworks from previous researches. This study concentrates on trucking companies primarily carrying steel and extends various disciplines from the strategic management literature to the trucking industry. Using the qualitative method of case study, this research attempts to understand the underlying drivers of firm performances and behaviors in addition to challenges faced by the industry. The findings suggest that industry conditions, firm resource portfolio, and formal and informal institutions collectively affect the behaviors and competition in the industry, therefore managers should avoid focusing on a single strategy and bear in mind the industry-based view, the resource-based view, and the institution-based view.

No presente estudo examinou-se a influência da coordenação dos Sistemas Agroalimentares Locais (SIAL) na exploração dos ativos estratégicos territoriais (AET) para o desenvolvimento de vantagens competitivas sustentáveis. Para tanto, desenvolveu-se o framework da Construção Social de Vantagens Competitivas em Sistemas Agroalimentares Locais. Esse framework é sustentado por três abordagens teóricas, a Economia das Convenções, a Visão Baseada em Recursos e o Sistema Agroalimentar Local. A conjugação destas três vertentes teóricas permite entender o processo dinâmico de construção coletiva da qualidade de um produto agroalimentar oriundo de uma determinada região, pois proporciona um processo de complementaridade entre os ativos estratégicos territoriais e as formas de coordenação praticadas, bem como permite identificar os fatores de sustentação estratégicos envolvidos nessa complementaridade. Com intuito de validar esse framework, realizou-se um estudo multi casos na pecuária de corte, onde estudou-se a Indicação de Procedência da Carne do Pampa Gaúcho e o Programa de Carne Natural Certificada do Uruguai. Foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade com os agentes de cada um dos casos, onde se verificou as quatro etapas que compõem o framework proposto, a motivação, a relevância, a coerência na ação coletiva e a legitimação. Os resultados mostraram que em ambos os casos estudados, as etapas do framework sinalizam condições favoráveis, indicando um possível desenvolvimento de vantagens competitivas. No caso específico da etapa referente à coerência da ação coletiva, onde ocorreu a principal contribuição desse estudo, identificou-se a presença de várias formas de coordenação ao longo do SIAL, e que essas formas fazem combinações entre si, gerando, consequentemente, uma complementaridade entre os AET. Por fim, conclui-se que o caráter compósito das formas de coordenação é pertinente para entender a complementaridade dos recursos, o que nos permite afirmar que as formas de coordenação influenciam na exploração dos ativos estratégicos territoriais. / In the present study, the influence of the coordination of Local Agrifood Systems (SIAL) in the exploration of territorial strategic actives (AET) for the development of sustainable competitive advantages was examined. For this purpose, a framework of the Social Construction of Competitive Advantages in Local Agrifood Systems was developed. This framework is supported by three theoretical approaches: Economy of Conventions, Resource- Based Perspective and Local Agrifood System. The conjugation of these three theoretical perspectives assists in the understanding of the dynamic process of collective construction regarding the quality of an agroalimentary product originated from a certain region. This occurs due to the fact that this conjugation provides a complementarity between the territorial strategic actives and the practiced coordination forms and it also allows the identification of strategic sustentation factors involved in this complementarity. With the objective of validating this framework, a study of multiple cases in the beef cattle industry was carried out, in which the Indication of Origin of the Meat of the Gaucho Pampas and the Uruguayan Program of Certified Natural Meat were studied. In-depth interviews with agents from both the cases were carried out. The four stages that compose the proposed framework: motivation, relevance, coherence in the collective action and legitimation were also verified. The results demonstrated that in both the cases studied, the stages of the framework point to favorable conditions, indicating a possible development of competitive advantages. In the specific case of the stage that refers to the coherence of collective action, in which resides the main contribution of this study, the presence of several forms of coordination throughout the SIAL could be identified and also the fact that these forms combine with each other, consequently generating a complementarity between the AET was observed. At last, it was concluded that the composite character of the coordination forms is pertinent in order for one to understand the resource complementarity. This allows one to affirm that the coordination forms have an influence in the exploration of territorial strategic actives.