The field of strategic management addresses challenges that firms encounter in an attempt to remain competitive. The ability to explain variation in firm success through examination of knowledge flows has become a prominent focus of research in the strategic management literature. Specifically, researchers have sought to further examine how firms convert knowledge, a phenomenon conceptualized as absorptive capacity. Absorptive capacity is the firm’s ability to acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit knowledge. Few studies have captured the richness and multi-dimensionality of absorptive capacity, and it remains to be understood how the dimensions of the phenomenon convert knowledge. Furthermore, how absorptive capacity influences the firm remains to be understood. To address these research gaps, this dissertation seeks to (1) determine how absorptive capacity converts knowledge, and (2) determine how absorptive capacity influences firm capabilities. The research questions are investigated using structural modeling techniques to analyze data collected from software-industry firms. The findings offer contributions to the absorptive capacity and capability literatures. For example, absorptive capacity is hypothesized to consist of complex relationships among its internal dimensions. However, findings of this study suggest the relationships among the dimensions are linear in nature. This finding is in line with the theoretical foundations of and early literature on absorptive capacity but contrary to recent conceptualizations, which suggests relationships among the dimensions are more closely related to the theoretical origins of absorptive capacity. Additionally, to examine how absorptive capacity influences the firm, a capability-based perspective is used to hypothesize the influence of absorptive capacity on firm capabilities. Findings suggest absorptive capacity positively influences each dimension of firm capabilities (e.g., operational, customer, and innovation capabilities); thus, absorptive capacity influences the firm by altering firm capabilities. Given the richness of the findings, numerous fields are likely to benefit from this investigation. Through an examination of absorptive capacity and capabilities, this study contributes to the understanding of the absorptive capacity phenomenon and offers insight into how the phenomenon influences the firm. Furthermore, practical implications are offered for managers interested in enhancing firm competitiveness.

A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of D. Litt. In Communication Science University of Zululand, 2006. / In this dissertation the researcher examines the primary and contributing fac¬tors which can be identified that affect the reading capabilities of learners in grades 3, 6, 9, and 12. This research focuses on an investigation to determine whether the inter¬related factors co-determine problems that South African learners are experiencing with spelling and the reading of written texts of non-technical to technical levels of complexity. The researcher reviews academic literature that identifies a theoretical framework that serves as a backdrop to the interpretation of the empirical results, by providing insight into the conceptual, cognitive and neurophysiological basis that make the process of reading possible in humans, by examining the phonological perspective of reading and, by investigating the common reading problems. An em¬pirical survey examining the learners reading habits in correlation with factors from the home and school environment that influence the reading skills of the learners is presented. To this effect the factors affecting the reading skills of learners in grades 3, 6, 9, and 12 are correlated with factors such as the existence of a reacting culture in homes, and the learners' entertainment and extracurricular activities. The researcher reports, analyzes, and interprets the results of the data mat were obtained via the questionnaires and that were captured using the statistical computer program SPSS 11.5. The empirical results and the analysis of the fieldwork reveal that the learners' entertainment and extracurricular activities ate affecting their reading skills, and that the role of their parents and the school involvement in promoting the culture of read¬ing has contributed to the poor reading results in our learners.

Human enhancements will dramatically alter individuals' capabilities and lead to serious harm if unregulated. However, it is unclear how states should act to mitigate this harm. I argue that the capabilities approach provides a useful metric to determine what action states should take regarding each enhancement technology. According to the capabilities approach, states are responsible for ensuring their citizens are able to function in certain ways that are essential to human life. I consider the impact of a range of enhancements on individuals' capabilities in order to determine what actions states should take regarding each technology. I find that in order to be just and prevent harmful inequality, states will need to ensure many enhancements are available to their citizens. I also explore a range of other regulations aimed at harm prevention. Considering the impact of enhancement technologies on human capabilities, and the appropriate regulatory options for states, under the guide of the capabilities approach allows me to demonstrate that the capabilities approach can provide valuable, realistic, advice to guide public policy in response to enhancement technologies.

The increasing demand for business analysts in recent years has brought about the need for a proper articulation of the Business Analyst’s role. Despite the growth of the business analysis field, and its value, academic research on the practices, competencies and capabilities of a business analyst is still limited. Drawing on the Resource-Based View of the firm theory and the concept of practice, this study proposes a business analysis capability model. A positivist qualitative research methodology has been conducted using a directed content-based analysis approach. This research analysed 300 business analyst online job advertisements in order to identify the practices, competencies and capabilities of business analysts as perceived by employers based in South Africa (SA) and the United Kingdom (UK). The findings suggest that, both in SA and the UK, analysts with systems skills, practices, competencies and capabilities are preferred by employers over those with business skills. The results of the study suggest that South African employers demand additional skills, practices and competencies from a business analyst than are required by employers based in the UK. This suggests that SA based business analysts are capable of competing for employment in the UK without the need for them to acquire additional skills. This research makes conceptual contributions to academia, and also offers managerial contributions to practice.

Die Arbeit geht der Frage nach inwiefern die Capability Based View (CBV) einen Erklärungsbeitrag für die Verwaltungsforschung leisten kann. Dazu unterzieht sie die CBV einer kritischen Betrachtung und benennt die wichtigsten Merkmale dieses – nach wie vor unscharfen – Konzepts mit Bezug zum öffentlichen Sektor. Sie zeigt Parallelen von Ansätzen und Ergebnissen der Verwaltungsforschung zur CBV auf und stellt ihre generelle Verwendbarkeit in diesem Kontext fest. Ebenso diagnostiziert sie jedoch signifikanten Verbesserungsbedarf hinsichtlich der Klarheit des Konzepts. Eine Fokussierung auf den öffentlichen Sektor verspricht eher eine Konsolidierung und Weiterentwicklung der CBV als deren Erforschung im Privatsektor, da das multidimensionale und mehrstufige Verständnis von Performance im öffentlichen Sektor deutlich besser zur Wirkungslogik der CBV passt. Die Arbeit schließt mit einer Forschungsagenda, welche die wichtigsten Fragen zur Weiterentwicklung aufzeigt, und dem Appell für mehr qualitative empirische Forschung in diesem neuen Feld des Public Managements. / The paper explores the explanatory potential of the Capability Based View (CBV) for research on public administrations. It does so by re-examining the – up till now – rather vague concept and sharpening it with a focus on the public sector. Parallels are drawn between the central propositions of the CBV and findings in public administration research. The focus lies on the link between capabilities and performance. Here, special attention is paid to the nexus between capabilities and performance, which originally fueled the interest in the CBV. It is concluded that the CBV is generally a fruitful approach for public administration research, yet with significant shortcomings in respect to its consolidation and clarity. The explanatory power of the CBV could actually be enhanced by applying it to the public sector: the multidimensional and -level understanding of performance in public sector organizations seems to match the propositions of the CBV far better than the one commonly used to evaluate performance in the private sector. The paper concludes with a research agenda summarizing the most important questions and a call for more qualitative empirical research in this emerging field within public management.

No description available.

The development interventions of the past thirty years have relied on microcredit and other microfinancial services as a way to include the poor in the dynamics of the free market, so they may have a better chance of benefiting from economic development. Nowadays, the microfinance industry in Bolivia is highly developed, and the country is usually mentioned next to Bangladesh and India as a success case of microcredit, as a myriad of microfinancial institutions operate combining credit, savings and insurance with education, women empowerment or production efforts. In this setting, the Peces Para la Vida II project was started in Bolivia in early 2015, with the objective of improving food security in Bolivia through the promotion of small-scale aquaculture and fisheries in the Bolivian Amazon. As a part of this promotion strategy, a microcredit component was included in the project with the intention of scaling up the benefits found in the first stage of the project via an individual microcredit component and a group microleasing operation. Using a qualitative application of an analytical framework that combines Amartya Sen’s capability approach and the Department for International Development’s sustainable livelihoods approach, this thesis will argue that unless certain conditions on access to markets that enable savings and wealth creation are met, individual microcredit alone may not be sufficient to lead its users towards capabilities that ultimately improve their access to better endowments of various types of capitals, and that the group leasing operation appears to be more promising in terms of allowing those involved as it tackles productivity and market issues simultaneously, but with an implementation plagued with problems and the short time the operation has been underway, it would be premature to be definitive about these results. / Graduate

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The central theme of the study is whether deliberate actions to realise aspirations can and would be likely to increase capabilities amongst the poor, and whether such attempts might reduce poverty. Capabilities are seen here as real opportunity sets which people can use to achieve what they want to be or do (Sen, 1990:43-44). In addition Amartya Sen also emphasises the important role of agency in the achievement of capabilities (Sen, 1985). The relationship between aspirations, agency and capabilities is therefore explored, with emphasis on whether people can escape a potential poverty trap by deliberate and focused use of agency. I also ask what role structural opportunities and constraints play in this process.The study has been largely inspired by the idea of Arjun Appadurai (2004) that the poor might be constrained in their efforts to escape poverty because they lack the capacity to aspire, as they might have been socialised to accept that their aspirations would not be realisable. This idea was tested in a five year action research programme in Site C, Khayelitsha, near Cape Town. The dissertation offers an analysis of the programme in which a group of women was assisted in voicing their aspirations and subsequently worked on the realisation of these aspirations with a limited amount of support and facilitation by the researcher. Although many papers have been written on the social and economic implications of Appadurai’s idea, both within and external to the human development approach, the practical implementation of the idea in a project seems to be novel. The analysis of aspirations and capabilities is contextualised in the dissertation. The history and migration of the participating women show how their lives have been shaped by colonialism, apartheid, and their own cultural practices. This is followed by a discussion of the literature which informs the research and the analysis. The capability approach is discussed with particular reference to its conceptual tools, and the differences in the approaches of Sen and Nussbaum are briefly described. I review the ways in which capabilities are generally measured, and discuss the perspectives of different authors on individualism in the approach. Adaptation and agency as seen from the perspective of the capability approach provide important conceptual material for the analysis in a later chapter. A number of studies which assessed capabilities by qualitative means are then briefly reviewed, and these again provide background information for the analysis of the Khayelitsha study. The study on the use of agency in the capability approach reveals that there are lacunae, which could possibly be addressed by amplification from other disciplines. With this in mind agency is further explored in different disciplines – economics, psychology and social theory. Particular attention is given to three classical theorists of agency, Giddens, Bourdieu and Habermas, but the work of Archer, Latour, Long and Joas is also reviewed. I then recommend that the capability approach would benefit from a hermeneutical analysis of agency, and indicate specific elements which I think can be brought forward into such an extension. The literature review also includes a section on aspirations, which takes account of the conceptual relationship between aspirations, agency and capabilities. The empirical material is introduced under the umbrella of an action research programme which spanned a five year period. As part of this programme there was a household survey to obtain benchmark data. This was followed by the presentation of a life skills course based on Participatory Action Research or PRA methods. Between late 2006 and 2010 the women implemented their decisions, and their actions were observed. The main research process during this phase was an ethno-methodological study of the participating women. During this phase a number of life histories were recorded and I also conducted a set of individual interviews which focussed on individual agency. In 2010 I assessed the women’s increase in functionings and capabilities by taking note of actions taken towards achieving their aspirations, and in 2012 I recorded seven interviews on the rural-urban dynamics in their lives. The main findings of the household survey are given in a separate chapter on research findings. The different recordings of the aspirations the women articulated, and how these changed, are also recorded in the chapter on findings. The analysis of the respondents’ increase in functionings and capabilities is done with reference to an adaptation of a diagram published by Robeyns (2005:98), which visualises the essential conceptual parts of the capability approach. I adapt the diagram for a specific social context, for aspiration formulation, for agency assessment, and for the assessment of increased capabilities. In a second analysis chapter I do a hermeneutic agency analysis of six of the participating women in the context of the capability approach, asking whether the pursuit of their aspirations had been agency-unlocking. This is followed by a concluding chapter.

Rocío Lougedo Novillo Master Thesis Assessing Coherence Within the CSDP A Top-Down Analysis of Military Capabilities Developed in the EU in the last Twenty Years Abstract in English Ever since the establishment of the European Security and Defense Policy in 1999, the European Union has strived to develop a more holistic and coherent foreign policy apparatus. This paper examines this 20-year process of military capabilities reform in order to assess the level of coherence in the field of defense and security policy. For this purpose, this thesis sets a Top-Down analytical framework built around five variables specifically designed for measuring capabilities. Through this framework, and based on the pertinent data gathered, this study will assess the global level of coherence (or incoherence) among targets, expectations and outputs, as well as it will identify the perils and uncertainties that could jeopardize further integration on the European defense sphere.

This dissertation is motivated by two research questions: 1) to what extent does coopetition impact firm innovation performance? and 2) to what extent does a firm's coopetition capability influence the relationship between coopetition and firm innovation performance? Despite the popularity of coopetition in both the academic and business arenas, empirical studies on the effects of coopetition on firm innovation performance are rare. With the dynamic and paradoxical nature of coopetition, the role of a firm's specific capability to manage coopetition (i.e., coopetition capability) is an important issue that has remained under-researched in the literature. In an endeavor to contribute to the coopetition literature in the context of technological innovation, both theoretical and methodological improvements were pursued for this dissertation. From a theoretical perspective, I conceptualize coopetition as composed of three components: 1) competition between partners, 2) cooperation between partners, and 3) the interplay between competition and cooperation. It is argued that the balance between competition and cooperation is essential to generate greater innovation performance in the paradoxical relationship. Further, I newly conceptualize coopetition-based innovation that is composed of three components: 1) joint innovation, 2) innovation through knowledge application, and 3) innovation in the partner's domains. Methodologically, I measure coopetition as a continuous variable. Using both a longitudinal research design in the semiconductor industry and an exemplar case study of coopetition, I examine the effects of coopetition and coopetition capability on coopetition-based innovation. To represent coopetition, I employed four combinations with two types of competition (technology competition and market competition) and two types of cooperation (type strength of a focal alliance and tie strength between partners). The empirical evidence indicates that the balance between competition and cooperation at both the dyadic and portfolio levels increases the potential of firms to generate greater innovation performance from coopetition. This study demonstrates that firms with coopetition capabilities can manage coopetition and create greater common value with a partner and appropriate more value from the dynamic and paradoxical relationship. The research findings also have important managerial implications. / Ph. D.