O desenvolvimento das capacidades dinâmicas habilita a empresa à inovar de forma mais eficiente, e por conseguinte, melhorar seu desempenho. Esta tese apresenta um framework para mensuração do grau de desenvolvimento das capacidades dinâmicas da empresa. Através de técnicas de text mining uma bag of words específica para as capacidades dinâmicas é proposta, bem como, baseado na literatura é proposto um conjunto de rotinas para avaliar a operacionalização e desenvolvimento das capacidades dinâmicas. Para avaliação das capacidades dinâmicas, foram aplicadas técnicas de text mining utilizando como fonte de dados os relatórios anuais de catorze empresas aéreas. Através da aplicação piloto foi possível realizar um diagnóstico das empresas aéreas e do setor. O trabalho aborda uma lacuna da literatura das capacidades dinâmicas, ao propor um método quantitativo para sua mensuração, assim como, a proposição de uma bag of words específica para as capacidades dinâmicas. Em termos práticos, a proposição pode contribuir para a tomada de decisões estratégicas embasada em dados, possibilitando assim inovar com mais eficiência e melhorar desempenho da firma. / The development of dynamic capabilities enables the company to innovate more efficiently and therefore improves its performance. This thesis presents a framework for measuring the dynamic capabilities development. Text mining techniques were used to propose a specific bag of words for dynamic capabilities. Furthermore, based on the literature, a group of routines is proposed to evaluate the operationalization and development of dynamic capabilities. In order to evaluate the dynamic capabilities, text mining techniques were applied using the annual reports of fourteen airlines as the data source. Through this pilot application it was possible to carry out a diagnosis of the airlines and the sector as well. The thesis approaches a dynamic capabilities literature gap by proposing a quantitative method for its measurement, as well as, the proposition of a specific bag of words for dynamic capabilities. The proposition can contribute to strategic decision making based on data, allowing firms to innovate more efficiently and improve performance.

El Enfoque de las Capacidades de Sen se distingue en el terreno de la justicia distributiva porque ha intentado establecer criterios evaluativos que superen el atomismo de las teorías utilitaristas. Pero algunos pensadores críticos han señalado que el Enfoque aún mantiene una impronta individualista que limita su alcance a la hora de implementar políticas públicas tendientes a transformar estructuras injustas. Para estos críticos, los conceptos básicos de Sen deben complementarse con una noción de capacidad colectiva o común, irreductible a términos individuales, que permita dar cuenta de los procesos intersubjetivos del desarrollo de la agencia y de la constitución de la identidad personal. En este artículo se analizarán algunas críticas comunitaristas al Enfoque y se intentará postular un candidato plausible a capacidad colectiva, que respete el núcleo vivo de los comentarios y que mantenga los conceptos de capacidad y de agencia centrales en la teoría de Sen.---Communities of Meaning as Collective Capabilities. A Communitarian Revision of Amartya Sen’s Theory”. Sen’s Capability Approach it is distinguished in the field of the distributive justice, because It has tried to set evaluatives terms that exceed the atomism of the Utilitarian theories. But some critical thinkers have pointed out that the Approach still keep an individualistic style that restrict its impact at the moment of implementing public policies. For these critics, Sen’s basic concepts must be complemented with the idea of collective capability, irreducible to indivudual terms, that allows to account to the intersubjective process of agency and the personal identity constitution. This paper will attempt to present a plausible candidate to the collective capability, that respects the live core of the communitarian comments and that keeps the capability and agency concepts, which are fundamental in Sen’s theory.

The UK Fashion Industry (FI) is both volatile and fast-changing. Notably, the clothing and jewellery industry contributes £16 billion annually to the UK’s revenues. However, small and medium-sized (SMEs) fashion companies are stressed to survive the harsh global competition. The companies have to manage their routine projects, thinking constantly about keeping their market position and how to develop further in their industry. Thus, the FI requires an in-depth understanding of the success factors to survive in this competitive marketplace. A detailed literature review has been conducted to discover the background of the FI and also to understand the basic requirements of daily operations and strategies used for development and growth. As there is not much empirical study available in the area of FI, a qualitative exploratory study has been chosen as the research methodology for this particular research. A multiple case studies approach was chosen to cover eight case studies located in Leicester, Luton and London. The study is interpretative and social constructionism is its philosophical approach; and hence, the context of the study has to be interpreted in its own ethnographical setting, why and how participants construct the meaning of project management (PM). This data triangulation provided the study qualitative credibility of the findings. The data analysis found four main themes, comprising fifteen sub-themes. ‘PM capabilities’ is the most important theme for completing the daily routine operations; these are also highly utilised in the UK FI SMEs. ‘Sensing new opportunities’ is the second important theme for advancing further; these are utilised by SMEs to remain up-to-date with the market environment. ‘Manufacturing capabilities’ is the third theme found helping SMEs with their routine manufacturing base in the UK: how they extended their trade through manufacturing. ‘Jewellery industry (JI) capabilities’ is the fourth theme helping the JI to outsource and deal with trust and relations in their trade. The study contributes to the UK FI SMEs by suggesting Dynamic Project Management (DPM) approaches specific to each industry, namely, the clothing, jewellery and designer industries. Research findings also suggest that new dynamic strategies need to be sensed, adopted and learned for the development and survival of these SMEs. The benchmarking tool, provided through status categories, will guide any company in the FI to compare its progress and take steps for further development. PM tools and techniques suggested for use by these FI SMEs will also help them with further improvement in project operations.

The aim of this research is to analyze the key role that knowledge, Social Capabilities and innovations play in the transfer and diffusion of tacit knowledge in an industrial district and how this creates new knowledge and innovation. The study is also focused on a measure of Social Capabilities within a district using a composite indicator and we investigate the effective role of these inputs in stimulating innovative activity in an industrial district performance. The analysis, measuring Social Capabilities, requires data collection using a questionnaire designed to obtain information which permit the development of qualitative and quantitative indicators. In contrast with the neoclassical production function, where economic growth depends only on traditional resources such as capital, labour and technology, which is an exogenous datum, in the cognitive approach we must consider the residual variables of Social Capabilities and knowledge. These, in fact, represent the key variables to understand the recent structural changes and competitiveness of an industrial district. In this work, the peculiarity of knowledge rests on Social Capabilities or social abilities to increase the process of the accumulation of knowledge and of the network broadening. The former depends on the degree of cumulativeness, and appropriability, represented by the capacity of new knowledge to generate further new knowledge and innovation. The greater is the degree of appropriability of knowledge and in particular of tacit knowledge, the smaller becomes the capacity for its diffusion in a district and its growth. A higher level of knowledge and Social Capabilities corresponds to a higher degree of innovation. The diffusion of the network depends on the degree of cooperation and on the positive externalities of an industrial district. In the theoretical part, the discussion focuses on the concept of knowledge and of Social Capabilities, on the different typologies of knowledge, its creation and diffusion in firm networks utilizing Nonaka and Takeuchi’s model, on the nature and definition of Social Capabilities in the industrial district and on the relationship among these and innovation. The empirical aspect is based upon original results of surveys carried out on a sample of entrepreneurs in Southern Italy specializing in a special industrial district composed of wedding dresses and baby dresses utilizing a multi-method approach. To highlight the relationship existing between innovation and Social Capabilities, we chose our sample within three categories, classical, innovative and traditional/fashion utilizing the academic classification. We measure Social Capabilities, we describe the Social Capabilities diffusion in the case study and finally we present our empirical analysis estimating an innovation equation.

This dissertation represents a year-long (August 2004-August 2005) ethnographic case study of 15 adolescent schoolgirls attending a secondary school in a poor, rural area of Masaka District, Uganda which explores the challenges, opportunities and potential for future identities that were associated with secondary level education. This study includes an extensive analysis of the degree to which the global objective of gender equity in education, prioritized in UNESCO’s Education For All initiative as well as the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, is promoted and/or achieved in the National Strategy for Girls’ Education in Uganda (NSGE). I consider various ideological understandings of international development in general as well as development theory specifically related to gender, and I draw on the Capabilities Approach (as developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum) and Imagined Communities and Identities (Benedict Anderson, Bonny Norton) to interpret my findings. My research reveals that girls’ educational opportunities are constrained by many “unfreedoms” (Sen, 1999), such as extreme poverty, sexual vulnerability and gender discrimination, that are deeply and extensively rooted in cultural, historical, and socioeconomic circumstances and contexts, and that these unfreedoms are not adequately addressed in international and national policies and programme objectives. I propose several recommendations for change, including: a safe and secure “girls’ space” at school; mentorship roles and programmes; counselors; comprehensive sexual health education and free and easy access to birth control and disease prevention products, and sanitary materials; regular opportunities for dialogue with male students; employment opportunities; closer community/school ties; and professional development opportunities for teachers. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this research is to study how organizations maintain their competitive advantage in today’s turbulent and highly competitive business environment, by striving to become a learning organization. The impact of factors such as leadership (both transformational and transactional leadership) and trust on an organization’s learning capability is empirically examined. This research adds to the existing body of literature in two ways. First, it argues that a transactional leadership style can influence learning, despite research spanning the last decade that has focused on transformational leadership theory as the dominant model of effective leadership. Therefore, the importance of both leadership styles, each having valuable differential effects is emphasized in this study. Second, the previously untested role of trust as mediating the relationship between leadership and organizational learning capability is examined. It is argued that without supervisor trust, the opportunities for a learning organization to reach its full potential and to subsequently develop learning capabilities is reduced. Findings from this study support the influence of both leadership styles on learning. Trust in one’s supervisor was also found to fully mediate the relationship between leadership and learning.

This study adopts a dynamic capabilities perspective to explore the activities and processes through which business model innovation arises in established organisations. New and innovative business models are fundamental to the commercialisation of latest technologies, performance, competitive advantage, as well as the creation of value for customers, the focal company and its ecosystem. Yet, our current understanding of how established companies design and implement new business models is limited by a lack of empirical research. The dynamic capabilities perspective offers a promising route to investigate the managerial and organisational activities and practices through which business model innovation is enacted. Based on a review of the business model, business model innovation and dynamic capabilities literatures, business model innovation is framed as a dynamic capability and research questions are developed. These questions are investigated using grounded theory methodology, collecting and analysing data from five case studies from the manufacturing, financial services, media, consulting, and healthcare industries. Findings from an initial sample suggest a business model innovation process consisting of an inception, evolution and diffusion phase, encumbered by cognitive, emotional and behavioural challenges. Linking the findings to the dynamic capabilities perspective, three micro-foundations, namely, process orchestration, learning, and deployment mechanisms are identified. Findings from a subsequent theoretical sample not only unravel the underlying managerial and organisational activities of these micro-foundations, but also reveal further details on the challenges faced, as well as the key role of senior management for orchestrating and enacting this process and its underlying activities. Considered collectively the findings offer a novel understanding of how business model innovations come about in established organisations, a practice labelled ‘crafting business models in statu nascendi’. The dissertation closes with a discussion and synthesis of the findings, the theoretical contribution and managerial implications, as well as limitations of the present study and areas for future research.

The Indonesian manufacturing sector faces significant challenges in its attempt to upgrade and remain competitive in both domestic and global markets. Indonesian manufacturing firms are increasingly integrated into global markets via global value chain ties. Yet, little is known about how such involvement impacts upon the ability of Indonesian firms to upgrade. This study aims to understand the nature of upgrading processes within the Indonesian manufacturing sector through a comparison of the Indonesian garment and consumer electronics manufacturing firms. To gain a better understanding of upgrading processes, this study integrates the conceptual frameworks of technological capability (TC) and global value chains (GVC) in its analysis. While the GVC literature provides useful insights into the role played by global value chain leaders in assisting, or constraining, through the ways in which they govern value chain ties, the upgrading processes of local producers, the TC framework gives a valuable understanding of the role of capabilities of local manufacturing firms and their ability to undertake upgrading processes. By combining these two frameworks, this study asks the following question: what roles do governance and technological capability play in upgrading processes within the Indonesian garment and consumer electronics value chains?To address the research question, this study gathered both quantitative and qualitative data through surveys and in-depth interviews of Indonesian garment and consumer electronics firms. Firm level case studies are analysed to obtain detailed insights into the process and dynamics of upgrading, value chain governance and capability acquisition undertaken by Indonesian garment and consumer electronics manufacturing firms. Based on the evidence drawn from the survey and eleven case studies within the Indonesian garment and consumer electronics sectors, this study suggests that forms of value chain governance and types of technological capability both play important roles in upgrading processes. Furthermore, upgrading processes and dynamics take place not only in global value chains but also in domestic value chains. Insertion into domestic value chains may, in fact, promote the ability of some Indonesian garment and consumer electronics manufacturing firms to undertake functional upgrading. By demonstrating that the technological capability of the Indonesian garment and consumer electronics manufacturing firms can play an important role in upgrading especially when firms are engaged in domestic value chains but is less pronounced when firms are engaged through hierarchical ties into global value chains, the study provides a more dynamic perspective then standard studies on upgrading and value chain linkages. In terms of policy, this paves the way for a more active role of local manufacturing firms from developing countries to be recognised as contributing to upgrading processes.

The point of departure for this thesis is how a traditional service sector shifts towards becoming more energy efficient and the processes that enable environmental action. Traditional services are generally considered to be poorly innovative and inclined towards routine activity; this leaves a gap in understanding how these adapt to the challenge of taking environmental action. The study argues that service firms adapt by deploying capabilities to multitask or to carry out innovative activity alongside routine activities related to service delivery. The research problem is addressed through three objectives: i) explicating how dynamic capabilities enable environmental action in traditional services with a focus on energy efficiency; ii) investigating the interface between the service firm and a type of intermediary, the knowledge intensive business service firm (KIBS), and how this acts as a locus for intermediation activity, or the exchange of knowledge about energy efficient technologies and measures; and iii) exploring how developments in the external context may influence the firm’s capabilities to adapt.The key contributions are two-fold. Firstly, the research links different combinations of capabilities with particular innovative behaviours in service firms; this underscores the presence of a differential multitasking potential across firms in the same sector. Secondly, it demonstrates a link between the service firm’s internal capabilities and the extent to which it mobilizes absorptive capacity to obtain knowledge about energy efficiency measures from its relation with KIBS.A qualitative study is designed with the hotel sector in Malta as the empirical setting. The fieldwork was undertaken through interviews with 26 hotel managers, 14 engineering consulting firms and 16 actors in the broader institutional environment. The data from the hotels were clustered to derive different adaptation modes characterized by particular capabilities and patterns of environmental action. Then, pairs of hotels and engineering consulting firms were identified in order to investigate the relational dynamics that may be influencing intermediation activity. The findings distinguish between hotels with a low multitasking potential that adopt a narrow range of energy efficient measures and those with a higher multitasking potential that modify activities and make deeper structural changes to shift towards improved energy efficiency. Accounting for the range of multitasking potential are different combinations of capabilities to sense signals in the external environment and interpret these in the firm and the capability for problem-solving for energy efficiency. The findings demonstrate a different pattern of KIBS use by hotels that is suggestive of a cluster differentiation. This is linked to different levels of absorptive capacity in hotels that determines whether intermediation activity and therefore the exchange of knowledge and learning about energy efficient measures is constrained or otherwise enhanced at the KIBS-client interface. The conclusion provides policy implications and areas for future research.

The global economic crisis that began in 2007 affected the lives of many people in the UK. Most existing research into the effects of ‘the Great Recession’ on well-being takes an economic or subjective approach to assessing the impacts of hard times. This thesis takes an alternative perspective: the Capabilities Approach (CA) is used to assess the effects of economic crisis on people’s freedom to lead flourishing lives. The study develops a theoretical framework that combines the CA with concepts from Philosophy and Social Psychology - the theories of practical reason and personal values. These concepts are then operationalised using data from the European Social Survey and quantitative methods, including latent variable techniques and structural equation models. The study reveals that economic crisis had a two-fold effect on well-being, resulting in (1) reduced opportunities to achieve valuable outcomes and (2) diminished expectations, aspirations and goals. These effects were concentrated among socio-economically vulnerable groups, including those on low incomes and the long-term sick and disabled: the findings show that economic crisis compounded existing socio-economic inequalities. The research makes three main contributions. First, it demonstrates theoretically and empirically that subjective well-being is not a reliable indicator for evaluating the effects of hard times on well-being; nor is it, more generally, a suitable guide for public policy. Second, it demonstrates a new methodological approach to identifying latent ‘value orientations’ within Schwartz’s framework of personal values. Third, in combining the CA with theories of practical reason and personal values, this research offers a new approach to conceptualising and measuring the agency aspect of capability.