Outsourcing refers to contracting out the functions to a third party instead of conducting them in-house. The main contribution of this dissertation is to develop and test a model of successful outsourcing in the accomplishment of headquarters selling task. Specifically, it intends to (a) provide a theoretical framework for outsourcing partnership performance, (b) explore the potential complementarities construct in the context of a dyadic outsourcing relationship, (c) examine the role of learning dynamic capabilities in turning potential complementarities into outsourcing success, and (d) explicate the role of structural social capital as an antecedent to learning dynamic capability construct . The conceptual framework of the model is based on the resource-advantage theory which posits that resources, potential complementarities and dynamic capabilities are explicated as sub-constructs. The pool of respondents who are the practicing managers of outsourcing in the consumer packaged goods industry was used to test the hypothesized relationships. The findings showed that the learning dynamic capabilities construct is the most important factor affecting in the outsourcing partnership performance in the context of headquarters selling task. The task-related resources of the outsourcer had a significant positive effect on potential complementarities. However, the positive effect of the outsourcee’s task-related resources on potential complementarities was not significant. Likewise, the positive effect of the potential complementarities on the outsourcing partnership performance did not emerge as significant. The effect of structural social capital of the outsourcer had a significant but negative influence on learning dynamic capabilities. The positive effect of structural social capital of the outsourcee on learning dynamic capabilities and the moderating role of learning dynamic capabilities were found to be insignificant.

The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual model based which examines the influence of various antecedents of the business incubation process. The conceptualized model will be tested empirically using data collected from North American business incubators. The data used are from the National Business Incubator Association's State of the Industry survey. The Partial Least Squares method of analysis is used to explore the identified antecedents, and is used to test validate the model. While a number of resources were identified as components of the incubation process and are considered antecedents of incubator effectiveness (e.g., social networking, access to funding, training, manager/staff intervention), the findings indicate the network of professional services (e.g., legal, marketing, MIS advice) assembled in and around the incubator have the most significant impact on incubator effectiveness. Other resources, such as training, links and management resources, can have an impact, but only insofar as they relate to the professional services resources. The application and screening process were confirmed as essential to find clients that have the proper "fit" within an incubator. The findings indicate that the physical and age characteristics of an incubator are not factors in effectiveness, nor is the networking activities among incubator clients, lending support to a burgeoning class of virtual incubators, accelerators and innovation centers. The results support resource-advantage theory as a foundation theory in the incubation process, and give researchers a basis for future work in this area. The study helps fill gaps in academic research on incubators, and confirms previously theorized work on the process of incubation. In practice, incubator managers and stakeholders can use these results to assemble the particular resources they need for their type of incubator, and more effectively select potential clients based on those resources. This should allow a smoother, more even flow through the incubator, a better use of scarce and valuable resources, and likely higher graduation rates. This study is the first empirical analysis of the incubation process to arrive at a statistically-validated model of business incubation.

This research had the objective to analyze the performance in Resources, Market and Financial explaining the competitive advantage of companies according to the Resource Advantage Theory, of Textile companies sector listed at BM&FBovespa. It analyzed 21 companies in the textile sector divided into four segments. For measuring performance have been adopted the Multiple Criteria Decision Making based on ideal scenarios, TOPSIS and VIKOR. It was analyzed the performances based on four indicators for resources, three for market and four for the financial dimension. The results point to the non-verification of RA Theory in textile companies, considering what it recommends that a business advantage in resources and market tends to be higher in the financial dimension. In this way, the only company that observed this factor was the Arezzo. Likewise for verification of such a theory would be consistent that there was correlation between the rankings of different dimensions, which was not the case. It was concluded that competitive advantage in resources and in market of companies, Brazil’s textile sector does not contribute to high performance in financial dimension. / Esta investigación tuvo como objetivo analizar los recursos de rendimiento, de mercado y financiera explicar la ventaja competitiva del negocio de acuerdo con la teoría de las ventajas de recursos (RA Teoría) de las empresas textiles enumerados en la BM&FBovespa. Ellos analizaron un total de 21 empresas del sector textil se divide en cuatro segmentos. Para la medición de los métodos de rendimiento fueron adoptadas para apoyar la toma multicriterio basado en ideal yescenarios, Topsis y Vikor. Se analizaron las actuaciones sobre la base de cuatro indicadores de recursos, tres para el mercado y cuatro para la dimensión financiera. Los resultados de la encuesta apuntan a la no verificación de la RA Teoría en las empresas textiles, teniendo en cuenta lo que se recomienda que una ventaja de negocio en recursos y el mercado tiende a ser mayor en la dimensión financiera. Por lo tanto la única compañía encontró que este factor fue el Arezzo. Del mismo modo para la verificación de tal teoría sería coherente que no había correlación entre la clasificación de diferentes dimensiones, que no era el caso. Por lo tanto, se concluye que la ventaja competitiva de los recursos y de Brasil, las empresas del sector textil de mercado no contribuye al desempeño financiero superior de las empresas. / Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo analisar o desempenho em recursos, mercado e financeiro que explicam a vantagem competitiva empresarial de acordo com a Resource Advantage Theory (RA Theory), de empresas do setor têxtil listadas na BM&FBovespa. Foram analisadas um total de 21 empresas do setor têxtil divididas em quatro segmentos. Para a mensuração do desempenho foram adotados os métodos de apoio a decisão multicritério baseados em cenários ideais TOPSIS e VIKOR. Foram analisados os desempenhos com base em quatro indicadores para recursos, três para mercado e quatro para a dimensão financeira. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam para a não verificação da RA Theory em empresas têxteis, considerando o que se preconiza de que uma empresa em vantagem em recursos e mercado tende a ser superior na dimensão financeira. Desta forma a única empresa que verificou este fator foi a Arezzo. De mesmo modo para verificação da referida teoria seria coerente que existisse correlação entre os rankings das diferentes dimensões, o que não se verificou. Assim conclui-se que a vantagem competitiva em recursos e em mercado de empresas do setor têxtil do Brasil não contribui para superioridade no desempenho financeiro das empresas.

Traditionally, research investigating marketing's role and influence within the firm has focused on the marketing department and its ability to affect future firm strategies. Consequently, little is known about the antecedents of a Chief Marketing Officer's (CMO) role or influence. Yet the position of CMO is quite unique. Unlike other executive officers (e.g., CFOs), no reliable external validation or accreditation is generally recognized, required, or mandated. Similarly, firms are increasingly calling for their CMOs to justify their own existence, and many are even considering abandonment of the position entirely.The goal of this investigation is to understand how CMOs can generate influence within their respective firms given a lack of reliable external credentials. However, the current business press seems to suggest that there currently exists a great bias towards marketing in general and CMOs in particular. As a result, the current investigation uses a competing models approach to study CMO influence. Drawing upon the literature pertaining to competition, the author suggests that individuals, like firms, can generate their own competitive advantage by possessing unique bundles of resources (e.g., information). This is the common element in both models. As the uniqueness of the information provided by the CMO increases, other executive officers within the firm are more likely to confer expertise power to the CMO, which in turn leads to greater influence. The two models diverge as organizational legitimacy is introduced. In one model, the Socially Contingent model, the CMO can only garner expertise power to the extent that s/he possesses organizational legitimacy. In such a case, CMOs that lack organizational legitimacy will be unable to realize any gains in expertise power regardless of the uniqueness of their informational resources (i.e., organizational legitimacy moderates the relationship between the uniqueness of the information provided and expertise power). In the second model, the Merit-Based model, organizational legitimacy mediates the relationship between a CMO's expertise power and his/her influence. As a CMO's perceived expertise increases, other executive officers are more likely to support the CMO's initiatives, which in turn lead to greater influence during strategy design and implementation.

There exists heightened research attention afforded to the pivotal demands - both internal and external - that exist within the salesperson role set. Unprecedented pressures on salespersons to acquire, retain, and build enduring customer relationships to enhance the firm's bottom-line performance coincides with increasing complexities within the work environment. This relevant and timely research introduces an original construct derived from the long-standing attention afforded to relationship selling, relational incongruity that exists within the buyer-seller exchange. Relational incongruity, defined, is the relational tension spawned between the salesperson, the customer, and the firm when situational psychological incongruity exists within the buyer-seller exchange itself. Framed in resource-advantage theory, this research investigates divergent demands and the increasing complexity of sales relationships through the lens of relational incongruity. A research program based on minimizing relational incongruity will augment the sales management and B2B literature by looking at how he salesperson and the customer build strong relationships as well as the antecedents that can undermine these relationships by generating realtional incongruity.

The hospitals and their healthcare providers need to optimize simultaneously three outcomes: healthcare costs, healthcare options offered to customers, and information utilization efficiency. The adoption of electronic healthcare record (EHR) technologies is a potential managerial mechanism for balancing these outcomes. EHR offers patient management and decision support capabilities that can ameliorate health delivery outcomes for patients, doctors, and hospitals through better-informed business and care decisions. The analysis of data collected in an EHR system may lower costs and improve health care delivery (or both). In sum, it could be argued that EHR is a source of competitive advantage. Despite this prima facie appeal, many hospitals remain reluctant to adopt and implement EHR due to lack of insights into return on investment, unavailability of tested systems and data entry obstacles. To address this gap between the potential of EHR system and lack of its adoption, the purpose of this research is to investigate the role of EHR as a resource of competitive advantage for hospital. Essay 1, titled "Implementation and Adoption of EHR: A Conceptual Model based on Resource Advantage Theory", describes the antecedents and consequences of EHR adoption and implementation. Essay 2, titled "Exploring the Relationship Between Electronic Healthcare Record Adoption and Quality of Care", delves deeper into the operational performance of a hospital. This essay focuses on the impact of EHR on different aspects of patient care and thereby on the financial performance of the hospital. Essay 3, titled "The Effect of Resources on a Hospital's Financial Performance: The Moderating Role of Electronic Health Records Implementation and Adoption", is an empirical inquiry into the key factors that may influence hospitals' financial performance. These include organizational factors (such as, number of nurses and beds) and environmental factors (such as, location and received donations). Further, this essay explores the interaction effects between EHR and these factors. In summary, this research provides a conceptualization and an empirical investigation of EHR adoption and implementation and its impact on hospitals' operational and financial performance, an area receiving widespread attention from health care organizations, patient rights activists, public policy makers and the media. Future research can take two paths. First, further research should address questions related to the integration of EHR with other production and inventory management systems, and the prospective benefits attained from system integration. Second research is needed to investigate how parallel information transfer across multiple stakeholders may concurrently preserve Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, reduce health care delivery costs and optimize service quality.

Nation as a brand represents the intangible assets of a country, encompassing various dimensions such as politics, economics, culture, history, and technology. However, much of extant work in nation branding has been limited to the empirical investigations of its positioning and implementation for specific countries, while other scholarly works in nation branding are conceptual. Various factors associated with nation branding are discussed in the literature, but there is no organizing mechanism to connect these factors to explore the dynamics underlying nation branding. To fill this gap, this dissertation attempts to identify the relevant factors underlying the deployment of nation branding, and to develop models to assess the association among these factors. Hunt and Morgan's resource advantage theory serves as the theoretical foundation of this dissertation's framework. After establishing panel data models that link the factors of building and developing the nation brand, the strategic implications of nation branding are discussed. Archival data were used for economic factors such as economic development, tourism, export, and inward foreign investment, and cultural, political, infrastructural, and geographical factors. The primary data were collected for qualitative factors perceived reputable brand and perceived reputable industry. The Anholt-GfK Roper's 2008 Nation Brands IndexSM was incorporated into the model as a moderating variable to test its impact on the relationship between the dependent variables and the independent variables. A total of 24 nations were analyzed to build and validate the models. This dissertation makes several contributions to the nation branding literature. First, it clarifies the definition of nation brand and nation branding. Second, it builds a predictive econometric model to connect the critical determinant and outcome factors of nation branding. Finally, it discusses nation branding strategies in terms of resource advantage theory and provides crucial insights on the development and management of a nation brand that can be used by researchers, marketing managers, and stakeholders of the nation brand to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of nation branding.

From different points of view, including Resource-Based Theory, Resource-Advantage Theory, and Structure Conduct Performance, the research was firstly discussed if the iron and steel enterprises would have different competitive advantages with different strategy segmentations. In addition, how investors make investment decision and how management level distribute resource into which financial indicator in order to strengthen competitive advantage were discussed as well. The research was collected financial data (from year 2004 to 2008) of 40 domestic iron and steel companies which are listed in public stock market (including OTC) as sample pool. The sample pool was segmented into four groups, such as products, value chain of upstream to downstream, and top-to-down consolidated strategic groups. Competitive advantage was classified by average of equity return ratios of shareholders, and financial ratios were applied to analyze the source of competitive advantage in iron and steel industry. Firstly, started to analyze financial ratios of each group by description statistic method and implemented factor analysis to figure out common factors. Furthermore, from investors point of view, to clarify how those factors to be reflected on operating performance by applying multiple regression analysis. Moreover, from business operating level¡¦s eyes, to distinguish enterprises with competitive advantage from each strategic group. The result was shown that each strategic group has different sources of competitive advantage. Therefore, recommendations of the research are listed: I. Investors should invest in enterprises with better current ratio, quick ratio, and guarantee of multiplied interest. II. Aggressive investors should invest in enterprises that have stainless steel products and consolidated business from upstream, mid-stream, to downstream. III. Conservative investors should invest in enterprises that have plate steel products and consolidated business from upstream, mid-stream, to downstream. IV. In order to create resources of competitive advantage, management level of each strategic group should increase financial signals as first priority: 1. Plate steel and downstream enterprises: value-added of unit salary and percentage of employee bonus out of profit. 2. Bar iron, stainless enterprises with consolidation of upstream to mid-stream and top-to ¡Vdown conformity: current ratio, quick ratio and guarantee of multiplied interest. 3. Alloy steel enterprises: ratio of debt out of net assets, percentage of loan, stock and account receivable out of net assets ratio, and net assets out of assets ratio.

Various academic disciplines have attempted to explain the factors underpinning superior economic performance. Generally they neglect the realities of small states. The literature fails to clearly define a small state . Mainstream theories associate smallness with sub-optimality . Small states studies tend to be conditioned by a vulnerability complex. Yet, a good number of small states have an economic track record which is the envy of much larger states. This thesis adopts an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the theoretical explanations of superior economic performance, at both the state and firm level. Resource-advantage theory, which claims to be a general theory of competition, offers valuable insights in understanding the superior economic performance of small states. The field research follows Porter (1998) in studying the performance of particular industries to understand the competitiveness of nations. A qualitative, case study approach, involving both primary and secondary investigation, explores the performance of the pharmaceutical industry in Malta following the country s decision to join the EU. This work perceives a small state as an organisation with well-defined, but permeable, boundaries. This open system is characterised by both a lack of market power and a small population. Through the secondary field research a small number of higher-order resources, competencies and dynamic capabilities (RCDCs) are identified. The field research s findings affirm the relevance of these arch-RCDCs in creating competitive advantage for the pharmaceutical industry in Malta. It also elucidates the key role played by an external catalyst, foreign direct investment, to circumvent domestic limitations. The study finds that it is still relevant to study small states and that achieving a strategic fit between the resource base and international market opportunities is essential if small states are to enhance their market power and achieve a superior economic performance.

以科技業而言，由於近來創業風潮蔚為風行，同時新創企業的數目也蓬勃增加，但是要如何永續發展，成為穩定生存的企業，還有很多需要努力及進步的地方。另外一方面，台灣各個科技大廠多數面臨創新動力及幅度不足的困境，始終處在代工的階段，毛利無法提升，故近來也有許多科技大廠積極找尋新創企業標的購併或合作，以期提升企業未來之競爭力。 本論文旨在研究新創企業及大型科技企業於供應鏈上的互動，大型科技企業該如何找尋正確之標的並且不影響原業務內容以及新創企業須具備哪些核心技能以期公司持續發展。本研究個案以Q公司以及N公司為個案案例，其中大型OEM/ODM系統廠Ｑ和硬體新創企業N的合作是為研究重點，因兩者的合作並不符合一般的直覺思維，Q公司必須要犧牲規模經濟才得以進行Q公司之產品製造，所以本研究透過資源觀點的學說，如資源基礎理論、資源優勢理論、資源相依理論等進而從外部環境到內部資源分析，可以發現因為環境因素的促使，導致Q公司與N公司形成互利的相依共生關係。 / Recently in technology industry, due to the recent upsurge of entrepreneurship, the number of start-ups has also increased vigorously. However, how to achieve sustainable development and become a stable and viable enterprise has a lot to do with efforts and progress. On the other hand, most of the Taiwanese technology firms are faced with the lack of margin and innovation power. They are still in the stage of foundry work and the gross profit can not be improved. Recently, many technology companies are keenly searching for the merger or cooperation of the new startups in order to maintain the future competitiveness of enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to study the interaction between start-ups and large-scale technology enterprises in the supply chain. How can large-scale technology enterprises find the right target and do not affect the original business content and what core skills the start-up enterprises should have in order to keep the company going. The research case is based on the case of Q company and N company. The cooperation between the large OEM / ODM system Q and the hardware start-up enterprise N is the focus of the research, because the cooperation between these two is not in line with the general intuitive thinking. It is necessary to sacrifice the Q’s scale economy to carry out the N company's product manufacturing, so this study will go through the resource point of view, such as resource-based theory, resource advantage theory, resource-dependency theory to analyze the external environment to internal resources. Simply saying the result can be conclude because of the relationship between environmental factors, resulting in Q company and N company to form a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship.