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Entry Of Copycats Of Luxury Brands, Sarah Yini Gao, Wei Shi Lim, Christopher S. Tang Dec 2016

Entry Of Copycats Of Luxury Brands, Sarah Yini Gao, Wei Shi Lim, Christopher S. Tang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We develop a game-theoretic model to examine the entry of copycats and its implications by incorporating two salient features; these features are two product attributes, i.e., physical resemblance and product quality, and two consumer utilities, i.e., consumption utility and status utility. Our equilibrium analysis suggests that copycats with a high physical resemblance but low product quality are more likely to successfully enter the market by defying the deterrence of the incumbent. Furthermore, we show that higher quality can prevent the copycat from successfully entering the market. Finally, we show that the entry of copycats does not always improve consumer surplus …


Understanding And Tackling Societal Grand Challenges Through Management Research, Gerard George, Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Aparna Joshi, Laszlo Tihanyi Dec 2016

Understanding And Tackling Societal Grand Challenges Through Management Research, Gerard George, Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Aparna Joshi, Laszlo Tihanyi

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

“Grand challenges” are formulations of global problems that can be plausibly addressed through coordinated and collaborative effort. In this Special Research Forum, we showcase management research that examines societal problems that individuals, organizations, communities, and nations face around the world. We develop a framework to guide future research to provide systematic empirical evidence on the formulation, articulation, and implementation of grand challenges. We highlight several factors that likely enhance or suppress the attainment of collective goals, and identify representative research questions for future empirical work. In so doing, we aspire to encourage management scholars to engage in tackling broader societal …


Increase In Takeover Protection And Firm Knowledge Accumulation Strategy, Heli Wang, Shan Zhao, Jinyu He Dec 2016

Increase In Takeover Protection And Firm Knowledge Accumulation Strategy, Heli Wang, Shan Zhao, Jinyu He

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Research summary: We argue that the extent to which a firm faces takeover threats affects its knowledge structure. In particular, takeover threats may lead to managers' reluctance to adopt a strategy toward firm-specific knowledge accumulation because implementing this strategy requires them to acquire specialized skills, which are at risk under takeover threats. Conversely, takeover protection leads to an increase in firm-specific knowledge. Further, the relationship between takeover protection and firm-specific knowledge is positively moderated by managerial ownership, which helps align managerial interests with those of shareholders. But the relationship is negatively moderated by managerial tenure, as long-tenured managers have already …


Management Research In Amj: Celebrating Impact While Striving For More, Gerard George Dec 2016

Management Research In Amj: Celebrating Impact While Striving For More, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Over the years, I have read articles or listened to panel discussions that question the value of management scholarship, and often critiqued its relevance or insightfulness for an applied profession. On occasion, I have sided with those who are more pessimistic of our future as a field. While there are many truths in these commentaries, they might not give adequate credit to the robust knowledge production ecosystem that generates applied insight with scientific rigor. Yes, there is a lot more we can do but we should also celebrate the work we do well. Having read over 4000 manuscripts as an …


Big Data And Data Science Methods For Management Research: From The Editors, Gerard George, Ernst C. Osinga, Dovev Lavie, Brent A. Scott Oct 2016

Big Data And Data Science Methods For Management Research: From The Editors, Gerard George, Ernst C. Osinga, Dovev Lavie, Brent A. Scott

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The recent advent of remote sensing, mobile technologies, novel transaction systems, and high performance computing offers opportunities to understand trends, behaviors, and actions in a manner that has not been previously possible. Researchers can thus leverage 'big data' that are generated from a plurality of sources including mobile transactions, wearable technologies, social media, ambient networks, and business transactions. An earlier AMJ editorial explored the potential implications for data science in management research and highlighted questions for management scholarship, and the attendant challenges of data sharing and privacy (George, Haas & Pentland, 2014). This nascent field is evolving rapidly and at …


The Mediating Effect Of Absorptive Capacity And Relational Capital In Alliance Learning Of Smes, So-Jin Yoo, Olukemi Sawyerr, Wee Liang Tan Oct 2016

The Mediating Effect Of Absorptive Capacity And Relational Capital In Alliance Learning Of Smes, So-Jin Yoo, Olukemi Sawyerr, Wee Liang Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No business can create all the resources needed to prosper and grow. Collaboration among businesses that possess complementary resources is often necessary for survival and growth. Despite their importance and implications for alliance learning, no empirical study has to date attempted to investigate how the determinants of learning interact with each other, and are linked to the outcomes of alliance learning. This study contributes to the role of learning intent, absorptive capacity, and relational capital in enhancing learning activities and outcomes by empirically examining the relationships among these learning determinants and how they affect innovative SMEs’ technological and nontechnological learning …


Customer Acquisition And Retention Spending: An Analytical Model And Empirical Investigation In Wireless Telecommunications Markets, Sungwook Min, Xubing Zhang, Namwoon Kim, Rajendra K. Srivastava Oct 2016

Customer Acquisition And Retention Spending: An Analytical Model And Empirical Investigation In Wireless Telecommunications Markets, Sungwook Min, Xubing Zhang, Namwoon Kim, Rajendra K. Srivastava

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Strategic resource allocation in growth markets is always a challenging task. This is especially true when it comes to determining the level of investments and expenditures for customer acquisition and retention in competitive and dynamic market environments. This study develops an analytical model to examine firms' investments in customer acquisition and retention for a new service; it develops hypotheses drawing on analytical findings and tests them with firm-level operating data of wireless telecommunications markets from 41 countries during 1999-2007. The empirical investigation shows that a firm's acquisition cost per customer is more sensitive to market position and competition than retention …


Myopic Reactions To Performance Feedback: Different Decision Makers, Different Decisions, Henrich R. Greve, Cyndi Man Zhang Sep 2016

Myopic Reactions To Performance Feedback: Different Decision Makers, Different Decisions, Henrich R. Greve, Cyndi Man Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The behavioral theory of the firm predicts that problemistic search and organizational change occurs after comparing performance with the aspiration level, and this prediction has been strongly supported. The bounded rationality assumption in the behavioral theory of the firm suggests that such search is often myopic. However, we still lack theory explaining the source of myopia and how myopia influences decision makers choosing search directions when performance feedback indicates a problem. In this study, we address the relationship between myopia and search direction. We develop theory on how decision maker cognitions and knowledge formed by their past experiences underlie coalitions …


Reassessing Board Member Allegiance: Ceo Replacement Following Financial Misconduct, David M. Gomulya, Warren Boeker Sep 2016

Reassessing Board Member Allegiance: Ceo Replacement Following Financial Misconduct, David M. Gomulya, Warren Boeker

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Research summary: We examine how board members' reactions following financial misconduct differ from those following other adverse organizational events, such as poor performance. We hypothesize that inside directors and directors appointed by the CEO may be particularly concerned about their reputation following deceptive financial practices. We demonstrate that directors more closely affiliated with the CEO are more likely to reduce their support for the CEO following financial misconduct, increasing the likelihood of CEO replacement. Enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act similarly alters governance dynamics by creating a greater expectation for sound corporate governance. We demonstrate our findings in U.S. public firms …


Right Person In The Right Place: How The Host Country Ipr Influences The Distribution Of Inventors In Offshore R&D Projects Of Multinational Enterprises, Anand Nandkumar, Kannan Srikanth Aug 2016

Right Person In The Right Place: How The Host Country Ipr Influences The Distribution Of Inventors In Offshore R&D Projects Of Multinational Enterprises, Anand Nandkumar, Kannan Srikanth

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Prior work has shown that the strength of the intellectual property regime (IPR) in a host country influences offshore R&D to that country. Building on this work we propose that the strength of the IPR in a host country differentially influences the threat of knowledge leakage on projects that are produced for the location where the multinational firm is headquartered (home) versus the offshore location to which the R&D project is sent (host). We argue and show that when the host location has a weak IPR, fewer host inventors are involved in host R&D projects when compared to home R&D …


Strategic Predisposition In Communication Management: Understanding Organizational Propensity Towards Bridging Strategy, Soojin Kim Aug 2016

Strategic Predisposition In Communication Management: Understanding Organizational Propensity Towards Bridging Strategy, Soojin Kim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify factors influencing an organization’s predisposition to bridging strategy, and tests relationships between those factors and bridging strategy. Design/methodology/approach – Online survey was conducted in South Korea. Hierarchical regression was used. Findings – Identified factors are environmental complexity, top management attitude toward stakeholders, analysis orientation, and authoritarian culture. Research limitations/implications – By adopting the concept and measures of bridging as an organization’s public-engagement strategy, this study was able to capture an organization’s strategic approach for problem-solving in communication management. Practical implications – Strong analysis orientation allows organizations to look into problems …


Contingent Value Of Director Identification: The Role Of Government Directors In Monitoring And Resource Provision In An Emerging Economy, Hongjin Zhu, Toru Yoshikawa Aug 2016

Contingent Value Of Director Identification: The Role Of Government Directors In Monitoring And Resource Provision In An Emerging Economy, Hongjin Zhu, Toru Yoshikawa

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Although previous studies have explored the value of government directors, less attention has been directed at the antecedents of government directors' engagement in value-adding activities, such as managerial monitoring and resource provision. Drawing on social identity theory, we offer a novel model that specifies how a government director's dual identifications with the focal firm, and with the government individually and interactively affect his or her governance behavior. An investigation of government directors in China shows that their identification with the focal firm enhances monitoring and resource provision, while their identification with the government affects monitoring and resource provision differently. depending …


The Impact Of The Potential Entry Of Copycats: Entry Conditions, Consumer Welfare, And Social Welfare, Sarah Y. Gao, Wei Shi Lim, Christopher Tang Aug 2016

The Impact Of The Potential Entry Of Copycats: Entry Conditions, Consumer Welfare, And Social Welfare, Sarah Y. Gao, Wei Shi Lim, Christopher Tang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article examines the implications of the potential entry of a copycat who produces and sells a copycat (i.e., imitation) product that competes with the incumbent product. By analyzing a two-period dynamic noncooperative game between these two firms, we identify conditions under which the copycat can gain successful market entry. More importantly, we find that the potential entry of a copycat creates (implicit) pressure for the incumbent to lower its selling price; hence, it improves consumer welfare. Finally, we identify conditions under which the potential entry of a copycat can increase social welfare (i.e., consumer welfare and the profit of …


Appropriability And The Retrieval Of Knowledge After Spillovers, Tufool Alnuaimi, Gerard George Jul 2016

Appropriability And The Retrieval Of Knowledge After Spillovers, Tufool Alnuaimi, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Firms create and capture value through innovation. In technology-driven firms, there has been an explicit emphasis on appropriability through imitation deterrence and cumulative inventions that build on prior firm innovation. We introduce systematic empirical evidence for a third mechanism of appropriability namely, knowledge retrieval, which is defined as the re-absorption of previously spilled knowledge. We extend previous studies which consider technological complexity and organizational coupling as predictors of appropriability by examining their impact on knowledge retrieval. We find that technological complexity has a curvilinear relationship with retrieval while organizational coupling has a negative relationship. We discuss the implications of these …


What Do I Want? The Effects Of Individual Aspiration And Relational Capability On Collaboration Preferences, Simon J. D. Schillebeeckx, Sankalp Chaturvedi, Gerard George, Zella King Jul 2016

What Do I Want? The Effects Of Individual Aspiration And Relational Capability On Collaboration Preferences, Simon J. D. Schillebeeckx, Sankalp Chaturvedi, Gerard George, Zella King

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine individuals' collaboration preferences in the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) for the UK plastics electronics sector. Using conjoint analysis, we investigate how aspiration gaps and relational capability affect the value placed on potential organizational collaborations. Aspiration gaps reflect individuals' perception of whether they are ahead of or behind peers on their career trajectory, and relational capability captures three distinct dimensions: networking skills, openness to collaborate, and network awareness. Our findings suggest that positive and negative aspiration gaps augment preferences to form organizational partnerships. These effects are positively moderated by networking skills and openness and negatively moderated by network awareness. …


New Blood As An Elixir Of Youth: Effects Of Human Capital Tenure On The Explorative Capability Of Aging Firms, F. Ted Tschang, Gokhan Ertug Jul 2016

New Blood As An Elixir Of Youth: Effects Of Human Capital Tenure On The Explorative Capability Of Aging Firms, F. Ted Tschang, Gokhan Ertug

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The relationship between firm age and innovation has been an enduring topic of interest. We contribute to this research by studying how the effect of firm age on the quality of explorative and exploitative innovations is affected by the firm-specific and industry tenure of the talent resources (employees) that the firm utilizes. We start with the baseline predictions that firm age is related to the development of better exploitative innovations and worse explorative innovations. However, the tenure of employees intervenes in these relationships, by way of bringing in new knowledge, mental models, and beliefs. We predict that longer firm-specific and …


Leveraging Foreign Institutional Logic In The Adoption Of Stock Option Pay Among Japanese Firms, Xuesong Geng, Toru Yoshikawa, Asli M. Colpan Jul 2016

Leveraging Foreign Institutional Logic In The Adoption Of Stock Option Pay Among Japanese Firms, Xuesong Geng, Toru Yoshikawa, Asli M. Colpan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We investigate why Japanese firms have adopted executive stock option pay, which was developed with shareholder-oriented institutional logic that was inconsistent with Japanese stakeholder-oriented institutional logic. We argue that Japanese managers have self-serving incentives to leverage stock ownership of foreign investors and their associated institutional logic to legitimize the adoption of stock option pay. Our empirical analyses with a large sample of Japanese firms between 1997 and 2007 show that when managers have elite education, high pay inequality with ordinary employees, and when firms experience poor sales growth, foreign ownership is more likely associated with the adoption of stock option …


Thinking Through The Meteoric Rise Of Middle-East Carriers From Singapore Airlines' Vantage Point, Terence P. C. Fan, Mats Lingblad Jul 2016

Thinking Through The Meteoric Rise Of Middle-East Carriers From Singapore Airlines' Vantage Point, Terence P. C. Fan, Mats Lingblad

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The rise of Middle East carriers in the past decade has been nothing less than meteoric. Based on the notion of generic strategy, we analysed the potential for competitors of the leading Middle East carriers to respond in terms of market scope and product characteristics, using Singapore Airlines as a reference. We found that it was generally difficult for Singapore Airlines to compete in terms of market scope, and thus it should concentrate on offering different degrees of differentiation in its products. While the latest small, long-haul aircraft could help increase Singapore Airlines' market scope, this impact would be marginal …


Collaboration Imprint For Entrepreneurs In Innovative Projects, Terence P. C. Fan, Xuesong Geng Jun 2016

Collaboration Imprint For Entrepreneurs In Innovative Projects, Terence P. C. Fan, Xuesong Geng

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper explores how entrepreneurs learn to improve performance in a series of innovative projects that involve more complexity than those repetitive tasks. We propose that collaborating with a specific set of partners can generate a characteristic creative mood and routine, leaving a distinctive impact on the performance of future project outcomes. Over multiple innovative endeavors, collaborating with different sets of partners helps a focal entrepreneur explore and experiment with different facets of his or her creativity, achieving a variety of outcomes. We propose to test the lasting impact of collaboration using the commercial performance of early software applications (‘apps’) …


Collaboration Imprint For Entrepreneurs In Innovative Projects, Terence P. C. Fan, Xuesong Geng Jun 2016

Collaboration Imprint For Entrepreneurs In Innovative Projects, Terence P. C. Fan, Xuesong Geng

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper explores how entrepreneurs learn to improve performance in a series of innovative projects that involve more complexity than those repetitive tasks. We propose that collaborating with a specific set of partners can generate a characteristic creative mood and routine, leaving a distinctive impact on the performance of future project outcomes. Over multiple innovative endeavors, collaborating with different sets of partners helps a focal entrepreneur explore and experiment with different facets of his or her creativity, achieving a variety of outcomes. We propose to test the lasting impact of collaboration using the commercial performance of early software applications (‘apps’) …


The Digital Workforce And The Workplace Of The Future, Amy Colbert, Nick Yee, Gerard George Jun 2016

The Digital Workforce And The Workplace Of The Future, Amy Colbert, Nick Yee, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The authors reflect on ways increased prevalence of technology and digital natives entering the workplace influence how work is approached. They talk about competencies of the digital workforce and suggests both digital natives and digital immigrants could have the skills needed to utilize technology for manipulating data, problem solving, and new product creation. They comment on interpersonal relating and identity development in digital work forces, and the utilization of technology at work.


Experience And Fdi Risk-Taking: A Microfoundational Reconceptualization, Peter J. Buckley, Liang Chen, L. Jeremy Clegg, Hinrich Voss Jun 2016

Experience And Fdi Risk-Taking: A Microfoundational Reconceptualization, Peter J. Buckley, Liang Chen, L. Jeremy Clegg, Hinrich Voss

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Studies of how firms respond to host country risk have assigned explanatory primacy to organizational capability and managerial risk preference. The organization-level account is built on the premise that capability is a prerequisite for risk-taking while the individual-level account focuses on the managers' intrinsic behavioral attitude. Without integrating one with the other, the former is open to many alternative explanations while the latter remains only a source of heterogeneity. We propose that employing the microfoundations approach can address the limitations of each account and yield a fuller understanding of FDI risk-taking. Drawing upon behavioral decision theory and the concept of …


Inter-Generational Transitions Of Family Businesses Using Private Equity: Lessons For China And Australia From Chinese Family-Owned Enterprises In Singapore, Pi Shen Seet, Christopher Graves, Wee Liang Tan May 2016

Inter-Generational Transitions Of Family Businesses Using Private Equity: Lessons For China And Australia From Chinese Family-Owned Enterprises In Singapore, Pi Shen Seet, Christopher Graves, Wee Liang Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This chapter aims to address some of these research gaps by looking at family-owned SMEs (SMFEs). In particular, it examines the considerations of Chinese SMFES in Singapore when they engage with the private equity (PE) sector as part of the overall capital-raising and harvest strategy.


Bringing Africa In: Promising Directions For Management Research, Gerard George, Christopher Corbishley, Jane N. O. Khayesi, Martine R. Haas, Laszlo Tihanyi Apr 2016

Bringing Africa In: Promising Directions For Management Research, Gerard George, Christopher Corbishley, Jane N. O. Khayesi, Martine R. Haas, Laszlo Tihanyi

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Africa is beginning to capture the imagination of entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and scholars as an emerging market of new growth opportunities. Over 15 years, the continent has experienced an average growth rate of 5% (World Economic Forum, 2015: v). Out of its 54 countries, 26 have achieved middle-income status, while the proportion of those living in extreme poverty has fallen from 51% in 2005 to 42% in 2014 (African Development Bank, 2014a: 49). Although there are regional differences, the primary drivers of growth have been rapidly emerging consumer markets, regional economic integration, investment in infrastructure, technological leap-frogging, and the opening …


Corporate Social Responsibility: An Overview And New Research Directions: Thematic Issue On Corporate Social Responsibility [From The Editors], Heli Wang, Li Tong, Rikki Takeuchi, Gerard George Apr 2016

Corporate Social Responsibility: An Overview And New Research Directions: Thematic Issue On Corporate Social Responsibility [From The Editors], Heli Wang, Li Tong, Rikki Takeuchi, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR)—that is, businesses bearing a responsibility to society and a broader set of stakeholders beyond its shareholders—gained currency in the 1960s. Since then, attention on CSR has been growing in both academic and practitioner communities around the world. While there have been criticisms and debates on whether it was appropriate for corporations to expand their remit beyond shareholder value, an increasing majority of corporations have proactively committed to addressing larger societal challenges. With a variety of options for corporate engagement in mainstream society and local communities, corporations have created dedicated organizational units to effectively …


The Effects Of Within-Country Linguistic And Religious Diversity On Foreign Acquisitions, Douglas Dow, Ilya Cuypers, Gokhan Ertug Apr 2016

The Effects Of Within-Country Linguistic And Religious Diversity On Foreign Acquisitions, Douglas Dow, Ilya Cuypers, Gokhan Ertug

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This article explores how within-country diversity of both language and religion influences the ownership structure of foreign acquisitions. Commentators have acknowledged the potential importance of “within-country diversity,” but to date this issue has received minimal empirical attention. We propose that diversity plays two distinct roles. Namely, diversity within the host country may be an additional source of behavioral uncertainty and information asymmetry, over and above the effects arising from cross-national differences. Moreover, diversity within the home country may increase the cognitive complexity of the decision makers, moderating the firm’s response to the distance and diversity of the host country. Results …


Environmental Demands And The Emergence Of Social Structure: Technological Dynamism And Interorganizational Network Forms, Adam Tatarynowicz, Maxim Sytch, Ranjay Gulati Mar 2016

Environmental Demands And The Emergence Of Social Structure: Technological Dynamism And Interorganizational Network Forms, Adam Tatarynowicz, Maxim Sytch, Ranjay Gulati

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study investigates the origins of variation in the structures of interorganizational networks across industries. We combine empirical analyses of existing interorganizational networks in six industries with an agent-based simulation model of network emergence. Using data on technology partnerships from 1983 to 1999 between firms in the automotive, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, chemicals, microelectronics, new materials, and telecommunications industries, we find that differences in technological dynamism across industries and the concomitant demands for value creation engender variations in firms’ collaborative behaviors. On average, firms in technologically dynamic industries pursue more-open ego networks, which fosters access to new and diverse resources that …


Reputation And Status: Expanding The Role Of Social Evaluations In Management Research: From The Editors, Gerard George, Linus Dahlander, Scott D. Graffin, Samantha Sim Feb 2016

Reputation And Status: Expanding The Role Of Social Evaluations In Management Research: From The Editors, Gerard George, Linus Dahlander, Scott D. Graffin, Samantha Sim

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Organizations, whether private or public, are subject to evaluations by their stakeholder community and society. These social evaluations form the basis of perceptions targeted at the organization, and influence the organization’s interactions with its stakeholders. “Reputation,” defined as beliefs or perceptions held about the quality of a focal actor, and “status,” defined as relative professional position or social standing, are both forms of social evaluation. Following works by Fombrun and Shanley (1990) and Merton (1968), reputation and status as theoretical constructs have become popularized in the literature, and management scholars have provided empirical evidence to provide a more complete view …


The Art Of Representation: How Reputation Affects Success With Different Audiences In The Contemporary Art Field, Gokhan Ertug, Tamar Yogev, Yonghoon Lee, Peter Hedstrom Feb 2016

The Art Of Representation: How Reputation Affects Success With Different Audiences In The Contemporary Art Field, Gokhan Ertug, Tamar Yogev, Yonghoon Lee, Peter Hedstrom

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study the effects of actors' audience-specific reputations on their levels of success with different audiences in the same field. Extending recent work that has emphasized the presence of multiple audiences with different concerns, we demonstrate that considering audience specificity leads to an improved understanding of reputation effects. Using data on emerging artists in the field of contemporary art from 2001 to 2010, we investigate the manner in which artists' audience-specific reputations affect their subsequent success with two distinct audiences: museums and galleries. Our findings suggest that audience-specific reputations have systematically different effects with respect to success with museums and …


Slack Resources And The Rent-Generating Potential Of Firm-Specific Knowledge, Heli Wang, Jaepil Choi, Guoguang Wan, John Qi Dong Feb 2016

Slack Resources And The Rent-Generating Potential Of Firm-Specific Knowledge, Heli Wang, Jaepil Choi, Guoguang Wan, John Qi Dong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine how two types of slack resources relevant to knowledge employees—human resource slack and financial slack at the R&D functional level—influence the rent-generating potential of firm-specific knowledge resources. According to the resource- and knowledge-based views of the firm, firm-specific knowledge resources are critical for generating economic rents for a firm. However, without motivated knowledge employees investing in the corresponding specialized human capital in the process of absorbing and deploying firm-specific knowledge resources, the resource potential for rent generation would be greatly discounted. We argue that human resource slack among knowledge employees and financial slack available for R&D activities affect …