Performance drivers in knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial firms: a multidimensional perspective

“Social media technologies: a waste of time or a good way to learn and improve technological competences?”

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to deepen understanding of the effects of using social media technologies to acquire technological knowledge and organizational learning competences, of technological knowledge competences on organizational learning and finally of organizational learning on organizational performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was performed by analyzing data from a sample of 197 technology firms located in Spain. The hypotheses were tested using a structural equations model with the program LISREL 8.80.

Findings

This study’s conceptual framework is grounded in complexity theory – along with dynamic capabilities theory, which complements the resource-based view. The study contributes to the literature by proposing a model that reflects empirically how business ecosystems that use social media technologies enable the development of interorganizational and social collaboration networks that encourage learning and development of technological knowledge competences.

Research limitations/implications

It would be interesting for future studies to consider other elements to conceptualize and measure social media technologies, including (among others) significance of the various tools used and strategic integration. The model might also analyze other sectors and another combination of variables.

Practical implications

The results of this study have several managerial implications: developing social media technologies and interorganizational social collaboration networks not only enables the organizational learning process but also encourages technological knowledge competences. Through innovation processes, use of social media technologies also contributes to strengthening companies’ strategic positioning, which ultimately helps to improve firms’ organizational performance.

Social implications

Since social media technologies drive information systems in contemporary society (because they enable interaction with numerous agents), the authors highlight the use of complexity theory to develop a conceptual framework.

Originality/value

The study also deepens understanding of the connections by which new experiential learning contributes to the generation of coevolutionary adaptive business ecosystems and digital strategies that enable development of interorganizational and social collaborative networks through technological knowledge competences. Only after examining the impact of social media technologies on organizational performance in prior literature, did the authors underscore that both quantity and frequency of social media technology use are positively related to improvement in knowledge processes that lead to employees’ creation and acquisition of new metaknowledge.

Exploring the effect of team climate on knowledge management in teams through team work engagement: evidence from knowledge-intensive firms

Purpose

Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this paper aims to investigate the impact of team climate (TC) supporting trust, cohesion and innovativeness on knowledge management (KM) in teams through the mediating role of teamwork engagement (TWEG).

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 246 employees working in Tunisian knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs) and involved in 69 service R&D teams. The authors applied the partial least squares-structural equation modeling approach for data analysis using SMART PLS 3.2 software.

Findings

Findings provide evidence that TWEG mediates the link between TC characterized by trust, cohesion and innovativeness and KM in teams. In the line of the JD-R model, results also show that such TC provides job resources to team members that act as vitamins nurturing TWEG, which in turn boosts KM in teams.

Originality/value

To shed light on the micro-level foundations of KM, this paper enriches the KM literature through pioneering the examination of the effect of TC on KM in teams. It proposes an extension of the JD-R model through highlighting the TWEG’s mediating role in the motivational pathway leading teams to invest in KM activities under a supportive TC. It provides key insights into the importance for managers to implement team-oriented policies toward cultivating trust, innovativeness and cohesion within teams to create more dedicated, vigorous and absorbed teams in which intrinsically motivated knowledge workers are likely to collectively engage in KM activities.