Högskolan i Skövde

Purpose: This study explains how managers in family-owned real estate firms achieve flexibility in orchestrating their resources under conditions of uncertainty.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper draws on a single-case design, utilizing 21 interviews with top managers and archival material from 18 Swedish family-owned real estate firms to capture how the phenomenon of resource orchestration (RO) unfolds under uncertainty.

Findings: The results reveal how the family phenomenon can be understood as a key driver of the family firm’s RO mechanisms, shaping the RO activities of its managers.Originality/valueThree distinct RO configurations of family firm managers are identified: (1) flexible network structuring, (2) incremental flexibility and stakeholder-focused bundling and (3) cautious and societal flexible leveraging. These configurations explain how the family dimension enables the manager’s RO flexibility under conditions of uncertainty.

Purpose – This study explores how entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) enable SME manufacturing firms to orchestrate their resources for innovation processes in response to evolving market demands.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on a case study approach comprising 26 interviews with ESO key actors and SME managers, as well as archival material from these organizations.

Findings – The results indicate that the resource orchestration (RO)–driven translation capabilities of ESO staff across different business contexts constitute central mechanisms in the innovative solutions of SMEs. However, the SME managers’ interpretation of the RO mechanisms that generated innovative solutions diverged from that of the former group.

Originality – This study contributes by extending resource orchestration theory beyond the firm level, uncovering the mediating role of entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) in shaping innovation-oriented RO processes in SMEs. By identifying the microfoundations of ESO-driven translation capabilities and their divergent interpretations by SME managers, the paper offers novel insights into the contextual contingencies of RO and provides a more nuanced understanding of how external actors foster innovation under dynamic market conditions.

Even though, the human resource management literature has highlighted the importance of having employees that are committed to the organization, research on strategic human capital has yet to fully consider how commitment is related to human capital resources. In order to overcome the dominant individual-level conceptualization of commitment and to detail how commitment affects human capital resources, we develop the unit-level concept of commitment capital, which we divide into three levels: affiliative commitment capital, affinitive commitment capital, and absolute commitment capital. These conceptualizations are based on a 10-year case study and incorporate commitment into a strategic human capital framework, thus bridging the current gap between organizational commitment and human capital resources. 

Objectives – the purpose of this paper is to explore how family-owned real estate firm managers entrepreneurially orchestrate their resources to enable firm strategy in an environment characterized by uncertainty. Literature – based on the seminal work of Sirmon et al. (2007, 2011) on resource orchestration (RO), this study advances the research of Chirico et al. (2011), among others, on how the family dimension influences family firm managers' RO for strategic enabling.Approach – this paper draws on a case study using 21 interviews with family firm managers and archival data from family-owned Swedish real estate firmsResults – The results indicate how the family dimension in family-owned real estate firms influence family firm managers’ strategic RO.Implications and Value - Three family-based strategic enabling mechanisms and their underlying microfoundations are identified, explaining how real estate family firm managerial RO configurations are shaped: (1) flexible network structuring, (2), incremental flexibility and tenant focus bundling, and (3) cautious and societal flexible leveraging. The manifestation of these RO configurations highlights how managers of family-owned real estate firms can facilitate firm strategy in conditions of economic uncertainty.

Resource orchestration (RO) is a strategic management framework that details various processes by which how firms structure, bundle, and leverage resources. This study reviews how RO has been considered in environmental management research.The review highlights some limitations on how RO has been used in studies on environmental management, and it also illustrates a lack of knowledge accumulation in the field. To realize the full potential of RO, the concept of green RO is developed. Green RO (GRO) is defined as a firm's capability to coordinate and manage the structuring of resources and the bundling and leveraging of capabilities to create economicvalue for the company while simultaneously creating environmental benefits. Three main research areas for GRO are described: GRO as an organizational or managerial meta-capability, management of specific GRO processes, and the synchronization ofseveral GRO processes.

Although it is widely accepted that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) improves firm performance, scholars have advised that particular attention should be paid to the context. In this research, we investigate a less explored context of franchising where business systems and procedures are usually dictated to franchisees by franchisors. Therefore, whether a franchisor should allow franchisees to pursue EO (innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-taking, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy) is not clear. In the context of franchising, the majority of prior studies have mainly focused on the employment of EO as a unidimensional construct and at the franchisor level. In this research, we take a bottom-up perspective and evaluate the impact of different dimensions of EO on franchisees’ performance. Our analysis of a multi-group of 183 restaurant franchisees located in Sweden and Iran reveals that only the pursuit of proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness improves a franchisee’s performance and other dimensions do not play a significant role in improving performance in this context.

Green product innovation (GPI) is a cornerstone of environmental management. Recent reviews on GPI have shown that research on GPI antecedents has mainly focused on identifying specific factors influencing the use of GPI. However, most studies lack a comprehensive theoretical explanation of the findings. In this study, which is based on a sample of 303 Swedish small manufacturing firms, antecedents to GPI are examined using the attention-based view of the firm. Two attentional perspectives, namely entrepreneurial orientation and environmental sustainability orientation, were found to positively influence the use of GPI. Moreover, situated attention, in terms of competitive intensity, strengthens the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and GPI. The study highlights the usefulness of an attention-based view on GPI and environmental management in small firms.

Purpose: This paper strives to understand the role of resource orchestration (RO) in the rapid growth of high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach: Based on a comparative case study, RO is compared between a high-tech family firm and a high-tech non-family firm. To capture the complexity of RO, this study applies a longitudinal approach using a large volume of archival and interview data gathered over ten years. Findings: The configuration of family-firm paradoxical growth-oriented RO emphasizes RO based on collectivism and responsibility, although relying on large-scale conforming normative control. In contrast, the configuration of non-family-firm growth-oriented RO emphasizes administrative-based delegation and management-supported value creation. Originality/value: By suggesting ownership-based RO configurations, this study provides insights into how ownership types, i.e. family firms and non-family firms, affect RO in firms operating in complex and dynamic environments. These configurations explain how and why RO is arranged in a growth context. 

The resource-based view (RBV) of the firm has been used to examine the role of resources and capabilities in product innovation and how product innovation is related to overall firm performance. Moreover, the natural RBV (NRBV) has addressed how resources affect the natural environment, whereas the relational RBV has highlighted the importance of relational resources, that is, resources shared with stakeholders outside the focal firm. In order to consider these extensions of the RBV in product innovation, this article applies a relational NRBV (RNRBV) on product innovation. Using data from 305 Swedish small manufacturing firms, structural equation modeling is used to examine the relationships between green product innovation (GPI), differentiation advantage and firm performance, and how these relationships are influenced by a relational resource in terms of green suppliers. The results demonstrate that GPI affects differentiation advantage and that this relationship is strengthened by having green suppliers. The article offers a RNRBV on product innovation and illustrates the importance of incorporating additional dependent variables other than aggregated performance measures when researching GPI. Moreover, the study shows that green suppliers can provide important products and complementary resources in order for the focal firm to fully realize its GPI capability.

This study presents a multidimensional taxonomy of “ecopreneurship” for small manufacturing firms. Based on a cluster analysis of 312 Swedish firms, four distinct clusters are identified: pioneers, green dumpers, overlookers, and recyclers. These clusters are compared regarding their level of entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. Based on the results, and because of the resource constraints associated with small firms, managers of such companies are advised to examine the economic consequences of specific environmental business practices and to adopt a less aggregated approach to ecopreneurship. This study illustrates the usefulness of a multidimensional scale when researching environmental behaviors and is a response to the lack of an empirically based classification of ecopreneurship configurations.