bob phelps | University of Windsor (original) (raw)

Papers by bob phelps

Research paper thumbnail of A Review of the Literature Addressing the Role of External Knowledge and Expertise at Key Stages of Business Growth and Development

Research paper thumbnail of Life cycles of growing organizations: A review with implications for knowledge and learning

International Journal of Management Reviews, 2007

Conceptualizing growth trajectories of organizations in organismic terms describing transitions t... more Conceptualizing growth trajectories of organizations in organismic terms describing transitions through a series of stages, from birth to maturity, has considerable intuitive appeal. Recently, the assumptions underpinning the life-cycle perspective (growth is linear, sequential, deterministic and invariant) have been argued not to pertain to organizations. This paper reviews the literature on life-cycle growth models, traces the development of a growing sophistication of conceptualizing growth and highlights some of the limitations of the literature. The authors make a contribution by proposing an alternative conceptual framework for thinking about growing businesses. The framework consists of two dimensions. First, a typology of key issues that are likely to be faced by all growing firms, and the discussion is shaped by M. Gladwell's (The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Boston: Little Brown, 2000) notion of 'tipping points'. The second dimension is developed by drawing on the knowledge management literature and the concept of absorptive capacity (Cohen, W.M. and Levinthal, D.A. (1990). Absorptive capacity: a new perspective on learning and innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, 128-152). This concept is applied to a discussion of the state of an organization regarding its ability to absorb and use new knowledge. Further, it is suggested that the framework has value for both policy and practice and can be used for the design and specification of interventional support and, to identify and evaluate their impact. If interventions are to help firms to grow, they must provide the right knowledge or support in forms that the firm can utilize. Together, these two dimensions provide a framework to examine firm growth issues and to analyse the effectiveness of different interventions on firms in different states within this framework.

Research paper thumbnail of Innovation management measurement: A review

International Journal of Management Reviews, 2006

Research paper thumbnail of Special Issue on the Dynamics of Strategy

Journal of Business Research, 2000

ABSTRACT This issue follows on from the previous special issue of the Journal of Business Researc... more ABSTRACT This issue follows on from the previous special issue of the Journal of Business Research (Vol. 47, No. 1), containing a selection of papers from the Second Conference on the Dynamics of Strategy devoted to strategy under dynamic change. This special issue presents a selection of papers from the Third and Fourth International Conferences on the Dynamics of Strategy held at the Surrey European Management School, University of Surrey. The eight papers chosen represent the top four papers selected by both programme committees.

Research paper thumbnail of The role of formal models in theory building: an application to strategy theory

A problem of the management field is that concepts are often vague and this breeds fragmented the... more A problem of the management field is that concepts are often vague and this breeds fragmented theories, each concentrating on different aspects of an underlying issue. This paper proposes the development of formal models in management to clarify and integrate the issues of the field. It illustrates this approach with a model of competitive advantage. INTRODUCTION The foundation concepts of any field are important since they provide a shared basis to underpin research and allow results to be viewed cumulatively. Unfortunately this is hardly the case in organization theory. Zammuto and Connolly (1984) consider organisational science on the other hand to be severely fragmented, presenting a serious obstacle to scientific growth; they evidence the low level of interconnection of ideas found in organisational textbooks. Similarly, Pfeffer (1997) states that it has a low level of paradigm development and notes that consensus seems almost to be avoided, while some researchers have found li...

Research paper thumbnail of A Review of the Literature Addressing the Role of External Knowledge and Expertise at Key Stages of Business Growth and Development

Research paper thumbnail of Life cycles of growing organizations: A review with implications for knowledge and learning

International Journal of Management Reviews, 2007

Conceptualizing growth trajectories of organizations in organismic terms describing transitions t... more Conceptualizing growth trajectories of organizations in organismic terms describing transitions through a series of stages, from birth to maturity, has considerable intuitive appeal. Recently, the assumptions underpinning the life-cycle perspective (growth is linear, sequential, deterministic and invariant) have been argued not to pertain to organizations. This paper reviews the literature on life-cycle growth models, traces the development of a growing sophistication of conceptualizing growth and highlights some of the limitations of the literature. The authors make a contribution by proposing an alternative conceptual framework for thinking about growing businesses. The framework consists of two dimensions. First, a typology of key issues that are likely to be faced by all growing firms, and the discussion is shaped by M. Gladwell's (The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Boston: Little Brown, 2000) notion of 'tipping points'. The second dimension is developed by drawing on the knowledge management literature and the concept of absorptive capacity (Cohen, W.M. and Levinthal, D.A. (1990). Absorptive capacity: a new perspective on learning and innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35, 128-152). This concept is applied to a discussion of the state of an organization regarding its ability to absorb and use new knowledge. Further, it is suggested that the framework has value for both policy and practice and can be used for the design and specification of interventional support and, to identify and evaluate their impact. If interventions are to help firms to grow, they must provide the right knowledge or support in forms that the firm can utilize. Together, these two dimensions provide a framework to examine firm growth issues and to analyse the effectiveness of different interventions on firms in different states within this framework.

Research paper thumbnail of Innovation management measurement: A review

International Journal of Management Reviews, 2006

Research paper thumbnail of Special Issue on the Dynamics of Strategy

Journal of Business Research, 2000

ABSTRACT This issue follows on from the previous special issue of the Journal of Business Researc... more ABSTRACT This issue follows on from the previous special issue of the Journal of Business Research (Vol. 47, No. 1), containing a selection of papers from the Second Conference on the Dynamics of Strategy devoted to strategy under dynamic change. This special issue presents a selection of papers from the Third and Fourth International Conferences on the Dynamics of Strategy held at the Surrey European Management School, University of Surrey. The eight papers chosen represent the top four papers selected by both programme committees.

Research paper thumbnail of The role of formal models in theory building: an application to strategy theory

A problem of the management field is that concepts are often vague and this breeds fragmented the... more A problem of the management field is that concepts are often vague and this breeds fragmented theories, each concentrating on different aspects of an underlying issue. This paper proposes the development of formal models in management to clarify and integrate the issues of the field. It illustrates this approach with a model of competitive advantage. INTRODUCTION The foundation concepts of any field are important since they provide a shared basis to underpin research and allow results to be viewed cumulatively. Unfortunately this is hardly the case in organization theory. Zammuto and Connolly (1984) consider organisational science on the other hand to be severely fragmented, presenting a serious obstacle to scientific growth; they evidence the low level of interconnection of ideas found in organisational textbooks. Similarly, Pfeffer (1997) states that it has a low level of paradigm development and notes that consensus seems almost to be avoided, while some researchers have found li...