Much recent work on firms' capabilities and competitive competences builds on Penrose's (1959) seminal contribution to the theory of the firm in emphasising their organisational nature, and the critical role of managerial routines in transforming resources into distinctive services (see, e.g....

Learning theory in the context of organisations has come a long way in its efforts to encapsulate the cultural, political and social dimensions of learning (Cook & Yanow, 1993; Coopey, 1995; Easterby-Smith et al., 1999, 2000). However, learning as practiced by individuals still remains relatively little...

Although the body of knowledge in relation to organisational learning is continuously growing, our understanding and interpretations of learning in business organisations continues to be confronted with several challenges. One such challenge, remains the way we seek to conceptualise learning and...

In recent years notions like the ‘learning society’, ‘knowledge economy’, ‘information society’ have populated management and organisation debates, particularly as knowledge and learning are increasingly promoted as the new sources of wealth (Ball, 1991; Drucker, 1993). Moreover, a trend...

Building on the work of Penrose (1959), Richardson (1960; 1972) and others, recent contributions to the theory of the firm have emphasised the importance of endogenously developed capabilities and competences for building sustained competitive advantages (see, for example, Foss and Knudsen, 1996)....

Recent studies of sectoral specialisation and technological development across market economies have shown how contrasting patterns of technical change can be explained by the different institutional frameworks that have become established in distinct types of economy (see, e.g., Casper, 2000;...

The aim of the present work is to study the evolution of organizational knowledge within Academic Spin-off (ASO) firms throughout their life cycle. The exploitation of tacit and indivisible new knowledge developed in the context of academic institutions entails agency problems of different...

The nature and economic role of legally constituted firms varies between market economiesand changes over time. In particular, the governance of leading firms and how they developdistinctive organisational capabilities vary between institutional regimes and their supportingpolitical-economic...

Recent changes in the funding and governance of research universities have attempted tomake them more strategically active in contributing to national goals. However, the ability ofuniversities to develop strategic capabilities as cohesive organisations is limited by the inherentuncertainty of...

“Production” and “transfer” of knowledge, and the role of institutions, are two major conceptual tenets of Innovation Systems (IS) literature, which flourished in the evolutionary stream of economics since the eighties of last century. Building on results of different disciplines, the...