The advent of globalization has brought with it drastic changes to the operating landscape for firms in the manufacturing sector. The need for transformational changes so as sustain competitive advantage has been on the rise. Firms are expected to continuously re-engineer their business models and operations to catch up with the turbulent environment. Previous studies have investigated the contribution of manufacturing firms in economic growth. Some have concentrated on the preferred approaches that countries should take, whether protectionism or free market. However, empirical studies investigating direct impact of dynamic capabilities on manufacturing firms' performance have been minimal. The general objective of the study was to examine the influence of the three dimensions of dynamic capabilities (sensing capabilities, seizing capabilities and reconfiguration capabilities) on firm performance. The study was grounded on the Resource-Based View theory. An explanatory research design was used for the cross-sectional survey. Primary data was obtained from 271 out of 369 firms sampled from a population of 1,496 manufacturing firms in Nairobi County, Kenya, using a structured questionnaire instrument through drop and pick. The questionnaire was completed by the firms' CEOs. Reliability and validity tests were carried out on the research instruments and study measures. Hypotheses were tested using regression analysis results, namely: -sensing capabilities (B=0.215, P<0.01), seizing capabilities (B=0.194, P<0.01) and reconfiguration capabilities (B=0.182, P<0.001). These three variables combined, contributed 25.9% (R 2 =0.259) of the variance in firm performance. The study concluded that deployment of dynamic capabilities has significant influence on firm performance.

PurposeDespite the current dynamism in the education sector that was manifested in new approaches to work that require innovative workforce, little empirical studies have been conducted on how to influence innovativeness in higher education institutions. Moreover, though studies have established a link between hope and innovative work behaviour, no study has established how hope and its two components of agency and pathways influence innovative work behaviour. The purpose of this study is to establish the influence of hope and its two components of agency and pathways on innovative work behaviour.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative cross-sectional research design was adopted in this study. The study employed hierarchical regression to test the hypothesised relationship between hope and its components of agency and pathways on innovative work behaviour using a sample drawn from public universities in Uganda in the two categories of academic and administrative staff.FindingsThe findings reveal that pathways and agency influence innovative work behaviour. The Findings also revealed that hope significantly influences innovative work behaviour over and above its individual components of agency and pathways.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was cross-sectional in nature and the findings may not portray a true picture of the relationship between the study variables over time as behaviour is ever changing. Further studies could carry out a longitudinal study to establish the effect established in this study at different time intervals. The results provide a more complex understanding of how hope and its two components of agency and pathways enhance innovative work behaviour.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study provide insightful direction to managers in public universities in Uganda to consider different avenues of increasing employee hope so as to enhance innovative work behaviour. This can be done through targeted interventions like involving employees in goal setting and setting alternative means to achieve goals.Originality/valueThe value of this study is both empirical and theoretical. Empirically, this study is the first to establish the influence of hope and its two components of agency and pathways on innovative work behaviour in Uganda’s university setting. Theoretically, the study extends veracity of the conservation of resources theory (COR) by clarifying those employees who possess the psychological characteristics of hope exhibit innovative work behaviour. The study also extends on the theory of hope by revealing that agency and pathways influence innovative work behaviour.

PurposeAlthough a burgeoning body of literature has established the influence of hope and employee creativity, the debate on the relative importance of hope and its components of pathway and agency on its outcomes has not been clarified. Literature has it that hope and its individual components of pathway and agency have a varying magnitude of influence on its outcomes. Some scholars argue that agency and pathway components better predict its outcomes than overall hope. The current study establishes the relative importance of hope and its components on creativity using evidence from Makerere University, Uganda.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopted a cross-sectional quantitative survey design to collect data from the academic staff of Makerere University. The study used usefulness analysis to establish the relative importance of the predictor variables on the dependent variable.FindingsThe study findings revealed that agency and hope components of hope significantly predicted creativity. Overall, hope also significantly predicted creativity. Regarding relative importance, hope turned out to be the most “useful” predictor of creativity, followed by its components of agency and pathway.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was conducted in a public university setting located in urban areas. The findings may not be generalizable to private settings due to variations in the teacher's creative behaviour with variation in the creative environment. The study was also cross-sectional, which may not yield results of changing employee creativity over time. Further studies should establish the link between hope and creativity using a longitudinal survey to compare employee creativity using data collected at different intervals.Originality/valueThe value of the current study is both theoretical and empirical. Theoretically, the study findings enrich the hope theory by revealing the relative importance of hope on its outcomes over and above its components. The study also confirms the assertions of the dual pathway to creativity model by revealing that employees who are rich in hope components of agency and pathway have the cognitive flexibility to pursue creative goals and, when faced with failure, can generate alternative solutions to solve work problems.

Firms integrate logistic capabilities in their operations to improve performance, which is advocated by the resource-based view theory. Many forms of logistic capabilities exist, but the most widely used is the logistic service reliability capability. There are numerous attributes of logistic service reliability capabilities used by firms which could potentially affect the effectiveness of the logistic service reliability capabilities on firm performance. Therefore, this study determined the influence of the attributes of logistic service reliability capability on firm performance of manufacturing firms in Kenya. The independent variables were firm reviews, client services, research for firm performance, reverse logistics operations, logistics service differentiation and logistics solutions. Using an explanatory research design, the study targeted 750 manufacturing firms registered under Kenya Association of Manufacturers from where a sample size of 442 firms was selected. The samples were selected using stratified and simple random sampling approaches. The findings of the study established that there was a positive significant influence of the attributes of logistic service reliability on firm performance (R-squared = 0.6421, P < 0.05). Therefore, whenever firms aim at optimizing logistic service reliability capability, the firms must pay more attention to each attribute of the logistic service reliability capability. Therefore, exploring avenues of improving each attribute of logistic service reliability capability of firms may eventually improve the overall performance of the manufacturing firms.

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