No abstract

Organisations are spending substantial resources on implementing product and process innovations. It is, therefore, important to evaluate if the implementation of those innovations substantially improves the effectiveness of business operations, meets the organisation’s expectations, and gains a sustainable competitive advantage. Quantitative data from 250 questionnaires were analysed using structural equation modelling. Respondents were selected from several industries in Colombia. Initial findings suggest that strategies have an indirect impact on operational effectiveness through the success of the organisational learning process. However, the organisations investigated lack the appropriate application of linkages and process innovation to achieve operational effectiveness and, therefore, sustainable competitiveness. The paper offers useful insights for organisations when implementing innovation initiatives. It also provides information for Colombian Government institutions on developing mechanisms, economic policy strategies, and business support services for enhancing the economic and commercial viability of Colombian companies in the manufacturing and service sectors. The studied organisations need to redefine the role of linkages and process innovation to complement organisational learning, as all the three dimensions together are required to foster operational effectiveness.

Unforeseen events can significantly affect organizations’ supply chains and disrupt their continuous flow. Therefore, organizations need to develop a response capability that allows them to minimize the negative effect of such events and quickly recover from them, also known as resilience. This research performs a comparative analysis of the influence that risk, vulnerability, and adaptability have on the resilience capability of supply chains in Colombian defense sector organizations before and during the coronavirus outbreak. Based on a literature review, a survey was designed and applied online to collect data from respondents related to the activities of the Colombian Air Force supply chain. For the first wave, data was collected between December 2019 and January 2020. Data for the second wave was collected in August 2020. Results suggest that identifying and managing risks positively impact reducing vulnerability and increasing adaptability. Moreover, by decreasing exposure and improving adaptability, the organization positively influences supply chain resilience capability. The results also indicate that the pandemic positively affected risk and vulnerability awareness. The identification of vulnerabilities had a positive impact on the resilience capacity during the Corona Virus outbreak. This research provides relevant information for the Colombian government on developing public policies and mechanisms of service and support for defense sector organizations to strengthen their resilience capability. Likewise, the study offers valuable information to those organizations interested in improving their resilience capability and that of the sector in which they are involved.

El libro Regiones inteligentes: la tecnología, la innovación y la efectividad operativa tiene como objetivo evaluar las capacidades de diferentes organizaciones colombianas para enfrentar el reto de transformación hacia la Industria 4.0, enfocado desde la tecnología e innovación para generar un desempeño óptimo o, en los términos del libro, alcanzar una efectividad que induzca a la competitividad de las organizaciones [Ricardo Santa, Diego Morante y Thomas Tegethoff].

Purpose This paper aims to determine the effect that human capital and key competitive drivers such as quality, agility, and cost have on firm performance, whether this effect is related to the firm’s outsourcing strategy, and whether the firm size is relevant in explaining such relationships. Design This study uses structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized relationships for small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and large organizations using a custom survey based on a review of the literature and completed by 404 firms in the Valle del Cauca agro-industrial region in Colombia. Findings Human capital strategies are essential for the effective deployment of operational agility, quality, and cost management strategies, which impact firm performance through effective outsourcing strategies. These relationships, however, do not hold the same across firms of different sizes. Specifically, outsourcing practices are lacking amongst SMEs in the studied region. The study is limited to a specific region, with infrastructure and connectivity limitations that hinder or undermine otherwise potentially valuable third-party logistics strategies. Practical implications This paper contributes to the theory and practice in supply chain competitiveness by extending current knowledge of the impact of human capital and key competitive drivers on firm performance, highlighting regional specificities that could hinder firms’ competitiveness, and by presenting a novel, quantitative methodology seldom used for these topics.