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The coronavirus disease-19 pandemic has forced universities worldwide to develop stronger crisis responses in order to support the surrounding communities more effectively. These solutions are based on collaborations between higher education institutions and industries that facilitate knowledge co-creation. Historically, universities have been knowledgeintensive institutions capable of producing additional findings through research. Currently, these organisations' most important contributions to national economies are related to universities' development of fresh knowledge and technical expertise. In parallel, all industries' business environments have become extremely dynamic, which requires companies to focus on new solutions, rapid development and cost efficiency. To cope with these pressures, industries have been forced to search for new partners, so university-industry collaboration (UIC) has become a key resource for managers seeking to promote innovation and technological development. This study explored the relationship between research and innovation based on smart specialisation strategies and UIC, including the roles of university-industry (U-I) joint research and academics' motivations for interacting with industries. Based on data collected from 841 Portuguese and Spanish researchers, the results reveal that smart specialisation policies' effects on UIC are driven by U-I joint research development and university faculty members' motivations for co-operating with industry professionals. The findings indicate that U-I research activities and universities' incentives to collaborate with industries fully convert smart specialisation strategies' effects into higher levels of U-I knowledge transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to use qualitative analysis to explore the role that female entrepreneurs' knowledge plays in footwear firms' coopetition and innovation, as well as these strategies' effects on internationalisation in this industry. Data were collected from entrepreneurial women holding more than 50% of the capital - and with active participation in the management - of footwear firms operating in the international market. The interview transcripts were subjected to content analysis using NVivo software. The results indicate that creative processes, including knowledge creation, have an impact on these firms' innovation and coopetition. In addition, innovation has a positive impact on the businesses' internationalisation. Thus, firms that promote knowledge creation and acquisition and implement coopetition strategies can innovate and increase their internationalisation. This study's findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the role played by each female entrepreneur's acquired knowledge and training in the footwear industry's definition of internationalisation and innovation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to analyse the impact of the creation, acquisition and transfer of knowledge on innovation in the healthcare sector. The innovation process relies heavily on knowledge (Gloet and Terziovski, 2004), especially tacit knowledge (Leonard and Sensiper, 1998), whereby new and important knowledge is created and converted into products, services and processes (Choy et al., 2006), thereby transforming general knowledge into specific knowledge. According to Nonaka (1994), knowledge is considered one of the main requirements for innovations leading to competitiveness. Thus, investment in the development of innovative products and services related both to medical equipment and management is a key element of growth in the healthcare sector. Porter and Teisberg (2006) point out that the promotion of strategies based on innovation generates real value for clients (i.e. users) and that this is quite highly rewarded in extremely competitive markets. The cited authors also argue that, although technological innovation in healthcare is often viewed with suspicion and its adoption blocked by financial constraints, innovation is a crucial part of healthcare development. The present analysis was conducted based on variables included in the Community Innovation Survey 2014 database, to which multivariate statistical tests were applied. The data were analysed with IBM's SPSS Statistics 24 software. The results reveal that knowledge processes have a positive impact on innovation in Portugal's healthcare sector. More specifically, knowledge acquisition has an impact on technological and non-technological innovation and knowledge transfer affects marketing innovation. Thus, healthcare organisations mainly promote knowledge creation and acquisition processes that have a higher impact on non-technological innovation. This study's findings contribute to validating the importance of investing in knowledge as a way to understand trends, as well as planning and defining innovation strategies that contribute to healthcare organisations' performance and customer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intellectual capital is changing into a momentous issue for a firm's long-term profit and performance within the knowledge-based economy as a lot of corporations determine their core competence as invisible assets instead of visible assets. Following the work of (Bontis, 1998) intellectual capital is defined as encompassing (a) human capital, (b) structural capital, and (c) relational capital. This study expects: (1) testing which dimension is the most influential in terms of Organisational Strategy based on theirs top managers' judgement; (2) determine if the "best" Portuguese firms are investing in Intellectual Capital in order to improve their organisational performance. Firms were chosen from a top of 1000 Portuguese firms, from diverse industries (trading, service, finance, and technology). The originality of the study remains on (1) the introduction of Organisational Strategy as a mediator variable and (2) this study was based on the best Portuguese firms according to an index of the 1000 top Portuguese firms in 2014. Findings revealed that, top Portuguese managers do acknowledge the importance of Intellectual Capital. Besides, the findings confirm that all IC components have a significant positive relationship with firms' Organisational Strategy. These results follow prior studies as Bontis (1998) (Edvinsson & Malone, 1997). Some limitations can be presented, (1) the number of respondents which confines the conclusions achieved, (2) the questionnaires were answered only by one manager of the managers team may skew the results. In terms of practical implications we can underline that managers should always endeavour to find a viable intellectual capital mix or blend that can add value to the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years knowledge management (KM) has become a major focus of attention among academics, politicians, policy-makers and other stakeholders involved in the sphere of strategic management. The recent work of Choi et al. (2008), López-Nicólas and Meroño-Cerdán (2011), Jiménez-Jiménez and Sanz-Valle (2011) provides comprehensive and perceptive contextualizations of the key issues surrounding the potential implications of knowledge management for innovation and performance in the organizations. Few empirical studies have examined the interface between strategic management, innovation and performance, and none, to our knowledge, has been applied to the footwear industry. The choice of this sector is justified by the growth of production and exports in a period of financial crisis (7.6% in 2013) and the fact that 132 countries are currently importing Portuguese-made footwear, exports of which now constituting 96% of the industry's output. The present study aims to extend research into the importance of knowledge management's contribution to business strategy, thereby shedding light on whether improvements in the former can directly or indirectly enhance organizational performance, via increases in innovation in the footwear industry. This article focuses on the first phase of a study in which we opted for a qualitative methodology, applying semi-structured interviews to the CEOs of three companies and three academic specialists in this area, with a view to evaluating the relation between strategic knowledge management (above all, aspects related to codification and personalisation) and their consequences for innovation and for the firms' (financial and non-financial) performance. Our analysis of the interviews suggests that knowledge management strategies (codification and personalisation) have a positive effect on innovation and organizational performance, both directly and indirectly, thereby identifying a series of potentially interesting hypotheses that can be tested using a more quantitative research model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To stay ahead of their competitors, firms need to create and develop proactive strategies that emphasize factors that differentiate them from others in their sector. In this sense and given the current scenario of marketplace instability and uncertainty, the way firms develop and manage their intellectual capital (IC) is crucial. Firms can be distinguished from their rivals in terms of their ability to identify, invest in and manage their IC – in other words the knowledge over which they exercise control or influence – an intangible asset that is not as easily quantifiable or replicable as other assets. In today's globalized and highly competitive world, the only way to compete with producers benefiting from low production costs is to invest in people, and this requires organizations to believe in the creative ability, emotional intelligence and adaptability of their staff and collaborators. Human resources with appropriate skills, motivation and commitment are the key to increased competitiveness because only they have the capacity to create products and services with greater value for the consumer and thereby generate better performance by the organization. Numerous studies have highlighted the role of IC as a key driver of organizational performance due to its centrality as an asset in the value creation process (Chen, Shih and Yang, 2009; Kang and Snell, 2009; Campisini and Costa, 2008). However, few studies have demonstrated the relationship that may be developed between various aspects of IC and the satisfaction felt by the staff involved (Longo and Mura, 2011). Employee satisfaction (in general) and promotion opportunities expressing organizational recognition of staff contributions (in particular) provide a stimulus to greater committed to the organization's interests and thereby enhance productivity, effectiveness and efficiency. Clearly, since human resources (HR) constitute the only asset that, strictly speaking, the organization does not own, and that the time and money it spends on training can easily be wasted if staff turnover is high, it is crucial for 21st century organizations of all types to attract, develop and above all retain qualified, committed and satisfied staff. Our focus on Credit Cooperatives (CC) is explained by their emergence as a significant alternative to large financial corporations - especially private banks. CCs are able to offer specific and attractive benefits to their members and can play a key role in stimulating socioeconomic development at the territorial level (Araújo and Silva, 2011; Seguí-Mas and Izquierdo, 2010). The aims of the research reported on here were (1) to identify which aspects of IC most influence employee satisfaction in the financial institutions analyzed and (2) to specify the type of influence these dimensions have on staff satisfaction. Data were collected using a questionnaire based on Bontis (1998) applied to all employees of a CC in north-eastern Brazil. After processing the data using SPSS 21.0, it was found that (1) Human Capital is not an unidimensional concept and was further subdivided into training and participation; and (2) only structural and relational dimensions of IC affected respondents' satisfaction positively. By making known to organizational leaders and managers that there exists a link – albeit indirect – between IC and organizational performance may encourage them to invest more in an intangible asset that has the intrinsic ability to create sustainable flows of value for both client and organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]