Quatitative Research Article Critique
In this article, Roy and Therin present the results of an empirical study investigating the relationship between an enterprise’s knowledge acquisition activities and its environmental commitment. The article identifies past research related to knowledge acquisition and environmental commitment and informs the reader that although much as been written about this subject businesses remain confused about how to adopt these environmental considerations. This study shows to be significant, practical and the results could be utilized in real-world business applications.
The literature review was comprehensive, up to date and well organized. The authors were able to identify and relate previous research to the current problem. The review identifies many different ideas from a variety of sources all of which relate to the problem statement. Activities specific to environmental issues should offer SMEs valuable knowledge to support their efforts towards a greater environmental commitment (Revel and Rutherfoord, 2003; Simpson et al. 2004) shows how an environmental relationship can help an enterprise.
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The study identifies four questions of focus to determine if small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can be evaluated on how their knowledge network relates to environment commitment. A hypothesis is established, expecting that firms that are more involved in regular scanning activities will demonstrate a higher level of environmental commitment The methodology is clearly outlined in the study; the desired population was SMEs from six different manufacturing sectors identified using the Quebec Industrial Research Center database.
Since these companies face direct involvement with environment issues they should be motivated to respond with un-biased and truthful responses. The data was gathered using phone interviews with senior administrators carried out by a specialized survey firm. The questions given in the survey were measured by the responders perception of the knowledge management processes and the answers were evaluated using Likert-type scales. The research compiles results and uses the information to classify the enterprises as low or high environmental commitment.
Since the study could result in a positive or negative effect to a company’s business to can be questioned whether the responses can be completely valid. The authors provided precisely tabulated graphic and narrative evidence used to support the problem statement. Tables containing the various enterprise categories and their environmental commitment levels were provided and are easily understood. The sample consisted of 136 businesses and t tests were performed on independent samples and the significance levels were identified.
All of the acquired results are closely related to the study questions and the information is interpreted accurately. This study confirms the author’s hypothesis and provided excess information related to the subject. The authors did recognize the need to preform further research in order to better understand the relationship. There is no evidence that the external validity of this study should be questioned, it is clear that the study can be applied to a separate sample group and produce similar results.
