Browse the metahub catalog

Apply the Resource-Based View (Barney, 1991) and VRIO framework to evaluate whether a firm's resources and capabilities confer sustained competitive advantage. Use this skill when the user needs to assess internal resources for strategic value, determine if a competitive edge is sustainable, audit resource portfolios for VRIO criteria, or when they ask 'what makes our advantage sustainable', 'which resources matter most', or 'can competitors replicate this'.

Apply the Knowledge-Based View (Grant, 1996) and Nonaka and Takeuchi's SECI model to analyze how organizations create, transfer, and integrate knowledge for competitive advantage. Use this skill when the user needs to design knowledge management systems, understand why knowledge transfer fails across teams, evaluate knowledge creation processes, or when they ask 'how do we capture tacit knowledge', 'why does knowledge stay siloed', or 'how can we turn individual expertise into organizational capability'.

Apply Institutional Theory (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983) to analyze how coercive, mimetic, and normative isomorphic pressures shape organizational structures and practices. Use this skill when the user needs to explain why organizations in the same field look alike, evaluate whether a practice was adopted for legitimacy vs efficiency, analyze regulatory or social pressures on strategy, or when they ask 'why do all firms in this industry do the same thing', 'is this best practice or just conformity', or 'how do regulations shape our structure'.

Apply the Dynamic Capabilities framework (Teece et al., 1997) — sensing, seizing, and transforming — to analyze how firms adapt, integrate, and reconfigure competences in rapidly changing environments. Use this skill when the user needs to explain why some firms sustain advantage while others decline, evaluate organizational agility, distinguish operational from strategic capabilities, or when they ask 'how do we stay competitive as the market shifts', 'why did this firm fail to adapt', or 'what capabilities do we need to build'.

Apply Agency Theory (Jensen and Meckling, 1976) to diagnose principal-agent problems — moral hazard, adverse selection — and design governance mechanisms to align interests. Use this skill when the user needs to analyze conflicts of interest between owners and managers, design incentive or monitoring structures, evaluate corporate governance effectiveness, or when they ask 'how do we ensure managers act in shareholders interest', 'why is this incentive plan failing', or 'what governance mechanisms reduce agency costs'.

Apply spiral of silence theory (Noelle-Neumann) to analyze how perceived opinion climate suppresses minority expression. Use this skill when the user needs to understand why certain viewpoints disappear from public discourse, evaluate the role of fear of isolation in opinion expression, or assess opinion climate dynamics — even if they say 'why are people afraid to speak up', 'silent majority', or 'social pressure on opinions'.

Apply Sociotechnical Systems Theory to analyze and design work systems through joint optimization of social and technical subsystems. Use this skill when the user needs to diagnose why a technology implementation disrupted work practices, design IT-enabled work systems that balance human and technical needs, or when they ask 'why did this system hurt productivity despite being technically sound', 'how do we design work around new technology', or 'why are people resisting this technically superior system'.

Apply Social Identity Theory to analyze how group categorization, identification, and intergroup comparison drive behavior, bias, and conflict. Use this skill when the user needs to explain in-group favoritism or out-group hostility, diagnose organizational silo dynamics, design inclusive team structures, or when they ask 'why do groups polarize', 'how does team identity affect collaboration', or 'what drives us-vs-them thinking'.

Apply social capital theory (Putnam, Coleman, Bourdieu, Burt) to analyze how network structures and trust generate value or impose constraints. Use this skill when the user needs to evaluate bridging vs bonding capital, identify structural holes or network closure benefits, assess community or organizational trust dynamics, or when they ask 'how does our network create value', 'are we too insular', or 'where are the structural holes we can exploit'.

Apply signaling theory (Spence, 1973) to analyze how agents communicate private information through costly, credible signals under information asymmetry. Use this skill when the user needs to evaluate whether a corporate action serves as a credible signal, analyze dividend or IPO signaling, assess separating vs pooling equilibria, or when they ask 'why do firms pay dividends', 'is this signal credible', or 'how does underpricing signal quality'.

Apply the SERVQUAL model (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry, 1988) to measure service quality gaps across five dimensions. Use this skill when the user needs to diagnose service quality shortfalls, benchmark customer expectations against perceptions, design service improvement programs, or when they ask 'where is our service failing', 'what do customers expect vs experience', or 'how do we measure service quality'.

Apply Weick's sensemaking theory to analyze how individuals and organizations construct meaning from ambiguous situations. Use this skill when the user needs to analyze organizational responses to crises, understand how interpretive frames shape action, diagnose breakdowns in collective understanding, or when they ask 'how did they interpret this situation', 'why did the organization fail to see the warning signs', or 'how do people make sense of disruption'.

Apply Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test hypothesized causal structures by combining measurement models (CFA) and structural models (path analysis). Use this skill when the user needs to validate latent constructs, test mediation or moderation paths, assess model fit with CFI/TLI/RMSEA/SRMR, or when they ask 'do these variables form a causal chain', 'how do I test my theoretical model', or 'is my measurement model valid'.

Apply Self-Determination Theory to analyze motivation quality along the autonomy continuum and design interventions that satisfy basic psychological needs. Use this skill when the user needs to diagnose why intrinsic motivation is declining, evaluate incentive structures for motivational crowding, design need-supportive environments, or when they ask 'why did rewards backfire', 'how to foster intrinsic motivation', or 'what needs drive engagement'.

Apply Service-Dominant Logic (Vargo and Lusch, 2004) and value co-creation principles to reframe exchange and value creation. Use this skill when the user needs to redesign value propositions around service exchange, analyze co-creation dynamics between firms and customers, shift from goods-dominant to service-dominant thinking, or when they ask 'how is value created with customers', 'what is our service logic', or 'how do we enable co-creation'.

Apply real options analysis to value managerial flexibility embedded in investment decisions. Use this skill when the user needs to evaluate projects with significant uncertainty and flexibility, assess the value of deferring or expanding investments, compare traditional NPV with expanded NPV, or when they ask 'should we wait to invest', 'what is the option to abandon worth', or 'why does NPV undervalue this project'.

Apply public choice theory to analyze political decision-making as rational self-interested behavior. Use this skill when the user needs to evaluate government policy failures, rent-seeking costs, voting outcomes, or bureaucratic incentives, especially when the assumption of benevolent government is questionable.

Apply pragmatist philosophy (Peirce, James, Dewey) to frame knowledge as instrumental for action, evaluate ideas by their practical consequences, and conduct inquiry as problem-solving. Use this skill when the user needs to bridge theory and practice, evaluate competing theories by their usefulness, employ abductive reasoning to generate hypotheses, or when they ask 'which theory is more useful here', 'how do I move from abstract ideas to actionable knowledge', or 'what practical difference does this distinction make'.

Apply Kingdon's multiple streams framework to analyze how problems, policies, and politics converge to open policy windows. Use this skill when the user needs to explain why certain policies get adopted while others don't, identify policy windows and entrepreneurial opportunities, or analyze the agenda-setting process in public policy — even if they say 'why did this policy pass now', 'policy window', or 'how do issues get on the agenda'.

Apply Partial Least Squares SEM (PLS-SEM) with reflective and formative measurement models to maximize explained variance in endogenous constructs. Use this skill when the user has small samples, formative indicators, or exploratory models, needs to assess AVE/CR/HTMT, or when they ask 'should I use PLS or CB-SEM', 'how do I handle formative constructs', or 'what is the path coefficient significance'.

Apply platform economics to analyze network effects, solve chicken-and-egg problems, and design multi-sided platform pricing strategies. Use this skill when the user needs to evaluate a platform business model, diagnose why a platform is failing to scale, or choose a subsidy strategy for bootstrapping a two-sided market.

Apply phenomenological methods including bracketing (epoche), lived experience inquiry, and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to uncover the essence of human experience. Use this skill when the user needs to study how people experience a phenomenon from the first-person perspective, apply Husserlian descriptive or Heideggerian interpretive phenomenology, conduct IPA with idiographic focus, or when they ask 'what is the lived experience of X', 'how do I bracket my assumptions', or 'how do I do IPA'.

Apply pecking order theory (Myers and Majluf, 1984) to analyze how information asymmetry drives financing hierarchy decisions. Use this skill when the user needs to explain why firms prefer internal over external financing, interpret equity issuance as a negative signal, evaluate capital raising decisions, or when they ask 'why did the stock drop on the equity offering', 'should we use debt or equity', or 'why do firms hoard cash'.

Apply Smith and Lewis's paradox theory to identify and manage organizational tensions across performing, organizing, belonging, and learning dimensions. Use this skill when the user needs to diagnose persistent either/or tensions, design dynamic equilibrium strategies that embrace both poles, or when they ask 'why does solving this problem make it worse', 'how do we pursue exploration AND exploitation simultaneously', or 'why do our strategic tensions keep recurring despite resolution attempts'.

Apply Kuhn's paradigm theory to analyze scientific progress through the cycle of normal science, anomalies, crisis, and revolution. Use this skill when the user needs to understand why a field resists change, trace paradigm shifts in a discipline, analyze incommensurability between competing frameworks, or when they ask 'why do scientists ignore contradictory evidence', 'how do scientific revolutions happen', or 'why can't proponents of different paradigms agree'.

Apply panel data analysis with fixed effects, random effects, and dynamic GMM to exploit longitudinal variation and control for unobserved heterogeneity. Use this skill when the user has repeated observations over time for multiple entities, needs to choose between FE and RE via Hausman test, or when they ask 'how do I control for firm-specific effects', 'fixed or random effects', or 'how to handle endogeneity in panels'.

Apply organizational ecology (Hannan and Freeman) to analyze population-level dynamics of organizational founding, failure, and selection. Use this skill when the user needs to explain industry-level patterns of birth and death rates, analyze structural inertia and liabilities of newness or aging, evaluate why adaptation is rare relative to selection, or when they ask 'why do most startups fail', 'why is this industry dominated by old firms', or 'why do organizations resist change despite environmental pressure'.

Apply Dunning's OLI Paradigm (Eclectic Theory) to evaluate foreign direct investment decisions based on Ownership, Location, and Internalization advantages. Use this skill when the user needs to decide whether to invest abroad, choose between FDI modes (wholly-owned subsidiary, joint venture, licensing), or explain why a firm internationalizes through FDI rather than export or licensing.

Apply network economics to analyze markets with network effects, critical mass dynamics, and platform competition. Use this skill when the user needs to evaluate tipping points, lock-in risks, switching costs, or standards wars, especially in technology platforms and two-sided markets.

Apply narrative research methods to understand human experience through stories, analyzing narrative structure, temporality, and meaning-making in life stories and oral histories. Use this skill when the user needs to analyze how people construct meaning through storytelling, examine narrative structure and plot, conduct life story or oral history research, or when they ask 'how do stories shape identity', 'how do I analyze a life narrative', or 'what does this story reveal about experience'.

Apply the Modigliani-Miller theorem to analyze capital structure decisions and identify when financing choices affect firm value. Use this skill when the user needs to evaluate debt-equity tradeoffs, assess the impact of leverage on firm value, understand tax shield benefits, or when they ask 'does capital structure matter', 'should we take on more debt', or 'what is the optimal leverage ratio'.

Design and conduct mixed methods research using convergent, explanatory sequential, or exploratory sequential strategies with genuine integration of qualitative and quantitative strands. Use this skill when the user needs to choose a mixed methods design, integrate qualitative and quantitative data at design, methods, or interpretation levels, justify mixing on pragmatist grounds, or when they ask 'which mixed methods design should I use', 'how do I integrate qual and quant findings', or 'is running both qual and quant enough to be mixed methods'.

Apply meta-analysis to synthesize effect sizes across multiple studies, assess heterogeneity, and evaluate publication bias. Use this skill when the user needs to combine findings from prior research, compare fixed-effect vs random-effects models, compute pooled effect sizes, or when they ask 'what does the overall evidence say', 'how do I combine results across studies', or 'is there publication bias'.

Apply mechanism design (reverse game theory) to engineer incentive-compatible rules for allocation problems. Use this skill when the user needs to design auctions, voting systems, or matching markets, or when evaluating whether a proposed mechanism satisfies incentive compatibility and individual rationality constraints.

Apply the DeLone and McLean Information Systems Success Model to evaluate IS effectiveness through six interdependent dimensions. Use this skill when the user needs to assess system quality, information quality, or service quality of an IS, diagnose why users are dissatisfied, measure net benefits of a system investment, or when they ask 'how do we measure IS success', 'why are users unhappy with this system', or 'is our system delivering value'.

Apply the Bass Diffusion Model (1969) to forecast innovation adoption using innovation and imitation coefficients. Use this skill when the user needs to forecast new product adoption curves, estimate market penetration timing, calibrate launch strategy based on diffusion dynamics, or when they ask 'how fast will this spread', 'when does adoption take off', or 'what is the expected S-curve'.

Apply information economics to diagnose and remedy market failures caused by asymmetric information. Use this skill when the user needs to analyze adverse selection, moral hazard, or signaling and screening mechanisms, especially in insurance, labor, credit, or product quality markets.

Apply Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) to analyze nested data structures with random intercepts and slopes, accounting for intra-class correlation and cross-level interactions. Use this skill when the user has students nested in schools, employees in firms, or repeated measures in individuals, needs to partition variance across levels, or when they ask 'how do I handle nested data', 'what is ICC', or 'do group-level factors moderate individual-level relationships'.

Habitual Domain (HD) theory by Taiwanese scholar P.L. Yu (游伯龍, 1977) — integrates four domains (potential/actual/reachable/activated), eight general hypotheses, seven-layer decision structure, and nine HD-expansion tools to analyze decision blind spots, break cognitive inertia, and support cross-domain integration. Use for diagnosing why alternatives are invisible, decision paralysis, breaking cognitive frames, or explaining perception gaps between people. Triggers: 『思維框架』『打破盲點』『創新思考』『決策盲區』『跨域整合』『游伯龍』『習慣領域』『HD 理論』『七層決策』『四領域』『八大通性』『P.L. Yu』. Especially for NYCU EMBA HD course, 政大科管所, 中山企管系 decision-analysis/innovation/leadership courses. Taiwan-origin theory cited in J. Optimization Theory, Theory & Decision, Human Systems Management.

Apply Grounded Theory (Glaser and Strauss) to build theory inductively from qualitative data through open, axial, and selective coding. Use this skill when the user needs to develop new theory from data rather than test existing hypotheses, conduct theoretical sampling and constant comparison, determine when theoretical saturation is reached, or when they ask 'what theory explains this phenomenon', 'how do I code qualitative data systematically', or 'when do I stop collecting data'.

Apply governance theory to analyze multi-level, network, and collaborative governance arrangements beyond traditional government. Use this skill when the user needs to evaluate public-private partnerships, analyze multi-stakeholder governance structures, compare governance models across sectors, or assess institutional arrangements for collective decision-making — even if they say 'who governs this', 'public-private collaboration', or 'how are decisions made across organizations'.

Apply framing theory to analyze how selection, emphasis, and exclusion shape interpretation of issues. Use this skill when the user needs to deconstruct media or organizational frames, evaluate how different frames affect audience perception and decision-making, or design strategic communication frames — even if they say 'how is this issue being portrayed', 'why do people see this differently', or 'how should we frame this message'.

Apply flow theory to diagnose optimal experience conditions and design environments that balance challenge and skill for sustained engagement. Use this skill when the user needs to explain why users disengage from tasks, optimize task difficulty for peak performance, design learning progressions or gamification systems, or when they ask 'why do people lose focus', 'how to design for engagement', or 'what conditions produce peak performance'.

Apply Bourdieu's field theory to analyze power relations through the interplay of field, capital, and habitus. Use this skill when the user needs to map positions and position-takings within a social field, analyze how different forms of capital (economic, cultural, social, symbolic) structure competition, explain why actors behave as they do within institutional settings, or when they ask 'why do people in this industry act this way', 'who has power and why', or 'how does this field reproduce inequality'.

Apply the Fama-French three-factor model to decompose asset returns into market, size, and value factors. Use this skill when the user needs to explain cross-sectional return differences, evaluate fund performance beyond CAPM alpha, assess small-cap or value tilts in a portfolio, or when they ask 'why do small caps earn more', 'is value premium real', or 'what factors drive returns'.

Apply event study methodology to measure abnormal returns and cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) around corporate or market events. Use this skill when the user needs to quantify the market impact of announcements, design event and estimation windows, or when they ask 'did this event affect stock price', 'how do I calculate abnormal returns', or 'what is the market reaction to this announcement'.

Apply ethnographic methods including prolonged engagement, participant observation, thick description, and netnography to study cultures and communities. Use this skill when the user needs to design fieldwork with immersive observation, interpret cultural practices through thick description, study online communities via netnography, or when they ask 'how do I study a culture or community', 'what is participant observation', or 'how do I apply ethnography to online settings'.

Apply the Efficient Market Hypothesis (Fama, 1970) to evaluate information incorporation in asset prices across weak, semi-strong, and strong forms. Use this skill when the user needs to assess market efficiency, determine if a trading strategy can generate abnormal returns, evaluate event studies, or when they ask 'can technical analysis work', 'does the market already know this', or 'is this anomaly exploitable'.