Management Literature (management + literature)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting


Selected Abstracts


The Impact of Mass Customisation on Manufacturing Trade-offs

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2006
Brian Squire
Management literature has suggested that the advent of mass customisation marks the end for trade-offs between customisation and other competitive priorities (Pine et al. 1993; Westbrook and Williamson 1993; Tu et al. 2001). However, evidence supporting this proposition is anecdotal. This paper examines the impact of product customisation on four competitive priorities, drawing upon the results of a recent survey of 102 U.K. manufacturing firms from eight industry sectors. The study indicates significant compatibility between customisation and quality, volume flexibility, delivery reliability and non-manufacturing costs. On the other hand, trade-offs remain between customisation and manufacturing costs and delivery lead times. The results contradict the initial proposition that customisation can be "free," and have important implications for firms embarking upon a mass customisation strategy. [source]


Managing for Innovation: The Two Faces of Tension in Creative Climates

CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2010
Scott G. Isaksen
Part of managing for innovation is creating the appropriate climate so that people can share and build upon each other's ideas and suggestions. Yet, there are increasing pressures and potential unproductive levels of tension within organizations. This article points out the distinction between two forms of tension that appear within the research on organizational climates for creativity as well as the conflict management literature. The Debate dimension is described as reflecting a more productive idea tension and the Conflict dimension suggests a more non-productive personal tension. A series of studies, across multiple levels of analysis, are summarized and a new study is reported in order to highlight the finding that relatively higher levels of Debate, and lower levels of Conflict are more conducive to organizational creativity and innovation. A practical model for the constructive use of differences is shared, along with a few strategies for reducing the negative tension associated with Conflict and increasing the positive aspects associated with Debate. [source]


Supply Chain Strategy, Product Characteristics, and Performance Impact: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturers,

DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 4 2009
Yinan Qi
ABSTRACT Supply chain management has become one of the most popular approaches to enhance the global competitiveness of business corporations today. Firms must have clear strategic thinking in order to effectively organize such complicated activities, resources, communications, and processes. An emerging body of literature offers a framework that identifies three kinds of supply chain strategies: lean strategy, agile strategy, and lean/agile strategy based on in-depth case studies. Extant research also suggests that supply chain strategies must be matched with product characteristics in order for firms to achieve better performance. This article investigates supply chain strategies and empirically tests the supply chain strategy model that posits lean, agile, and lean/agile approaches using data collected from 604 manufacturing firms in China. Cluster analyses of the data indicate that Chinese firms are adopting a variation of lean, agile, and lean/agile supply chain strategies identified in the western literature. However, the data reveal that some firms have a traditional strategy that does not emphasize either lean or agile principles. These firms perform worse than firms that have a strategy focused on lean, agile, or lean/agile supply chain. The strategies are examined with respect to product characteristics and financial and operational performance. The article makes significant contributions to the supply chain management literature by examining the supply chain strategies used by Chinese firms. In addition, this work empirically tests the applicability of supply chain strategy models that have not been rigorously tested empirically or in the fast-growing Chinese economy. [source]


A Design Theory Approach to Building Strategic Network-Based Customer Service Systems,

DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 3 2009
M. Kathryn Brohman
ABSTRACT Customer service is a key component of a firm's value proposition and a fundamental driver of differentiation and competitive advantage in nearly every industry. Moreover, the relentless coevolution of service opportunities with novel and more powerful information technologies has made this area exciting for academic researchers who can contribute to shaping the design and management of future customer service systems. We engage in interdisciplinary research,across information systems, marketing, and computer science,in order to contribute to the service design and service management literature. Grounded in the design-science perspective, our study leverages marketing theory on the service-dominant logic and recent findings pertaining to the evolution of customer service systems. Our theorizing culminates with the articulation of four design principles. These design principles underlie the emerging class of customer service systems that, we believe, will enable firms to better compete in an environment characterized by an increase in customer centricity and in customers' ability to self-serve and dynamically assemble the components of solutions that fit their needs. In this environment, customers retain control over their transactional data, as well as the timing and mode of their interactions with firms, as they increasingly gravitate toward integrated complete customer solutions rather than single products or services. Guided by these design principles, we iterated through, and evaluated, two instantiations of the class of systems we propose, before outlining implications and directions for further cross-disciplinary scholarly research. [source]


Country-of-origin, localization, or dominance effect?

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2007
An empirical investigation of HRM practices in foreign subsidiaries
This article contributes to two recurring and very central debates in the international management literature: the convergence vs. divergence debate and the standardization vs. localization debate. Using a large-scale sample of multinationals headquartered in the United States, Japan, and Germany, as well as subsidiaries of multinationals from these three countries in the two other respective countries, we test the extent to which HRM practices in subsidiaries are characterized by country-of-origin, localization, and dominance effects. Our results show that overall the dominance effect is most important (i.e., subsidiary practices appear to converge to the dominant U.S. practices). Hence, our results lead to the rather surprising conclusion for what might be considered to be the most localized of functions,HRM,that convergence to a worldwide best practices model is clearly present. The lack of country-of-origin effects for Japanese and German multinationals leads us to a conclusion that is of significant theoretical as well as practical relevance. Multinationals might limit the export of country-of-origin practices to their core competences and converge to best practices in other areas. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


Institutional Bricolage, Conflict and Cooperation in Usangu, Tanzania

IDS BULLETIN, Issue 4 2001
Frances Cleaver
Summaries This article draws on research in Tanzania to explore the socially embedded nature of institutions for common property resource management and collective action. The article challenges the design principles common in resource management literature and explores instead the idea of ,institutional bricolage' - a process by which people consciously and unconsciously draw on existing social and cultural arrangements to shape institutions in response to changing situations. The resulting institutions are a mix of ,modern' and ,traditional', ,formal' and ,informal'. Three aspects of institutional bricolage are elaborated here: the multiple identities of the bricoleurs, the frequency of cross-cultural borrowing and of multi-purpose institutions, and the prevalence of arrangements and social norms which foster cooperation, respect and non-direct reciprocity over life courses. [source]


Planning transport for special events: a conceptual framework and future agenda for research

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Issue 5 2007
Derek Robbins
Abstract Facilitating successful access to special events is key to their success, yet a transport and events research agenda is still to emerge and transport is often peripheral to the tourism destination management literature. This paper uses a conceptual framework to analyse the transport implications of holding special events. The paper concludes with comment on where and when it is best to host events from a transport perspective and mechanisms to facilitate more sustainable travel choices to events within destination areas. The paper prepares the ground for further analysis and develops a future agenda for research. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


An Exploratory Model for Evaluating Crisis Events and Managers' Concerns in Non-Profit Organisations

JOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2003
John E. Spillan
Few organisations avoid the experience of crisis management. Some time during their life they are confronted with some type of crisis that may strain their resources and distract them from their central mission of serving its clients. Crisis management seeks to minimise the impact of these events. Although the crisis management literature is plentiful regarding larger organisations, little has been written on this subject as it relates to non-profit organisations. This study examines the perceptions and experiences of crisis events among non-profit organisation managers located in the north-eastern part of the U.S. The results reveal that only a little more than a quarter of the respondents indicated that a formal crisis management team or any plans to implement it were operating in their non-profit organisation. [source]


Extrinsic and Intrinsic Drivers of Corporate Social Performance: Evidence from Foreign and Domestic Firms in Mexico

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 1 2010
Alan Muller
abstract The literature on corporate social performance (CSP) is largely split between approaches that consider CSP to be extrinsically driven and those that consider it to be intrinsically driven. While the management literature has paid attention to drivers of both types, the relationship between the two remains largely unstudied, particularly in the international setting. Meanwhile, the international business (IB) literature has addressed the international dimension of CSP more directly, but focuses largely on extrinsic pressures. Our paper links the management and IB literatures by addressing intrinsic drivers (management commitment to ethics) in conjunction with extrinsic (trade-related) drivers for both foreign- and domestically-owned firms in a single-market setting. Using survey data from 121 auto parts suppliers in Mexico, we find that management commitment to ethics is a dominant driver of CSP among both foreign and domestic firms. More importantly, management commitment to ethics interacts positively with trade-related pressures in raising CSP levels. [source]


Multinational Firm Knowledge, Use of Expatriates, and Foreign Subsidiary Performance

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 1 2010
Yulin Fang
abstract The impact of knowledge transfer on foreign subsidiary performance has been a major focus of research on knowledge management in multinational enterprises (MNEs). By integrating the knowledge-based view and the expatriation literature, this study examines the relationship between a multinational firm's knowledge (i.e. marketing and technological knowledge), its use of expatriates, and the performance of its foreign subsidiaries. We conceptualize that expatriates play a contingent role in facilitating the transfer and redeployment of a parent firm's knowledge to its subsidiary, depending on the location specificity of the organizational knowledge being transferred and the time of transfer. Our analysis of 1660 foreign subsidiaries of Japanese firms over a 15-year period indicates that the number of expatriates relative to the total number of subsidiary employees (1) strengthened the effect of a parent firm's technological knowledge (with low location specificity) on subsidiary performance in the short term, but (2) weakened the impact of the parent firm's marketing knowledge (with high location specificity) on subsidiary performance in the long term. We also found that the expatriates' influence on knowledge transfer eventually disappeared. The implications for knowledge transfer research and the expatriate management literature are discussed. [source]


Knowing What You Don't Know?

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 4 2004
Contradictions in Knowledge Management Research, Discourses
ABSTRACT Even though knowledge management scholars generally advocate explicit management of knowledge, there is research that cautions against the unintended consequences of such efforts. Some researchers go as far as arguing that knowledge and management are contradictory concepts (Alvesson and Kärreman, 2001). This paper explores the apparent double-edged nature of knowledge management by developing a theory-based framework that highlights different fundamental assumptions about knowledge and its management. This framework, which is an adaptation of Burrell and Morgan's four paradigms of social and organizational inquiry, distinguishes among a neo-functionalist, a constructivist, a critical and a dialogic discourse. We use the contradiction of managing tacit knowledge, which has been highlighted in the knowledge management literature, as an analytical device to explore the four discourses in more detail. We show how notions of knowledge, and what it means to manage knowledge, vary across the four discourses. We conclude that all four discourses need to be appreciated, understood and represented in knowledge management research for this area of inquiry to deal with the rich and problematic nature of managing knowledge in practice. [source]


Barriers to Managing Diversity in a UK Constabulary: The Role of Discourse

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 7 2002
Penny Dick
The literature on diversity management has tended to obfuscate some of the theoretical and methodological shortcomings associated with research in this area. Specifically, the literature tends to make a number of rather naïve assumptions about the experiences and aspirations of disadvantaged groups. This paper seeks to problematize the universalist and partisan tendencies that typify much of the diversity literature by focusing on the issue of ,resistance'. Using a form of discourse analysis informed by Foucauldian principles, the paper explores how ,resistance' to diversity initiatives is expressed by both ,dominant' and ,subordinated' groups in a UK police force. It is argued that ,resistance' is better thought of as a discursive resource that can be drawn upon to justify or account for one's own organizational experiences and, in turn, the need to both justify and account for one's experiences is located in broader discursive fields that reproduce dominant ideologies of liberal democracies. The theoretical implications of this position are discussed and a case is presented for more critical and theoretical approaches in the diversity management literature. [source]


Inter-organizational Collaboration and the Dynamics of Institutional Fields

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 1 2000
Nelson Phillips
While many aspects of the collaborative process have been discussed in the management literature, the connection between collaboration and the dynamics of institutional fields has remained largely unconsidered. Yet, collaboration is an important arena for inter,organizational interaction and, therefore, a potentially important context for the process of structuration upon which institutional fields depend. In this paper, we argue that institutionalization and collaboration are interdependent; institutional fields provide the rules and resources upon which collaboration is constructed, while collaboration provides a context for the ongoing processes of structuration that sustain the institutional fields of the participants. [source]


Dimensions of publicness and performance in substance abuse treatment organizations

JOURNAL OF POLICY ANALYSIS AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2004
Carolyn J. Heinrich
Changes in funding, clientele, and treatment practices of public and privately owned substance abuse treatment programs, compelled in part by increased cost containment pressures, have prompted researchers' investigations of the implications of organizational form for treatment programs. These studies primarily probe associations between ownership status, patient characteristics, and services delivered and do not empirically link organizational form or structure to treatment outcomes. Data from the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study (NTIES) were used to study the relationship of ownership and other dimensions of "publicness" identified in the public management literature to patient outcomes, controlling for patient characteristics, treatment experiences, and other program characteristics. A few effects of organizational form and structure on substance abuse treatment outcomes are statistically significant (primarily improved social functioning), although the specific contributions of measures of ownership and publicness to explaining program-level variation are generally small. © 2004 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. [source]


Relationship Marketing and Supplier Logistics Performance: An Extension of the Key Mediating Variables Model

JOURNAL OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2005
Matthew Morris
Summary Firms are increasingly relying on relational exchanges to govern buyer,supplier relationships. While the antecedents to these relationships have been studied extensively in the marketing channels and supply chain management literature, relatively little research has considered the performance outcomes of such exchanges. The current study contributes to this stream of research by extending Morgan and Hunt's key mediating variables (KMV) model to examine how the five key endogenous variables from the KMV model affect supplier logistics performance. The findings suggest that cooperation and uncertainty are significantly related to supplier logistics performance, while supplier acquiescence, functional conflict and propensity to leave the relationship have no significant impact. [source]


Strategic management of the Tokyo taxi cab industry: an exploratory study

KNOWLEDGE AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT: THE JOURNAL OF CORPORATE TRANSFORMATION, Issue 1 2007
Walter Skok
Taxicabs are an indispensable means of transportation in Tokyo, as they provide a 24/7 door-to-door service for a daily average of 1.3 million people. In 2002, legislation was introduced to abolish restrictions on the number of taxicabs on the road. This relaxation of regulation, together with the corresponding recession, raised new issues such as increasing cab numbers and reducing drivers' wages. The wide variety of stakeholders involved within the taxicab industry have conflicting positions, resulting in little agreement on the possible way forward. An exploratory study was therefore undertaken in order to investigate the management of Tokyo's taxicab operations in order to formulate strategies for improving the service. Two related papers report on the study. This paper starts by providing an understanding of the current situation, examining the roles of the major stakeholders and outlining day-to-day operations. Academic frameworks, for example PEST, Critical Success Factors and the Cultural Web, from the strategic management literature, are used to identify the structure of the industry and analyse the environment in which it operates. The results found that Tokyo's taxicab industry is highly efficient operationally, due to the high standard of customer service, effective driver's learning scheme and active use of IT. However, a paradoxical situation has been identified where the demand for cabs has decreased even though the available vehicles have increased. Finally, a uniform method to measure the level of taxicab service is recommended. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


How middle managers integrate knowledge within projects

KNOWLEDGE AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT: THE JOURNAL OF CORPORATE TRANSFORMATION, Issue 3 2004
Sergio Janczak
This qualitative study explores the interwoven strategic and tactical processes that middle management uses to integrate knowledge in multidivisional organizations. I add to the management literature by not only examining the new roles of middle managers but also by explaining the dynamics of these middle managers' roles when pursuing projects. In summary, my research contributes to the process literature by focusing on middle management. These findings indicate that middle managers used three processes (analytic, intuitive and pragmatic) to create and integrate dispersed knowledge into organizational knowledge delivered to their clients. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Gendering knowledge: the practices of knowledge management in the pharmaceutical industry

KNOWLEDGE AND PROCESS MANAGEMENT: THE JOURNAL OF CORPORATE TRANSFORMATION, Issue 2 2001
Alexander Styhre
Knowledge and knowledge management have become two of the latest buzzwords in the management literature. However, the literature presents primarily normative, undersocialized models of how knowledge could be administrated and developed as an organizational resource, and does not sufficiently recognize the social, political and emotional aspects of knowledge. In general, the knowledge of knowledge management is not situational. For instance, in what respect does the notion of knowledge take gender issues into account? This paper presents a study of clinical research activities in a major multinational pharmaceutical company and it suggests that the processes of knowing are always embedded in existing social and political, gendered assumptions and beliefs. Therefore, knowledge management needs to be further developed to avoid general problematic positions. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The emergent knowledge-based theory of competitive advantage: an evolutionary approach to integrating economics and management

MANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2003
Russell W. Coff
This article explores the intersection of management and economics in the strategic management literature. Specifically, it examines knowledge-based advantages from management and economics perspectives to highlight differences in explanations of: (1) the source of an advantage, (2) determinants of sustainability of an advantage, and (3) the factors that predict rent appropriation patterns from a competitive advantage. I conclude that both perspectives contribute to our understanding of why firms perform differently. Furthermore, the gradual or evolutionary integration that has occurred over time is effective and efficient for exploring the nature of strategic management problems. Finally, the dynamic competitive and technological environment will continue to yield new opportunities for integration of theoretical approaches. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Networking in the Shadow of Hierarchy: Public Policy, the Administrative Presidency, and the Neoadministrative State

PRESIDENTIAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2001
ROBERT F. DURANT
This article argues that developments associated with governance reforms in the United States fundamentally have altered the administrative state and pose new and formidable challenges for the administrative presidency. Existing literature on the administrative presidency is limited in its ability to help conceptualize these changes, to understand the challenges that this "neoadministrative state" poses for presidents and political appointees, and to discern if and how they are coping or can cope with them. A review of the burgeoning and multidisciplinary management literature on executive leadership in the neoadministrative state suggests that presidents and scholars must reconceptualize the administrative presidency. They will have to rethink the strategy's ends (what presidents need to accomplish to advance their agendas), its focus (what its tools are and how to apply them), and its locus (where these tools are applied). To inform this effort, a second generation of research on the administrative presidency is needed. [source]


Economic Evaluation of Scale Dependent Technology Investments

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2005
Phillip J. Lederer
We study the effect of financial risk on the economic evaluation of a project with capacity decisions. Capacity decisions have an important effect on the project,s value through the up-front investment, the associated operating cost, and constraints on output. However, increased scale also affects the financial risk of the project through its effect on the operating leverage of the investment. Although it has long been recognized in the finance literature that operating leverage affects project risk, this result has not been incorporated in the operations management literature when evaluating projects. We study the decision problem of a firm that must choose project scale. Future cash flow uncertainty is introduced by uncertain future market prices. The firm's capacity decision affects the firm's potential sales, its expected price for output, and its costs. We study the firm's profit maximizing scale decision using the CAPM model for risk adjustment. Our results include that project risk, as measured by the required rate of return, is related to the inverse of the expected profit per unit sold. We also show that project risk is related to the scale choice. In contrast, in traditional discounted cash flow analysis (DCF), a fixed prescribed rate is used to evaluate the project and choose its scale. When a fixed rate is used with DCF, a manager will ignore the effect of scale on risk and choose suboptimal capacity that reduces project value. S/he will also misestimate project value. Use of DCF for choosing scale is studied for two special cases. It is shown that if the manager is directed to use a prescribed discount rate that induces the optimal scale decision, then the manager will greatly undervalue the project. In contrast, if the discount rate is set to the risk of the optimally-scaled project, the manager will undersize the project by a small amount, and slightly undervalue the project with the economic impact of the error being small. These results underline the importance of understanding the source of financial risk in projects where risk is endogenous to the project design. [source]


25 years of stakeholder theory in project management literature (1984,2009)

PROJECT MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 4 2010
Paul Littau
Abstract After 25 years from its inception by Freeman in 1984, the stakeholder approach enjoys support from a growing community of researchers and practitioners. In this article, we try to outline this development by carrying out a meta-analysis within the leading project management journals. We found that stakeholder theory is predominantly fed by articles from Anglo-American countries and applied in the construction and IT sectors. The understanding of the stakeholder notion is moved towards a more complex view. Articles from different project management areas indicate the key role of stakeholders in projects. [source]


Does our literature support sectors newer to project management?

PROJECT MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 3 2008
The search for quality publications relevant to nontraditional industries
Abstract Despite the broadening use of systematic approaches to project management, the majority of related literature is focused on a handful of industries,construction, engineering, government, information technology, and utilities,that have, until recently, been the traditional areas for project management. Currently, the nontraditional project management areas include banking, pharmaceuticals, consulting, advertising, legal, health care, safety, and nontraditional manufacturing and industrial sectors (Kerzner, 2001). In recognition of growth, scholars and practitioners have begun to include viewpoints generalized across the field as well as perspectives from specific industries. We report on the findings from a systematic review of project management literature. [source]


Outsourcing Oversight: A Comparison of Monitoring for In-House and Contracted Services

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 3 2007
Mary K. Marvel
The public sector contracting literature has long argued that outsourced services need to be and, in fact, are subject to a more elevated level of scrutiny compared to internally delivered services. Recently, the performance measurement and management literature has suggested that the twin themes of accountability and results have altered the management landscape at all levels of government. By focusing on performance monitoring, the implication is that monitoring levels for internally provided services should more closely approximate those for contracted services. The analysis provided here yields empirical comparisons of how governments monitor the same service provided in-house and contracted out. We find evidence that services provided internally by a government's own employees are indeed monitored intensively by the contracting government, with levels of monitoring nearly as high as those for services contracted out to for-profit providers. In contrast, however, we find strong evidence that performance monitoring by the contracting government does not extend to nonprofit and other governmental service providers, each of which is monitored much less intensively than when comparable services are provided internally. For such service providers, it appears that monitoring is either outsourced along with services, or simply reduced. [source]


The Myth of the Bureaucratic Paradigm: What Traditional Public Administration Really Stood For

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 2 2001
Laurence E. Lynn Jr.
For a decade, public administration and management literature has featured a riveting story: the transformation of the field's orientation from an old paradigm to a new one. While many doubt claims concerning a new paradigm,a New Public Management,few question that there was an old one. An ingrained and narrowly focused pattern of thought, a "bureaucratic paradigm," is routinely attributed to public administration's traditional literature. A careful reading of that literature reveals, however, that the bureaucratic paradigm is, at best, a caricature and, at worst, a demonstrable distortion of traditional thought that exhibited far more respect for law, politics, citizens, and values than the new, customer-oriented managerialism and its variants. Public administration as a profession, having let lapse the moral and intellectual authority conferred by its own traditions, mounts an unduly weak challenge to the superficial thinking and easy answers of the many new paradigms of governance and public service. As a result, literature and discourse too often lack the recognition that reformers of institutions and civic philosophies must show how the capacity to effect public purposes and accountability to the polity will be enhanced in a manner that comports with our Constitution and our republican institutions. [source]


Design, Meanings, and Radical Innovation: A Metamodel and a Research Agenda,

THE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2008
Roberto Verganti
Recent studies on design management have helped us to better comprehend how companies can apply design to get closer to users and to better understand their needs; this is an approach usually referred to as user-centered design. Yet analysis of design-intensive manufacturers such as Alessi, Artemide, and other leading Italian firms shows that their innovation process hardly starts from a close observation of user needs and requirements. Rather, they follow a different strategy called design-driven innovation in this paper. This strategy aims at radically change the emotional and symbolic content of products (i.e., their meanings and languages) through a deep understanding of broader changes in society, culture, and technology. Rather than being pulled by user requirements, design-driven innovation is pushed by a firm's vision about possible new product meanings and languages that could diffuse in society. Design-driven innovation, which plays such a crucial role in the innovation strategy of design intensive firms, has still remained largely unexplored. This paper aims at providing a possible direction to fill this empty spot in innovation management literature. In particular, first it proposes a metamodel for investigating design-driven innovation in which a manufacturer's ability to understand, anticipate, and influence emergence of new product meanings is built by relying on external interpreters (e.g., designers, firms in other industries, suppliers, schools, artists, the media) that share its same problem: to understand the evolution of sociocultural models and to propose new visions and meanings. Managing design-driven innovation therefore implies managing the interaction with these interpreters to access, share, and internalize knowledge on product languages and to influence shifts in sociocultural models. Second, the paper proposes a possible direction to scientifically investigate the management of this networked and collective research process. In particular, it shows that the process of creating breakthrough innovations of meanings partially mirrors the process of creating breakthrough technological innovations. Studies of design-driven innovation may therefore benefit significantly from the existing body of theories in the field of technology management. The analysis of the analogies between these two types of radical innovations (i.e., meanings and technologies) allows a research agenda to be set for exploration of design-driven innovation, a relevant as well as underinvestigated phenomenon. [source]


Is All Communication Created Equal?: An Investigation into the Effects of Communication Mode on Perceived Information Quality

THE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2000
Elliot Maltz
Enhancing communication between functions is crucial to successful product development and management. Previous work in the product innovation management literature has made two implicit assumptions. First, that increasing the frequency of information dissemination from one function to the other always improves the perceived quality of the information received. The second assumption is that all types of interfunctional communication carry equal weight in the decision-making process of the target of that communication. The current study develops a typology of communication modes, which suggests a rationale for why these assumptions may not be true. The empirical findings of the study, based on a survey of 504 nonmarketing managers indicate that the relationship between total communication frequency and perceived information quality (PIQ) is nonlinear. Specifically, the study finds that marketing managers can either communicate too little or too much with nonmarketing managers. If they interact too infrequently, they run the risk of not understanding the way to most effectively communicate market information. If they communicate too much, they may overload the manager with too much information and erode the overall quality of the information sent. In addition, some modes of communication are more effective in improving perceptions of the quality of market information. For instance, regular e-mail sent by marketing managers seems to have no effect on perceived information quality. On the other hand, e-mail sent with supporting documentation can have a strong positive effect on perceived information quality. Impromptu phone calls by marketing have less positive effects than scheduled phone calls. Interestingly, too much of the wrong types of communication actually seem to reduce perceptions of perceived information quality, and consequently the likelihood that market information will be used. The study also suggests that certain kinds of communication are better for manufacturing managers and others more effective in sharing information with R&D managers. For instance, disseminating information through written reports seems to reduce perceived information quality. This is particularly true for R&D managers. On the other hand too many meetings can reduce perceptions of PIQ, particularly on the part of manufacturing managers. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. [source]


Network Parenting in International Service Development

BRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2004
Michael Lewis
This paper explores theoretical and practical aspects (i.e. resources allocated, activities undertaken, actors/decisions involved) of corporate ,parenting' in the development of international service networks. A review of the relevant corporate strategy, supply-chain, networks and services management literature underpins a preliminary content (capability; market orientation) and process (top-down; bottom-up) typology of network parenting. This provides the structure for discussion of two telecommunications-sector case studies. Analysis of the data acknowledges the influence of generic network mechanisms (e.g. weak and strong social ties) but the parenting typology also highlights other mechanisms, the effectiveness of which appears contingent on specific parenting roles. The paper details these roles (labelled: governing; training; curating; facilitating) and makes some preliminary comments on the role trajectories (e.g. governing , training) observed. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible directions for future work. [source]


A cross-national study of corporate governance and employment contracts

BUSINESS ETHICS: A EUROPEAN REVIEW, Issue 3 2008
Roberto García-Castro
Corporate governance (CG) can be seen to operate through a ,double agency' relationship: one between the shareholders and corporate management, and another between the corporate management and the firm's employees. The CG and labour management of firms are closely related. A particularly productive way to study how CG affects and is affected by the employment relationship has been to compare CG across countries. The contributions of this paper to that literature are threefold. (1) An integration of aspects of the labour management literature in the CG debate. (2) Based on a sample of about 1000 firms from 31 countries, we find evidence of complementarities between the CG and the labour management of firms. Extreme cases, in general, outperform mixed cases. (3) Firm differences within countries are more important than scholars have assumed so far. We present the results of the study and implications for future research and for practice. [source]


Does corporate environmental protection increase or decrease shareholder value?

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 4 2001
The case of environmental investments
This study examines share price effects of environmental investments using data from the Finnish forest industry from 1970 to 1996. The results indicate that the instantaneous market reaction is negative, and that the larger the investment, the larger the fall in prices. However, contrary to the view that corporate actions have a permanent effect on firm value, we observe rapid price recovery after the instantaneous negative reaction. This may support a hypothesis that environmental investments create goodwill for the investing firms and are thus not negative net present value investments. Unexpectedly, we find that the instantaneous negative market reaction was stronger in the most recent sample years. Explanations for this finding relate to the slowness of institutional change within the financial community as well as to the growing share of international investors seeking short-term holding gains. In conclusion, it appears that not only finance theory but also notions from institutional theory and corporate environmental management literature are needed to explain stock price behaviour in conjunction with environmental investments. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [source]