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Product Technology Transfer in the Upstream Supply Chain
Abstract
This article addresses the transfer of new product technologies from outside the firm for integration into a new product system as part of a product development effort. Product technology transfer is a key activity in the complex process of new product development and is the fundamental link in the technology supply chain. Product technology transfer too often is dealt with in an ad‐hoc fashion. Purposeful management of the product technology transfer process leads to more effective transfers in terms of timeliness, cost, functional performance, and competence building. Better management of product technology transfer gives firms access to a greater variety of new technology options, improves a firm's ability to offer significantly differentiated products, deepens the firm's competitive competencies, and positively influences sustained product development success. The central objective of this article is to gain insight into product technology transfer so that companies can manage this process more successfully and so that researchers can investigate this critical activity further.
This article describes the technology supply chain as a unique form of a supply chain that poses a set of managerial challenges and requirements distinguishing it from the more traditional component supply chain. Because a single product technology transfer project is the fundamental piece in the technology supply chain, understanding this piece well is key to leveraging the extended technology supply chain and to improving overall product development performance. This article integrates literatures on new product development, supply chain management, and technology management and builds on organizational theory to present a conceptual model of determinants of product technology transfer success. The core proposition is that product technology transfer effectiveness is greatest when companies carefully match (or “fit”) the type of technology to be transferred (the “technology uncertainty”) with the type of relationship between the technology supplier and recipient (the “interorganizational interaction”).
A quite detailed framework characterizing technology uncertainty along the dimensions of technology novelty, complexity, and tacitness is presented to help in assessing the challenges associated with transferring a particular product technology. This article also considers detailed elements characterizing the interorganizational interactions between the technology source and recipient firms. This helps firms consider the appropriate means to facilitate the interfirm process of technology transfer. Overall, this article provides practical insight into characterizing technologies and into improving the product technology transfer process. This article also provides a strong theoretical foundation to aid future research on product technology transfer in the technology supply chain.
... The second dimension, compatibility, is measured as the degree of integration knowledge and process overlap among modules (Succi et al. 1998, Gershenson et al. 2003. The third dimension, novelty, is measured as the degree of preexisting integration experience or the newness of the module to the developer team (Griffin 1997, Novak and Eppinger 2001, Tatikonda and Stock 2003. ...
... Our third dimension of modularity, novelty, captures the developer's degree of newness of the SDKs installed in an app. Because novelty reflects the developer's lack of experience with using an SDK, it measures the integration challenges resulting in increased development lead time and reduced product quality (Clark and Fujimoto 1991, Griffin 1997, Novak and Eppinger 2001, Tatikonda and Stock 2003 when integrating modules into the product. Reducing novelty means developers tap into their prior development experience and choose SDK pairs that they are already familiar with. ...
... An SDK is deemed new when the developer firm has no prior experience using the SDK for mobile app development. The increased novelty comes with significant development challenges (Novak andEppinger 2001, Tatikonda andStock 2003), resulting from high task uncertainty associated with SDK integration. Additionally, with increasing novelty, app performance issues may also arise from unanticipated interactions between the novel and mature SDKs. ...
Problem Definition: Initial product design decisions are critically important for mobile apps, which show a relatively short time from launch to peak usage, thus providing a narrow window for success and no time for course correction based on market reaction. Mobile apps are designed using a highly modular architecture based on software development kits (SDKs), with SDK choices being sequentially determined along three dimensions - multiplicity (total number of SDKs), compatibility (SDK co-occurrence frequency), and novelty (SDK degree of newness to the developer). We evaluate the consequence of these decisions on initial market success in the context of mobile gaming app design. The resulting conceptual framework aids developers in determining the modularity of digital product development.
Methodology/Results:
We formulate an instrumental variables LASSO regression model to estimate relationships of interest using a proprietary dataset extracted from the API server of a leading mobile apps intelligence firm. We find a negative impact of SDK multiplicity on initial success. High SDK compatibility can mitigate this negative effect, while high SDK novelty can exacerbate the negative effect of multiplicity. Post-hoc analysis shows that B2C communication features can also mitigate this negative impact.
Managerial Implications:
Prior product modularity research has predominantly focused on physical products or relied on single-dimensional modularity measures. Our study conceptualizes modularity as multi-dimensional and investigates how these multi-dimensional SDK-based modularity choices impact the performance of a key category of digital products – mobile apps. We demonstrate that increasing multiplicity, essential in certain markets, negatively affects initial success. But firms can enhance SDK compatibility, reduce SDK novelty, and use B2C communication channels to mitigate this negative impact.
... A risk source (e.g. the receiver's lack of experience with a certain production equipment (Tatikonda and Stock, 2003)) is a tangible or intangible element, which alone or in combination with other risk sources has the intrinsic potential to give rise to a disruption (ISO, 2009, Norrman andJansson, 2004). According to the Supply Chain Council (McCormack et al., 2008), a supply chain disruption is an abnormal situationin comparison to everyday business -which leads to negative deviations from certain performance measures and may lead to losses for the affected companies (e.g. a machine breakdown leading to capacity deviations (Almgren, 1999) (Chopra and Meindl, 2013)). ...
... Based on Argote et al., the risk sources are classified as follows (risk sources): i) related to the transfer-object, ii) related to the sender, iii) related to the receiver and iv) related to the relation between the sender and the receiver (Argote et al., 2003). Based on Tatikonda and Stock (2003) and Fredriksson et al. (2015), the risk sources related to the transferobject can be either related to the product design and production process or to the production planning and control. For the former subcategory, one example is when the process of producing the transfer-object (e.g. a product) is modified. ...
... high when no lay-offs) C. Related to the receiver a) Absorptive capacity: R18. The receiver's experience with similar production (Tatikonda andStock, 2003, Fredriksson et al., 2014) R19. The extent to which the receiver's existing equipment can be used R20. ...
Purpose
This paper explores the operationalization of production network coordination – the production transfer (PT) – and the relationships between transfer risk sources, preventive actions, supply chain disruptions, corrective actions and losses to better understand how to mitigate the risk and achieve an effective transfer process.
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal field study of a PT process from Norway to Spain was studied in depth for 25 months.
Findings
The paper presents the implications of three areas of importance for PT success: (1) how the transfer influences the plant roles, (2) the cross-locational management of the transfer project at the sender and receiver and (3) whether adapting the transferred production to the receiver's environment is an enabler or an inhibitor of transfer success.
Practical implications
The findings about how to mitigate the transfer risk and the frameworks of risk sources, supply chain disruptions, losses and preventive and corrective actions, along with the examples from the in-depth study, can aid the practitioners in managing PTs and achieving the relocation goals.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies of PT, which is from the perspective of both transfer parties, and addresses both preventive and corrective actions and all the transfer phases. Moreover, this study addresses the operational aspects of production network coordination, which received limited attention in earlier research.
... The extent of knowledge transfer and sharing also depends on the partner's willingness to share its knowledge (Inkpen, 1998;Tatikonda and Stock, 2003;Schmitz, 2006). Partners with a better knowledge stock may be protective and reluctant to share knowledge to prevent unintended knowledge transfer (Hamel, Doz and Prahalad, 1989;Inkpen, 1998). ...
... Earlier studies also pointed out the importance of long-term and stable relationships for developing high level of interaction that brings about interpersonal communication in greater magnitude and frequency as well as with richer/denser and more complex knowledge (Hakansson and Johanson, 1988;Simonin, 1997;Tatikonda and Stock, 2003). These continuous relationships improve the elements of trust and knowledge about the partner in the relationship, with significant consequences with regard to reduction of uncertainty in the future behaviour of the partner (Gulati, 1995) and developing an experience of prior ties. ...
... Consistent with the literature, our results confirm that continuous relationships help develop trust and a common language between partners leading to higher density of interaction via interpersonal communication at informal level generating more spillovers and learning opportunities (Hakansson and Johanson, 1988;Simonin, 1997;Inkpen, 1998;Tatikonda and Stock, 2003;Kim and Inkpen, 2005). In the case of learning by interacting with the suppliers, continuous and long-term relationships may also aim to decrease supplier's opportunistic behaviour (Lui and Ngo, 2010). ...
This paper investigates how low-technology emerging market firms learn in networks during transition to market economy. It argues that while involvement in a variety of network types might enhance firms’ external learning, the ways they learn from their external environment might differ according to network types and characteristics of the inter-organizational relationship, with subsequent effects on their performance. We develop an analytical framework drawing on the extant literature on the taxonomy of learning, types of networks, partner characteristics, and initiator, continuity, formality of the relationships. We investigate 467 dyadic inter-organizational relationship processes that took place during 1989-2001period in Polish food-processing and clothing industries. Our results show that low-tech firms learn through different modes that are associated with different types of networks and different characteristics of inter-organizational relationships. Our findings provide detailed elaborations for managers on what factors to focus on when entering into a network in seek of external knowledge.
... What processes can they use to reduce risks and maximize value from externally sourced technologies and activities? Although several studies of project governance have addressed this issue (Hagedoorn, 1993;Ulset, 1996;Tatikonda and Stock, 2003;Belderbos et al., 2004;Nambisan and Sawhney, 2007;Pisano and Verganti, 2008;McIvor, 2009), many external partnerships fail, either because the collaboration is viewed too formally and contractually (Doz, 1996), or because the organizational interfaces are not compatible (Cui et al., 2009). ...
... open collaboration (Hagedoorn, 1993;Ulset, 1996;Chesbrough, 2003;Tatikonda and Stock, 2003;Belderbos et al., 2004;Van de Vrande et al., 2006;Nambisan and Sawhney, 2007;Pisano and Verganti, 2008;McIvor, 2009;Dahlander and Gann, 2010). An acquisition implies the highest degree of integration, referring to the complete transfer of the source company or technology ownership. ...
This article gives a general decision framework for companies outsourcing strategic decisions. The authors argue that a consistent outsourcing strategy, strategic evaluation and searching of external sources, and effective implementation processes are three essential steps toward successful innovation outsourcing. The article points out that outsourcing strategy is embedded in a company's overall technology strategy, and analyzes the decision context of the sourcing strategy. The new theoretical idea is the portfolio view of outsourcing strategy. The soul of innovation outsourcing should be a mix of different external sources and different levels of integration and a match with the proper organizational structure. Examples of generic portfolios are given at the end of the article.
... To elaborate, first, initiating a relationship shows a partner's willingness to share its knowledge and allows knowledge spillovers. However, if a firm is inclined towards preventing unintended knowledge transfer through a high degree of control in a relationship (utilizing strict coordination), its partner may be confined to being a passive learner, only learning from what is shared rather than from what it can explore (i.e., adaptation) (Hamel et al., 1989;Inkpen, 1998;Tatikonda and Stock, 2003;Schmitz, 2006). On the other hand, when a firm initiates a relationship, it is considered to be motivated by an active learning intention or to have strategic goals related to accessing the complementary capabilities of the right partner that will add value to its own operations (i.e., adaptability) (Lane and Lubatkin, 1998;Gluckler, 2007). ...
... Third, the stability of relationships enables the exchange of richer and more complex knowledge (Hakansson and Johanson, 1988;von Hippel, 1988;Simonin, 1997;Tatikonda and Stock, 2003). Such 'continuous relationships' develop trust and enhance knowledge transfer between partners by reducing uncertainty. ...
This paper investigates how inter-organizational learning in networks and global value chains (GVCs) has contributed to resilience in Poland's food processing and clothing industries. The Polish economy has been widely accepted as resilient since Poland's transition from a planned to a market economy. Through drawing on the regional resilience literature, this paper develops a network-oriented framework of sectoral resilience that integrates network evolution, inter-organizational learning in networks, and the role of history. It uses unique primary data from the period of Poland's abovementioned transition (1989–2001), which is complemented with secondary data on the networking activities of Polish firms in the two abovementioned sectors between 2004 and 2018. In turn, the firms' interactive learning is found to function as an important contributor to their path-dependent network trajectories and resilience. Moreover, knowledge networks and GVCs present different dynamics in terms of their effects on learning and result in uneven sectoral resilience. Learning from knowledge spillovers and by interacting with the co-existence of adaptation- and adaptability-related network characteristics has guided both the studied sectors towards developing short-term adaptive capacity for path-extension and sustainability. Learning from advanced science and technology (S&T) and education regarding exclusive adaptability-related network characteristics has driven Poland's food-processing industry's path-evolving long-term capability to be fully resilient.
... Although product development is recognized as a fundamental link in the technology supply chain (Tatikonda & Stock, 2003), surprisingly, very little seems to have been written about university tech transfer as a supply chain network. Further, it has been proposed that product tech transfer effectiveness is greatest when companies delicately match the technology types that they want to transfer with their industrial supplier relationships in inter-organizational interactions (Tatikonda & Stock, 2003). ...
... Although product development is recognized as a fundamental link in the technology supply chain (Tatikonda & Stock, 2003), surprisingly, very little seems to have been written about university tech transfer as a supply chain network. Further, it has been proposed that product tech transfer effectiveness is greatest when companies delicately match the technology types that they want to transfer with their industrial supplier relationships in inter-organizational interactions (Tatikonda & Stock, 2003). If tech transfer is viewed from this supply chain lens, the demand for invention disclosure evaluations are related to supply chain processes such as the demand forecast methods and demand arrival processes. ...
There is a concentrated number of potential women entrepreneurs of diverse races among faculty in the United States' Historically Black Colleges and Universities (known as HBCUs and are called 'Black Colleges' herein). This study describes the potential for developing university technology transfer in these Black Colleges as a strategy for increasing diversity among women entrepreneurs in high growth, high tech fields using female academic entrepreneurs. Currently, Black Colleges lag behind their peer non-Black Colleges in. technology transfer because historically they have been under, served and were originally established largely as teaching and blue-collar trade schools. Although Black female STEM faculty comprised less than 2% of the US faculty, they are 22% at HBCUs (Mack, 2011). Using a novel theoretical framework, 24 Black Colleges with doctoral programs were compared to five (5) non-Black Colleges' technology transfer programs. The results of a correlation analysis support hypotheses regarding the relationships between tech transfer resource inputs and outputs.
... The finding from the NPD hybrid framework is also consistent with research done by Tatikonda and Stock (2003). Tatikonda and Stock (2003) developed a NPD conceptual model that integrates NPD with supply chain management and technology management. ...
... The finding from the NPD hybrid framework is also consistent with research done by Tatikonda and Stock (2003). Tatikonda and Stock (2003) developed a NPD conceptual model that integrates NPD with supply chain management and technology management. The research identified that management of technology is the key activity in the Design and Development process. ...
... Notwithstanding, using complexity of product and regeneration of shape (with inhomogeneous morphology, weight reduction) in process perspective can provide new alternatives, especially whenever additive methods are applying for remanufacturing strategies [9]. Product, and operational related tasks, complexity depend mainly on: the total numbers of design characteristics [10], number of parts and blocks and their degree of dependency, interdependence of technologies [11], shape and structural differentiation of blocks, accessibility of components and connectivity of blocks [12]. Greater complexity requires more tasks, multiple settings, different jobs and setting and paths (as per conventional manufacturing) and, therefore, the cost increases [13]. ...
The rise in demand and price for raw materials is pushing manufacturing industries to look for new ways to secure parts and products for their production while keeping the expenses low. Remanufacturing as the manifestation of circular paths can contribute towards sustainability (in terms of extension of use and reduction of waste). This work proposes a decision-support system to select, through adaptability, product and parts for remanufacture. It makes use of complexity analysis and production capacity (i.e., demand) to quantify costs. The complexity level was related with (i) characteristics of components and (ii) disassembly transitions. The decision system is conceived to assess, through inspection, the potential of a product/part for re-manufacturability based on failure pattern and recoverable rate. The re-manufacturability is evaluated, on cost alternatives, as per regeneration using additive or subtractive manufacturing, reuse of components/parts, recovery of materials, disposal. The additive alternative was analyzed over complexity (suggesting alternatives while estimating costs vs. complexity) which increases interest in the applicability to recover complex forms of limited (unplanned) demand. To demonstrate the applicability, authors quantified costs involving the remanufacturing of gear pumps parametrizing parts on a complexity amount after a relative product recyclability selection. Results evaluate (dis)assembly and regeneration across main feature assessment.
... Uma tecnologia pode ser facilmente incorporada nos sistemas produtivo e / ou gerencial da organização. Já outras tecnologias demandam operações e esforços complexos (TATIKONDA; STOCK, 2003). Para aquisição de tecnologias são envolvidos pessoas, recursos financeiros e investimentos, esforços e empenhos, o que se espera uma eficiente TT para alcance de resultados favoráveis. ...
Um processo de TT pode se tornar bem complexo dependendo do tipo de tecnologia a ser transferido, procedimentos técnicos necessários e utilizados, entre outros elementos. Devido sua complexidade, gestores, estudantes e pesquisadores podem apresentar falta de conhecimento e / ou dificuldades para compreender à TT (seus significados, características e aplicabilidades). Este estudo teve por objetivo identificar as principais abordagens de Transferência de Tecnologias (TT), a partir de revisão de literatura. O método de pesquisa utilizado foi o qualitativo. Foram realizadas consultas e buscas por artigos na base de dados Scopus. Além das principais abordagens de TT identificadas, também foi construído um portfólio relevante de artigos em tal área.
... Uma tecnologia pode ser facilmente incorporada no sistema produtivo da indústria. Outras demandam operações mais complexas e detalhadas (TATIKONDA; STOCK, 2003). Neste contexto, um processo de TT pode se tornar muito complexo, embora, essencial. ...
Para aquisição de tecnologias são envolvidos pessoas, aplicações de recursos financeiros e investimentos, esforços e empenhos, além de procedimentos técnicos, o que se espera uma eficiente TT para alcance de resultados favoráveis. O objetivo deste estudo é apresentar discussões teóricas relativas às barreiras de TT, aos mecanismos e aos modelos de TT. Maior ênfase é dada aos vínculos entre duas empresas (fornecedor e indústria de manufatura). Este estudo é de caráter teórico e descritivo, pois todas as discussões explicitadas são baseadas unicamente na literatura. As barreiras à TT se apresentam por diferentes naturezas e, se não forem gerenciadas adequadamente, impedem que a TT alcance a sua eficácia esperada pelas organizações. Os mecanismos de TT consistem em canais que facilitam o direcionamento e execução de atividades e/ou operações para transferência desejada. Já os modelos de TT fornecem passos técnicos para viabilizar a transferência. Diante da diversidade de barreiras, mecanismos, modelos e outros elementos existentes, nem todos eles se aplicam a um mesmo e único processo de TT.
... ICT use has brought about a fundamental transformation at all levels of organizations, and the marketing function has been one of the main beneficiaries. Most of the authors cited here agree that ICT use in the development of marketing activities can be a true source of competitive advantage for any company improving innovation processes and their outcomes (Bond and Houston, 2003;Prasad et al., 2001;Roberts, 2000;Tatikonda and Stock, 2003;Tzokas and Saren, 1997).As Argyres (1999) and Tzokas and Saren (1997) show an important part of the benefits arising from the use of ICT as a source of acquisition and generation of market information. ICTs are one of the most appropriate media for getting close to the environment and acquiring or creating knowledge about the different agents that are part of it. ...
... OM42 Teamwork [16,39,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]. OM43 Linking private research and development agencies [72,73] OM44 Linking public research and development agencies [69] OM45 Links between universities [74] OM46 The coalignment between TQM and research and development [75,76]. ...
Sustainable development implies establishing principles, objectives and strategies within organizations that impact the organizational culture in innovation. However, a method needs to be defined in order to know the critical factors that allow the strengthening of the organizational culture in innovation with emphasis on Industry 4.0 and sustainable development in a highly changing environment for a specific organization. In this sense, the paper identifies the set of factors that are documented through reviews and analysis of the literature, subsequently proposes a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methodology using hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets (HFLTS) and combinative distance-based assessment (CODAS), where factors are evaluated to obtain a score and hierarchy value. Weight values were calculated using the ambiguity reduction method, which incorporates the knowledge acquired by researchers in organizational culture of innovation and expert judgment under the Saaty scale used in analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Finally, a model of organizational culture in innovation is proposed that can be used by organizations to focus strategies on the factors of greater hierarchy and thereby optimize their resources considering the sustainable development and the Industry 4.0 approach.
... According to Haußmann et al. (2012), this theory allows examining the impact of information systems on redesign and adopting more efficient practices for proficient and operational information processing for the organization. Previous studies have applied the OIPT in assessing the problem of describing technological capability role in the performance of an organization (Flynn & Flynn, 1999;Tatikonda & Stock, 2003). The literature indicates the theories such as dynamic capabilities to prepare the organizations to operate in uncertain settings (Gupta & Gupta, 2019). ...
Given the importance of environmental objectives, companies are continuously trying to achieve them through different means and technologies are not an exception. Companies are increasingly using information systems (soft side) coupled with manufacturing (hard side) technologies to achieve market and operational performance. Therefore, this study investigates the role of green information systems (GIS) and additive manufacturing (AM) in the market and operational performance achievement of an organization. This study explores if the role of GIS and AM is influenced by firm size and number of employees in the organization with the lens of organizational information processing theory. Through survey instrument, data from 211 respondents is collected and analysis is performed using structural equation modeling. Findings indicate that GIS is critical to overall performance as compared to AM. In addition, top management facilitate extension of business activities significantly as compared to internal operations. Control orientation works best for new technologies like GIS and AM. The study offers an array of scope for theoretical and practical implications to utilize GIS and emerging technologies like AM to achieve greater market and operational performance. Further, the study offers implications for AM and GIS professionals and researchers. The study contributes in integrating manufacturing and information systems to facilitate faster technological and information processing capabilities.
... The integration between technology and product development directly affects the performance of new product development (IANSITI, 1995;WEST, 1997;LAKEMOND et al., 2007;DREJER, 2000;STOCK, 2003;TATIKONDA, 2004), because if the technology to be transferred is not robust, mature or superior it can lead to PDP failure (SHULZ et al., 2000). Studies point out that some actions are fundamental for integration, such as listening to the voice of the customer, participating in industry fairs and conducting market research (CAETANO; KURUMOTO; AMARAL, 2012). ...
... Green Supply Chain. In the process of supply chain and circulation, the products are transferred to upstream and downstream enterprises and customers and passed to consumers through a certain route [16]. Supply chain is a network structure built around suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, and its theoretical basis has formed a systematic and rich one. ...
As environmental issues become the focus of global attention, low-carbon economy based on the concept of low energy consumption, low pollution, and sustainable development is becoming the focus of global attention. This new trend brings new challenges and opportunities to supply chain management. In view of the current new trend, each node enterprise in the supply chain should have the dual compatibility of economy and environment. How to balance the profits of supply chain nodes is an important issue for traditional enterprises under the guarantee of environmental benefits and green supply chain management. This paper takes the green transformation of enterprises as the breakthrough point, combined with the comparison of three green supply chain models. Considering the different preferences of enterprises for environmentally friendly goals, a green supply chain model is constructed when manufacturers and retailers consider different goals. This paper discusses the impact of environmental preferences of manufacturers and retailers on the supply chain system. It is found that when the manufacturer’s environmental preference is 1, the supply chain profit of the biobjective model is up to 1901. The results show that the model can achieve the dual optimization of the profit target and environmental friendly target and achieve the effect of green supply chain optimization.
... The selection of the sample was delimitated by articles published in English, on any date, from peer-reviewed journals in the fields of Management, Business, and Economics at the Web of Science (WOS) database (Malerba & Ferreira, 2020). WOS platform is the oldest and has the most coverage of journals and papers among the most used scientific databases (Vieira & Gomes, 2009 Search equation ("strateg*") AND ("education institution*" OR "science institution*" OR "universit*") KTT is complex and involves numerous activities (Tatikonda & Stock, 2003), as well as there are several synonyms for this expression (Cottrill et al., 1989). The research focuses on strategies applied by individuals, scientific institutions, and public entities for the spread of knowledge. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to identify the current situation of the research that analyzes KTT strategies in scientific institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
To systematize the empirical evidence that emerged from academic debates in the field, the study breaks down, through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), 42 papers from the Web of Science database. The author divides the sample into three clusters: environmental impact, institutional effectiveness, and individual strategies, according to its unit of analysis.
Findings
The findings indicate that the alignment of KTT activities with the strategic objectives of the institutions is fundamental for positive outcomes. In addition to that, the resources for obtaining relevant results are the quality and the availability of human capital in scientific institutions, public companies, and support organizations. Finally, there is a stream of research that criticizes the exclusively commercial approach of the phenomenon.
Research limitations -
The Web of Science database relies on being the manly coverage for scientific publications in general. So, due to the choice for composing this sample with papers written only in English, untranslated studies were excluded from this analysis.
Originality/value
The contribution for Literature relies on proposing a future research agenda based on identified gaps and current topics, discussing the results of previous studies that can support the decision-making of these organizations at developing efficient KTT strategies for themselves.
Keywords:
Knowledge and Technology Transfer; Strategies; Systematic Literature Review; Knowledge Dissemination; Scientific Institutions
... Project management studies have also shown that there are many sources of uncertainty regarding technology transfer (Tatikonda & Stock, 2003). As firms need to increase information quality in order to handle tasks under uncertainty (Jay R Galbraith & Nathanson, 1978), they should seek to determine the level of knowledge sharing required, as well as the knowledge sharing quantity (Stock et al., 2021). ...
Research suggests that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India are hesitant to adopt the leading management practices. This exacerbates their competitive disadvantage against larger firms in a highly competitive and rapidly evolving marketplace. Indian SMEs’ reluctance to embrace advanced management practices may be explained by their satisficing business behaviors. In other words, Indian SMEs are highly likely to continue with business as usual - a customary of deficient modus of operandi, and refuse to search for optimal solutions and practices. We argue that overcoming satisficing biases may require Indian SMEs to strive for strategic flexibility that allow for prompt adjustments in value creation activities. A higher strategic flexibility allows SMEs in the manufacturing sector to rapidly adjust product range, variety, innovativeness, and speed of development to capitalize on new opportunities and minimize the negative impact of changing market conditions. This may allow SMEs to overcome competitive disadvantages and compete effectively against larger firms in the market. We argue that SMEs seeking to obtain strategic flexibility must focus on information quality and supply chain integration. We assess the proposed model using a sample of 100 top SME managers operating in India.
... This involves not only front-end logistics change but also requires change in the supply chain. The supply chain can be divided into upstream and downstream -that is, incoming goods and outgoing goods (Tatikonda & Stock 2003). If actors rather than goods are considered, manufacturers, suppliers and wholesalers represent the upstream, and retailers and PoS represent the downstream supply chain. ...
Auch wenn Multichannel-Vertriebsstrategien Gegenstand vieler Untersuchungen sind, befassen sich nur wenige Studien mit ihren Auswirkungen auf Logistik- und Transportorganisation. Die zentralen Fragen lauten daher: Wie verändern sich die Warenströme durch die Einführung des Lebensmittelonlinehandels? Und haben verschiedene Formen von Onlineangeboten unterschiedliche Auswirkungen auf die Warenströme? Für die vorliegende kumulative Dissertation wurden Daten aus Frankreich und Deutschland analysiert. Im Mittelpunkt standen die Auswirkungen des Lebensmittelonlinehandels auf die Lieferkette, einschließlich der letzten Meile. Darüber hinaus war es das Ziel, die Strategien und den logistischen Transport der Distributoren im Hinblick auf den Kontext, in dem sie auftreten, zu verstehen. Die Arbeit bietet eine umfassende Untersuchung der beiden Märkte Deutschland und Frankreich. Die Ergebnisse einer vergleichenden Analyse zeigen, wie unterschiedlich sich die Warenflüsse über die gesamte Supply Chain durch das Angebot von Onlinewaren verändern. Neben der letzten Meile erfahren auch die vorgelagerten Strukturen in der Lieferkette eine Veränderung: I) Neue Standorte in Kundennähe für die Organisation der Onlinelebensmitteldistribution werden erschlossen. II) Eine Dezentralisierung von Distributionsstrukturen findet statt. III) Es entstehen neue Beziehungen zwischen Akteuren der Lieferkette. Die Ergebnisse der Analysen tragen zu einem besseren systematischen Verständnis von Onlinelebensmittelpraktiken bei Forschern und Praktikern bei.
... An effective communication tool helps the transfer of knowledge from the user to the developer, which is a first step towards integrating the user into the development process (Cui & Wu, 2017). The second application focused on interactions between user and technology, and highlighted the fit of the technology within the farmer's journey, serving as another tool to confirm its potential and reduce technological uncertainty (Tatikonda & Stock, 2003). Moreover, this application put emphasis on the feelings of the user regarding problems/solutions that appear in the map, therefore going beyond 'how' the user sees the applicability of the potential solution, and suggesting 'why' they do or do not use it. ...
This article foregrounds the challenges and necessity of promoting user involvement in traditional sectors, especially those that constitute strong pillars for sustainable development. As a case in point, the emergence of precision agriculture technologies requires novel methods to integrate users in innovation processes. Accordingly, this article discusses three applications of journey maps developed in collaboration with users and other stakeholders in the context of agriculture. We illustrate how design-thinking tools such as journey maps offer the means to explore user experiences, spotting previously unknown needs or problems, generate value propositions with meaning and relevance, and foresee implementation issues not directly related to the technology in focus. This research, thus, contributes by first describing applications of journey maps which are relevant for traditional sectors that are undergoing disruption , and second, by highlighting the broader usefulness of such tools for facilitating coordination among the diverse actors who are ultimately central to innovation adoption and success.
... Second, we rely on patent data to capture technological inventions and to evaluate the ability of companies to convert them into new products. At the same time, products incorporate a variety of technologies developed both within and outside the company, and also at different time periods (Tatikonda & Stock, 2003). Therefore, another potentially fruitful research avenue is to explore the effect of CEO human capital on the company's involvement in technology sourcing. ...
Despite technological inventions being a key input to new product development, companies often struggle with commercializing new technologies via the product development route. Drawing on a sample of publicly traded U.S. manufacturing companies that spans the period 1992–2013, our study shows that CEOs play a catalytic role in the technology conversion process, but this role is highly nuanced and depends on the characteristics (generalist vs. specialist) of their human capital. Specifically, generalist CEOs tend to be better at facilitating the conversion process in companies with more diverse and/or higher quality inventions. In contrast, specialist CEOs play a catalytic role in technology conversion when companies have less diverse and/or lower quality inventions. Hence, our article offers a solution to the technology conversion problem that consists in aligning CEO human capital characteristics with the characteristics of the company's inventions portfolio.
... From this perspective, complexity has been conceptualized in supply chain literature in terms of the number of suppliers, customers, and products that characterize a firm's network of relationships (Bozarth et al., 2009;Choi & Krause, 2006;Lu & Shang, 2017;Rutenberg & Shaftel, 1971). In terms of diversity, complexity has been conceived as the degree of differences among elements in a supply chain system (see Aldrich, 1979;Campbell, 1988), while from an interrelatedness standpoint, complexity has been conceptualized as the degree of interactions among elements within a system (Mazzocchi, 2008;Tatikonda & Stock, 2003). ...
This study draws on the tenets of transaction cost economics to examine the moderating effect of supply chain complexity on the relationship between formal control and social control mechanisms, and operational performance. The study argues that under conditions of increased supply chain complexity, the effect of formal control mechanism on operational performance is weakened while the effect of social control mechanism on operational performance is strengthened. These propositions are tested on a sample of 331 firms in a sub-Saharan Africa market, Ghana. Findings from the study show that at higher levels of supply chain complexity, formal control and social control have negative and positive effects on operational performance, respectively. These findings provide nuanced perspectives on how the performance consequences of formal and social controls vary under the same organizational circumstance. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
... Information and communication technology (ICT): Several scholars agree that the immersion of ICT in the development of marketing activities can be a true source of competitive advantage for any company, improving innovation processes and their outcomes (Zeithaml & Bitner 2000;Bond & Houston 2003;Tatikonda & Stock 2003;Neu & Brown 2005;Antioco 2006). In this study, ICT is seen as the use of state of the art technological logistics (computers, reliable internet, intercom services) and other technological infrastructure that aid employees to deliver services on time. ...
Today, most companies especially power utility industry have built very sophisticated, multitier and multi-enterprise supply chains consisting of distribution centers, contract manufacturers (CMs), suppliers database, supply relationship management (SRM) and the like. The once simple, linear supply chains of yesterday now consist of a virtual network of interconnected players responsible for different pieces of the supply chain management operation.The overall purpose of the research is identifying the drivers of outsourcing and assessing its effectiveness for a power utility. The power utility selected as a case study is a multi-functional company with many of its inputs outsourced from many different companies, but the company has not been able to derive the optimal benefits in terms of comparative cost reduction advantage and tremendous increase in corporate performance and profit. The research findings reveal that the rationale behind outsourcing of maintenance services to third party companies by management are mainly centred around cost reduction, flexibility, service improvement prospect and the promotion of Broad-Base Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE).
... La interacción entre individuos o empresas, la cual se realiza en alguna parte de la cadena de suministro, principalmente en la fase de diseño de nuevos productos o servicios refleja como resultado la transferencia de tecnología. De tal manera, que en [5] describen la participación de las empresas involucradas en medida de varios elementos como el nivel de conocimiento actual de la empresa contra el esperado para la tecnología que se va a transferir; el tipo de tecnología que se desea implementar en el proceso de producción (grado de novedad, de complejidad y de conocimiento tácito que se quiere transmitir); y el tipo de capacidad para procesar la información (tipo de comunicación que se utilizará, la coordinación que se llevará a cabo entre las empresas participantes y la cooperación de las mismas). ...
Small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) represent an important role in the supply chain worldwide. Even though, they have infrastructure differences against multinationals, SMEs have on their side the flexibility advantage in developing new strategies, projects, and more. Specifically, projects in horizontal collaboration within competitors. Benefits on horizontal collaboration highlighted in a literature review as a decrease in operation costs, collaborative inventory, knowledge transfer, innovation and new product development. For SMEs to obtain these benefits and work within a trust environment, align on contracts, agreements and management has to be stablish. The objective of this paper is to understand from a knowledge management perspective, which horizontal collaboration dimensions are of high importance for SMEs working inside a cluster. A questionnaire is design and applied to the SMEs partners in the Cluster MACH, located in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. The data obtained is analyze through a Miltenburg matrix adaptation to identify the horizontal collaboration elements of high importance for the SMEs. The originality of this article lies in the adaptation of the Miltenburg matrix to stablish strategies for a horizontal collaboration between competitive SMEs. Creating an opportunity to implement this tool in future investigation in the collaborative supply chain area. Developing as a result, a series of propose actions listed for the cluster to develop a horizontal collaboration strategy within the SMEs.
... The use of ICT has transformed all the functions of businesses and the marketing function has been affected by this transformation and change. In the literature, it is accepted that the use of ICT in the management of marketing processes provides a real competitive advantage for businesses (Roberts, 2000;Prasad et al., 2001;Bond & Houston, 2003;Tatikonda & Stock, 2003). ...
Tourism, which is the international industry and one of the largest employment industries, has more heterogeneous stakeholders than many other industries. The biggest reason for the energetic growth and development of the tourism industry is the development of ICTs. The recent synergistic interaction between technology and tourism has brought radical changes in the tourism industry. Communication that is universal and easy to access has brought the entire tourism industry to a new level of interaction. ICT is dramatically playing a sig- nificant role in the competitiveness of tourism activities, destinations and for other industries (UNWTO, 2001).
Tourism is a knowledge-intensive industry. Travelers take a lot of risks when they invest money and time on a travel experience. The higher the perceived risk level, the more travelers tend to try to find information. Marketing activ- ities in the tourism industry are seen as an opportunity to offer a mix of value for money and decrease risk perceptions.
Increased interest in online technologies means that consumers’ willing- ness to have reach to product selection and their views on these products has improved. Reliability is a substantial element of tourism marketing, and con- sumers avoid marketing messages developed by the brand and instead request information from reliable people.
Since consumers collect data from multi-channel platforms, tourism marketers must follow a logical communication strategy. Marketing commu- nication synchronization between platforms provides efficiency and decreases external costs.
Tourism companies and destinations should invest in the right resources to improve the correct tourism marketing strategy. In order for the action plan created to be successful, the targets, responsibilities, and criteria must be clearly stated. Besides, this plan can make the organization realistic in terms of man- aging effective resources correctly. ICT is one of the most suitable environments to enable information or create information about different components. Thus, businesses can access a large number of significant and up-to-date information rapidly, easily and inexpensively (Requena et al., 2007).
The Internet is easy to access for travelers, representatives of the tourism industry, as well as researchers worldwide. Besides, the Internet has become increasingly complicated and dynamic. Therefore, the use of digital technol- ogies that increase effective communication and articulation among different tourism actors in target networks and markets are considered worthy for business success (Law et al., 2014; Dexeus, 2019).
Events are convenient environments for the use of different senses and the knowledge and feelings of different people. Event marketing is a big part of a marketing communication organization that consists of a wide variety of dimensions. Events can also be a part of communication as their presence in their channels, media, and editions. Event marketing ensures that a certain message is delivered efficiently and memorably. As a versatile marketing and communication component, event marketing can be integrated efficiently with a variety of other actions and projects.
The event industry, which includes conferences, festivals, exhibitions, meetings and sports activities with significant contributions to tourism, is growing and developing rapidly. Therefore, event managers and marketers must identify consumer demands and needs. Through developing technology, effective marketing and management of events are possible with the effective use of ICTs.
Events are taken into consideration in the development and planning of destinations as well as being an important source of motivation for tourism. The roles and effects of events in tourism are also determined in destination planning and action plans are prepared accordingly. Events are increasingly major for destinations to survive in a competitive environment. In addition to the increase in the infrastructure quality of touristic events thanks to tourism activities, it has a positive impact on the local and the regional economy with the income from the sale of goods and services (Hernández-Mogollón et al., 2014).
To create a successful event and interact with consumers, event marketing needs to harmonize between the target group and the brand (Wohlfeil & Whelan, 2006). Developments in ICT make it easier for event marketers to advance and apply segmentation, targeting and positioning strategies. How and how much the event managers will use, rather than whether they use informa- tion technology (IT), has become a more significant issue.
Most events are not for the whole society, so it is significant to identify con- sumer segments that most closely match the event in question. Successful market segmentation and targeting at the events can increase the satisfactionof the participants and increase the motivation and success of the event man- agers. Businesses apply various strategies to achieve a competitive advantage. In a modern marketing approach, businesses want to gain a competitive advan- tage through consumer satisfaction. In addition to increasing consumer satis- faction, ICT supports businesses to measure this.
The characteristics of consumers such as demand, needs and expectations, the resources they have, and their purchasing behaviors differ from each other. Mass marketing approaches are not enough to meet these different demands, needs, expectations, resources, and behaviors. This variety of customer demands and expectations can be turned into an opportunity through market segmentation activities that serve to group customers in terms of similar needs, characteristics, and purchasing behavior. It may be more profitable for firms to perform their marketing events with a differentiated marketing approach rather than determining the whole market as a target market with a good pro- posal. Through differentiated marketing, it is possible to carry out a more effec- tive event marketing activity. ICT strengthens its activities to define, customize and purchase goods and services.
Businesses want to improve their offers and to be preferable to increase their satisfaction by determining the needs of their customers and thereby gain a com- petitive advantage. In this context, it is necessary to exactly determine consumer needs. The process of determining consumer needs is a very costly, time-con- suming and carefully managed process. When businesses determine their target group, they can also determine their marketing strategies to meet the expecta- tions of the target group and increase consumer satisfaction. At this phase, the analysis and commentary of the data collected are used more through ICT.
At present, as a natural result of online marketing being more interactive than traditional marketing, ICT is increasingly interactive in market segmen- tation, targeting and positioning. The use of ICT provides great opportunities for marketers in creating detailed and complicated market models, sizing and estimating goods and services, and preparing offers according to needs.
... Therefore, complexity is linked to technical and political processes, decision making regarding the type of technology to be transferred, legal procedures and determinant or limiting aspects (Hensengerth 2018). Technologies to be transferred admit different forms and compositions, and thus, while some can be easily incorporated into production systems, others require more complex operations (Tatikonda and Stock 2003). ...
Technology Transfer (TT) is an essential process that governs complex operations related to the absorption and dissemination of diverse technologies, in their different natures and forms. Its complexity is linked to technical and political operations, and determinant elements. This study aimed to present results of a bibliometric analysis on Technology Transfer and to explore the fundamental elements and specific aspects that make up this process. A significant portfolio of papers was considered for bibliometric analysis. Subsequently, most relevant papers were selected for qualitative analysis, based on relevance of themes presented and number of citations by year. Key approaches to TT have been identified, and its elements (agents, technology, mechanisms, polices, barriers, supporters, models and effects and impacts). They are inherent to characteristics of the transfer agents and supporters, characteristics of the transfer object, characteristics of the transfer channels, characteristics/conditions of the demand environment for TT management.
... Utilization of ICT is of course not only used in running an organizational or production organization, but more broadly covering the marketing process of the production. Product innovation and supply chain/distribution channel innovation become an increasingly competitive and growing business globally.The company has changed its organization and business model so that they can build and develop productive and strategic activities (Achrol, and Kotler, 1999).ICTs have brought fundamental changes to all levels of the organization and one of the key benefits is the marketing function through ICTs (Bond and Houston, 2003;Prasad et al., 2001;Roberts, 2000;Tatikonda and Stock, 2003;Tzokas and Saren, 1997). The existing ofconventional production and distribution modelhowever will keep remain the market share (existing market), but the emergence of various innovations including based on ICT will finally be a serious threat and potentially disrupt the marketof conventional products (disruptive innovation) as well as growing new market share who would prefer more innovative products in terms of product quality and ease of the distribution channel.Innovation, especially product innovation is known as the key in the process of providing value to the creation of a product (Han et al, 1998) From the consumer perspective, there might be much conveniences obtained by consumers in choosing a product or service, including the activities related totourism industry.In 2017 the Ministry of Tourism targets the development of 20,000 homestays in Indonesia.There are three priorities of the Ministry of Tourism which is implemented in 2017, 1; the establishment of home stay; 2. digitalization and; 3. air connectivity. ...
The priority of tourism development in Indonesia covers the development of home stay, digitization and air connectivity.The purpose of this study is to explore the utilization of ICT in its relation to distribution channels used by home stay owners in Ubud as a form of small medium business owned by local communities. Data collection techniques used were stratified random sampling, secondary research, focus group discussion and in depth interview. Through qualitative descriptive analysis techniques, the results of this study concluded that most of home stays in Ubud is familiar with ICTand has now become a major distribution channel that contributes greatly to the occupancy of home stay.
... This is particularly true for solutions to grand challenges. There is general consensus that the effect of uncertainty of solutions aimed at addressing social and economic challenges have a significant impact on whether these technologies are pursued and adapted at all (Marsh and Stock, 2006;Tatikonda and Stock, 2003). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to connect the literatures on sustainability, innovation and paradox to suggest that sustainability constraints – simultaneously addressing commercial and sustainability goals – will increase organizational innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing from the literatures on paradox, innovation and sustainability, the authors develop theory about how managers can deliberately enhance the generation and implementation of creative ideas within their organizations.
Findings
The authors build on the existing literature that suggests sustainability considerations should be strategically and deeply integrated elements of business activity by developing arguments about how such integration improves organizational performance. The authors argue sustainability considerations, by creating unique forms of constraints, improve organizational success by enhancing creative idea generation and implementation.
Practical implications
Even strategic leaders espousing to only maximize economic efficiency face the challenge of effectively managing sustainability constraints. The discrepancy between what they should do and the problems they face means strategic leaders often have fewer tools to manage and reflect on their own decision-making than is available in the management literature. This paper presents arguments from diverse research that describes potential decision processes and their outcomes.
Social implications
This paper highlights an important shift in how sustainability constraints are fundamental drivers of long-term organizational performance.
Originality/value
Extant literature treats the simultaneous attention to sustainability concerns and commercial success as difficult accomplishments of clever strategic leaders. Instead, the authors propose that simultaneous attention to sustainability and commercial imperatives is fundamental to long-term organizational success, because it is a powerful determinant of new products, services and business models.
... Within an organization, individuals and subunits face different types and degrees of uncertainty. To be effective in achieving the organization's goals rather than achieving local optimums, there must be a way to coordinate efforts more effectively through the transfer of information to reduce that complexity (Tatikonda & Stock, 2003;Williams, et al., 2013). There is a continuum of approaches through which to manage and coordinate information sharing under uncertain conditions (Bode, et al., 2011;Galbraith, 1974Galbraith, , 1977. ...
As organizations are increasingly challenged to find new sources of profit improvement, cost reduction becomes a top priority on the business agenda. Expectations for cost reductions are ongoing and influence both new and existing products and services. The costs for new product and service introductions are managed differently than ongoing cost reductions. Purchasing plays a central role, with different goals, in cost control for new products and services versus ongoing cost savings. This research uses a case study methodology to understand the conflict purchasing faces in managing both new product costs and ongoing cost reductions. Due to goal incongruence between new product development and ongoing savings initiatives, purchasing may act in its own best interest, rather than in the best interest of the organization or team. This is both a contracting and information uncertainty problem, creating an opening for passive opportunism by purchasing. Thus, agency theory and information processing theory (IPT) are combined to examine how information uncertainty can be reduced and contractual goal alignment improved in these situations. The outcome of this research is to expose potential goal misalignment between new product development cost processes and ongoing cost savings, and suggest theoretically grounded methods for reducing the potential conflict.
... La interacción entre individuos o empresas, la cual se realiza en alguna parte de la cadena de suministro, principalmente en la fase de diseño de nuevos productos o servicios refleja como resultado la transferencia de tecnología. De tal manera, que en [5] describen la participación de las empresas involucradas en medida de varios elementos como el nivel de conocimiento actual de la empresa contra el esperado para la tecnología que se va a transferir; el tipo de tecnología que se desea implementar en el proceso de producción (grado de novedad, de complejidad y de conocimiento tácito que se quiere transmitir); y el tipo de capacidad para procesar la información (tipo de comunicación que se utilizará, la coordinación que se llevará a cabo entre las empresas participantes y la cooperación de las mismas). ...
Small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) represent an important role in the supply chain worldwide. Even though, they have infrastructure differences against multinationals, SMEs have on their side the flexibility advantage in developing new strategies, projects, and more. Specifically, projects in horizontal collaboration within competitors. Benefits on horizontal collaboration highlighted in a literature review as a decrease in operation costs, collaborative inventory, knowledge transfer, innovation and new product development. For SMEs to obtain these benefits and work within a trust environment, align on contracts, agreements and management has to be stablish. This paper objective is to understand from a knowledge management perspective, which horizontal collaboration dimensions are of high importance for SMEs working inside a cluster. A questionnaire is design and applied to the SMEs partners in the Cluster MACH, located in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. The data obtained is analyze through a Miltenburg matrix adaptation to identify the horizontal collaboration elements of high importance for the SMEs. The originality of this article lies in the adaptation of the Miltenburg matrix to stablish strategies for a horizontal collaboration between competitive SMEs. Creating an opportunity to implement this tool in future investigation in the collaborative supply chain area. Developing as a result, a series of propose actions listed for the cluster to develop a horizontal collaboration strategy within the SMEs.
This paper attempts to develop a model investigating impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) usage on entrepreneurs’ innovations and business performance. Small and Medium Size Enterprises are major sources of employment and food production; therefore it plays a key role in Indian livelihood. Sector plays a major role for creation of employment opportunities, mobilizing domestic savings, poverty alleviation, income distribution, regional development, training of workers and entrepreneurs and creating economic environment which large industries flourish and contribute to export earnings. When considering the current statistics it shows that sector is not providing the expected results compared to developed countries. Thus there is a burning need to identify mechanism to improve SME performance in India.
In recent years, there has been a growing emphasis on the role of innovation in enhancing resilience within supply chains. Furthermore, an increased interest in innovation as a key driver of resilience can be observed in practice. Despite this increased interest, research investigating the effects of supply chain innovation (SCI) on supply chain resilience (SCR) remains limited. To address this gap, we conceptualized a theoretical framework, grounded in the dynamic capabilities view, for testing the effect of SCI on SCR. Our research model further tested whether and how environmental uncertainty (EU) and top management involvement (TMI) moderate the effect of SCI on SCR, using structural equation modelling and survey data from 212 senior managers of firms in the textile and clothing industry in China. The study's findings offer a nuanced understanding of SCR and implications regarding SCI, EU, and TMI. Implications and suggestions for further research are also provided.
How orchestrating external, supplier‐provided resources affects product innovation is an important question. While product innovation is essential to achieve a competitive advantage, it is costly as it requires significant investments. It thus puts a severe strain on firm resources, which is particularly critical for resource‐scarce small–medium enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, these firms must combine their own resources with those of external parties, particularly suppliers, to enhance their product innovation. However, knowledge about how orchestrating these resources affects product innovation is limited, because empirical studies on resource orchestration have largely focused on firm‐internal resources; furthermore, there is ambiguity regarding the extent to which drawing on external resources is beneficial. In addition, the conditions that affect the resource orchestration–product innovation relationship remain unexplored. Therefore, we focus on supplier logistics integration (SLI), an important resource orchestration action referring to the orchestration of external, supplier‐provided resources; we draw on the resource orchestration framework and the related work on organizational rigidity to theorize that there is an inverted U‐shaped relationship between SLI and product innovation. Additionally, we suggest that learning orientation and environmental dynamism mitigate rigidities associated with high levels of SLI and thus facilitate the translation of SLI into product innovation. Testing our hypotheses with data from Swedish SMEs supports our theorizing and provides important contributions. Most importantly, we extend the resource orchestration framework to include the focus on external, supplier‐provided resources, thereby advancing our knowledge and understanding of resource orchestration for product innovation in SMEs.
How orchestrating external, supplier-provided resources affects product innovation is an important question. While product innovation is essential to achieve a competitive advantage, it is costly as it requires significant investments. It thus puts a severe strain on firm resources, which is particularly critical for resource-scarce small–medium enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, these firms must combine their own resources with those of external parties, particularly suppliers, to enhance their product innovation. However, knowledge about how orchestrating these resources affects product innovation is limited, because empirical studies on resource orchestration have largely focused on firm-internal resources; furthermore, there is ambiguity regarding the extent to which drawing on external resources is beneficial. In addition, the conditions that affect the resource orchestration–product innovation relationship remain unexplored. Therefore, we focus on supplier logistics integration (SLI), an important resource orchestration action referring to the orchestration of external, supplier-provided resources; we draw on the resource orchestration framework and the related work on organizational rigidity to theorize that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between SLI and product innovation. Additionally, we suggest that learning orientation and environmental dynamism mitigate rigidities associated with high levels of SLI and thus facilitate the translation of SLI into product innovation. Testing our hypotheses with data from Swedish SMEs supports our theorizing and provides important contributions. Most importantly, we extend the resource orchestration framework to include the focus on external, supplier-provided resources, thereby advancing our knowledge and understanding of resource orchestration for product innovation in SMEs.
Road transport significantly contributes to climate change and air pollution. Efforts to reduce transport sector emissions include deploying battery electric vehicles and designing their powertrains for improved performance. The European H2020 funded Functionally Integrated E-axle Ready for Mass Market Third GENeration Electric Vehicles (FITGEN) developed a novel functionally integrated e-axle (the FITGEN e-axle) for electric vehicles. This paper presents the environmental performance of the FITGEN e-axle. Using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, the study compares the FITGEN e-axle to the 2018 State-of-the-Art (SotA) e-drive, besides diesel and petrol-fuelled powertrains. The FITGEN powertrain reduces climate impacts by 10 % and energy consumption by 17 %, compared with the 2018 SotA e-drive due to the efficiency improvements and components integration. It also outperforms the 2018 SotA e-drive in several other impact categories, such as human toxicity (4-10 %), land use (19 %), and mineral depletion (8 %). However, the FITGEN powertrain only outperforms diesel and petrol powertrains in climate change and fossil resource scarcity impact categories. These findings imply that more efforts are required to improve the environmental profile of electric powertrains. Metal mining and production, especially for copper and aluminium, are critical for toxicity impacts. The sensitivity analysis demonstrates the robustness of the results, with no significant shift in their ranking order. The following aspects should be considered to improve the performance of electric powertrains from a life cycle perspective: improvement of components efficiency, reduced use of electronics and component integration, and use of low-carbon energy mix from their metal mining sites to production and use.
A TT é complexa, pois uma diversidade de questões deve ser avaliada antes, durante e após a aquisição de uma ou mais tecnologias. Em uma cadeia de suprimentos os procedimentos de TT se expandem entre diferentes empresas e entidades, gerando-se abordagens teóricas e empíricas específicas. Os objetivos deste estudo são identificar na literatura estudos que tratam da TT na cadeia de suprimentos e apresentar os respectivos focos dos principais estudos. A base de dados consultada foi a Scopus. Após execução de buscas, foram encontrados estudos com focos diretos na TT em cadeia de suprimentos. Os estudos elaborados pelos pesquisadores se limitam a certos estágios da cadeia de suprimentos ou ainda, tratam da cadeia de suprimentos no geral visando melhorar desempenhos da TT.
Background: In the current era, innovation has become the basis for the success of all industries. In reality, fast innovation facilitated by rapidly changing technological discoveries is critical to global economic progress.Aim: The primary goal of this article is to examine the effect of knowledge exchange and development of supervisory support, trust, training, information technology, and industrial cluster resources on innovation capabilities in the dairy sector of Pakistan.Setting: From a total of 520 small and medium enterprise (SMEs) dairy farms, 227 owners and managers were carefully chosen to participate in the survey.Method: The current study’s research framework was based on the resources and diffusion of innovation perspective theories. The data were gathered from dairy farm owners and managers in Punjab, Pakistan. SmartPLS-SEM was used to examine the multivariate connection among the variables.Results: The current research finds that training and development, supervisory assistance, and industrial cluster resources strongly influence knowledge sharing. Furthermore, trust has a favourable influence on innovative capabilities. However, the mediation effect of knowledge sharing (KS) did not support information technology (IT) training and development (TD) and innovative capabilities (IC).Conclusion: According to findings in the study, TD as a form of learning connect employees through the sharing of new ideas, allowing the business to improve and the concept to be modified. This study found that supervisory assistance significantly impacts innovative capabilities and knowledge sharing.
The purpose of this study is to explore the causal impact of project management effort on project profitability (i.e., profit on sales) for varying degrees of project complexity in an engineer-to-order (ETO) project setting. We use a sample of 917 projects’ status reports of a large firm that offers ETO products coupled with a control function approach to empirically investigate the causal effect of project management effort on projects’ profitability. Furthermore, we investigate the marginal impact of project management effort and its effect for different degrees of project complexity. Our results reveal a positive but diminishing impact of project management effort on project profitability. Furthermore, we find that higher project complexity jeopardizes project profitability. However, project management's marginal impact increases with increasing project complexity, ultimately leading to higher returns of more complex projects. While previous research provided correlational evidence between project management and project success, this study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first to demonstrate a causal impact of project management on profitability. The results offer unique insights into the economic benefits of project management while taking into account the complexity of the projects. The study confirms the benefits of project management efforts regarding project profitability and underlines the high relevance of project management for complex projects, thereby underlining the importance of contingency theory. It shows that firms can compensate higher ETO customization and higher project complexity through higher project management effort.
Although using a single vendor when outsourcing information technology (IT) services (i.e., single‐sourcing) is commonplace, splitting the IT service package among multiple vendors (i.e., multisourcing) is an increasingly popular strategy. However, our understanding of the factors that contribute to this trend is limited. Guided by a thorough review of the extant literature and interviews with industry experts, we focus on the influence of emerging technologies (i.e., cloud‐based services and automation services), vendor location (i.e., offshore or domestic), and experiential learning (i.e., client and vendor experience) on the choice between single‐sourcing and multisourcing for IT services. The trend towards more multisourcing exemplifies a broader movement towards greater disaggregation and distribution of knowledge work. Thus, we utilize a knowledge‐based perspective to develop our hypotheses for how the aforementioned factors relate to the likelihood of multisourcing. Analyzing a large database of IT service contracts, we find that cloud‐based services are less likely to be multisourced, but automation services are not significantly associated with the likelihood of multisourcing. We also find that more experienced client firms are more likely to adopt multisourcing. Conversely, our results indicate that more experienced vendors and vendors located offshore are less likely to be part of multisourcing arrangements. Exploratory post hoc analyses yield additional interesting insights related to client and vendor location. These findings advance our understanding of the drivers of the single‐sourcing versus multisourcing decision in IT and more broadly contribute to the literature on technology sourcing. Our study has normative implications for both client and vendor management teams.
This study aims to identify the strategies for developing competitive suppliers for a weak main manufacturer in a complex product systems (CoPS) supply chain. Several crucial characteristics in the competition of CoPS are considered when stakeholders exhibit differential ability. Dual-sourcing and a jointed strategy have been proposed to facilitate supplier development and technology cooperation. Multi-stage games are developed to explore the optimal strategies based on a benchmark model. The optimal decisions and a computational analysis are presented to examine the effect of supplier development. The results show that dual-sourcing and technology licensing contracts have a significant effect on improving indigenous technology capability in the short term. However, a dual-sourcing strategy with a jointed contract is the most efficient supplier development strategy and technology cooperation in the long term. The powerful or the collaborative supplier would be a first-tier supplier for the weak main manufacturer, depending on different parameters such as the technology transfer ability of the collaborative supplier and contract items. Overall, the impact of key parameters on the optimal strategies are considerably different.
Purpose
Technological uncertainty and technological complexity are the two dominant characteristics of new product development (NPD) projects that have a negative influence on NPD performance, relying on a strong theoretical argumentation based on organizational information processing theory. The purpose of this study is the development of reliable and valid scales for the measurement of technological uncertainty and technological complexity, especially in the context of the discontinuous technological change of digitization.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses material from 44 in-depth interviews, which has been transferred into a questionnaire, and survey data from 166 respondents from the German automotive industry in charge of the development and production of electric and electronic technologies (including software). In this context, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are used to test the developed scales for reliability and validity.
Findings
In this context, it can be stated that the developed scales affirm reliability and validity sufficiently. Interestingly, novelty, regarded as key item for measuring technological uncertainty, has to be dropped, as the factor loadings are under the cut-off of 0.40. Moreover, resulting items for measuring technological uncertainty and technological complexity do not deviate significantly from those discussed in previous study before the discontinuous technological change of digitization occurred.
Originality/value
This paper provides value for the discussion on how to measure technological uncertainty and technological complexity, especially in times of radical technological changes.
The automotive industry is a leader in the use of design agents to create components for new and redesigned vehicles. In the resulting interorganizational relationship, uncertainties at project inception add to the difficulty of delivering new component designs and force knowledge transference to comply with requirements as the project progresses. Organizational Information Processing Theory drives a research framework to examine the levels of knowledge exchange appropriate under prevailing uncertainty. A survey of over 300 design agencies validates the framework. Results show non-linear relationships with both positive and negative aspects of knowledge exchange that vary according to the levels of uncertainty, knowledge requirements, and exchange capacity. Theoretical implications include confirming mediated impacts of uncertainty and structured communication on project productivity plus the addition of precise alignment of knowledge requirements and knowledge exchanges. Design agencies must secure adequate, but not excessive, knowledge exchange. Researchers may consider the framework as a basis for extending the effect of uncertainty on consequential performance, as opposed to assuming uncertainty will impede effectiveness or testing uncertainty and managerial interventions as separate contingencies. Managers must work to carefully identify knowledge requirements at project commencement and establish appropriate communication structures and practices.
Access to new technologies is a key factor of competitive advantage for many supply chains. In this paper, we explore the impact of technology investment on supply chain coordination. To be specific, we analytically investigate the optimal pricing and technology investment decisions in a system consisting of two complementary suppliers and one manufacturer. On one hand, the suppliers are required to invest in new technologies in order to participate in the supply chain negotiations. On the other hand, the manufacturer acts as the Stackelberg leader, who offers a wholesale price (WS) contract to the suppliers. We compare both the decentralized and centralized settings, and show that if the supply chain members decide to cooperate and coordinate the system, they could increase the overall expected profit by at least 1/3 compared to the non-cooperative scenario. We then find that the cost-revenue sharing (CR) contract is capable of coordinating the two-supplier one-manufacturer supply chain. Interestingly, the CR contract also offers a win-win profit scenario to all parties of the negotiation.
The agri-food supply chain (AFSC) is an extremely complex structure that comprises a series of events from farm-to-fork. Additionally, there is a wide range of information and material flows required to be managed, which are seen as the knowledge flow in the AFSCs. It is expected that the use of knowledge governance mechanisms (KGMs) will help in enhancing AFSC performance. To examine the impact of KGMs on AFSC performance, a mixed methods research design was applied. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data. Then, themes were generated through thematic analysis. Afterwards, relationships between KGMs and AFSC performance were built by using total interpretive structural modelling (TISM). Finally, questionnaire-based structured interviews were undertaken to evaluate the empirical and theoretical findings further. The research results indicate that trust-, reciprocity-, market-, and contract-based KGMs have positive effects on product quality, efficiency, flexibility, responsiveness, and process quality of AFSC. Furthermore, market-based KGM, located in the lowest level in the TISM hierarchy, should be given additional focus due to its role as a key force driving the higher level of AFSC performance and other KGMs. The findings provide AFSC practitioners with useful guidance on how the relationships between KGMs and AFSC performance should be managed to improve the performance of AFSC.
Purpose
Technological uncertainty and technological complexity are key characteristics of new product development (NPD) projects that impose significant information processing requirements on organizations. This paper examines the direct influence of technological uncertainty and technological complexity as well as the indirect influence of work experience on organizational information processing capabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
The author used a sample of 166 respondents from the German automotive industry and applied linear hierarchical regression analysis.
Findings
The results confirm a negative influence of technological uncertainty and technological complexity on organizational information processing capability. This research also supports a moderating influence of work experience on these relationships.
Originality/value
This research helps to understand the relationship between technological uncertainty, technological complexity and OIPC. It represents a first and different approach to measure these constructs for further empirical studies and provides interesting managerial implications.
This paper aims to solve the “paradox” between strength of tie and technology newness from a new perspective. It intends to disclose that technology newness depends on combinations of tie strengths of different types of actors in a network rather than one type of actor's tie strength. To do so, a qualitative comparative analysis is conducted based on 166 knowledge-intensive firms in Beijing Zhongguancun High-Tech Park. Results suggest that there are three combinations of different types of actors' tie strength sufficient for technology newness, and strong tie with firms is a necessary condition for technology newness. Results confirm that tie strength with an individual type of actors have complex trade-off effects and that only specific combinations of tie strength with different types of actors in an innovation network act as sufficient conditions for technology newness. The result tends to show that balanced and scientific management of relationship between focal firms and different actors in a network is of great importance to technology innovation and strategy making.
Given the high uncertainty in R&D work, a key concern of R&D managers is to understand how to fail faster by managing time and cost efficiently among their R&D projects. This study investigates how using a variety of Six Sigma tools can differentially affect R&D project time and cost performance. Our data are collected from 35 R&D projects in an industrial R&D center, and a total of 30 different Six Sigma tools were found to be used in varying frequencies. We analyze this problem in two phases. First, by analyzing the frequencies of tool use in the 35 projects through factor analysis, we find the application of Six Sigma tools can be guided by two distinct patterns of tool use: design-oriented tools (DT) and non-design-oriented tools (non-DT). DT include quality function deployment and failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) for defining and understanding of the focal problems, while non-DT include Pareto chart and design of experiment for generating and testing solutions for the defined problems. Second, based on the two categories of tool use, we further analyze the effects of the two patterns of tool use on project duration and project cost. Results show that using a variety of DT is associated with faster project completion and non-DT lower project cost. In addition, the use of Six Sigma tools (both DT and non-DT) is associated with shorter durations and higher costs for complex projects but lower costs and longer durations for less complex projects. That is, different modes of trade-ff between time and cost performance can occur when project complexity is considered as a moderating factor. Overall, our findings demonstrate new insights into how using a variety of problem-solving tools affects R&D project cost and duration simultaneously.
There's no need to state again the complexity of the problem of achieving high performance in the new product process. What we do need is a framework to help sort out the complexity, and that is what Eunsang Yoon and Gary Lilien provide in this article. They first differentiate between original and reformulated new products. Then they examine how patterns of R&D and marketing activities determine short and long‐run success.
Toyota enjoys competitive advantages over several companies due to its effective integrated system, both in product design and manufacturing-process design, and other aspects of business function. Toyota developed its system over decades through an incremental process of taking good ideas and adapting them to the existing structure. The system balances the demands of functional expertise and cross-functional coordination. The benefits and drawbacks of a particular practice are analyzed, including how it contributes to all aspects of integration. Finally, the success of Toyota's system lies on its skilled people with a lot of hands-on experiences, deep technical knowledge, and an eye for the overall system.
Logistics channels are usually designed to go one way—toward the customer. Moving goods in the other direction disrupts this flow, much like driving a car the wrong way on a one way street. The concept of symbiotic logistics offers insight into the solution or avoidance of problems associated with reverse logistics.
Organizations have been quick to realize that involving suppliers in new product/process/service development efforts has the potential for significant results. Numerous studies have highlighted the fact that supplier participation in product development projects can help reduce cost, reduce concept to customer development time, improve quality, and provide innovative technologies that can help capture market share. However, not all efforts are successful. Supplier integration is most successful when driven by a formalized process that considers supplier capabilities, level of complexity of the technology, and degree of risk. Leading companies conduct a formal in-depth supplier evaluation and risk assessment prior to supplier involvement on the project team.
What steps should the industrial new product manager take to improve new product performance? This article pulls together the findings from the many research studies into what makes a new product a success. Six important lessons for managers are developed from those studies. The lessons point to a flow model approach to the development and commercialization of a new product — a step-by-step approach to successful product innovation. A seven-stage model, designed to move a product from the idea stage to product launch, is described. Actual case histories illustrate how each stage of the model can be implemented.
This paper develops a conceptual typology of inward technology transfer (ITT), which explicitly considers technology transfer at the project, rather than the firm, level of analysis. Building on extant technology management literature and the organizational theories of information processing and interdependence, we carefully characterize the three dimensions of the typology: the technology uncertainty of the technology that is transferred, the organizational interaction between the technology source and recipient, and transfer effectiveness. Appropriate matches of technology uncertainty and organizational interaction result in four archetypal cases called “transfer process types”, which represent the most effective approaches to technology transfer. Real‐life examples of effective and ineffective matches are presented, and implications of the typology for future research and practice are discussed.
The management of new service development (NSD) has become an important competitive concern in many service industries. However, NSD remains among the least studied and understood topics in the service management literature. As a result, our current understanding of the critical resources and activities to develop new services is inadequate given NSD’s importance as a service competitiveness driver. Until recently, the generally accepted principle behind NSD was that “new services happen” rather than occurring through formal development processes. Recent efforts to address this debate have been inconclusive. Thus, additional research is needed to validate or discredit the belief that new services happen as a result of intuition, flair, and luck. Relying upon the general distinctions between research exploitation and exploration, this paper describes areas in NSD research that deserve further leveraging and refinement (i.e. exploitation) and identifies areas requiring discovery or new study (i.e. exploration). We discuss the critical substantive and research design issues facing NSD scholars such as defining new services, choice in focusing on the NSD process or performance (or both), and specification of unit of analysis. We also examine what can be exploited from the study of new product development to further understanding of NSD. Finally, we explore one important area for future NSD research exploration: the impact of the Internet on the design and development of services. We offer research opportunities and research challenges in the study of NSD throughout the paper.
This study links theories concerning methods that firms use to acquire technology with theories concerning types of technological change. We place particular emphasis on interorganizational relationships. We predict that firms will often acquire know‐how needed for encompassing technological change through equity‐based arrangements with other organizations, complementary technological changes through nonequity interorganizational arrangements, and incremental changes through internal R&D. Our theory draws on perspectives that emphasize the need to develop new competencies within a business organization and to protect the value of existing competencies. Our empirical analysis examines methods of technology acquisition that firms have used in the commercialization of medical lithotripters, which are devices that fragment stones in the kidney and gall bladder. The analysis contributes to a better understanding of how technology acquisition methods vary with the manner in which technological change relates to a firm's existing capabilities. The study also helps develop our understanding of the evolutionary processes by which capabilities diffuse through an industry. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
As global competitive pressure increases and product life cycles compress, companies are trying to shorten product development cycle times. The author investigates the relationship between the actual length of product development cycle times (in months) and several basic product development project strategy and process characteristics. The research quantifies how product development cycle times increase with increased product complexity and with product newness, how using a cross-functional team interacts with product newness in the way it acts to reduce cycle time, and how using a formal product development process interacts with product complexity in the way it acts to decrease cycle time. The findings suggest that using cross-functional teams is more important in projects in which less of the design is a carryover from a previous generation. Teams then had a large impact in reducing product development cycle times. In contrast, implementing a well thought-out process is more important in firms (or divisions of firms) developing complex products or services. The more complex a product, the more time a formal process eliminates from the development cycle.
Because new product development (NPD) teams are engaged in knowledge creation, NPD management should emphasize cognitive team processes rather than purely social processes. Using the notions of tacit knowledge and distributed cognition as a basis, the authors propose that the T-shaped skills, shared mental models, and NPD routines of team members, as well as the A-shaped skills of the team leader, are key design variables when creating NPD teams. The authors propose that trust in team orientation, trust in technical competence, information redundancy, and rich personal interaction are important process variables for the effective and efficient creation of new knowledge.
Many firms now realize the importance of planning product families and product platforms. However, little research addresses planning and execution of different types of projects within a product family platform series. This study investigates project characteristics, development challenges, typical outcomes, and success factors for product development projects at different locations in the product family spectrum. "Platform" projects result in products that initiate a new product family platform for a company. "Derivative" projects result in products consisting of extensions to an existing product family platform. Data on 108 new product development projects from a variety of assembled products industries were collected via a detailed survey and analyzed. Findings indicate that: (I) platform and derivative projects differ in project task characteristics (including the amount of new technology development undertaken and project complexity) and market newness; (2) platform and derivative projects generally do not differ in terms of project success (achievement of project objectives, level of company satisfaction, and perceived customer satisfaction) or smoothness of project execution; (3) both platform and derivative projects generally are executed in similar ways; (4) certain managerial approaches (including contingency planning, project-based evaluation of personnel, and overlap of design and manufacturing engineering) are associated with higher project execution success for both platform and derivative projects; and (5) use of interdependent technologies and novel project objectives are associated with project execution failure for platform projects. The results suggest that firms can continue to employ a single product development management process for both platform and derivative projects, as long as modest customization of the process is made for the given project type. Completely different management processes are not required. In all, the results presented in this article suggest specific managerial actions companies can take to significantly improve product development success. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.
This paper develops a framework for analyzing the competitive implications of innovation. The framework is based on the concept of transilience - the capacity of an innovation to influence the established systems of production and marketing. Application of the concept results in a categorization of innovation into four types. Examples from the technical history of the US auto industry are used to illustrate the concepts and their applicability. The analysis shows that the categories of innovation are closely linked to different patterns of evolution and to different managerial environments. Special emphasis is placed on the role of incremental technical change in shaping competition and on the possibilities for a technology based reversal in the process of industrial maturity.
Finally, a total management system for all aspects of the new product process, from conception to commercialization. This pragmatic book highlights the conditions and factors that guarantee new product success. It will help innovators implement their ideas and help managers turn the results into profits.
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The just-in-time (JIT) philosophy is revolutionizing U.S. manufacturing and distribution with a system that is more responsive to customer needs and desires. However, to operationalize the JIT philosophy, organizations must address the effect this system will have on channel power, conflict, and cooperation. This article briefly reviews the constructs of power, conflict, and cooperation and shows that JIT can, if implemented correctly, reduce channel conflict and improve channel cooperation.
Because new product development (NPD) teams are engaged in knowledge creation, NPD management should emphasize cognitive team processes rather than purely social processes. Using the notions of tacit knowledge and distributed cognition as a basis, the authors propose that the T-shaped skills, shared mental models, and NPD routines of team members, as well as the A-shaped skills of the team leader, are key design variables when creating NPD teams. The authors propose that trust in team orientation, trust in technical competence, information redundancy, and rich personal interaction are important process variables for the effective and efficient creation of new knowledge.
This paper develops a conceptual typology of inward technology transfer (ITT), which explicitly considers technology transfer at the project, rather than the firm, level of analysis. Building on extant technology management literature and the organizational theories of information processing and interdependence, we carefully characterize the three dimensions of the typology: the technology uncertainty of the technology that is transferred, the organizational interaction between the technology source and recipient, and transfer effectiveness. Appropriate matches of technology uncertainty and organizational interaction result in four archetypal cases called “transfer process types”, which represent the most effective approaches to technology transfer. Real-life examples of effective and ineffective matches are presented, and implications of the typology for future research and practice are discussed.
This chapter guides you through the basics of supply chain management. First, it introduces you to a supply chain with simple product, information and fund flows. Second, it outlines a functional view on supply chain management and the structure of the following five chapters on plan, source, make, deliver and return will be introduced. Third, it will look at the supply chain players and dynamics. Here you will be introduced to the challenge of balancing supply and demand with inventory. The chapter closes with a brief introduction to the next ten chapters on supply chain management.
Having read this chapter you will be able to:
Clarify what supply chains are and name their main components
Define a recommended functional model to categorise supply chain processes
Determine the players and dynamics in product supply chains
Many firms now realize the importance of planning product families and product platforms. However, little research addresses planning and execution of different types of projects within a product family platform series. This study investigates project characteristics, development challenges, typical outcomes, and success factors for product development projects at different locations in the product family spectrum. “Platform” projects result in products that initiate a new product family platform for a company. “Derivative” projects result in products consisting of extensions to an existing product family platform. Data on 108 new product development projects from a variety of assembled products industries were collected via a detailed survey and analyzed. Findings indicate that: (1) platform and derivative projects differ in project task characteristics (including the amount of new technology development undertaken and project complexity) and market newness; (2) platform and derivative projects generally do not differ in terms of project success (achievement of project objectives, level of company satisfaction, and perceived customer satisfaction) or smoothness of project execution; (3) both platform and derivative projects generally are executed in similar ways; (4) certain managerial approaches (including contingency planning, project-based evaluation of personnel, and overlap of design and manufacturing engineering) are associated with higher project execution success for both platform and derivative projects; and (5) use of interdependent technologies and novel project objectives are associated with project execution failure for platform projects. The results suggest that firms can continue to employ a single product development management process for both platform and derivative projects, as long as modest customization of the process is made for the given project type. Completely different management processes are not required. In all, the results presented in this article suggest specific managerial actions companies can take to significantly improve product development success.
In the management literature and the literature on technology transfer, it is widely acknowledged that learning in general, and the leveraging of knowledge throughout firms in particular, is important. However, there appears little systematic evidence of what technology and knowledge is transferred between organizations and how this occurs. The literature also tends to neglect how firms use such technology/knowledge transfer to cultivate appropriate technological capabilities. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by examining the successful exchange of resources and competencies between Fujitsu and ICL, and how it helped to extend the technological capabilities of both firms. It traces the evolution of the relationship from that of a loose technology-sharing agreement to that of sustained project collaboration and partnership. This relationship proved to be enduring, and provides a road map for firms engaged in technology/knowledge transfer to develop their indigenous technological capabilities.
The management of new service development (NSD) has become an important competitive concern in many service industries. However, NSD remains among the least studied and understood topics in the service management literature. As a result, our current understanding of the critical resources and activities to develop new services is inadequate given NSD’s importance as a service competitiveness driver. Until recently, the generally accepted principle behind NSD was that “new services happen” rather than occurring through formal development processes. Recent efforts to address this debate have been inconclusive. Thus, additional research is needed to validate or discredit the belief that new services happen as a result of intuition, flair, and luck. Relying upon the general distinctions between research exploitation and exploration, this paper describes areas in NSD research that deserve further leveraging and refinement (i.e. exploitation) and identifies areas requiring discovery or new study (i.e. exploration). We discuss the critical substantive and research design issues facing NSD scholars such as defining new services, choice in focusing on the NSD process or performance (or both), and specification of unit of analysis. We also examine what can be exploited from the study of new product development to further understanding of NSD. Finally, we explore one important area for future NSD research exploration: the impact of the Internet on the design and development of services. We offer research opportunities and research challenges in the study of NSD throughout the paper.
This paper investigates interrelationships of product design, organization design, processes for learning and managing knowledge, and competitive strategy. This paper uses the principles of nearly decomposable systems to investigate the ability of standardized interfaces between components in a product design to embed coordination of product development processes. Embedded coordination creates 'hierarchical coordination' without the need to continually exercise authority - enabling effective coordination of processes without the tight coupling of organizational structures. We develop concepts of modularity in product and organization designs based on standardized component and organization interfaces. Modular product architectures create information structures that provide the 'glue' that holds together the loosely coupled parts of a modular organization design. By facilitating loose coupling, modularity can also reduce the cost and difficulty of adaptive coordination, thereby increasing the strategic flexibility of firms to respond to environmental change. Modularity in product and organization designs therefore enables a new strategic approach to the management of knowledge based on an intentional, carefully managed loose coupling of a firm's learning processes at architectural and component levels of product creation processes.
Research and development (R&D) consortia represent a new organizational form which highlights barriers and clarifies solutions to efficient and timely technology transfer. Using interview, archival, and survey data collected on one of the nation's oldest and most prominent R&D consortia, the MCC (Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation), this study refines and contributes to established technology transfer theory by suggesting that four variables-communication interactivity, cultural and geographical distance, technology equivocality, and personal motivation-are central to technology transfer processes within and between organizations. Research hypotheses are presented in terms of a Technology Transfer Grid which depicts different combinations and managerial implications of the four variables.