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1 – 10 of over 2000Jeroen P.J. de Jong and Patrick A.M. Vermeulen
Organizing new service development is an important topic for decision makers in service firms, since continuous innovation is expected to pay off. Although the literature on…
Abstract
Organizing new service development is an important topic for decision makers in service firms, since continuous innovation is expected to pay off. Although the literature on organizing new service development has grown rapidly over the last decade, the numerous publications are highly fragmented, each concentrating on a small piece of the complex innovation puzzle. This paper classifies current literature on organizing new service development (NSD) into two evolutionary stages: managing key activities in the NSD process, and creating a climate for continuous innovation. For both stages its consequences for the initiation and implementation of new services are discussed. The paper ends with limitations and suggestions for future research.
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Adopting a dual processing cognitive perspective, this study explores the decision-making processes past the start-up stage that small entrepreneurial businesses employ to grow…
Abstract
Adopting a dual processing cognitive perspective, this study explores the decision-making processes past the start-up stage that small entrepreneurial businesses employ to grow. The author examines how entrepreneurs evaluate and make decisions on growth opportunities in their business environment. The author uses cognitive style as a theoretical lens to capture differences in information processing, combining interviews and psychometric questionnaires to analyse cognitive styles. The longitudinal mixed methods approach illustrates the richness of the entrepreneur’s decision-making process, which the author tracks over a two-year period. The author determines how intuitive and analytical cognitive styles are used by entrepreneurs and the contribution these styles make to decision-making. The findings show that the two cognitive styles are versatile as entrepreneurs adjust and adapt their cognitive style over time, in keeping with the situational factors of their business environment. The author also finds marked differences between novice and mature entrepreneurs and that experienced entrepreneurs exhibited greater levels of cognitive versatility, which was directly linked to their prior experience. The study has significant implications for future research, which should consider the question how an entrepreneur’s cognitive style is dependent on the business context and their prior experience.
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Patrick Vermeulen, Shaz Ansari and Michael Lounsbury
While scholars have developed increasingly well-developed accounts of institutional change, little attention has been paid to how change is resisted and, in particular, how…
Abstract
While scholars have developed increasingly well-developed accounts of institutional change, little attention has been paid to how change is resisted and, in particular, how efforts to marketize fail. We draw on the institutional logics perspective to guide analysis of an empirical case of the failed attempt by the Dutch state to marketize childcare organizations and create a market for childcare. We document that even though the existence of logics that were antithetical to the market logic did not catalyze organized collective resistance to marketization, the market logic never took root, and marketization has even been rolled back. We argue that the failure to create a childcare market in the Netherlands was caused by individual-level cognitive dissonance that cumulated into profound field-level ambivalence that undermined efforts to implement market practices. We develop several propositions that could usefully guide future research on how cognitive dissonance might underlie the failure to construct markets. By theorizing failure to change a field, we contribute to the limited body of work that has looked at failed attempts to change institutions, arguing for more attention to individual-field cross-level dynamics.
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Safety is an important issue when manipulators operate in an environment where humans are present, such as the agriculture industry. An intrinsically safe mechanical system…
Abstract
Purpose
Safety is an important issue when manipulators operate in an environment where humans are present, such as the agriculture industry. An intrinsically safe mechanical system guarantees human safety when electronics or controls fail. However, industry also demands a certain operating velocity. A low inertia is the most important aspect to combine safety with a useful operating velocity, because this will limit the amount of kinetic or potential energy in the system and the required actuation forces. Low‐actuation forces limit the amount of static contact pressure between manipulator and human, a requirement for intrinsic safety. Low energy means that less contact force is required to put the manipulator to a stop in collision, an additional requirement. The goal of this paper is to find the maximum industrially applicable, manipulator mass for which intrinsic mechanical safety is guaranteed.
Design/methodology/approach
Observing existing and proposed manipulators in agriculture results in a required cycle time of 0.9 s, trajectory of 0.8 m and payload of 2 kg. Three important trade‐offs applying to the manipulator are identified. The first is between maximum velocity and acceleration, using cycle time and trajectory. The second is between maximum acceleration and mass, based on a measure for pain in contact pressure. The third is between maximum velocity and mass, using a collision model and the contact pressure during collision.
Findings
Combining all three trade‐offs results in an allowable arm effective inertia of 5.1 kg. Taking payload into account and converting to a realistic mass distribution results in a total mass of 9.3 kg. Compared to existing manipulators, both mass and payload are ambitious but realistic for the future development of an intrinsically safe manipulator.
Research limitations/implications
Accuracy in positioning is not taken into account.
Originality/value
This paper combines safety criteria on maximum energy and maximum static pressure, while also taking industrial applicable operating velocity into account.
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Glauco H.S. Mendes, Maicon Gouvea Oliveira, Eduardo H. Gomide and José Flávio Diniz Nantes
The purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of the new service development (NSD) research field. It addresses its scientific production, social and intellectual…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of the new service development (NSD) research field. It addresses its scientific production, social and intellectual structures, and maturity.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a bibliometric-based literature review. Quantitative and qualitative analyses are performed on a sample of 277 NSD articles (published from 1984 to 2014). These articles are organized into four periods to improve the analyses from an evolutionary perspective: Early Writings (1984-1995), Advancing of Literature (1996-2001), Progressive Literature (2002-2008), and Recent Works (2009-2014).
Findings
The scientific production in the NSD field has grown significantly over these four periods, and the entry of new authors has extended the social structure. However, collaboration networks seem disconnected from one another. Nonetheless, the intellectual structure has shown great progress, making NSD an independent area of research and discovery from the new product development domain, with its own foundations and expansions into new topics. Although the NSD research field has not yet reached maturity, it is consistently moving toward it.
Originality/value
This study delivers a multiperspective view of research on NSD using a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach. It provides new insights into the discussion of the field’s maturity and can be used as a roadmap for academics and practitioners who would like to understand the state of existing knowledge and are looking for research opportunities.
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Bo Bernhard Nielsen and Sabina Nielsen
This paper offers a discussion of the key multilevel issues pertaining to the multinationality–performance (M–P) relationship. Arguably, one of the most important areas of…
Abstract
This paper offers a discussion of the key multilevel issues pertaining to the multinationality–performance (M–P) relationship. Arguably, one of the most important areas of research in international business, firm internationalization and its consequences are multilevel phenomena, influenced by forces at different managerial and structural levels: from the executive, subsidiary and firm, to the country and industry. We suggest that accounting for important factors at each level and for their cross-level interactions may help reconcile inconsistent findings and advance our understanding of the M–P relationship. Based on a critical review of the literature, we offer recommendations regarding the appropriate levels of theory, measurement, and analysis to guide future research.
Spiros Gounaris, George Chryssochoidis and Achilleas Boukis
This paper reports on the impact of perceived resource adequacy (PRA) and competence (PRC) on new service development (NSD) teams’ internal performance (IP). This study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper reports on the impact of perceived resource adequacy (PRA) and competence (PRC) on new service development (NSD) teams’ internal performance (IP). This study aims to explore the indirect effect of internal market orientation (IMO) adoption, as a dynamic capability, on both PRA and PRC through the shaping of the emerging dynamics within NSD teams.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a hierarchical research design, the authors use a meso-theory approach to test a path-analytic framework against 116 NSD managers (offering data at the macro- or organisational level) and 543 NSD team members (offering data at the micro- or team level).
Findings
Both PRA and PRC are important in explaining NSD teams’ IP at the organisational level, though their explanatory power varies. The adoption of IMO is also an important antecedent to this factor through the (indirect) effect on the team climate and degree of integration.
Research limitations/implications
IMO is an important dynamic capability that allows management to transform the mindset of employees, even if they do not directly interact with customers. In NSD efforts, this reflects on the team’s perceptions of the adequacy of the resources they have to deliver the project through the managerial interventions at the team level, which (mainly) explains the team’s IP.
Practical implications
Adopting an IMO allows the development of a dynamic capability that carries wider benefits for the service organisation, as this has positive implications not just for frontline employees. Specifically, NSD efforts are likely to become more resource-efficient as a result of IMO adoption because of the interventions of management during the development effort.
Originality/value
This empirical study is the first to test the impact of IMO adoption as a dynamic capability and in a context other than frontline employees from a meso-theory perspective. This allows considering the different effects at the appropriate levels (macro and micro), thus enabling a more accurate definition of the mechanism through which companies benefit from IMO adoption.
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Decision-making biases play substantial roles in entrepreneurs' decisions and the fate of entrepreneurial enterprises, as well. Previous studies have assumed all entrepreneurs are…
Abstract
Purpose
Decision-making biases play substantial roles in entrepreneurs' decisions and the fate of entrepreneurial enterprises, as well. Previous studies have assumed all entrepreneurs are homogeneous in their proneness to biases, therefore inadvertently creating a crucial research gap by ignoring the role of business experience in the genesis of biases. Furthermore, there is a lack of research on women entrepreneurs' decision-making biases. Thus, this paper's main objective is to explore two influential biases of overconfidence and over-optimism in novice and habitual women entrepreneurs.
Design/methodology/approach
The data for this study were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with 21 Iranian novice and habitual women entrepreneurs active in four high-tech sectors of biotech, nanotech, aerospace and advanced medicine. The gathered data were analyzed by thematic analysis.
Findings
According to the findings, while habitual entrepreneurs are prone to all three types of overconfidence (overestimation, overplacement and overprecision) and over-optimism, novice entrepreneurs do not show any signs of overplacement or overprecision.
Practical implications
There are certain valuable implications resulting from this study that could be of use for not only future researchers in the field of entrepreneurial decision-making and women entrepreneurship but also for women entrepreneurs running entrepreneurial enterprises, especially small businesses.
Originality/value
This paper offers certain novel contributions to the field of entrepreneurship by not only exploring biases in women entrepreneurs exclusively but also scrutinizing biases in novice (first-time) and habitual (experienced) entrepreneurs comparatively.
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Peiran Su and Shengce Ren
We link the exploration–exploitation framework of organizational learning to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a developing economy. SMEs in a developing economy…
Abstract
We link the exploration–exploitation framework of organizational learning to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a developing economy. SMEs in a developing economy generally lack abundant resources and capabilities because of an evolving set of industrial and environmental regulations. Studying two SMEs in China, we argue that their approaches to balancing exploration and exploitation depend on the development stages of the SMEs and their industrial and environmental contexts. In particular, we propose a four-stage framework that unfolds via initiation, innovation, transformation, and expansion. In this framework, SMEs balance exploration and exploitation by adopting temporal separation and organizational separation sequentially. We also find that SMEs may benefit from exploring a narrow scope of products and exploiting them in a wide market scope.
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