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Abstract
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The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of past experience in managing risk and technical innovation in NASA space programs with lessons learned for new unmanned space…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of past experience in managing risk and technical innovation in NASA space programs with lessons learned for new unmanned space missions.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines past performance of space missions and abstracts the lessons learned for the efficient development of cost‐effective space missions.
Findings
The paper finds that large organizations build and internalize a culture at odds with risk taking and the rapid deployment of innovative solutions. Actualized management goals are often at odds with the issues that determine or insure the long‐term survival of an organization. A key issue is the management of knowledge within that system: the extrinsic knowledge of the technologies as well as the intrinsic knowledge associated with the perception and acceptance of risk.
Research limitations/implications
Innovation can be seen as being dangerous to the organization. That perception must be managed. The NASA culture that is applicable to human spaceflight may not serve the community or the organization as well when applied to unmanned missions.
Practical implications
The paper provides a simplified and brief perspective on the issues inherent in managing a change in culture in an organization that has a highly public mission.
Originality/value
While the NASA “faster, better, cheaper” program has been considered elsewhere, this paper focuses on the lessons that are applicable to the management of space missions and the development of new, cost‐effective programs. These lessons retain their value, as the new administrator Michael D. Griffin attempts to manage the transition of NASA from an organization that has been in maintenance mode to one that must embrace innovation and stay within a highly constrained funding profile.
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James Juichia Lin, Edward M. Werner and Ya-Chi Huang
This chapter investigates how market competition relates to firm corporate social responsibility (CSR) investment strategy. Using separate measures to capture different dimensions…
Abstract
This chapter investigates how market competition relates to firm corporate social responsibility (CSR) investment strategy. Using separate measures to capture different dimensions of competition, we find that firms are likely to invest more (less) in socially responsible initiatives when competition from existing rivals (potential entrants) is high. We also find that industry leaders are more likely to engage in more CSR when higher levels of competition exist, while followers primarily choose to strengthen other aspects of their competitiveness instead. Finally, analyzing the impact of CEO overconfidence on CSR engagement, our study finds novel evidence suggesting that firms with overconfident CEOs tend to underestimate the intensity of competition and are less sensitive to the impact of market competition on CSR engagement, relative to rational CEOs.
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Spaceflight presents a unique environment in which multiteam coordination is often required for mission success. This chapter will explore the topic of multiteam systems (MTSs…
Abstract
Purpose
Spaceflight presents a unique environment in which multiteam coordination is often required for mission success. This chapter will explore the topic of multiteam systems (MTSs) and their functioning in this environment.
Approach
This chapter describes the MTS case of human spaceflight in terms of a specific subset of the system involved in current human spaceflight missions: NASA Mission Control and the NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station. In addition to describing the system itself, this chapter describes notable advantages and disadvantages of this particular MTS, along with potential future issues in human spaceflight and research directions for use of MTSs in spaceflight.
Findings
More than 40 years of successful human spaceflight missions have demonstrated many of the benefits and drawbacks of MTSs across some of the most challenging environments faced by any teams attempting coordination. These environmental challenges include extreme distances, limited modes of communication, complex systems, novel problems, and coordination between teams from multiple countries with differing goals and priorities. The specific advantages and drawbacks of MTSs in this environment, and the impacts of the aforementioned environmental challenges, are discussed.
Originality
This chapter examines a known operational and successful MTS that operates in an environment in which many of the standard assumptions regarding teams and MTSs may not apply.
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Likoebe Maruping, Arun Rai, Ruba Aljafari and Viswanath Venkatesh
Advances in information technology coupled with the need to build resilience against disruptions by pandemics like COVID-19 continue to emphasize offshoring services in the…
Abstract
Purpose
Advances in information technology coupled with the need to build resilience against disruptions by pandemics like COVID-19 continue to emphasize offshoring services in the software industry. Service-level agreements (SLAs) have served as a key mechanism for safeguarding against risk in offshore service arrangements. Yet, variations in service cost and quality persist. This study aims to open up the blackbox linking SLAs to offshore project outcomes by examining (1) how the provisions in these contracts affect the ability of project teams – the work unit primarily in charge of producing the offshored service – to achieve their objectives and fulfill client requirements and (2) how differences in contextual factors shape the effects of these provisions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors incorporate the role of organizational work practice differences to understand the challenges that 270 offshore project teams faced in coordinating and integrating technical and business domain knowledge across organizational boundaries in offshore arrangements. The examined offshore IT projects were managed by a leading software vendor in India and several of its US-based clients over a three-year period.
Findings
The authors demonstrate that organizational work practice differences represent a barrier to offshore project success, and that project team transition processes are an important mechanism for overcoming these barriers. Moreover, the authors find that transition processes represent key mediating mechanisms through which SLA provisions affect offshore project outcomes.
Originality/value
The study findings shed light on how SLAs shape software project teams' balance between activities aimed at meeting client needs and those aimed at containing costs.
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Raghu Garud and Thinley Tharchen
Institutional arrangements, while constituting subject positions, also relegate others to inhabit unlivable abject positions. Such a perspective on identity begs the question on…
Abstract
Institutional arrangements, while constituting subject positions, also relegate others to inhabit unlivable abject positions. Such a perspective on identity begs the question on the possibilities of institutional reform given that abjects must seek recourse, if any, from the very institutions that marginalized them. One source for reform can be found in the functioning of institutional forums vested with performative powers, such as the Supreme Court. But how do these institutional forums legitimately bring about social transformation given that precedents bind them? To address this puzzle, we analyzed two Supreme Court rulings that showcase the performativity of institutions in materializing subject/abject positions, and the reforms that are possible. One is the 2015 US Supreme Court ruling providing marriage rights to same-sex couples. The other is the 2014 Indian Supreme Court ruling that legalized a third gender. An analysis of these two rulings and a comparison across them highlights the historical yet contingent nature of identity. The analysis also highlights “citational grafting” as a key mechanism underlying institutional reform, i.e., citations to earlier instances of social transformation serving as precedents for bringing about additional changes given new circumstances.
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Ali Vedadi, Nita Brooks and Tim Greer
Many organizations struggle to utilize security-as-a-service (SecaaS) advantages effectively, thus challenging the assumption that adopting the SecaaS model will necessarily lead…
Abstract
Purpose
Many organizations struggle to utilize security-as-a-service (SecaaS) advantages effectively, thus challenging the assumption that adopting the SecaaS model will necessarily lead to post-adoption satisfaction. This research paper draws on the organizational mindfulness theory and investigates the factors that lead to satisfaction with SecaaS.
Design/methodology/approach
The key informant-based survey approach was employed to collect data from 215 organizations that were using the SecaaS model. PLS was used for data analysis.
Findings
Organizations with greater extents of internal security resources report higher satisfaction levels with SecaaS, thanks to the mediating effect of organizational mindfulness, and that organizations with extensive and mature security auditing were especially well-positioned to experience satisfaction with SecaaS.
Originality/value
This research provides new theoretical insights into the conditions under which organizations' post-adoption satisfaction with the SecaaS model is shaped by investigating the role of internal security resources and organizational mindfulness.
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Joanna Ho, Cody Lu and Lorenzo Lucianetti
This paper aims to examine whether and how two firm-level factors jointly moderate the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and firm performance: (1…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine whether and how two firm-level factors jointly moderate the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and firm performance: (1) the “alignment” between a firm's CSR activities and risk preferences and (2) performance measurement systems (PMS).
Design/methodology/approach
Using survey responses from top managers of private Italian companies and matching archival data on the financial performance of these companies, the authors show that the positive effect of CSR activities on firm performance is contingent upon CSR–risk alignment, which creates competitive advantages, and the extent to which the firm's PMS are supportive of its strategic initiatives.
Findings
The findings suggest that to extract economic benefits from CSR activities, firms must align CSR activities with their risk preferences and rely on PMS to overcome the causal ambiguity between CSR activities and competitive advantage.
Originality/value
Overall, this study contributes to both the CSR–firm performance and consequences of PMS literature and holds significant practical implications.