Jonathan Linton and Steven Walsh
The purpose of this paper is to consider whether the characteristics of a technology affect the type of learning mode used for acquiring abilities related to specific…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider whether the characteristics of a technology affect the type of learning mode used for acquiring abilities related to specific competencies. While technological competencies have a direct impact on firm performance for technology‐intensive start‐ups, few if any of these firms posses all the prerequisite competencies required for a given technology‐product‐market paradigm as the firm enters or remains over time in that market. Consequently, high tech entrepreneurial firms must learn, acquire and develop competencies initially and in response to the changing requirements of industry standard products.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper includes a study of all 35 high‐tech start‐ups in the semiconductor silicon industry using primary and secondary source data.
Findings
The characteristics of a technology affect which of ten different learning methods are chosen by a firm to acquire a competence. The study finds that risk, uncertainty, status, pervasiveness, observability, disruptiveness, and centrality are technological characteristics that influence the learning modes that are selected by a firm.
Originality/value
This is the first study to focus on the impact of technological characteristics on learning methods used. Practical and theoretical value in determining under what technological circumstances a learning method should be used to acquire and develop skills with a new technology.
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Robert Tierney, Aard J. Groen, Rainer Harms, Miriam Luizink, Dale Hetherington, Harold Stewart, Steve T. Walsh and Jonathan Linton
Twenty first century problems are increasingly being addressed by multi technology solutions developed by regional entrepreneurial and intreprepreneurial innovators. However, they…
Abstract
Purpose
Twenty first century problems are increasingly being addressed by multi technology solutions developed by regional entrepreneurial and intreprepreneurial innovators. However, they require an expensive new type of fabrication facility. Multiple technology production facilities (MTPF) have become the essential incubators for these innovations. This paper aims to focus on the issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors address the lack of managerial understanding of how to express the value and operationally manage MTPF centers through the use of investigative case study methods for multiple firms in the study.
Findings
Owing to the MTPF centers' novelty and outward similarity to high volume semiconductor fabrication (HVF) facilities, they are laden with ineffective operation and strategic management practices. Metrics are the standard for both operational and strategic management of HVF facilities, yet their application to this new type of center is proving ineffectual.
Research limitations/implications
These new types of regional economic resources may be at risk. A new approach is needed.
Practical implications
The authors develop an operational and strategic metrics management approach for MTPFs that are based on these facilities' unique nature and leverages both the HVF and R&D metrics knowledge base.
Social implications
Innovations at the interface of micro technology, nanotechnology and semiconductor micro fabrication are poised to solve many of these problems and become a basis for job creation and prosperity. If a new management technique is not developed, then these harbingers of regional economic development will be closed.
Originality/value
While there is an abundance of research on metrics for HVF, this is the first attempt to develop metrics for MTPFs.
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Leila Hamzaoui Essoussi and Jonathan D. Linton
This paper aims to consider the price premium that consumers state they are willing to pay for products with reused or recycled content. It also aims to address the effect of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to consider the price premium that consumers state they are willing to pay for products with reused or recycled content. It also aims to address the effect of the impact of product category on consumers' willingness to pay premium prices.
Design/approach/methodology
Willingness to pay was studied for seven different product categories (n=49).
Findings
Perceived functional risk is an important determinant of the price that consumers are willing to pay for products that have recycled or reused content. It was also found that consumers will switch from a recycled product to a new product within a smaller range of price for products with high functional risk.
Research limitations/implications
The study is exploratory, while it serves its purpose by raising initial questions and finding that this is a complex area that is worth studying. Additional work is clearly required to consider the wide range of potentially relevant variables and a sampling plan that ensures an understanding of the generalisability of findings across the population within a region and across regions.
Practical implications
A technique for understanding consumer willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) is provided and insights into differences are offered between products in terms of WTP for greener products. Practitioners can use this technique to determine the price range and indirectly the profitability of a version of their product based on recycled or reused content.
Originality/value
An understanding of WTP for products with recycled or reused content is developed. This is important as legislation in many countries aims at diverting disposed product from waste dumps to consumers.
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Soo‐Hoon Lee, Phillip H. Phan and Toru Yoshikawa
This study examined the human and social capital factors associated with higher post‐succession firm performance in family enterprises in Singapore. We also investigated the…
Abstract
This study examined the human and social capital factors associated with higher post‐succession firm performance in family enterprises in Singapore. We also investigated the moderating influence of the board of directors in terms of its service role as stewards of the enterprise. We found that a successor’s industry experience and diversity of network ties were positively associated with firm performance and boards that focused their role as advisors to the successor enhanced post‐succession firm performance.
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S.C. Lenny Koh, Angappa Gunasekaran, Jonathan Morris, Raymond Obayi and Seyed Mohammad Ebrahimi
In response to calls for conceptual frameworks and generic theory building toward the advancement of sustainability in supply chain resource utilization and management, the…
Abstract
Purpose
In response to calls for conceptual frameworks and generic theory building toward the advancement of sustainability in supply chain resource utilization and management, the purpose of this paper is to advance a circular framework for supply chain resource sustainability (SCRS), and a decision-support methodology for assessing SCRS against the backdrop of five foundational premises (FPs) deduced from the literature on resource sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
Taking a conceptual theory-building approach, the paper advances a set of SCRS decision-support criteria for each of the theoretical premises advanced, and applies the theory of constraints to illustrate the conceptual and practical applications of the framework in SCRS decision making.
Findings
This study uses recent conceptualizations of supply chains as “complex adaptive systems” to provide a robust and novel frame and a set of decision rules with which to assess the interconnectedness of environmental, economic, and social capital of supply chain resources from pre-production to post-production.
Research limitations/implications
The paper contributes to theory building in sustainability research, and the SCRS decision framework developed could be applied in tandem with existing quantitative hybrid life-cycle and input-output approaches to facilitate targeted resource sustainability assessments, with implications for research and practice.
Originality/value
The novel SCRS framework proposed serves as a template for evaluating SCRS and provides a decision-support methodology for assessing SCRS against the five theorized FPs.
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Brian Hinton's article on librarian poets (“Librarians as unacknowledged legislators”, NLW March 1987) reminded us just how many librarians have been poets in our day and how many…
Abstract
Brian Hinton's article on librarian poets (“Librarians as unacknowledged legislators”, NLW March 1987) reminded us just how many librarians have been poets in our day and how many still are. Is this yet another aspect of the much publicised “poetry boom”, and how far is this “poetry boom” in fact a public relations exercise? Are more people reading, writing, buying contemporary poetry now? I shall take a look at these questions, focusing on manifestations of poetry activity today, and summing up with ways in which libraries, and especially public libraries, can gain from involvement with the “poetry boom”.
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The purpose of this study is to provide a unique competitive advantage to businesses in providing a wide range of products to prospective customers. To the best of the author’s…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to provide a unique competitive advantage to businesses in providing a wide range of products to prospective customers. To the best of the author’s knowledge, there is no study to discuss the impact of customer-centric retailing on total supply chain profit under price competition between organized and unorganized retailers.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper considers a supply chain comprising of organized and unorganized retailers and a single manufacturer. This paper proposes three mathematical models considering a customer-centric approach in a competitive environment. Stackelberg game is used to examine how members of the chain interact, and Nash equilibrium was used to find optimal strategies for players under different customer-centric approaches.
Findings
The results show that the total supply chain profit is higher when both organized and unorganized retailers use a customer-centric approach independently instead of collaborating process. The result, in addition, establishes that when the dissatisfying cost exceeds a certain threshold (1.5), the total profit is higher for the organized customer-centric effort model compared to the other two models.
Originality/value
The main contribution of the study is to examine the effect of customer-centric retailing, considering dissatisfying costs on supply chains profit and individual decision-making under price competition between organized retailers and unorganized retailers. The authors developed different mathematical models in the different customer-centric approach.
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Richard Lamboll, Adrienne Martin, Lateef Sanni, Kolawole Adebayo, Andrew Graffham, Ulrich Kleih, Louise Abayomi and Andrew Westby
The purpose of this paper is to explain why the high quality cassava flour (HQCF) value chain in Nigeria has not performed as well as expected. The specific objectives are to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain why the high quality cassava flour (HQCF) value chain in Nigeria has not performed as well as expected. The specific objectives are to: analyse important sources of uncertainty influencing HQCF value chains; explore stakeholders’ strategies to respond to uncertainty; and highlight the implications of different adaptation strategies for equity and the environment in the development of the value chain.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a conceptual framework based on complex adaptive systems to analyse the slow development of the value chain for HQCF in Nigeria, with a specific focus on how key stakeholders have adapted to uncertainty. The paper is based on information from secondary sources and grey literature. In particular, the authors have drawn heavily on project documents of the Cassava: Adding Value for Africa project (2008 to present), which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and on the authors’ experience with this project.
Findings
Policy changes; demand and supply of HQCF; availability and price of cassava roots; supply and cost of energy are major sources of uncertainty in the chain. Researchers and government have shaped the chain through technology development and policy initiatives. Farmers adapted by selling cassava to rival chains, while processors adapted by switching to rival cassava products, reducing energy costs and vertical integration. However, with uncertainties in HQCF supply, the milling industry has reserved the right to play. Vertical integration offers millers a potential solution to uncertainty in HQCF supply, but raises questions about social and environmental outcomes in the chain.
Research limitations/implications
The use of the framework of complex adaptive systems helped to explain the development of the HQCF value chain in Nigeria. The authors identified sources of uncertainty that have been pivotal in restricting value chain development, including changes in policy environment, the demand for and supply of HQCF, the availability and price of cassava roots, and the availability and cost of energy for flour processing. Value chain actors have responded to these uncertainties in different ways. Analysing these responses in terms of adaptation provides useful insights into why the value chain for HQCF in Nigeria has been so slow to develop.
Social implications
Recent developments suggest that the most effective strategy for the milling industry to reduce uncertainty in the HQCF value chain is through vertical integration, producing their own cassava roots and flour. This raises concerns about equity. Until now, it has been assumed that the development of the value chain for HQCF can combine both growth and equity objectives. The validity of this assumption now seems to be open to question. The extent to which these developments of HQCF value chains can combine economic growth, equity and environmental objectives, as set out in the sustainable development goals, is an open question.
Originality/value
The originality lies in the analysis of the development of HQCF value chains in Nigeria through the lens of complex adaptive systems, with a particular focus on uncertainty and adaptation. In order to explore adaptation, the authors employ Courtney et al.’s (1997) conceptualization of business strategy under conditions of uncertainty. They argue that organisations can assume three strategic postures in response to uncertainty and three types of actions to implement that strategy. This combination of frameworks provides a fresh means of understanding the importance of uncertainty and different actors’ strategies in the development of value chains in a developing country context.
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Zachary Ball, Jonathan Cagan and Kenneth Kotovsky
This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the industry practice to guide the formation of support tools with a rigorous theoretical backing. Cross-functional teams are an…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the industry practice to guide the formation of support tools with a rigorous theoretical backing. Cross-functional teams are an essential component in new product development (NPD) of complex products to promote comprehensive coverage of product design, marketing, sales, support as well as many other activities of business. Efficient use of teams can allow for greater technical competency coverage, increased creativity, reduced development times and greater consideration of ideas from a variety of stakeholders. While academics continually aspire to propose methods for improved team composition, there exists a gap between research directions and applications found within industry practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Through interviewing product development managers working across a variety of industries, this paper investigates the common practices of team utilization in an organizational setting. Following these interviews, this paper proposes a conceptual two-dimensional management support model aggregating the primary drivers of team success and providing direction to systematically address features of team management and composition.
Findings
Based on this work, product managers are recommended to continually address the positioning of members throughout the entire NPD process. In the early stages, individuals are to be placed to work on project components with explicit consideration toward the perceived complexity of tasks and individual competency. Throughout the development process, individuals’ positions vary based on new information while continued emphasis is placed on maintaining a shared understanding.
Originality/value
Bridging the gap between theory and application within product development teams is a necessary step toward improved product develop. Industrial settings require practical solutions that can be applied economically and efficiently within their organization. Theoretical reflections postulated by academia support improved team design; however, to achieve true success, they must be applicable when considering product development.