Alistair Davidson and Mason Tenaglia
This annual directory of software for planning and strategic management projects lists some noteworthy tools, samples of the many available choices. Some of these software…
Mason Tenaglia and Patrick Noonan
By incorporating senior management's scenarios—alternative stories about the competition, markets, capital investments, new technologies—into the planning process, executives can…
Abstract
By incorporating senior management's scenarios—alternative stories about the competition, markets, capital investments, new technologies—into the planning process, executives can test and build a consensus on the implicit and explicit mental models of their business.
Christopher Durugbo and John Ahmet Erkoyuncu
The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolution of industrial service uncertainties and the approaches for mitigating these uncertainties. The paper also sheds light on how…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolution of industrial service uncertainties and the approaches for mitigating these uncertainties. The paper also sheds light on how the interplay of potential uncertainties due to service operation challenges shapes the decisiveness of product-centric businesses.
Design/methodology/approach
To better understand how industrial firms mitigate uncertainties of industrial service provision by their supply chains, the authors adopted a qualitative multi-case logic methodology. The approach is based on a research model of uncertainty avoidance and uncertainty reduction which the authors applied in an exploratory study with three major multi-national firms in the aerospace industry: BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and Rolls-Royce.
Findings
From the analysis, the authors found that to mitigate industrial service uncertainty, there is a need for aftermarket-oriented organisation, audit-oriented governance, relationship-oriented intelligence and lifecycle-oriented contracts. The authors also found that value uncertainty originating from unpredictability in client needs and project scope and structural uncertainty caused by volatility and variability of business structures are also important quandaries in decision making situations of firms towards their supply chains for industrial services.
Originality/value
The paper makes two useful contributions. First, it provides an assessment of the nature of uncertainty within operations for providing industrial services. Second, the paper identifies orientations for industrial service uncertainty mitigation. Whereas product-centric businesses firms tend to vary in their states for uncertainty avoidance and reduction, the work suggest similar orientations for uncertainty mitigation across these firms.
Details
Keywords
Robert E. Morgan and Shelby D. Hunt
Despite the vast proliferation of conceptual, theoretical, and empirical studies in adaptation‐selection research, debate continues to surround a key question: how do firms…
Abstract
Despite the vast proliferation of conceptual, theoretical, and empirical studies in adaptation‐selection research, debate continues to surround a key question: how do firms strategically coevolve with their environments? This paper attempts to address part of this question by drawing on advances in strategic choice theory and resource‐advantage theory. A scenario‐based group methodology based around the “think tank” described in the first paper of this special issue is presented whereby marketing analyses of environmental contexts are described which lead to a series of recommended marketing strategies for response (selection), which fit the changing environments (adaptation). Various conclusions are derived from this marketing strategy determination process and finally, consideration is given to issues of complexity and chaos in environmental assessment terms.