Ijaz Ul Haq and Fiorenzo Franceschini
The purpose of this paper is to develop a preliminary conceptual scale for the measurement of distributed manufacturing (DM) capacity of manufacturing companies operating in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a preliminary conceptual scale for the measurement of distributed manufacturing (DM) capacity of manufacturing companies operating in rubber and plastic sectors.
Design/methodology/approach
A two-step research methodology is employed. In first step, the dimensions of DM and different levels of each dimension have been defined. In second step, an empirical analysis (cluster analysis) of database firms is performed by collecting the data of 38 firms operating in Italian mould manufacturing sector. Application case studies are then analyzed to show the use of the proposed DM conceptual scale.
Findings
A hyperspace, composed of five dimensions of DM, i.e. manufacturing localization; manufacturing technologies; customization and personalization; digitalization; and democratization of design, is developed and a hierarchy is defined by listing the levels of each dimension in an ascending order. Based on this hyperspace, a conceptual scale is proposed to measure the positioning of a generic company in the DM continuum.
Research limitations/implications
The empirical data are collected from Italian mould manufacturing companies operating in rubber and plastic sectors. It cannot be assumed that the industrial sectors in different parts of the world are operating under similar operational, regulatory and economic conditions. The results, therefore, might not be generalized to manufacturing companies operating in different countries (particularly developing countries) under different circumstances.
Originality/value
This is first preliminary scale of its kind to evaluate the positioning of companies with respect to their DM capacity. This scale is helpful for companies to compare their capacity with standard profiles and for decision making to convert the existing manufacturing operations into distributed operations.
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Identifies a set of expectations about information technology (IT)adoption and usage in work groups, based on prior theory. Describes alongitudinal study on the adoption and usage…
Abstract
Identifies a set of expectations about information technology (IT) adoption and usage in work groups, based on prior theory. Describes a longitudinal study on the adoption and usage of asynchronous technologies in small face‐to‐face groups. Compares observations with expectations. Concludes that expectations were generally supported except in one case, where file transfer was used synchronously to support face‐to‐face interaction. Observed one use of asynchronous technology to maintain social distance because of poor relationships. Discusses the implications of the findings. Offers possible areas of future research.
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Sharon A. Simmons and Jeffrey S. Hornsby
We conjecture that there are five stages to academic entrepreneurship: motivation, governance, selection, competition, and performance. The process of academic entrepreneurship…
Abstract
We conjecture that there are five stages to academic entrepreneurship: motivation, governance, selection, competition, and performance. The process of academic entrepreneurship originates with the motivation of faculty, universities, industry, and government to commercialize knowledge that originates within the university setting. The model conceptualizes that the governance and competitiveness of the commercialized knowledge moderate the mode selection and ultimately the performance of academic entrepreneurship. The conceptual and empirical support for the model are derived from a theory-driven synthesis of articles related to academic entrepreneurship.
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Sabine Fliess and Maarten Volkers
The purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons why customers often cannot or do not exit a negative service encounter (lock-in) and to discuss how this affects their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons why customers often cannot or do not exit a negative service encounter (lock-in) and to discuss how this affects their well-being and coping responses. This contributes to the research on how negative service encounters emerge and evolve and how such encounters impact customer well-being and subsequent responses.
Design/methodology/approach
An inductive, exploratory approach was used. Interviews with 20 service customers yielded over 90 detailed lock-in experiences across 25 different services. A multi-step, iterative coding process was used with a mixture of coding techniques that stem from a grounded theory approach.
Findings
Four categories of factors that caused customers to endure a negative event were identified (physical lock-in, dependency on the service, social lock-in and psychological lock-in). Customers either experienced inner turmoil (if they perceived having the option to stay or leave) or felt captive; both impacted their well-being and coping strategies in different ways. Three characteristics of negative events that caused lock-in to persist over time were identified.
Research limitations/implications
This is a qualitative study that aims to identify factors behind customer lock-in, reduced well-being and coping strategies across different types of service encounters. Future research may build on these themes to investigate lock-in during specific service encounters in greater depth.
Practical implications
This research provides insights regarding how service providers can anticipate lock-in situations. In addition, the findings point to several ways in which frontline employees can assist customers with the coping process, during lock-in.
Originality/value
Customer lock-in during a service encounter is a common, yet unexplored phenomenon. This research contributes to a better understanding of why customers endure negative events and how such perceptions are reflected in their experiences and behaviors.
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The employees in an organisation are its eyes and ears, and their willingness to contribute with observations is essential to the internal information sharing. Literature suggests…
Abstract
The employees in an organisation are its eyes and ears, and their willingness to contribute with observations is essential to the internal information sharing. Literature suggests that an information system (IS) that is not used must be redesigned to suit the users. This article argues that malfunctioning IS might be understood from a management control perspective, i.e. that the employees rather choose to engage in other duties than documenting and retrieving information from an existing IS. They perceive such ditties as more valuable to them and to the organisation, which results in low utilisation of the systems. Managerial interventions can, however, stimulate data entry and asynchronous communication between individuals by manifesting that information sharing is an important organisational issue through agreement on objectives, performance monitoring and evaluation, feedback mechanisms and analysis and action plans.
Peter J. Wild, Matt D. Giess and Chris A. McMahon
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the difficulty of applying faceted classification outside of library contexts and also to indicate that faceted approaches are poorly…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the difficulty of applying faceted classification outside of library contexts and also to indicate that faceted approaches are poorly expressed to non‐experts.
Design/methodology/approach
The faceted approach is being applied outside of its “home” community, with mixed results. The approach is based in part on examination of a broad base of literature and in part on results and reflections on a case study applying faceted notions to “real world” engineering documentation.
Findings
The paper comes across a number of pragmatic and theoretical issues namely: differing interpretations of the facet notion; confusion between faceted analysis and faceted classification; lack of methodological guidance; the use of simplistic domains as exemplars; description verses analysis; facet recognition is unproblematic; and is the process purely top‐down or bottom‐up.
Research limitations/implications
That facet analysis is not inherently associated with a particular epistemology; that greater guidance about the derivation is needed, that greater realism is needed when teaching faceted approaches.
Practical implications
Experiences of applying faceted classifications are presented that can be drawn upon to guide future work in the area.
Originality/value
No previous work has reflected on the actual empirical experience used to create a faceted description, especially with reference to engineering documents.
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Presents a review on implementing finite element methods on supercomputers, workstations and PCs and gives main trends in hardware and software developments. An appendix included…
Abstract
Presents a review on implementing finite element methods on supercomputers, workstations and PCs and gives main trends in hardware and software developments. An appendix included at the end of the paper presents a bibliography on the subjects retrospectively to 1985 and approximately 1,100 references are listed.