Work that is considered appropriate for only one gender by the indigenous culture is explored. The focus is on the operational issues that accrue due to the combination of what is…
Abstract
Purpose
Work that is considered appropriate for only one gender by the indigenous culture is explored. The focus is on the operational issues that accrue due to the combination of what is deemed appropriate treatment to, and activities of, women. Global differences in the operational sub-categories of business location, layout, the implementation of process improvement programs, shift scheduling, operational compliance, the strategic capability of volume flexibility, and other issues are explored. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The literature from the disparate fields of women’s studies, anthropology, law, developmental economics, and management are synthesized.
Findings
There are extreme differences internationally in the viability of operational practices involving shift work, facility location, and other production issues. Particularly, research involving the implementation of quality management programs may be compromised due to gender effects.
Practical implications
A large number of practical issues are discussed. The viability and wisdom of many operational practices being copied from different cultures is addressed.
Originality/value
This work is a synthesis of the same subjects from widely disparate intellectual domains. The author informs management scholars and managers from unusual sources in medicine, women’s studies, anthropology, developmental economics, and law.
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Prior surveys have shown that national culture is a leading cause of problems in offshoring services. The research question posed in this paper centers on how and through what…
Abstract
Purpose
Prior surveys have shown that national culture is a leading cause of problems in offshoring services. The research question posed in this paper centers on how and through what specific decisions national culture affects operational implementation in offshore facilities.
Design/methodology/approach
A particular US service process offshored to Barbados and the Dominican Republic is studied. Ethnographic worker observations are combined with archival sources and executive interviews.
Findings
A culture clash caused a number of operational dilemmas for a major US airline offshoring the same processes to two Caribbean nations. The offshoring was a success at one site, a failure at another. But, even at the successful site, un‐intuitive operational adaptations had to be made to accommodate cultural differences. Specifically, detailed here are decisions or results seen on country selection, location selection within a country, quality program implementation, and shift work that had strong cultural inputs.
Research limitations/implications
Any case study may be limited to the specific case. However, broader implications are that operations management decisions may be more highly dependent on national culture than previously thought.
Practical implications
Management – especially US management – continue to make service offshoring decisions ignoring or minimizing the inevitable cultural conflict. This work provides tangible examples of decisions affected by culture.
Originality/value
Concrete, specific examples are provided for the difficulties national culture created in a specific case. Methods used to circumvent these difficulties are shown. By this specific example, the general case is posited that culture must be considered in operations decisions that may seem devoid of cultural content.
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Ravi Kathuria, Maheshkumar P. Joshi and Stephanie Dellande
The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences in growth strategies – domestic and international – of manufacturing and service firms. Hardly any literature exists that…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences in growth strategies – domestic and international – of manufacturing and service firms. Hardly any literature exists that empirically investigates the differences on account of the distinctive characteristics of goods and services, and such studies rarely draw from the operations management field.
Design/methodology/approach
Multiple analysis of variance is used to analyze longitudinal data from multiple secondary sources.
Findings
Mixed services, such as banks, focus more on domestic growth and less on international growth. Manufacturers, such as chemical firms, focus more on international activities as compared to domestic activities. Mixed service firms seem to prefer collaborative approaches, whereas goods producers prefer wholly owned ventures.
Research limitations/implications
The data collection methodology applied in this study may be applicable to many other topics of operations management. Future researchers may examine internationalization of services from front and back office perspectives, and compare information‐processing, possession‐processing, and people‐processing services in their choices of mode of entry and resultant performance differences.
Practical implications
The findings are relevant for developing operations strategy, including location alternatives, for both manufacturing and service firms as different nations become a part of the global village. Appropriate modes of entry in an international arena for both service and manufacturing firms are identified.
Originality/value
A cross‐functional study that uses longitudinal data from secondary sources in an innovative way with significant implications for operations managers and researchers.
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Kalyana C Chejarla and Sandeep Chatterjee
The case provides learning opportunities in strategy, planning and control in a social entrepreneurial setting. Following are the learning objectives of this case discussion…
Abstract
Learning Outcomes
The case provides learning opportunities in strategy, planning and control in a social entrepreneurial setting. Following are the learning objectives of this case discussion: learn to develop a Strategic Service Vision (SSV) framework ; appreciate scalability challenges specific to service organizations; evaluate franchising model as a growth enabler; and understand the approach to internationalization as a growth strategy.
Case Overview/Synopsis
GoUNESCO is a not-for-profit startup formed in January 2012, with an objective of providing platform for laypersons to engage with places of heritage value. Eight years into existence, in February 2019 GoUNESCO was experiencing substantial growth and faced need for pursuing alternate growth models that do not demand a lot of organizational bandwidth. Ajay Reddy, the founder of GoUNESCO was piloting “franchising” as a domestic growth strategy. He was keen on evaluating fitment of “franchising” (both for domestic and international expansion) in his strategic service vision. He wanted to understand what would be changes required in the strategic service vision on account of ‘franchising’, and decide whether those changes were acceptable or not.
Complexity Academic Level
The case can be positioned in strategy, service and/or operations management introduction courses for both full-time or Executive MBA students. This case is also quite relevant in Entrepreneurship (or Social Entrepreneurship in particular) courses.
Supplementary materials
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Subject code
CSS 11: Strategy
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Fu Jia, Ruihong Gao, Richard Lamming and Richard Wilding
This paper aims to identify problems caused by cultural differences between Japan and China that face supply chain managers by applying Japanese-style supply management practices…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify problems caused by cultural differences between Japan and China that face supply chain managers by applying Japanese-style supply management practices within supply networks in China and present solutions to this problem.
Design/methodology/approach
A single, longitudinal case study conducting two waves of data collection (i.e. interviews and observation) plus the collection of much archival data was performed. It goes beyond the dyad by examining supply management of a Japanese company’s supply chain up to three tiers in China.
Findings
The four supply cultural differences between Japan and China, which caused the cultural clashes between JVCo and some of its suppliers were revealed and a model of adaptation of Japanese supply management to the Chinese business system was developed. Adaptation involves creating new supply management practices out of selective adaptation, innovation and change of existing Japanese and Chinese supply management practices rooted in different Japanese, Chinese and Western cultures. A list of organisational factors affecting the adaptation has also been provided.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the adoption of a single case study method, caution should be given to generalising the findings to all Japanese firms.
Practical implications
The Japanese, Chinese and Western managers were provided with insights on how to mitigate the problems caused by cultural differences within supply relationships in China and some innovative ideas on how managers from all three cultures could blend the elements of the three cultures to form a hybrid culture and reduce cultural clashes.
Originality/value
This is one of the few attempts to study the transfer of Japanese supply management practice to China. Organizational theory (i.e. transfer of organizational practice and hybridization) is applied and provides a robust framework to explain the supply management practice. This study also answers the call for a global supplier relationship management paradigm.
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This paper seeks to describe a conceptualisation of the multiple facets of the bullwhip effect between stocking levels within and between value chains and value systems.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to describe a conceptualisation of the multiple facets of the bullwhip effect between stocking levels within and between value chains and value systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides a conceptual discussion of the bullwhip effect. It is refined and re‐defined.
Findings
The bullwhip effect has usually been explored between inter‐organisational stocking levels. Recently, it has also been explored within intra‐organisational stocking levels. A broader descriptive framework is introduced, one that positions the bullwhip effect construct in intra‐ and inter‐organisational, as well as intra‐ and inter‐channel, stocking levels in and between value chains and value systems.
Research limitations/implications
A research agenda is provided that goes beyond current definitional boundaries and state‐of‐the‐art research of the bullwhip effect.
Practical implications
The refined and re‐defined bullwhip effect is of interest to practitioners. It considers inter‐organisational and intra‐organisational stocking levels. In addition, it considers intra‐ and inter‐channel stocking levels. It is of great concern to achieve best practices in business.
Originality/value
The principal contributions are – a dynamics model of the bullwhip effect construct; a principle of stocking level variability; a typology of stocking level variability; a framework that describes different levels of analysis of the bullwhip effect; and a re‐definition of the bullwhip effect construct – within or between value chains and value systems.
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This research applies the construct of bullwhip effect in a non‐traditional context. It is explored in intra‐organisational echelons. It is argued that the bullwhip effect in a…
Abstract
This research applies the construct of bullwhip effect in a non‐traditional context. It is explored in intra‐organisational echelons. It is argued that the bullwhip effect in a company's inventory management of inbound and outbound logistics flows depends in part upon the gap between the degree of speculation and postponement of business activities. It is also argued that the bullwhip effect is caused by the value adding of business activities in supply chains. The study shows that there is a potential bullwhip effect between companies’ inbound and outbound logistics flows, i.e. two internal stocking levels. A see‐saw model of the bullwhip effect, and a typology of the bullwhip effect in intra‐organisational echelons, are introduced. The term “reversed bullwhip effect” is also introduced. Finally, a model of the bullwhip effect‐scenarios in a dynamic business environment positions these contributions in a wider theoretical and managerial context.
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Hamish McMichael, David Mackay and Graeme Altmann
The principal objective of this study is to understand the impact that the adoption of quick response (QR) has had on manufacturing firms in the retail supply chain. The adoption…
Abstract
The principal objective of this study is to understand the impact that the adoption of quick response (QR) has had on manufacturing firms in the retail supply chain. The adoption of QR by six organisations within the Victorian textile clothing and footwear industry is used to review the impact that QR is having on the retail sector, especially in terms of the use of EDI as a pipeline accelerator to QR. We also investigate the level of systems integration, organisational affects and inter‐organisational impacts. The results of the research showed that while firms are positively affected by the adoption of QR, and may strengthen their relative competitive positions, retailers are taking the opportunity to shift their holding and distribution costs onto the supply chain to the detriment of both manufacturers and suppliers. Additionally, failure to adopt EDI between downstream trading partners limits the benefits received from QR at the organisational and inter‐organisational levels.