Search results

For firms that depend on personalized management as a key element of their competitive advantage, maintaining personalized management in the face of sustained growth presents a particular challenge. The purpose of this paper is to examine how firms in the Germanic Mittelstand have endeavored to “scale up” personalization.

Different ways of scaling up personalization are explained with examples.

The concept of personalization need not just concern customers, in contrast to conventional treatments of personalization. Mittelstand firms illustrate the scaling up of personalization to target stakeholder groups other than just customers.

In recent years, personalization has come to refer to the customization of products to the preferences of individual customers. In contrast, a neglected but important topic is personalization of and within firms. Personalization refers to imbuing a firm with the personal qualities of individual personalities indissociable from management of the company.

Methods for scaling up personalization need to be truly scalable to be effective. Methods that only enable a one-time enlargement in the scope of the personalized business are liable to fail in the longer run.

By examining personalization as an important characteristic of small to medium-sized firms that they wish to maintain as they grow larger, this study highlights a little noticed dimension of Mittelstand growth strategies – and endeavors to bring personality back into research on “personalization.”

This paper aims to explore hidden wellsprings of risk-taking in family firms.

The high tolerance for risk shown repeatedly by the famous family firm Hipp of Germany is documented. Three major risk-taking episodes at Hipp are examined.

Counterintuitively, conservative values were actually a major facilitator of risk-taking at Hipp.

The ramifications for other family firms, especially in Germany’s so-called Mittelstand, are examined. An open question is whether the relevant scope of the foregoing analysis may be confined to national contexts like German Mittelstand with its highly developed sector of family firms.

Contrary to received wisdom, family firms with conservative values may actually have certain advantages in their capacity not only to assume certain types of risks but also to mitigate such risks. Especially the communitarian embeddedness of such values may provide a layer of risk mitigation.

At least in some countries, such as Germany, family firms are indeed willing to engage in substantial risk-taking. With their approach of combining conservative values and risk-taking, they contribute to considerable wealth and societal development.

Conservatism in management and risk-taking propensity are usually thought of as antipodes. However, it is necessary to distinguish between conservatism (which usually equates to risk aversion) and conservative values (which, as shown, may be highly compatible with a willingness to engage and succeed in risky undertakings).

The purpose of this paper is to develop the hitherto unexplored concept of strategic discipline.

Three fairly iconic firms of the Germanic Mittelstand (ALDI, Stihl and Hipp) are examined. The meaning and relevance of strategic discipline is derived.

Intuitively, strategic discipline may seem like the antipode to the much-discussed concept of pivoting. In fact, strategic discipline is shown to be the natural corollary of strategic pivoting as a successive phase in a company’s development.

In fast-moving or fast-changing environments, strategic discipline may be inappropriate. Furthermore, the exercise of strategic discipline can restrain growth. Once firms have attained a certain size and saturation of the market, the desire for further growth may entail a willingness to loosen the hold of strategic discipline.

Strategic discipline can enable firms to avoid falling into common strategic pitfalls. From this paper, the authors distill three basic dimensions of strategic discipline: cultivating simplicity, resisting short-term temptations and focusing on implementability.

The success of firms depends as much on the strategic choices they make as upon the strategic choices they decide not to make. Most prior research has focused on the visible strategy choices companies have made a lot more than on the practically invisible history of strategic choices that firms have not made. This contribution does the opposite, filling an evident gap.

Describes the benefits of close man‐robot cooperation within a single production cell. A vision system ensures the safety of the human while enabling high levels of productivity.

In the German economy, in addition to typical small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the Mittelstand plays a major role. The present chapter focuses on those Mittelstand firms that are known as Hidden Champions. The contribution will show how the general characteristics of Mittelstand firms impact their internationalisation strategies and internationalisation processes. It outlines how the German Mittelstand solves the global–local dilemma in an unparalleled way, and it stresses some of the major challenges that Mittelstand firms face.

The temperature distribution and history within laser sintered part cakes is an important aspect regarding the process quality and reproducibility of the polymer laser sintering process. This paper aims to an analysis of the temperature history during the build and cooling phase, which is decisive for powder ageing effects and the development of part quality characteristics.

A measurement system for three-dimensional in-process temperature measurements is set up and the influence of different parameters on the inner part cake temperature distribution and history is analyzed. In addition, position dependent temperature histories are finally correlated with powder ageing effects.

The main parameters influencing the part cake temperature history are figured out. Temperature inhomogeneities on the powder bed surface are detectable within the part cake, but only for a specific time or additional build height. Heat flux through the build frame results in different cooling rates dependent on z height. A combination of process parameters and build job layout results in individual, position-dependent temperature histories. As a consequence, completely different ageing intensities are found within one part cake.

Temperature measurements are limited to part-free powder cakes so far. To transfer the results to other boundary conditions and machine types, simulation tools have to be developed and validated.

For the first time, the inner part cake temperature distribution and history have been measured during all build phases and with a high sensor density. The results of this work help to understand the temperature history dependency of powder and part properties and can therefore be used to develop optimized process controls.

Clinching is, due to its characteristics, a joining method with several advantages. The high joining forces, which require heavy process equipment are a major disadvantage. The Fraunhofer Institute has developed clinching methods which reduce the joining forces considerably to make clinching applicable for further developments and new application areas.

The development in the German-speaking countries of International Management (IM) as an academic discipline is analyzed both from a research-oriented and an institutional standpoint. This development is characterized by a relatively long run-up after early beginnings in the 1920s and a steep jump during the past 15–20 years. Business Administration and Strategic Management rather than Economics have influenced the IM field which is now an established subject in its own right. The resulting discipline is well on its way to overcoming an alleged “black hole-image” of international isolation on the part of German-speaking countries’ scholars.