Search results

On the path to accomplishing task work, teams may face disruptive events like budget issues, equipment failures, and membership change that trigger adaptation. While recently researchers have clarified the team adaptation nomological network, our objective is to extend theory by providing a roadmap about various ways in which temporal considerations may complicate the impact of adaptation triggers on team adaptation and in turn adaptive outcomes.

We present three adaptation temporal considerations (i.e., timing, duration, and frequency) that may change the way team adaptation unfolds in response to a given adaptation trigger. We further explore and offer propositions about how the impact of adaptation timing, adaptation duration, and adaptation frequency differ by the type of adaptation trigger (i.e., task-based or team-based) experienced by the team.

By examining adaptation to task-based or team-based triggers from a temporal perspective researchers may better explain why the timing of when the team adapts across its lifecycle (adaptation timing), how long the team takes to adapt (adaptation duration), and the recurrent need to adapt (adaptation frequency) is more or less likely to lead to positive adaptive performance outcomes.

Organizations may benefit from setting up teams for success by helping members understand that there are inherent differences in the adaptation triggers they face including temporal expectations. Organizations may see value in providing initial and on-going support to teams so they are better able to adapt when needed and mitigate negative effects due to adaptation timing, adaptation duration, and adaption frequency.

The performance of large-scale projects is often challenged due to major environmental changes that occur during their life. However, literature has paid little attention to the governance adaptations required to respond effectively to these changes. This paper aims to study changes in the project environment over time, the corresponding governance adaptations and their impact on project performance.

To ensure triangulation between two sources of evidence, we used both primary and secondary data sources and examined 14 projects through 2 studies, the first focused on seven documented, illustrative case projects and the second on interviews with senior and project managers involved in seven additional projects.

We found the key environmental changes that should trigger appropriate governance adaptations to be market evolutions, technological advancements and sociopolitical events. However, we also found that these necessary governance adaptations are not commonly implemented timely, sufficiently or effectively.

The paper distills the dynamics of large-scale projects in achieving project effectiveness and raises theoretical propositions on the combination of environmental changes and deficient governance adaptations that, over time, turns efficient projects into ineffective projects and discusses implications for theory and practice.

This study provides a comprehensive framework of adaptation in triadic business relationship settings in the service sector. The framework is based on the industrial network approach (see, e.g., Axelsson & Easton, 1992; Håkansson & Snehota, 1995a). The study describes how adaptations initiate, how they progress, and what the outcomes of these adaptations are. Furthermore, the framework takes into account how adaptations spread in triadic relationship settings. The empirical context is corporate travel management, which is a chain of activities where an industrial enterprise, and its preferred travel agency and service supplier partners combine their resources. The scientific philosophy, on which the knowledge creation is based, is realist ontology. Epistemologically, the study relies on constructionist processes and interpretation. Case studies with in-depth interviews are the main source of data.

Over the past few years, mathematical and computational models of organizations have attracted a great deal of interest in various fields of scientific research (see Lin & Carley, 1993 for review). The mathematical models have focused on the problem of quantifying the structural (mis)match between organizations and their tasks. The notion of structural congruence has been generalized from the problem of optimizing distributed decision-making in structured decision networks (Pete, Pattipati, Levchuk, & Kleinman, 1998) to the multi-objective optimization problem of designing optimal organizational structures to complete a mission, while minimizing a set of criteria (Levchuk, Pattipati, Curry, & Shakeri, 1996, 1997, 1998). As computational models of decision-making in organizations began to emerge (see Carley & Svoboda, 1996; Carley, 1998; Vincke, 1992), the study of social networks (SSN) continued to focus on examining a network structure and its impact on individual, group, and organizational behavior (Wellman & Berkowitz, 1988). Most models, developed under the SSN, combined formal and informal structures when representing organizations as architectures (e.g., see Levitt et al., 1994; Carley & Svoboda, 1996). In addition, a large number of measures of structure and of the individual positions within the structure have been developed (Roberts, 1979; Scott, 1981; Wasserman & Faust, 1994; Wellman, 1991).

Achieving sustainable development in the twenty‐first century will be won or lost in the world's urban settlements, informed adaptation of existing stock is vital. Local Authorities are encouraging adaptation to reduce building related carbon emissions. The City of Melbourne aims to retrofit 1,200 central business district (CBD) properties by 2020 to become carbon neutral. As Australian cities date from the early 1800s and the adaptation of buildings is not as entrenched as in Europe, there is a pressing need for greater knowledge of what happens to buildings over time. The purpose of this study is to examine building adaptation from 1998 to 2008. This paper concentrates on the question; what is the pattern of adaptation within premium grade office buildings over time?

Using the Melbourne CBD as a case study, the research analysed all commercial building adaptations. After a uni‐variate statistical analysis of all premium office adaptations, two case studies were selected and profiled to discover what happened to them during the period and to ascertain what may be learned as a result to inform future adaptation strategies and policies.

This research has established that there is a high rate of adaptations to existing commercial buildings which leads to the disposal of functional and serviceable fixtures and fittings to landfill sites. This practice results in the unnecessary loss of embodied carbon which compromises efforts to deliver carbon neutrality in its widest sense. In the short term we need to learn to take advantage of existing behaviour patterns in respect of adaptation and to learn how buildings adapt and to incentivise the needed behavioural changes.

The selection of case studies allowed an examination of the data at a deeper level, though it is acknowledged that the depth does not equal that achieved in a purely qualitative approach whereby stakeholders are interviewed or surveyed directly and this is a limitation of the approach.

This research is based on an analysis of all adaptation activity within a distinct geographical area over an extended period of time. The analysis shows what does happen to a defined sector of the stock; in this case premium office property and highlights the types and patterns of adaptation as buildings evolve through their lifecycles.

This study aims to understand the expectations of elderly bank customers with mobile banking services and to measure its impact on their long-term satisfaction and continued intention. The study is based on two theories, expectations-confirmation theory (ECT) and hedonic adaptation theory.

A self-administered longitudinal survey was completed with a sample of 208 elder customers who do not use mobile banking services. Latent growth curve modelling approach was used to determine the change in their post-adoption experience over four time points.

Results of the study confirm that the use of mobile banking services prolongs the duration of customer satisfaction and continued intention level, post-adoption, reinforcing the hedonic adaptation theory.

Mobile banking services are going to be a significant component of the multichannel banking agenda. But it might be interesting to review other digital channels of banking services. The key contribution of this study is that it measures the expectation-confirmation link of elderly customers with mobile banking services. The study sheds light on factors that positively influence customer inclination and adoption of multichannel banking services in the long run, which is important for the commercial success of such channels.

The study highlights the importance of elder customers' pre-expectations, related dimensions which are important for post-adoption experiences of mobile banking services to improve customers' satisfaction and continued intention in the long run. This is crucial for the commercial success of banks.

This is the first such study that used the expectation confirmation model (ECT) and related it with hedonic adaptation theory to assess elderly customer's post-adoption satisfaction and continued usage of mobile banking services over time.

Adaptation is often seen as a key competitive advantage for outsourcing vendors. Outsourcing research has often assumed that vendor capabilities are static. However, as a result of uncertainties and/or changes in the client environment, vendors need to be able to adapt their outsourcing capabilities. The aim of our research is to compare two contrasting outsourcing approaches and illustrate how an adaptive approach may deliver better results for clients in the long term.

The paper uses a combination of literature and case study research. A retrospective case study approach was adopted, using interviews, observations and analysis of reports. Two case studies utilizing contrasting clients approaches were investigated and compared. In one of the case studies, the client reorganized activities first and then outsourced them, while in the other, the client did the reverse – outsourced first and then reorganized.

The findings indicate that reorganizing first and outsourcing afterwards contributes to a more controlled implementation, which results in a more defined and stable set of vendor outsourcing capabilities that contributed to short-term success. In contrast, outsourcing first and reorganizing later demonstrates a less controlled redesign of the client’s organizational structure, which requires a malleable set of outsourcing capabilities to accommodate future change. The latter strategic manoeuver results in an extended adaptation period, as some capabilities need to be developed over time. However, it may improve success over time as subsequent changes in the client environment can be catered for in a better way.

Only two explorative case studies were performed, limiting confidence in the degree of generalization of the results. We plea for more research on the effect of context dependency as various contingencies may impact the adaptation of outsourcing capabilities; for example, the volatility of the client’s market or the stability of the technology concerned.

When a client applies a proactive manoeuver, reorganizing first and then applying outsourcing, the number of adaptive capabilities required of the outsourcing vendor is reduced, limiting the risk for the client in the short term. In the longer term, however, subsequent change requirements may be less well-accommodated.

Strategic manoeuvers within an outsourcing context have received limited attention in research. As far as we know, this is the first empirical research that investigates the benefits of vendors having adaptive capability.

Examines the concept of adaptation as it relates to the start‐up and survival of small businesses over time. Adaptation is approached as the making of appropriate adjustments to the business and its strategic focus, as the venture evolves from an initial idea to a successful business. It is proposed that adaptation has three relevant components: the firm’s capacity to adapt, how much it actually adapts, and the strategies it relies upon to adapt. A conceptual model and hypotheses are proposed, relating the entrepreneur, the organizational context and the external environment to these three components of adaptation, and relating the components of adaptation to performance. Results from a cross‐sectional survey of small business founder/owners suggest that characteristics of the entrepreneur and levels of environmental change are especially important determinants of the three components of adaptation, and that levels of and strategies for adapting are related to organizational performance. A number of implications are drawn from the findings and suggestions are made for ongoing research.

This paper aims to study the adaptation of low grade commercial buildings for sustainability in Melbourne. Informed adaptation of existing stock is imperative because the challenge of attaining sustainable development in the 21st century will be won or lost in urban areas. Local authorities promote adaptation to reduce building related energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The City of Melbourne aims to retrofit 1,200 central business district (CBD) properties before 2020 as part of their carbon-neutral city strategy. Australian cities date from the early 1800s to the present day and the concepts of adaptation and evolution of buildings and suburbs is not as well-developed or entrenched as in other continents. As such, there is a pressing need for greater knowledge and awareness of what happens to buildings over time.

This research examines all building adaptation from 1998 to 2008 within the Melbourne CBD. This paper concentrates on the question: what is the pattern of adaptation within low grade office buildings over time? Using the Melbourne CBD as a case study, the research analysed all commercial building adaptations in Melbourne. Here a range of office building types are selected and profiled to discover what happened to them during the period and to ascertain what may be learned as a result to inform future adaptation strategies and policies.

Adaptation of existing buildings is vital to deliver the emission reductions required to transition to carbon-neutral urban settlements. In the short-term, it is opportune to capitalise on existing behaviour patterns in respect of adaptation and to “learn how buildings learn”, rather than seek to instigate major changes in behaviour.

The researcher acknowledges that the depth of analysis for each individual case does not attain levels achieved through a purely qualitative approach to data collection and that this is a limitation of this method of data collection.

Examination of adaptation patterns showed that the events were similar regardless of age or location and typically involved multiple adaptations to separate areas within buildings such as office floors, lobbies and foyers. Such a pattern misses the opportunity to benefit from economies of scale or to incorporate more extensive adaptations to reduce environmental impact of the building as a whole.

The patterns of ownership and relatively short-term multiple tenancies compound the piecemeal approach to adaptations in this sector of the market. Moving forward, a more holistic approach is required to optimise adaptation and sustainability benefits and to minimise unnecessary waste.

A real danger is that numerous adaptations over time which may seem “sustainable” within the context of the one adaptation may not be sustainable in the context of the entire building over the whole lifecycle or the city over the long–term, and this is a challenge we must attend to.