Search results

Develops an original 12‐step management of technology protocol and applies it to 51 applications which range from Du Pont’s failure in Nylon to the Single Online Trade Exchange for Auto Parts procurement by GM, Ford, Daimler‐Chrysler and Renault‐Nissan. Provides many case studies with regards to the adoption of technology and describes seven chief technology officer characteristics. Discusses common errors when companies invest in technology and considers the probabilities of success. Provides 175 questions and answers to reinforce the concepts introduced. States that this substantial journal is aimed primarily at the present and potential chief technology officer to assist their survival and success in national and international markets.

Electronic commerce or business is more than just another way to sustain or enhance existing business practices. Rather, e‐commerce is a paradigm shift. It is a “disruptive” innovation that is radically changing the traditional way of doing business. The industry is moving so fast because it operates under totally different principles and work rules in the digital economy. A general rule in e‐commerce is that there is no simple prescription and almost no such thing as an established business or revenue model for companies even within the same industry. Under such conditions, an analytical framework is needed to assist e‐commerce planners and strategic managers in assessing the critical success factors when formulating e‐commerce business models and strategies. This research develops an analytical framework based on the theories of transaction costs and switching costs. Both demand‐side and supply‐side economies of scale and scope are also applied to the development of this framework. In addition, e‐commerce revenue models and strategies are also discussed. Based on the analytical framework developed by this research, this paper discusses the five essential steps for e‐commerce success. They are: redefine the competitive advantage; rethink business strategy; re‐examine traditional business and revenue models, re‐engineer the corporation and Web site; and re‐invent customer service. E‐commerce planners and strategic managers will be able to use the framework to analyze and evaluate the critical successful factors for e‐commerce success.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an interpretative framework for the high market capitalisation companies (unicorns) universe, especially with the deployment of the mobile internet. The paper attempts to account for this global trend and to describe its global setting (global data), and its various components.

This paper originates from a research meant to document the phenomenon of high market capitalisation companies (unicorns) through the investigation of a qualitative sample of companies. The paper is based on desk research, a review of literature, review of the technical journals and analysis of annual reports. Going beyond the observations gathered from the sample, the research found that the transformations of the mobile communications ecosystem could provide an adequate framework to understand and put in perspective this phenomenon.

The paper defined unicorns as information technology (IT)-based (software mostly but hardware as well) start-ups that bridge pent-up demand and supply through innovative services and products mostly rooted in the mobile internet wave and the opportunities it brings along. The paper shows that smartphones as games changers facilitate the entry of new players in the mobile markets coming either from the IT sector or from Asia, much to the detriment of the European Union (EU) industry grappling with legacy business models. These companies derived the most from a mobile-first approach and have an outstanding number of unicorns. The paper identifies a potential telecom policy failure especially in the EU: policies have been tilted towards the supply side, without enough consideration of demand. The paper suggests that the EU, after having lead the previous wave, may have missed the last one (mobile broadband) not only from a policy but also from an industry viewpoint.

More research should be done to better investigate what might have been the causes of this apparently missed mobile turn in Europe. The paper deals mostly with the cases of Asia and the USA. As the paper concentrates on the issue of unicorns and mobile technology, some other aspects of the mobile markets may not be taken into account.

The paper suggests reconsidering some policies in the field, to better take into account the role of consumers and to improve the link with other policies like innovation policies.

The paper attempts at giving a better understanding of the evolution of demand and its role in the making of some new services. The paper does not deal with other societal issues like privacy or data.

The main assumption about the role of the mobile internet can shed some light not only about related developments such as the app economy but also about the business and technological environment of an array of start-ups, some of them having reached impressive market capitalisation. The paper reveals how this mobile wave is reshuffling companies, sectors, and geographies. The paper provides one of the first analysis of the unicorn phenomenon.

The purpose of this paper is to help understanding the value of food resources (FRs). This may raise global awareness on their importance in macro- and micro-economics.

The relationship of FRs with human life was analyzed through literature review to illustrate their real value. Association of FRs production with the probability of becoming a high income country was estimated by analyzing the relevant data published by FAOSTAT, World Bank and United Nations to illustrate their value in macro-economy. Analyzing the interrelationship of prices with their attributes through literature review and the correlation of the relevant data published by FAOSTAT and OECD was undertaken to create a mathematical model for pricing FRs.

The real value of FRs is unaccountable, which makes their economic value (price) be not always determined on market. Increase in the probability of becoming a high income country with increase in FRs production indicates that their shortage may bottleneck macro-economic development. A mathematical model has been created for estimating the economic value of FRs.

These findings are applicable for managing (or administrating), pricing or evaluating FRs, analyzing their economic status, developing business and predicting tendency in micro-economy. They are also vital for managing or developing macro-economy. The findings should be useful for farmers, food companies, governmental agents, individuals, etc.

This is the first to report these findings. This is a significant progress in FRs research and valuable for education.

There has been an increasing call from academics specialising in operations management to integrate different strategic management perspectives into operations strategy research. Recently some pieces of operations strategy research have used the resource‐based view. It is often suggested that the incorporation of resource‐based view ideas into the field of operations strategy is a search for a new paradigm, yet the ever‐increasing literature suffers from a lack of empirical research. Moreover, operations strategy research from the evolutionary perspective, using longitudinal field data, is almost completely neglected. This paper attempts to make two contributions. The first is to stimulate debate about the incorporation of resource‐based view and dynamic capabilities within operations strategy research. The second is to present a model based on in‐depth field research where the dynamics of the capability accumulation process is explored.

Healthcare networks are becoming ubiquitous, yet it is unclear how hospitals with varying quality capabilities would fare by being affiliated with large healthcare networks. The purpose of this paper is to first consider the deductive configuration perspective and distinguish high and low quality hospitals by using clinical and experiential quality as two dimensions of quality capability. Next, it examines the impact of healthcare network size on operating costs of hospitals. Additionally, the paper investigates the interaction effect of hospital demand and healthcare network size on operating costs.

The paper uses a dataset that was created by combining five separate sources. Cluster analysis technique is used to classify hospitals into four groups – holistic quality leaders (high clinical and experiential quality capability), experiential quality focusers (low clinical quality capability and high experiential quality capability), clinical quality focusers (high clinical capability and low experiential quality capability), and quality laggards (low clinical and experiential quality capability). The authors test the research hypotheses by means of regression analyses after controlling for several contextual characteristics.

The results show that affiliation with large healthcare networks reduces operating costs for quality laggards, but increases these costs for experiential quality focusers and clinical quality focusers. The hypothesized positive relationship between healthcare network size and costs is not supported for holistic quality leaders. The authors find that clinical quality focusers and holistic quality leaders can complement higher utilization levels in their operations due to increased demand and healthcare network size to reduce their operating costs per day.

There has been increasing evidence suggesting that hospitals must carefully manage both clinical and experiential quality. By focusing on both clinical and experiential quality, unlike experiential quality focusers and clinical quality focusers, holistic quality leaders are not adversely affected by the size of their network. The results suggest that experiential quality focusers and clinical quality focusers should either embrace holistic quality management or restrict the size of their networks to maintain their quality level and to reduce coordination costs.

The purpose of this study is to explore potential reasons that might explain why locally owned tourism firms cheat the use of backward economic linkages that (when used) might otherwise maximize the economic benefits of the tourism industry for locals.

For this exploratory qualitative case study research design, 25 face-to-face interviews were conducted with various tourism business owners and managers in Puntarenas, Costa Rica.

The findings indicate that while the participants felt that tourism business' economies of scale could be improved if all locally owned businesses purchased within the tourism supply chain they themselves were purchasing outside of the supply chain. This behavior was characterized as a result of a non-cooperative market.

The major implication from the study is a trend that emerged from the data that seems to detect a tragedy of the commons scenario that is rooted in game theory. This scenario provides insight into a problem where tourism business owners and managers indicate an understanding of the value of using local network linkages, but instead cheat the system. A limitation of the study is that case studies may only be generalized to theoretical propositions and not to similar contextual situations.

Mainstream tourism literature has provided quantitative assessments that determine the direct, indirect, induced, and multiplier effects of local links between industries, sectors, and different producers that are used in the tourism supply chain. Findings from these studies indicate that local areas economically benefit when these links are actively used. However, not extensively addressed is identification of why (when most individuals know they may all benefit from the use of said linkages) cheat the system.

America's movement to a digital network infrastructure may be threatened by the unavailability of high‐speed network channels to some sources of information. One reason for unavailability is fear by network intermediaries that they face legal liability for carrying harmful messages. Yet changing the law to require network intermediaries to provide equal access to their services raises First Amendment questions.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the USA's movement to a digital network infrastructure which may be threatened by the unavailability of high‐speed network channels to some sources of information.

One reason for unavailability is fear by network intermediaries that they face legal liability for carrying harmful messages. Yet changing the law to require network intermediaries to provide equal access to their services raises First Amendment questions.

A mechanism should be established for providers of network services to inform potential customers of the terms on which they handle traffic. An electronic forum for notices of access policy would be one way to implement this recommendation.

Uncertainty about equal access, tort liability and First Amendment privileges adversely affects commercialization of the Internet. Commercialization must begin with acceptance of three goals for digital electronic network policy: encouraging a diversity of information products, preventing suppliers of information content from being foreclosed from access to markets, and allowing persons suffering legal injury, because of information content, to obtain compensation based on fault.

The proper identification of a decision problem is paramount to finding a course of action or solution. This paper attempts to capture the general laws or principles that define decision problems. These principles are then used to establish a decision classification system called the decision‐order taxonomy.

The decision‐order taxonomy is developed by performing a content analysis on the seminal literature in the natural, social, and applied sciences. By identifying the semantic descriptors used to partition various domains, an implicit taxonomy for proper identification of decision problems is hypothesized.

The multidimensional taxonomic classification system and defined nomenclature, together with the identification process, comprise the complete decision‐order taxonomy developed in this paper. While applying the decision‐order taxonomy to an actual decision problem, insights are exposed which will guide the decision maker toward appropriate solution methodologies.

The theoretical foundation developed can be used to promote future research in decision classification. By providing a theoretically derived model, rich opportunities to test the taxonomy empirically are offered. Researchers are also given a foundation upon which they can build interdisciplinary decision models.

For practitioners, the decision‐order taxonomy provides a new paradigm for communicating decision problems across disciplinary boundaries. The taxonomy also provides guidance to the practitioner as they search for appropriate solution methodologies in unfamiliar disciplines.

The establishment of a useful decision‐problem taxonomy is a significant contribution to understanding the multidimensional interdisciplinary nature of real world decision problems. The original classifications will promote cross disciplinary communication, a central element in business success.