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1 – 10 of over 11000The purpose of this paper is: to report on an experiment in building up inter-organizational collaboration between healthcare organizations; and to identify how structure and some…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is: to report on an experiment in building up inter-organizational collaboration between healthcare organizations; and to identify how structure and some of the components of the strategic community (SC) approach to organizational change can have a long-term impact on inter-organizational collaboration.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper resulted from participative action-research held from 2007 to 2013. A systematic collection of data (field notes, 746 hours of observations, proceedings, 186 interviews, journals, focus groups, discussion forums) was conducted in the various cycles of the action-research.
Findings
Adapted to the healthcare sector, the SC has taken the form of a temporary inter-organizational collaboration structure composed of health professionals, first-level managers, general practitioners, specialized doctors, and non-profit organization representatives. The SC approach appeared to be an efficient strategy for taking action.
Practical implications
The SC approach appeared to be appropriate for cases where the inter-organizational collaboration had clearly declined, where several other attempts had failed, and where the care trajectory involved vulnerable clients who had to travel between different service points for the required care.
Originality/value
This study illustrates how SC helps to significantly improve inter-organizational collaboration in the healthcare sector. It likewise acknowledges the relevance of Thomson and Perry’s (2006) work in analyzing and emphasizing the dimensions required to ensure successful inter-organizational collaboration.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate how accounting and supply function specialists shape controls in collaborative supply networks (CSNs) and how both might co‐evolve.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how accounting and supply function specialists shape controls in collaborative supply networks (CSNs) and how both might co‐evolve.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a case study of an Australian metal manufacturer (“SteelBiz”) and its CSN is conducted.
Findings
The paper finds changes in both trust vis‐à‐vis formal controls and in intra‐organisational supply‐accounting relations occurred in a mutually constitutive manner. At SteelBiz, a shift to formal controls occurred due to the efforts of the accounting function in contesting organisational visibility. Overall, both intra‐ and inter‐organisational relations were found to co‐evolve.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of the paper include: an empirical examination of buyer organisations only; a focus on intra‐organisational issues between functional specialists to the relative exclusion of both more “macro” trends and inter‐personal relationships; and the limited generalisability associated with the methodology chosen. Future research should consider both buyer and supplier organisations and whether the “disciplinary alignments” observed here are reflective of more enduring patterns.
Originality/value
The contributions of this paper are two‐fold. First, the paper attempts to fill a gap in the literature pertaining to how intra‐organisational relations might influence network controls. Furthermore, the few studies that do exist describe the “intra‐inter” dynamic as uni‐directional only, whereas this paper reveals how both mutually constitute the other. Second, complexities into the trust‐formal control relationship are revealed while it is proposed that as CSN relations develop, process‐based mechanisms become more important than other relationship‐sustaining devices, with the trust‐formal control dynamic dependent on ongoing negotiation and information as mobilised by intra‐organisational participants.
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Anna-Maija Hietajärvi, Kirsi Aaltonen and Harri Haapasalo
The effective management of inter-organizational integration is central to complex projects. Such projects pose significant challenges for integration, as organizations struggle…
Abstract
Purpose
The effective management of inter-organizational integration is central to complex projects. Such projects pose significant challenges for integration, as organizations struggle with constantly changing inter-organizational interdependencies and must develop and adapt integration mechanisms to meet new demands. The purpose of this paper is to understand what kinds of integration mechanisms are used and how they are developed and adjusted during the infrastructure alliance projects.
Design/methodology/approach
This study provides empirical evidence of integration dynamics in project alliancing by analyzing two infrastructure alliance projects – a complex tunnel construction project and a railway renovation project. The research approach is an inductive case study.
Findings
This paper identifies integration mechanisms adopted in two case projects and three central triggers that led to changes in the integration mechanisms: project lifecycle phase, unexpected events and project team’s learning during the project.
Practical implications
Integration capability should be a precondition for alliance project organizations and requires the adoption of a wide range of integration mechanisms, as well as an ability to adjust those mechanisms in response to everyday dynamics and emergent situations.
Originality/value
Although unplanned contingencies and the responses to them represent important influences in organizations, there is limited amount of research on the dynamics of integration. The findings will be of value in supporting the management of inter-organizational integration in complex, uncertain and time-critical construction projects.
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This paper addresses the emergence of strategic agility as adaptive capability to face the need to adapt to a constantly changing environment. Special emphasis is paid to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper addresses the emergence of strategic agility as adaptive capability to face the need to adapt to a constantly changing environment. Special emphasis is paid to governance mechanisms as a microfoundation of dynamic capabilities, investigating the dynamics and outcome in regards to the digitalization of supply chains and its socio-economic relations of its members.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiple-case study method is applied to explain the impact of a digitalization initiative in the form of an I4.0 implementation in a supply chain context. Building on qualitative in-depth interviews of experts in managerial positions, 16 cases from the manufacturing industry involving an I4.0 implementation across the supply chain were analyzed. Based on a conceptual design science approach, the CIMO logic (context, intervention, mechanisms and outcome) framework is used to investigate the interplay between agility as a dynamic capability and governance mechanisms.
Findings
The studied cases demonstrate an intensification of synergistic combinations of inter-firm resources to manage digitalization across the supply chain (SC). With the implementation of I4.0, competitive advantage along the SC takes higher priority over the competitive advantage in the individual or dyadic perspective. Strategic agility as a dynamic capability to cope with and adapt to the changing environment is hereby crucial emphasizing relational SC governance (SCG) as essential as a microfoundation to adjust the structure and management of SCs. Relationships, which allow competitive advantage as a SC balance out traditional power mechanisms within the SC hierarchy. Trust, collaboration and flexibility, aligned with common incentives in generating competitive advantages enable the SCs to mitigate uncertainty and risk while preventing opportunistic behavior.
Practical implications
The study offers SCM managers in-depth insights into strategic agility and how to address the recent challenge of digitalization successfully. Identifying crucial dynamics within SCG mechanisms based on first-hand use cases, practical success factors for implementing I4.0 to optimize effectiveness and efficiency can be derived how to structure and manage future SCs.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the first insights examining the implications of digitalization and the role of strategic agility as a capability to adapt. Investigating the microfoundation of governance within this capability, this research provides insights on the socio-economic level, while discussing specific mechanisms how relationships of SCs evolve proposing relevant insights for future research.
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Jens Eklinder-Frick, Andrea Perna and Vincent Hocine Jean Fremont
Vahid Javidroozi, Hanifa Shah and Gerald Feldman
Enterprise systems integration (ESI) is necessary for today’s business environment to access real-time data and quickly respond to fluctuating market demand. business process…
Abstract
Purpose
Enterprise systems integration (ESI) is necessary for today’s business environment to access real-time data and quickly respond to fluctuating market demand. business process change (BPC) as a significant prerequisite of ESI encompasses various challenges that must be tackled by employing success factors, techniques and approaches. The purpose of this paper is to focus on BPC challenges and develop a conceptual framework for addressing BPC challenges in ESI.
Design/methodology/approach
BPC challenges and their success factors were first identified through a literature analysis. Then, the findings from the literature were thematically analysed and qualitatively validated through 35 unstructured interviews for developing the conceptual framework.
Findings
The findings from the literature suggested 17 BPC challenge along with their success factors. During the validation process, 15 BPC challenges were accepted by all interviewees, while most of the respondents disagreed with the two challenges of “consolidation of information system re-engineering with BPR”, and “customization”. Moreover, “risk” was suggested as a BPC challenge by several interviewees. Thus, the study offered a modified list of BPC challenges, which was empirically validated.
Originality/value
The study proposes a conceptual framework for addressing BPC challenges in ESI that enables enterprises to design their systems integration roadmap, based on an understanding of BPC challenges and their success factors, as well as supporting solution providers to develop solutions for effective and efficient BPC. Furthermore, the framework will act as a basis for BPC and developing a similar framework for other related contexts, such as smart cities.
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Philip Davies, Yipeng Liu, Maggie Cooper and Yijun Xing
Recent research has recognised the importance of supply chains and ecosystems as key drivers of successful servitization strategies, especially in the context of…
Abstract
Purpose
Recent research has recognised the importance of supply chains and ecosystems as key drivers of successful servitization strategies, especially in the context of inter-organisational relations (IOR). The body of knowledge has, however, become increasingly fragmented and diverse due to different disciplinary roots of both servitization and IOR research. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of current knowledge and to generate a set of future research directions for servitization-related supply chain and ecosystem research.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review methodology was applied. A thematic analysis was conducted on a sample of 34 papers in the period 2010–2021 to identify the key themes within the servitization-related supply chain and ecosystem literature.
Findings
The review revealed a limited, but expanding, knowledge base for servitization-related supply chain and ecosystem research. The findings provide insight into current trends across four thematic areas: theoretical orientation, methodological approaches, research context and research content. Within these themes, it was found that four main areas of research content have been studied (supplier relationships, risk perception and uncertainty, capability development and resource integration), with most research adopting case-based methodologies within three main industrial contexts: manufacturing, industrial and software. Finally, a broad range of theoretical orientations have led to an increasingly fragmented and diverse literature base.
Originality/value
This study is the first to review servitization-related supply chains and ecosystems. It contributes insights through an IOR lens to categorise and organise a core set of themes and concepts for servitization-related supply chain and ecosystems research. It identifies research gaps within the extant literature and presents a set of future research directions.
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Susanna Hedborg Bengtsson, Tina Karrbom Gustavsson and Per Erik Eriksson
Innovation is constantly present in the construction industry, however, mainly on a single project level. Initiating and implementing inter-organizational innovation in a…
Abstract
Purpose
Innovation is constantly present in the construction industry, however, mainly on a single project level. Initiating and implementing inter-organizational innovation in a multi-project context such as in urban development entails large complexity, for example, because of the many interdependent projects and users of innovation. The users’ influence on inter-organizational innovation in a multi-project context has not been fully explored. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to discuss how users influence inter-organizational innovation in multi-project contexts by mapping the receptiveness for change.
Design/methodology/approach
A single case study approach was used, where empirical material including semi-structured interviews in combination with meeting observations, document studies and participative workshops were gathered. The rich empirical material, studying inter-organizational innovation in an urban development context, was mapped based on the receptive context for change framework.
Findings
A receptive context for change was not present in the studied multi-project context. Communication to develop and implement inter-organizational innovation was not sufficient and the clients’ procurement strategies were to a large extent not developed to facilitate inter-organizational innovation. Findings show differences in users’ possibility and aim to implement inter-organizational innovation.
Originality/value
The mapping of the receptive context to influence inter-organizational innovation widens the knowledge base and provides valuable insights on how inter-organizational innovation may be implemented in the loosely coupled construction industry. Furthermore, the findings broaden the discussion on clients as innovation supporters, and contribute to the debate on clients as innovation supporters, by highlighting the importance of distinguishing between different types of clients.
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Jim Rooney and Yiyuan Cao
Firms in the early stage of their organisational lifecycle (ESFs) are subject to concerns founded on a requirement for strategic flexibility, prompting engagement in…
Abstract
Purpose
Firms in the early stage of their organisational lifecycle (ESFs) are subject to concerns founded on a requirement for strategic flexibility, prompting engagement in inter-organisational relationships such as outsourcing. However, studies of the management control dynamics of these relationships are rare. This paper aims to respond by empirically examining the influence of ESF managers on the ongoing management control of such relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
A single outsourcing case study is utilised to provide evidence in examining a multi-theoretical framework that adopts a complex adaptive system (CAS) perspective as a qualitative analytical framework, along with the existing accounting theory on control adoption.
Findings
Focused on management concerns with tensions between inter-organisational control and strategic flexibility, this paper identifies reasons for the adoption of management controls by an ESF. The inter-organisational system explored in this paper emphasises the importance of adopting a holistic epistemology in understanding changes in control adoption.
Research limitations/implications
This paper extends current theoretical perspectives on control adoption to consider the inter-organisational control concerns of ESF managers.
Practical implications
The insights identified in this paper provide a systemic framework to identify potential organisational and environmental influences on control problems, emphasising environmental co-evolution rather than achievement of ideal equilibrium states.
Originality/value
The intended contribution is to extend the management control literature to consider the effect of organisational lifecycle on the adoption of new inter-organisational management controls in the wake of ongoing trade-off between competing inter-organisational requirements.
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This paper aims to explore the effects of the increased influence of accounting on core values and practices within the services providing home care in Sweden – a public sector…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the effects of the increased influence of accounting on core values and practices within the services providing home care in Sweden – a public sector setting involving inter‐organisational cooperation.
Design/methodology/approach
Case study data were obtained primarily through semi‐structured interviews with managers and front‐line staff involved in home care.
Findings
When accountingisation is extended to include inter‐organisational cooperation, a form of heterogeneous accountingisation occurred in the home care services: an internal domain (with a low level of accountingisation) could be differentiated from an inter‐organisational domain (with a high level of accountingisation). When the accounting‐induced disturbances intensified, there was a redefinition of core values. In the internal domain, core values of pensioner‐oriented focus and flexibility during service delivery persisted. In contrast, in the inter‐organisational domain, core values had the legal boundaries of the organisation as their central foundation, standardisation was emphasised, and inter‐organisational work practices were defined as the other organisation's responsibility. The findings also extend the research on absorption groups by indicating the rise of a new type of absorption process. Absorption was not undertaken by a few individuals, specialist work groups or satellite organisations, as described in the literature; instead, all front‐line welfare professionals were involved in absorbing the accounting‐induced disturbances when performing their tasks.
Research limitations/implications
This case study research is context‐specific and the meaning and consequences of accountingisation may differ within the public sector because of the status and strength of professional groups concerned.
Originality/value
To date, research on accountingisation has primarily employed an intra‐organisational perspective. This paper analyses accountingisation in an inter‐organisational setting.
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