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1 – 10 of 14Christos Sofronas, Fragiskos Archontakis and Palie Smart
In the research & development (R&D) and innovation management literature, the question of whether or not to perform research in the private sector is always a pertinent one…
Abstract
Purpose
In the research & development (R&D) and innovation management literature, the question of whether or not to perform research in the private sector is always a pertinent one. Several studies have used market value to measure its association with a firm’s R&D performance. Nevertheless, in Europe there have been considerably less studies as compared to the USA because the analysis is complicated by data issues and different country-specific laws. The purpose of this paper is to further advance this field of research. The study provides insights into the strategic decision behind conducting R&D.
Design/methodology/approach
The econometric analysis is based on a unique panel data set of 133 companies in 13 European countries which is collected from the Bloomberg database covering the time period from 2002 to 2012.
Findings
The empirical findings are as follows: there is weak evidence in support of the hypothesis that R&D expenditure positively affects the firm’s market value, a fact which is confirmed by other published works; there is weak evidence that economic events can disrupt the connection of R&D programs with the market value of firms; and for a highly controversial topic in the literature, data suggest that small firms are rather favoured more from R&D expenditure than large firms.
Originality/value
The current study expands the discussion regarding the effect of R&D on the market value of firms via empirical evidence, within the specific environment of the European financial crisis. Future managerial, informed-based, decisions can be drawn on the present results.
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Palie Smart, Stefan Hemel, Fiona Lettice, Richard Adams and Stephen Evans
The purpose of this paper is to progress operations management theory and practice by organising contributions to knowledge production, in industrial sustainability, from…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to progress operations management theory and practice by organising contributions to knowledge production, in industrial sustainability, from disparate researcher communities. It addresses the principal question “What scholarly dialogues can be explicated in the emerging research field of industrial sustainability?” and sub-questions: what are the descriptive characteristics of the evidence base? and what thematic lines of scientific inquiry underpin the body of knowledge?
Design/methodology/approach
Using an evidenced-based approach, a systematic review (SR) of 574 articles from 62 peer-reviewed scientific journals associated with industrial sustainability is conducted.
Findings
This paper distinguishes three prevailing dialogues in the field of industrial sustainability, and uses Kuhn’s theory of paradigms to propose its pre-paradigmatic scientific status. The three dialogues: “productivity and innovation”, “corporate citizenship” and “economic resilience” are conjectured to privilege efficiency strategies as a mode of incremental reductionism. Industrial sustainability espouses the grand vision of a generative, restorative and net positive economy, and calls for a future research trajectory to address institutional and systemic issues regarding scaling-up and transition, through transformative strategies.
Research limitations/implications
The review is limited by the nature of the inquiries addressed in the literatures by specific researcher communities between 1992 and 2014.
Originality/value
This study performs the first SR in the field of industrial sustainability, synthesises prevailing scholarly dialogues and provides an evaluation of the scientific status of the field.
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Chandrasekararao Seepana, Antony Paulraj and Palie Smart
While the performance benefits of relational resources and managerial ambidexterity have been widely discussed in coopetition literature, there is only limited evidence that…
Abstract
Purpose
While the performance benefits of relational resources and managerial ambidexterity have been widely discussed in coopetition literature, there is only limited evidence that illustrates the underlying relationships between these relational resources and managerial ambidexterity. Against this background, this paper aims to investigate how managerial ambidexterity moderates the innovation ambidexterity effects of relational resources (i.e. reciprocal investments and complementary resources).
Design/methodology/approach
This study forwards various hypotheses that are grounded within the theoretical tenets of the relational view and the dynamic capabilities perspective. To test the hypotheses, this study uses survey data provided by 313 firms that pursue horizontal coopetition relationships.
Findings
The research findings offer important insights in that while reciprocal investments lead to innovation ambidexterity, complementary resources do not result in such benefits. Additionally, managerial ambidexterity complements the relational resources to develop innovation ambidexterity if and only if both managerial exploration and exploitation are applied simultaneously.
Originality/value
As opposed to widely-held beliefs, this study finds that firms' use of complementary resources is not likely to lead to innovation ambidexterity even though such resources can help in developing strong relationships. In addition, although often overlooked, managerial ambidexterity plays a vital role in transforming relational resources into useful innovations for firms involved in coopetition relationships. It is crucial for firms that their managers balance their ambidextrous activities of exploration and exploitation so as to develop innovation ambidexterity.
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Tim Baines, Howard Lightfoot, Palie Smart and Sarah Fletcher
This “research note” sets out to fuel the debate around the practices and technologies within operations that are critical to success with servitization. It presents a study of…
Abstract
Purpose
This “research note” sets out to fuel the debate around the practices and technologies within operations that are critical to success with servitization. It presents a study of four companies which are delivering advanced services and reports on the organisation and skill-sets of people within these.
Design/methodology/approach
This has been case-based research at four manufacturers leading in their delivery of services.
Findings
It describes the desirable behaviour of people in the front-line of service delivery, identifies the supporting skill-sets, how these people are organised, and explains why all these factors are so important.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the understanding of the servitization process and, in particular, the implications to broader operations of the firm.
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Tim Baines, Howard Lightfoot and Palie Smart
The debate about services‐led competitive strategies continues to grow, with much interest emerging around the differing practices between production and servitized operations…
Abstract
Purpose
The debate about services‐led competitive strategies continues to grow, with much interest emerging around the differing practices between production and servitized operations. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this discussion by investigating the vertical integration practice (in particular the micro‐vertical integration, otherwise known as the supply chain position) of manufacturers who are successful in their adoption of servitization.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve this the authors have investigated a cross‐section of four companies which are successfully delivering advanced services coupled to their products.
Findings
Manufacturers who have embraced the servitization trend tend to retain capabilities in design and production, and do so because this benefits their speed, effectiveness and costs of supporting assets on advanced services contracts.
Research limitations/implications
These are preliminary findings from a longer term research programme.
Practical implications
Through this research note the authors seek to simultaneously contribute to the debate in the research community and offer guidance to practitioners exploring the consequences of servitization.
Originality/value
Successful servitization demands that manufacturers adopt new and alternative practices and technologies to those traditionally associated with production operations. A prevailing challenge is to understand these differences and their underpinning rationale. Therefore, in this research note, the authors report on the practices of four case companies, explore the rationale underpinning these, and propose an hypothesis for the impact on vertical integration of successful servitization.
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Palie Smart, John Bessant and Abhishek Gupta
Inter‐organizational innovation networks provide opportunities to exploit complementary resources that reside beyond the boundary of the firm. The shifting locus of innovation and…
Abstract
Purpose
Inter‐organizational innovation networks provide opportunities to exploit complementary resources that reside beyond the boundary of the firm. The shifting locus of innovation and value creation away from the “sole firm as innovator” poses important questions about the nature of these resources and the capabilities needed to leverage them for competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to describe research into producing design‐oriented knowledge, for configuring inter‐organizational networks as a means of accessing such resources for innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory investigation conflates emerging constructs and themes analytically induced from a systematic survey of 142 scholarly and practitioner articles and 45 expert interviews with senior professionals operating in the biopharmaceuticals industry.
Findings
The findings identify seven theoretically and empirically grounded technological rules associated with effective inter‐organizational networking for innovation. They embody evidence ex post of networking theory and practice. Based on van Aken's seminal work, they comprise design‐oriented knowledge to provide a solution architecture of viable action options for managers, a priori, to purposefully design innovation networks. Collectively these rules represent a tentative taxonomy, a means of classifying design principles, to assist managers in navigating their decision‐making processes.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates the need for explicit design‐oriented knowledge for configuring inter‐organizational networks. Finally, the implications of the findings for strategic management theory are discussed from a dynamic capabilities view. The significance of a dynamic capability which addresses the renewal of network‐specific resources is highlighted.
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Howard Lightfoot, Tim Baines and Palie Smart
The servitization of manufacturing is a diverse and complex field of research interest. The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrative and organising lens for viewing the…
Abstract
Purpose
The servitization of manufacturing is a diverse and complex field of research interest. The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrative and organising lens for viewing the various contributions to knowledge production from those research communities addressing servitization. To achieve this, the paper aims to set out to address two principal questions, namely where are the knowledge stocks and flows amongst the research communities? And what are generic research concerns being addressed by these communities?
Design/methodology/approach
Using an evidenced-based approach, the authors have performed a systematic review of the research literature associated with the servitization of manufacturing. This investigation incorporates a descriptive and thematic analysis of 148 academic and scholarly papers from 103 different lead authors in 68 international peer-reviewed journals.
Findings
The work proposes support for the existence of distinct researcher communities, namely services marketing, service management, operations management, product-service systems and service science management and engineering, which are contributing to knowledge production in the servitization of manufacturing. Knowledge stocks within all communities associated with research in the servitization of manufacturing have dramatically increased since the mid-1990s. The trends clearly reveal that the operations community is in receipt of the majority of citations relating to the servitization of manufacturing. In terms of knowledge flows, it is apparent that the more mature communities are drawing on more locally produced knowledge stocks, whereas the emergent communities are drawing on a knowledge base more evenly distributed across all the communities. The results are indicative of varying degrees of interdependency amongst the communities. The generic research concerns being addressed within the communities are associated with the concepts of product-service differentiation, competitive strategy, customer value, customer relationships and product-service configuration.
Originality/value
This research has further developed and articulated the identities of distinct researcher communities actively contributing to knowledge production in the servitization of manufacturing, and to what extent they are pursuing common research agendas. This study provides an improved descriptive and thematic awareness of the resulting body of knowledge, allowing the field of servitization to progress in a more informed and multidisciplinary fashion.
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