Search results
11 – 20 of 132Hannu Hannila, Joni Koskinen, Janne Harkonen and Harri Haapasalo
The purpose of this paper is to analyse current challenges and to articulate the preconditions for data-driven, fact-based product portfolio management (PPM) based on commercial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse current challenges and to articulate the preconditions for data-driven, fact-based product portfolio management (PPM) based on commercial and technical product structures, critical business processes, corporate business IT and company data assets. Here, data assets were classified from a PPM perspective in terms of (product/customer/supplier) master data, transaction data and Internet of Things data. The study also addresses the supporting role of corporate-level data governance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study combines a literature review and qualitative analysis of empirical data collected from eight international companies of varying size.
Findings
Companies’ current inability to analyse products effectively based on existing data is surprising. The present findings identify a number of preconditions for data-driven, fact-based PPM, including mutual understanding of company products (to establish a consistent commercial and technical product structure), product classification as strategic, supportive or non-strategic (to link commercial and technical product structures with product strategy) and a holistic, corporate-level data model for adjusting the company’s business IT (to support product portfolio visualisation).
Practical implications
The findings provide a logical and empirical basis for fact-based, product-level analysis of product profitability and analysis of the product portfolio over the product life cycle, supporting a data-driven approach to the optimisation of commercial and technical product structure, business IT systems and company product strategy. As a virtual representation of reality, the company data model facilitates product visualisation. The findings are of great practical value, as they demonstrate the significance of corporate-level data assets, data governance and business-critical data for managing a company’s products and portfolio.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the existing literature by specifying the preconditions for data-driven, fact-based PPM as a basis for product-level analysis and decision making, emphasising the role of company data assets and clarifying the links between business processes, information systems and data assets for PPM.
Details
Keywords
The literature on modularity is extensive, but most research has been concerned with the manufacturing sector and much less with the service sector. The purpose of this paper is…
Abstract
Purpose
The literature on modularity is extensive, but most research has been concerned with the manufacturing sector and much less with the service sector. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the existing research, to provide a critique of the empirical literature on service modularity and to discuss future research opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
To perform this analysis of service modularity, a list of top-tier journals in the field of business management and organisation was compiled. From there, each and every article was identified, examined, coded and classified into high-level themes. These were then reviewed, analysed and interpreted.
Findings
This paper argues that the application of modularity in services will likely be influenced by certain characteristics that distinguish services from products. Second, modularity, from the service perspective, has been closely connected to productisation of services, and the discussion of modularity related to services has been greatly influenced by the earlier discussion on product modularity. This paper concludes that modularity in the service development context is still seeking its theoretical “identity” and requires further theoretical and empirical work on service design modularity conceptualisation, methods and measures.
Originality/value
This paper has reviewed several significant fields with which research on service modularity has been concerned. It captures and presents the core notion of service modularity in a critical way that might spur further research in the field.
Details
Keywords
Irma Tikkanen and Leila Jaakkola
The purpose of this paper is to explore evaluating the nutritional quality of menus by using software in professional kitchens.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore evaluating the nutritional quality of menus by using software in professional kitchens.
Design/methodology/approach
Nutritional quality and the core factors used when evaluating the nutritional quality of menus are discussed. The empirical data were collected in 2008 by theme interviewing nine municipal food service employees. The data were analysed by a thematic analysis.
Findings
The results indicated that both positive and contributing factors emerged as follows: productisation of menu; using a plate model; length of a control period concerning the nutritional quality of the menu; checking the nutrition content when making changes in menus, dishes and food items; dealing with the results of the evaluation in the meetings; including the results in the service agreements; employers' positive attitude displayed towards software suppliers' training; including nutritional quality as a part of service quality; and implementing nutritional quality according to the job descriptions.
Practical implications
A variety of courses should be offered for the students concerning the guidance of food production by using software in professional kitchens; integrating working life into the curriculum; continuous training of the food service personnel; and cooperation with the professional kitchen's software suppliers. Moreover, further implications could involve, for example, developing and diffusing the national model for the nutritional quality follow‐up; and taking the Sinfos‐product information data bank into use.
Originality/value
Active updating of the software and training of the employees are needed in order to ensure the nutritional quality of menus.
Details
Keywords
Anu H. Bask, Markku Tinnilä and Mervi Rajahonka
In recent decades, supply chains have diverged and new types of services and operators have emerged in the logistics sector. The purpose of this paper is to focus on analyzing…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent decades, supply chains have diverged and new types of services and operators have emerged in the logistics sector. The purpose of this paper is to focus on analyzing service strategies and service‐related business models, as well as their modular business processes in logistic services. The aims are to describe these three levels and to match strategic service positioning with business models and modular business processes. Different types of services are analyzed and the analyses are conducted on both the industry and corporate levels.
Design/methodology/approach
The theoretical focus of the paper illustrates frameworks for service strategy, service positioning, business models, and business processes. The corporate level approach aims to describe the efficiency and quality of services and their processes, while the industry level approach focuses on service strategies in an industry and on the organization of business, i.e. business models. A case study is used to illustrate the strategic level divergence in logistic services and to match this with the business model framework and the business process approach.
Findings
The findings show that a match exists between service strategy, business models, and operational level business processes. Standardization, service productization and modularization of services, and also service production structures are useful tools for efficient service production and output.
Originality/value
Companies are currently examining new roles in supply chains and the logistics market. For management, the frameworks presented facilitate analysis of the different options available for the firm in terms of strategic positioning, structural business model portfolio, and modular business processes. Based on the theoretical frameworks, it is possible to evaluate past developments and also predict the future of services.
Details
Keywords
Wu Xuemou and Guo Dinghe
The framework, methodology and development of pansystems cybernetics are introduced. Related contents include: the postmodernizational systems thought, the epitome of pansystems…
Abstract
The framework, methodology and development of pansystems cybernetics are introduced. Related contents include: the postmodernizational systems thought, the epitome of pansystems methods, hi‐tech mechanism, social cybernetics, pansystems views of value, labor, management and economics, pedagogy, history and futurology, systems mathematics, general clustering analysis, observocontrollability, generalized living systems, information metascience, regret information, general fuzzy control, generalized gray systems, entropy, large scale dynamical supercomplicated Shengke systems, function simulations, transformation theory, simplification, strengthening, forming substance of subsystems of living systems of Miller’s theory, etc.
Details
Keywords
Oscar F. Bustinza, Luis M. Molina Fernandez and Marlene Mendoza Macías
Machine learning (ML) analytical tools are increasingly being considered as an alternative quantitative methodology in management research. This paper proposes a new approach for…
Abstract
Purpose
Machine learning (ML) analytical tools are increasingly being considered as an alternative quantitative methodology in management research. This paper proposes a new approach for uncovering the antecedents behind product and product–service innovation (PSI).
Design/methodology/approach
The ML approach is novel in the field of innovation antecedents at the country level. A sample of the Equatorian National Survey on Technology and Innovation, consisting of more than 6,000 firms, is used to rank the antecedents of innovation.
Findings
The analysis reveals that the antecedents of product and PSI are distinct, yet rooted in the principles of open innovation and competitive priorities.
Research limitations/implications
The analysis is based on a sample of Equatorian firms with the objective of showing how ML techniques are suitable for testing the antecedents of innovation in any other context.
Originality/value
The novel ML approach, in contrast to traditional quantitative analysis of the topic, can consider the full set of antecedent interactions to each of the innovations analyzed.
Details
Keywords
Tiina Tuominen and Miia Martinsuo
The purpose of this paper is to identify and explain how different kinds of knowledge-intensive business service processes (KIBS processes) can be formalised without excessively…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify and explain how different kinds of knowledge-intensive business service processes (KIBS processes) can be formalised without excessively limiting employees’ agency, and thus flexibility in value creation. Previous research acknowledges the need to balance flexibility and formalisation but does not investigate how employees achieve this balance in various types of KIBS processes.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper employs a qualitative multiple-case study approach to compare employees’ agency in six successful formalisation projects targeting different types of KIBS processes in three firms. Through a systematic mapping of employees’ agency across the cases, this study reveals alternative patterns of formalisation that enable agency.
Findings
The findings reveal notable differences in employees’ agency in the studied cases. When KIBS processes were scale intensive and/or the culture-favoured conformity, formalisation projects were centrally organised, and employees obeyed codified process templates, even though some agency remained. When KIBS processes were smaller scale and/or the culture-favoured freedom, employees conducted formalisation projects autonomously and retained higher levels of agency in formalised KIBS processes.
Practical implications
Firms and business units providing KIBS should choose their formalisation approaches locally based on the scalability of the KIBS process, their employees’ skill levels, knowledge bases and culture. Choosing the right approach enables flexibility while striving for efficient processes.
Originality/value
Previous studies suggest that formalisation benefits only some KIBS, but this comparative approach shows that a variety of KIBS processes benefit from formalisation if the formalisation approach is tailored to the context. Alternative patterns of formalisation are revealed to guide further empirical research on the topic.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to state new formulation of the programme‐styled framework of pansystems research and related expansions.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to state new formulation of the programme‐styled framework of pansystems research and related expansions.
Design/methodology/approach
Pansystems‐generalized extremum principle (0**: (dy/dx=0)**) is presented with recognitions to various logoi of philosophy, mathematics, technology, systems, cybernetics, informatics, relativity, biology, society, resource, communications and related topics: logic, history, humanities, aesthetics, journalism, IT, AI, TGBZ* <truth*goodness*beauty*Zen*>, etc. including recent rediscoveries of 50 or so pansystems logoi.
Findings
A keynote of the paper is to develop the deep logoi of the analytic mathematics, analytic mechanics, variational principles, Hilbert's sixth/23rd problems, pan‐axiomatization to encyclopedic principles and various applications. The 0**‐universal connections embody the transfield internet‐styled academic tendency of pansystems exploration.
Originality/value
The paper includes topics: history megawave, pansystems sublation‐modes, pan‐metaphysics, pansystems dialogs with logoi of 100 thinkers or so, and pansystems‐sublation for a series of logoi concerning the substructure of encyclopedic dialogs such as systems, derivative, extremum, quantification, variational principle, equation, symmetry, OR, optimization, approximation, yinyang, combination, normality‐abnormality, framework, modeling, simulation, relativity, recognition, practice, methodology, mathematics, operations and transformations, quotientization, product, clustering, Banach completeness theorem, Weierstrass approximation theorem, Jackson approximation theorem, Taylor theorem, approximation transformation theorems due to Walsh‐Sewell mathematical school, Hilbert problems, Cauchy theorem, theorems of equation stability, function theory, logic, paradox, axiomatization, cybernetics, dialectics, multistep decision, computer, synergy, vitality and the basic logoi for history, ethics, economics, society OR, aesthetics, journalism, institution, resource and traffics, AI, IT, etc.
Details