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Each year, the US defense industry outsources nearly $400 bn of domestic goods and services through competitive bids. These procurement activities are quite often complex and specialized in nature because of a highly regulated federal acquisition contracting environment. Ongoing calls to improve supplier management and drive innovation in the defense industry offers an opportunity to adopt Early Supplier Integration (ESI) initiatives that have proven successful in the private sector. This paper identifies critical ESI activities and acquisition practices that the defense industry should adopt to ensure enhanced effectiveness in new product development.

Leveraging a conceptual ESI model derived from the research, an in-depth case study of 12 product development projects from a major defense contractor was performed. In the context of project performance, critical ESI activities and moderating effects were assessed.

Three key ESI activities have the greatest impact on aggregate project performance: system design involvement, design adjustment opportunities and design for manufacturability/assembly/testability involvement. Use of formal supplier agreements also significantly impacts project performance during the development phase. In addition, project complexity and product team maturity were identified as environment moderators; higher complexity projects tended to negatively moderate the impact of ESI upon performance, and higher team maturity levels tended to positively moderate the impact of ESI upon performance.

The results provide a sound framework for empirical validation through future quantitative studies and defense industry analyses. In addition, insights and recommendations for interpretation and adaptation of federal acquisition regulations to allow increased utilization of ESI within the defense industry are substantiated.

This paper aims to seek answers to the question: What are the relevant factors that allow not-for-profit innovation networks to successfully transition new technologies from proof-of-concept to commercialisation?

This question is examined using the knowledge-based view and network orchestration theory. Data are collected from 35 interviews with managers and engineers working within seven centres that comprise the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC). These centres constitute a not-for-profit innovation network where suppliers, customers and competitors collaborate to help transition new technologies across the “Valley of Death” (the gap between establishing a proof of concept and commercialisation).

Network orchestration theory suggests that a hub firm facilitates the exchange of knowledge amongst network members (knowledge mobility), to enable these members to profit from innovation (innovation appropriability). The hub firm ensures positive network growth, and also allows for the entry and exit of network members (network stability). This study of not-for-profit innovation networks suggests the role of a network orchestrator is to help ensure that intellectual property becomes a public resource that enhances the productivity of the domestic economy. The authors observed how network stability was achieved by the HVMC's seven centres employing a loosely-coupled hybrid network configuration. This configuration however ensured that new technology development teams, comprised of suppliers, customers and competitors, remained tightly-coupled to enable co-development of innovative technologies. Matching internal technical and sectoral expertise with complementary experience from network members allowed knowledge to flow across organisational boundaries and throughout the network. Matrix organisational structures and distributed decision-making authority created opportunities for knowledge integration to occur. Actively moving individuals and teams between centres also helped to diffuse knowledge to network members, while regular meetings between senior management ensured network coordination and removed resource redundancies.

The study contributes to knowledge-based theory by moving beyond existing understanding of knowledge integration in firms, and identified how knowledge is exchanged and aggregated within not-for-profit innovation networks. The findings contribute to network orchestration theory by challenging the notion that network orchestrators should enact and enforce appropriability regimes (patents, licences, copyrights) to allow members to profit from innovations. Instead, the authors find that not-for-profit innovation networks can overcome the frictions that appropriability regimes often create when exchanging knowledge during new technology development. This is achieved by pre-defining the terms of network membership/partnership and setting out clear pathways for innovation scaling, which embodies newly generated intellectual property as a public resource. The findings inform a framework that is useful for policy makers, academics and managers interested in using not-for-profit networks to transition new technologies across the Valley of Death.

In this chapter, I reflect on my research on expatriation and cross-cultural interactions over the past four decades. I have characterized it as voyages of self-discovery, as my research questions have been framed by my own experiences in growing up in a bicultural environment in Hong Kong and subsequent relocation to North America. My research findings have helped me understand the what, why, and how of my encounters and observations in the context of international assignments and cross-cultural encounters. The chapter then focuses on my 1981 publication that presented a contingency paradigm of selection and training that generated substantial interest in expatriation. While the contingency paradigm is essentially valid today, I outline four developments that have taken place since then – war for talent, greying of the labor force, rise of emerging markets, and need for global orientation – that necessitate new perspectives in understanding human resource management in the global context. I then allude to how I would rewrite my 1981 paper differently in light of these changes.

The Deming management method, which encompasses the breadth of W. Edwards Deming's approach to quality management, has had significant impact on the practice and scholarship of quality management. In this paper we present a scholarly introspection and discussion on scientific research related to the Deming management method, the contributions of such research to theory development in quality management, and future research directions to pursue in order to continue to advance scientific knowledge in quality management. In doing so, we traced the historical development of the Deming management method. We present and discuss two streams of research related to the Deming management method, namely the concept of profound knowledge and the Deming‐based theory of TQM. We also highlight several opportunities for future research that would advance theory development in the TQM discipline – opportunities anchored by the imperative for confirmatory research that requires proper operationalization and primary data, and the plausibility of theory refinement and extension through the specification of new relationships and the inclusion of moderators and mediators.

Over the last decade, scholars extensively discuss talent management phenomenon in various country contexts paying much attention to different exogenous and endogenous factors influencing talent management systems and practices and their relationships with other organizational processes. In this chapter we particularly talk about the peculiarities of talent management in Brazil and Russia and explore the potential impact key management practices aimed at attracting, developing and retaining high potentials and high performers have on the development of firms’ absorptive capacity. We argue that for Brazilian and Russian firms “crossverging” context-specific talent management practices play a key role in the acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and exploitation of external and internal valuable knowledge, thus becoming one of the main drivers of organizational performance and competitive advantage.

This preliminary study aims to investigate and describe aggression-supportive normative beliefs among patients of a high-secure hospital.

Therapy data from a sample of high-secure forensic hospital patients (N = 11) who had participated in Life Minus Violence-Enhanced, a long-term violence therapy, was examined using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). During therapy, cognitions linked to past incidences of aggression were explored using aggression choice chains.

IPA was applied to data generated through this process to examine the presence and nature of normative beliefs reported, identifying seven themes: rules for aggressive behaviour; use of violence to obtain revenge; processing emotions with violence; surviving in a threatening world; do not become a victim; using violence to maintain status; and prosocial beliefs.

Findings demonstrate that forensic patients have specific aggression-supportive normative beliefs, which may be malleable. Limitations and implications are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model that enables a company to select the supply chain strategy based on risk probability p (measure of how likely/often a detrimental event occurs) and risk impact i (expression of the significance of a loss when that event occurs).

This paper discusses four supply chain strategies: agility, robustness, resilience and rigidity. Mathematical models are used for the strategies' cost functions, which reveal optimal solutions and break‐even points in dependence of p and i.

This paper proposes that resilience is appropriate in the case of high supply chain risk probability and impact, and rigidity if both values are low. When only risk impact is low, robustness is optimal, whereas agility is optimal when only risk probability is low.

This research extends existing models for selecting the appropriate supply chain strategy.

Knowledge of the interplay between the strategies' cost functions and risk probability and risk impact is vital for companies. This may encourage managers to become more familiar with their strategy costs and supply chain risks.

To the author's knowledge, no corresponding model exists so far that links risk impact and risk probability to the four supply chain strategies.

Developing global leaders is one of the most pressing needs for global companies. We present a framework for a more integrated talent management development program. The framework is based on several key principles and includes the use of assessment tools, 70-20-10 development tactics, external coaching, and an emphasis on critical experiences. We focus specifically on key considerations for implementing this type of a framework and the keys to success.

Risk is primarily managed by developing the right strategies. Effective alignment of lean and agile strategies is always challenging for practitioners to create firm’s competitiveness. The purpose of this study is to comprehend the behavior of these fundamental supply chain (SC) strategies by using the Triple-A framework.

Sample data is collected from 257 SC professionals serving in manufacturing firms through a self-administered structured questionnaire. The statistical technique used to perform hypotheses testing is structural equation modeling.

This study discloses a few critical attributes of lean and agile strategies while attempting to create strategic alignment and gain maximum benefits out of it. One of the key findings is that a lean strategy finds it challenging to create adaptability. However, better alignment among the market priorities and operational capabilities may improve risk management capabilities.

This study posits various vital insights for strategy-makers. For instance, it is advised to the operations managers that lean resources are usually never capable of adopting change but can be aligned with the market changes to create a SC risk management capability for the firm.

This is an original research with various useful insights for SC operations strategy-makers and academic researchers as it reveals a key empirical evidence of past vital concepts.