Search results

This chapter investigates how small- and medium-sized enterprises and large firms decide the sourcing strategies to explore and exploit. This study adopts a qualitative methodology and reports on the insights derived from interviews with 35 companies and 2 experts. A series of propositions are derived, and these propositions are used to propose a height–distance view of exploration and exploitation. The implications for theory and managerial practice are presented in the concluding remarks.

The essential investments in new product development (NPD) made by industrial companies entail effective management of NPD activities. In this context, performance measurement is one of the means that can be employed in the pursuit of effectiveness.

This paper addresses revolutionary changes in the education, fertility and market work of U.S. families formed in the 1870s–1920s: Fertility fell from 5.3 to 2.6; the graduation rate of their children increased from 7% to 50%; and the fraction of adulthood wives devoted to market-oriented work increased from 7% to 23% (by one measure).

These trends are addressed within a unified framework to examine the ability of several proposed mechanisms to quantitatively replicate these changes. Based on careful calibration, the choices of successive generations of representative husband-and-wife households over the quantity and quality of their children, household production, and the extent of mother’s involvement in market-oriented production are simulated.

Rising wages, declining mortality, a declining gender wage gap, and increased efficiency and public provision of schooling cannot, individually or in combination, reduce fertility or increase stocks of human capital to levels seen in the data. The best fit of the model to the data also involves: (1) a decreased tendency among parents to view potential earnings of children as the property of parents and (2) rising consumption shares per dependent child.

Greater attention should be given the determinants of parental control of the work and earnings of children for this period.

One contribution is the gathering of information and strategies necessary to establish an initial baseline, and the time paths for parameters and targets for this period beset with data limitations. A second contribution is identifying the contributions of various mechanisms toward reaching those calibration targets.

Manufacturers have experienced many stages of evolution and paradigm shift. The paradigm shifts from crafts to mass production, then to lean production, and finally to agile manufacturing (AM). Agility will reduce the time to market for appropriate products and services. Twenty-first century companies must meet a demanding customer base that will increasingly seek high quality, low-cost products adapted to their specific and continually evolving needs. It is time for companies to compete, and “push the boundaries” in response to delivery, product quality, and overall excellence in customer service and satisfaction. For addressing these challenges, a new way to manage businesses was proposed called “Agility,” AM is defined as the ability to survive in a competitive environment characterized by the continual and unpredictable changes, by responding effectively to the changing markets with products and services designed by the customer. This chapter presents a review of research related to the agility concept through an analysis of the variously proposed studies. This analysis was conducted based on a meta-model of three words (Agility, Management, and Organization).

The paper provides an overview of research published in the innovation and operations management (IOM) literature on 15 methods for cost management in new product development, and it provides a comparison to an earlier review of the management accounting (MA) literature (Wouters & Morales, 2014).

This structured literature search covers papers published in 23 journals in IOM in the period 1990–2014.

The search yielded a sample of 208 unique papers with 275 results (one paper could refer to multiple cost management methods). The top 3 methods are modular design, component commonality, and product platforms, with 115 results (42%) together. In the MA literature, these three methods accounted for 29%, but target costing was the most researched cost management method by far (26%). Simulation is the most frequently used research method in the IOM literature, whereas this was averagely used in the MA literature; qualitative studies were the most frequently used research method in the MA literature, whereas this was averagely used in the IOM literature. We found a lot of papers presenting practical approaches or decision models as a further development of a particular cost management method, which is a clear difference from the MA literature.

This review focused on the same cost management methods, and future research could also consider other cost management methods which are likely to be more important in the IOM literature compared to the MA literature. Future research could also investigate innovative cost management practices in more detail through longitudinal case studies.

This review of research on methods for cost management published outside the MA literature provides an overview for MA researchers. It highlights key differences between both literatures in their research of the same cost management methods.

Empirical evidence indicates that effective management of resources to implement strategy in a balanced scorecard (BSC) system is essential. We present a mathematical model for allocating limited resources in the BSC strategy implementation process.

The proposed facilitated negotiation model provides a systematic approach to prioritizing strategic initiatives in the design and implementation of a BSC.

Our joint decision model prioritizes strategic initiatives and concurrently calculates the optimal (or approximately optimal) set of BSC targets and weights, given multiyear resource restrictions.

The model assumes full, open, and truthful exchange of information between the parties; an assumption that may exclude many organizations.

We address an important gap in the BSC literature on how organizations can effectively link strategy to the potential constraint of resource budgets.

Quantitative models are being used in practice for allocating resources, but we are not aware of their use by organizations for allocating resources in a BSC application.

We develop an integrative conceptualization of how firms set and alter strategic goals, incorporating insights from goal-setting literatures across the disciplines of marketing, management, and psychology. Our framework accounts for the internal and external forces that impact the content of a firm's goals as well as the dynamic processes by which these goals are formed and changed over time. By proposing this framework, we strive to offer insights into the “black box” of organizational goals that connect firm resources and environmental context to firm strategies. Illustrative data to support our framework are provided from a case study of a Fortune 100 communication firm's entry into an emerging, high-technology, new product marketplace.

Time to market, product quality, and product complexity are key organizational drivers. Many organizations have responded to these pressures by creating teams. While teams provide the right mix of personnel to respond to business and technical challenges faced by the organization, many organizations have failed to adjust their organizational processes, culture, and systems to create a context where teams can thrive. Identifying the key changes needed to support teams can be a daunting task. The ultimate goal of this research is the development of a tool that will allow organizational leaders to gain a better understanding of what organizational factors should be considered in designing an environment that will enable teams to perform at an optimal level. Previous research findings and semi-structured interviews of organizational leaders were used to develop a framework for studying these organizational processes, culture, and systems. A survey was developed to measure these different characteristics of the parent organization. Findings from the initial interviews and a pilot study utilizing the survey are summarized.

Strategy Question: How do I get the right product/service specification defined in timely fashion?

Summary: Potential projects have now been suggested for action. Getting the right specification in timely fashion is now critical. Many companies take months to define a specification, and when done suffer because an “everything is #1” mentality hamstrings the development team. QFD is a powerful yet expensive and time-consuming method to defining specification attributes. The Poor Man’s QFD Tool incorporates the intended rigor, but in a timely and resource friendly fashion. This tool provides a powerful way to define a specification for a product/service development project, especially when there is no prioritization clarity for the improvement parameters. For each feature attribute, a specification is developed by a multi-functional team considering market and business needs. Those line item attributes are then “forced ranked” against each other. Compromises in each line item specification, if necessary, are made respecting the rank order chosen, with lower ranked items giving way to those of higher rank. The resulting prioritized list of feature attributes defined is then used to manage the development project. The chart also serves as an excellent one-page management summary highlighting status against both the given specification and performance relative to the best competition.