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To show how the key to successfully managing alliances is developing and implementing alliance metrics.
Abstract
Purpose
To show how the key to successfully managing alliances is developing and implementing alliance metrics.
Design/methodology/approach
The case of “Acme Manufacturing” (a composite of several firms) is used to illustrate the theory and reasoning behind the creation and tracking of alliance metrics appropriate to the life cycle of the partnership. These ideas are then applied to the ongoing Avnet/HP alliance.
Findings
Understanding and applying unique metrics at each stage allows management to anticipate alliance challenges and increase flexibility and adaptability when faced with changing economic and market conditions. Across the life cycle stages the partners must learn to monitor two types of measurements – development metrics, commonly employed in the start‐up and high growth stages, and implementation metrics, engaged throughout the professional, mature, decline, and sustain stages of the life cycle.
Research limitations/implications
This is a case study produced by a consultant specializing in alliance management. It has been peer reviewed but has not been subjected to independent audit.
Practical implications
Proactively managing alliances helps partners ensure value extraction, financial and non‐financial. Development metrics and implementation metrics can help alliance stakeholders understand and plan for the stages of the alliance life cycle while considering their knowledge transfer.
Originality/value
As the cases of Acme Manufacturing and Avnet/HP show, an understanding of alliance life cycles, cultures, and metrics can lead to successful planning, launching, and maintenance of a company's alliances.
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Measurement drives behavior. Unfortunately, most performance measurement initiatives overlook this fact. Implementations are performed top‐down with strategy as the…
Abstract
Purpose
Measurement drives behavior. Unfortunately, most performance measurement initiatives overlook this fact. Implementations are performed top‐down with strategy as the starting‐point. There needs to be a better understanding of the cultural context of the metrics (What is driving the behaviors?) and a better understanding of what metrics are to define (How do we drive the right behaviors through measurement?). The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of a context‐based approach to performance metrics – by examining an organization's negative values – and the notion of a content‐based approach – by introducing the concept of business interface metrics.
Design/methodology/approach
The article analyses business metrics.
Findings
The paper demonstrates the need to use interface metrics in order to better manager processes and deliver organizational values.
Originality/value
To get new insights, sometimes conventional wisdom needs to be challenged. Following best practices around metrics can prevent companies from reflecting on the effect of the metrics they are trying to put in place. By coming up with a different approach (business interface metrics and negative values), interesting insights can be gained. Moreover, taking a fresh approach ensures that new thinking takes place and that there are fewer conformist paths to fall back on.
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Mahmoud O. Elish, Mojeeb AL‐Rahman AL‐Khiaty and Mohammad Alshayeb
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between some aspect‐oriented metrics and aspect fault proneness, content and fixing effort.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between some aspect‐oriented metrics and aspect fault proneness, content and fixing effort.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory case study was conducted using an open source aspect‐oriented software consisting of 76 aspects, and 13 aspect‐oriented metrics were investigated that measure different structural properties of an aspect: size, coupling, cohesion, and inheritance. In addition, different prediction models for aspect fault proneness, content and fixing effort were built using different combinations of metrics' categories.
Findings
The results obtained from this study indicate statistically significant correlation between most of the size metrics and aspect fault proneness, content and fixing effort. The cohesion metric was also found to be significantly correlated with the same. Moreover, it was observed that the best accuracy in aspect fault proneness, content and fixing effort prediction can be achieved as a function of some size metrics.
Originality/value
Fault prediction helps software developers to focus their quality assurance activities and to allocate the needed resources for these activities more effectively and efficiently; thus improving software reliability. In literature, some aspect‐oriented metrics have been evaluated for aspect fault proneness prediction, but not for other fault‐related prediction problems such as aspect fault content and fixing effort.
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Vanessa Goldoni and Mírian Oliveira
The main goal of this research is to analyze knowledge management (KM) evaluation metrics in software development companies in Brazil through the perception of managers and users.
Abstract
Purpose
The main goal of this research is to analyze knowledge management (KM) evaluation metrics in software development companies in Brazil through the perception of managers and users.
Design/methodology/approach
The method applied was a multiple case study in two information technology companies in Brazil.
Findings
According to the KM objectives and motivations, each company selects an implementation approach that results in specific challenges. The results show that the differences in Company A and Company B can be related to the KM process adopted. Based on the perception of the interviewees, it is possible to affirm that the relevance of a metric depends on the organization's context and the existence of a structured KM process.
Research limitations/implications
The conclusions are based on two case studies of Brazilian IT companies. There could be industry‐specific issues as well as national cultural and behavioral values that might affect the findings and conclusions.
Practical implications
According to the interviewees, the set of process metrics can be linked to the KM process phases and the organizations should contemplate both quantitative and qualitative metrics. The entire set of metrics and its observations in this work can be used as a starting‐point for the selection of the most adequate metrics for each organization.
Originality/value
The research associated the identified metrics in the literature with the knowledge management process phases of creation, storage, dissemination, utilization, and measurement.
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Amy Muller, Liisa Välikangas and Paul Merlyn
During the past year, the authors have built a framework for a suite of metrics that senior managers can customize to track and promote innovation success in their companies.
Abstract
Purpose
During the past year, the authors have built a framework for a suite of metrics that senior managers can customize to track and promote innovation success in their companies.
Design/methodology/approach
Senior executives can use the suite of metrics to assess their company's innovativeness over time and hence combat the insidious strategy decay that often afflicts a company's business.
Findings
The framework combines three views on innovation – resource, capability, and leadership – providing the perspective to develop a suite of metrics for assessing and developing a company's capacity for innovation.
Research limitations/implications
The optimal selection of metrics and the optimal value or “sweet spot” of any particular metric will vary from company to company.
Practical implications
As more firms develop strategic innovation metrics and a database that validates their relevance, top managers will learn to assess and guide a company's innovation capability more effectively.
Originality/value
This is the first strategic guideline for building a customizable system of innovation metrics.
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Brand metrics are more than just a vehicle to gauge success. They are a vehicle to guide success.
Miguel Calvo and Marta Beltrán
This paper aims to propose a new method to derive custom dynamic cyber risk metrics based on the well-known Goal, Question, Metric (GQM) approach. A framework that complements it…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose a new method to derive custom dynamic cyber risk metrics based on the well-known Goal, Question, Metric (GQM) approach. A framework that complements it and makes it much easier to use has been proposed too. Both, the method and the framework, have been validated within two challenging application domains: continuous risk assessment within a smart farm and risk-based adaptive security to reconfigure a Web application firewall.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors have identified a problem and provided motivation. They have developed their theory and engineered a new method and a framework to complement it. They have demonstrated the proposed method and framework work, validating them in two real use cases.
Findings
The GQM method, often applied within the software quality field, is a good basis for proposing a method to define new tailored cyber risk metrics that meet the requirements of current application domains. A comprehensive framework that formalises possible goals and questions translated to potential measurements can greatly facilitate the use of this method.
Originality/value
The proposed method enables the application of the GQM approach to cyber risk measurement. The proposed framework allows new cyber risk metrics to be inferred by choosing between suggested goals and questions and measuring the relevant elements of probability and impact. The authors’ approach demonstrates to be generic and flexible enough to allow very different organisations with heterogeneous requirements to derive tailored metrics useful for their particular risk management processes.
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Xiaoning Liang, Johanna Frösén and Yuhui Gao
Despite the availability of many metrics and tools for marketing performance measurement, the way in which firms use their marketing metrics remains underexplored. This study aims…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the availability of many metrics and tools for marketing performance measurement, the way in which firms use their marketing metrics remains underexplored. This study aims to address this gap by empirically establishing the differing effects of the diagnostic and interactive uses of marketing metrics on firms’ market-sensing capability, contingent on competitive intensity and focus on market-related metrics.
Design/methodology/approach
This study builds on survey data collected from 210 Irish-based firms, complemented by 21 in-depth interviews with business managers. Survey data are analysed using regression analysis.
Findings
This study finds that firms using marketing metrics interactively to communicate organizational focus are better able to sense their markets, especially under high competition. The authors observe a positive impact of the interactive use of metrics on market-sensing capability, but a U-shaped impact of their diagnostic use, the magnitudes of which further depend on competitive intensity and firms’ focus on market-related metrics.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides a nuanced view of marketing performance measurement (MPM) practices within firms, particularly focussing on diagnostic versus interactive uses of marketing metrics. It also sheds further light on how two diverse uses of marketing metrics – diagnostic and interactive uses – influence a firm’s market-sensing capability. Moreover, the identification of boundary conditions also contributes to the discussion of contextuality in MPM, highlighting the importance of aligning a firm’s uses of marketing metrics with its business environment.
Practical implications
This study provides novel insights into how diverse uses of marketing metrics may benefit firms. The differing effects of diagnostic and interactive uses of marketing metrics on market sensing highlight a primary need for developing the latter and for using the former only with caution. It establishes that all firms would equally benefit from an interactive use of marketing metrics that is pivotal to improving their ability to anticipate, detect and sense market changes.
Originality/value
This study provides novel understanding of the role of marketing metric uses in firms’ market-sensing capability and contributes to the discussion of contextuality in marketing performance measurement. It highlights the importance of aligning a firm’s use of marketing metrics with its business environment.
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Kennedy Otemba Odongo and Isaac Kazungu
Amidst the scarcity of resources, it is undisputable that an effective public procurement performance measurement system (PMS) is required particularly in county governments…
Abstract
Purpose
Amidst the scarcity of resources, it is undisputable that an effective public procurement performance measurement system (PMS) is required particularly in county governments, especially for Kenya to realize its ambitions in devolved governance system. County governments cannot be effectively evaluated on their performance if the long-term, strategic impact of public procurement processes and projects is not captured. Arising from this backdrop, this study aims to determine the predictors of strategic procurement performance metrics (SPPM) adoption in public procurement PMS of county governments.
Design/methodology/approach
Anchored on institutional theory and public sector scorecard model, a survey research design was adopted where data were collected through census from 115 respondents working in procurement, finance and stores department of Kakamega county government. Data were collected using questionnaire (75.56% response rate) and key informant interviews, and analyzed by using multiple regression model and ordinal logistic regression models.
Findings
Multiple regression model and ordinal logistics regression revealed that national government support negatively and significantly, and regulatory framework positively and significantly affects the adoption of SPPM.
Practical implications
There is need for formal mechanism that will enable the national government in partnership with the council of governors to be proactively involved in developing procurement performance measurement capacity of county governments. This study’s findings also provide suggestions for a working regulatory framework required for the adoption of SPPM by county governments.
Originality/value
This work adds value to the prevailing body of knowledge on public procurement PMS in the public sector.
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Anil Kumar K.R. and J. Edwin Raja Dhas
The purpose of this study is to improve supplier performance and strategic sourcing decisions by integrating jobshop scheduling, inventory management and agile new product…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to improve supplier performance and strategic sourcing decisions by integrating jobshop scheduling, inventory management and agile new product development. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizations have struggled a lot to maintain the supplier performance and strategic sourcing decisions in the organizational benefit. However, in this context, the organization’s agile new product development (ANPD) process must be aligned with this requirement by maintaining the inventory and jobshop scheduling. As a result, identifying ANPD indicators, performance metrics and developing a structural framework to guide practitioners at various stages for smooth adoption is essential to improve the overall performance.
Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive literature review is conducted to identify jobshop scheduling, inventory management and ANPD indicators along with the performance metrics, and the hierarchical structure is developed with the help of expert opinion. The modified stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) and weighted aggregated sum product assurance (WASPAS) techniques, along with expert judgement, are used in this study to calculate the weights of the indicators and the ranking of the performance metrics.
Findings
As per the weight computation by SWARA method, the strategy indicators have the highest relative weight, followed by the product design indicators, management indicators, technical indicators, supply chain indicators and organization culture indicators. According to the ranking of performance metrics obtained through WASPAS, the “frequency of new product development is at the top”, followed by “advances in product design and development” and “estimated versus actual time to market”.
Research limitations/implications
It is believed that the framework developed will help industrial practitioners to plan effectively to improve supplier performance. The indicators identified may guide the ANPD penetration, and performance metrics may be useful for evaluation and comparison.
Practical implications
The outcomes of the present study will be extremely beneficial for the industry practitioners to improve the supplier performance. The indicators identified may guide the ANPD penetration, and performance metrics may be useful for evaluation and comparison.
Originality/value
A unique combination of modified SWARA–WASPAS technique has been used in this study which would be beneficial for organizations willing to adopt the jobshop scheduling and inventory management and ANPD for improving supply chain performance.
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