Search results

Given that planned marketing strategies and observable behaviors often are contingent on buyer and third‐party (e.g. competitor) responses, deep understanding and descriptions of the thoughts and actions of marketers need to reflect the dynamic interplay of such contingencies. The same view applies to planned organizational buying strategies and observable behaviors: buying behavior adapts through time based on information learned and marketers’ responses to requests made by the customer organization. Consequently, a two‐way, or multiple‐party, approach to theory construction is useful in particular for mapping the “if‐then” responses of the marketer’s thoughts/actions linked with the if‐then responses of buyers’ thoughts/actions through several time periods. Using in‐depth interviews and case histories of one marketing organization and 28 buying organizations related to the office furniture industry, the article illustrates descriptive modeling of the contingency dynamics in the thoughts and actions across the multiple parties involved in marketing‐buying interactions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the agility of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) in furniture enterprises, and explores the appropriateness of a typology framework that correlates the technology infrastructure of the enterprise with its manufacturing strategy.

This paper uses a clear and rigorous case study design and protocol. Empirical data are collected using structured surveys of two strategically selected furniture enterprises. The collected data are used to analyze the fit between the technology infrastructure of the enterprise and its strategic goals, and how this fit correlates with the theoretical categories stated by the typology.

The case studies suggest that enterprise performance could be maximized if the competitive priorities and the customization strategy put in practice are in conformity with the available technology.

The findings of the case studies corroborate the all inclusive hypothesis suggested by the typology. The lack of triangulation of multiple data sources for more confidence about the results or the typology framework itself remains a limitation in this study. The two cases were representative to a certain extent of two out of the three theoretical ideal types stated by the typology.

The explored typology can serve as a supporting tool for managers when making strategic investment decisions in their pursuit of a mass customization strategy within a specific market.

The originality comes from the way the properties that should be displayed by the technologies used in furniture manufacturing enterprises to develop agility are drawn together.

This paper aims to present a case study of virtual-reality-based product demonstrations featuring items of furniture. The results will be of use in further design and development of virtual-reality-based product demonstration systems and could also support effective student learning.

A new method was introduced to guide the experiment by confirming orthogonal arrays. User interactions were then planned, and a furniture demonstration system was implemented. The experiment comprised two stages. In the evaluation stage, participants were invited to experience the virtual-reality (VR)-based furniture demonstration system and complete a user experience (UX) survey. Taguchi-style robust design methods were used to design orthogonal table experiments and planning and design operation methods were used to implement an experimental display system in order to obtain optimized combinations of control factors and levels. The second stage involved a confirmatory test for the optimized combinations. A pilot questionnaire was first applied to survey demonstration scenarios that are important to customers.

The author found in terms of furniture products, product interactive display through VR can achieve good user satisfaction through quality design planning. VR can better grasp the characteristics of products than paper catalogs and website catalogs. And VR can better grasp the characteristics of products than online videos. For “interactive inspection”, “function simulation”, “style customization” and “set-out customization” were the most valuable demonstration scenarios for customers. The results of the experiment confirmed that the “overall rating”, “hedonic appeal” and “practical quality” were the three most important optimized operating methods, constituting a benchmark of user satisfaction.

The author found that it is possible to design and build a VR-based furniture demonstration system with a good level of usability when a suitable quality design method is applied. The optimized user interaction indicators and implementation experience for the VR-based product demonstration presented in this study will be of use in further design and development of similar systems.

AT an international exhibition in Moscow during September a pavilion covering 6,500 sq. ft. displayed equipment designed to improve the organization of work. The unusual thing is that the equipment was office machinery and systems exhibited by the Business Equipment Trade Association of this country and five of its member firms. Until now the U.S.S.R. has been a negligible market for such goods, but the Soviet Union has now declared its intention to increase the automation of clerical work through installing modern equipment of the sort favoured by western countries. The report of a delegation of the Association's members put this point so strongly that, as a ‘joint under‐taking’ with the British Board of Trade, it was thought justifiable to attack this burgeoning market.

The main aim of the paper is to examine some of the strategies that can be matched to increase the effectiveness of the knowledge development cycle. In manufacturing and operational works, the effectiveness of different organizing strategies to enhance the quality of manufacturing processes and products is well established. In knowledge works, however, we lack such frameworks. Unlike manufacturing and operational processes, knowledge development processes are often chaotic, unstructured, and unsystematic, resulting in intangible products. Therefore, the principles of manufacturing strategies cannot be applied in the knowledge development cycle. In knowledge works, organizing strategies should be defined and initiated based on knowledge development phases (e.g. knowledge creation, knowledge adoption, knowledge distribution, and knowledge review and revision). Each phase, in the knowledge development cycle, needs to be evaluated in context of its characteristics on repetition, standardization, reliability, and specifications.

The purpose of this paper is to explore managers' and employees' opinions regarding privacy in open plan offices and also investigate the relationship between the perception of managers and employees on visual and acoustical privacy in order to provide better design solutions in an open plan office setting.

The research method is a structured interview. The categorized data are analyzed with percentage of frequency distributions and Chi square analysis. A total of 42 subjects were interviewed and separated in two groups as managers and employees.

It was found that lack of privacy still exists as an unsolved negative aspect in open plan offices. Findings indicated that there is a strong desire for employees to change and control their physical working space when both visual and acoustical privacy is needed in an open plan office setting. Another finding is that there is a difference of opinion regarding visual privacy between managers and employees.

The limitation of the paper is that the sample is small and all subjects' occupations are computer‐related. Future studies are needed to further investigate diverse subjects in a larger population. Any future research instrument would have to be different from a structured interview.

Research findings provide valid recommendations to system furniture designers and manufacturers. System furniture design needs to be modular and easily changeable and adjustable for open plan offices.

The significant contribution of this research is that it provided valid data and makes a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge in open plan office design.

This paper aims to present a mass customization model for interior spaces of mass housing projects to provide solutions that will increase flexibility in accordance with different user needs.

The research project develops a model that generates an expert system that leads to different spatial variations. The expert system is based on the parameters that are determined depending on the findings of the field study done in the selected site. A modular system that allows different configurations is designed, and the expert system has made it possible to achieve a large number of spatial variations by means of a multi-parameter layout design. In the last phase, an interface is developed as a website that presents the spatial variations for each different user according to their response to the online questionnaire.

All the variations with the outputs obtained from the project are presented to the user through a digital interface, which functions as a website. In this sense, the model acts as a mass customization tool that brings together the needs of the inhabitants and provides specific solutions to them with all the outputs obtained from the project. The main objective of the interface is to provide the user with various interior layout alternatives and modular furniture that meet their needs.

The main originality of the research project is the development of a model that consists of different stages that works as a unique mass customization tool. The most significant specialty of the model is the constitution of an expert system in relation to the raw data obtained from the field study. This expert system generates spatial configurations by the help of the design parameters, and these parameters are mainly variables that differentiate the solutions according to the specific requirements of users in the selected site.

The idea of active learning classrooms (ALCs) in post-secondary institutions across North America is not a new one and it continues to gain prominence (Davis, 2018; Ellern & Buchanan, 2018; Park & Choi, 2014). Research shows that these dynamic classrooms increased student comprehension of key concepts, problem-solving ability, improved attitude toward learning, and overall learning gains (Cotner, Loper, Walker, & Brooks, 2013; Park & Choi, 2014). Not surprisingly then, there has been a growing number of academic libraries which see the potential benefits and have incorporated ALCs, or elements of such, into their spaces (Ellern & Buchanan, 2018; Karasic, 2016; Soderdahl, 2011).

This chapter presents a case study on the 2017 redesign of a Canadian academic library, the Albert D. Cohen Management Library at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. Once considered a “study hall,” the renovated business library has been transformed into a modern student learning space. The library is outfitted with a modular ALC equipped to accommodate the varied learning needs of the twenty-first-century students at the Asper School of Business. The author provides a detailed first-hand account of the ALC planning process, key partnerships, challenges, and post-launch reaction.

Underpinned by Henri Lefebvre's notion of the production of space with its triad of spatial practice, lived space and conceived space, this project traces the history of East German urban modernism through its trajectory of change from an ambitious socialist project via market-driven failure, to its revival as creative space. The physical manifestations of East German urban modernism are its large-scale residential estates with their ubiquitous high-rise buildings, assembled from precast concrete elements, or plates, lending them the vernacular German name Plattenbauten. In terms of their design, planning, construction and scope, these buildings and their locations were once part of a large, government-driven experiment in urban modernism: in the reconstruction of the country after World War II, residential estates were designed from scratch to be proof of a new, progressive, idealistic and somehow ‘better’ post-war Germany and were one of the most visible manifestations of urban modernism in Germany. After the German unification, however, many of the housing estates from the 1970s to 1980s fell into disrepair: many buildings were demolished and the remaining ones frequently became social and economic trouble spots. In the latest and (almost) ironic twist, however, the history of urban modernism changed direction once more: after more than 20 years of neglect, the Plattenbau has been rediscovered as much needed affordable and, due to its unique engineering, easily adaptable creative living, working and commercial space.

Learning outcomes are as follows: to learn about the application of Bartlett and Ghoshal’s model of international strategy; to compare and contrast the global strategy of IKEA in India and China; and to understand how adaptability can create a new competitive advantage in emerging markets.

The case study enables discussion about the global strategy of a well-established multi-national company, IKEA in an emerging market. IKEA is a well-established and well-known brand in the international market in furniture retailing. It has decided to make a debut in India in 2017 with its first store in Hyderabad. However, it was yet to open it in 2018. The case emphasizes upon understanding the global strategy of IKEA, positioning itself in the fragmented Indian furniture industry, managing differences in emerging markets and adapting to the local environment of the particular country. The case highlights how adaptability can create a new competitive advantage in managing global strategy in different countries of emerging markets.

This case study is developed for post-graduate management programs as an MBA, Executive MBA and executive development programs.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.