Opportunities for developing the science of operations and supply-chain management

In a separate paper (Singhal and Singhal, 2011b), we identified two sets of opportunities for radical innovations in operations and supply-chain management (O&SCM): pursuing all phases of science and pursuing multiple perspectives. In this paper, we propose and analyze ways to accomplish this task. A network of research teams can be effective in obtaining multiple perspectives and discovering radical innovation if it conducts intensive research over an extended period. Outliers are a source of multiple perspectives and innovative ideas and can help in identifying and addressing risks. Similarly, meta-analyses and syntheses of published works can provide multiple perspectives and lead to radical innovations.     

Radical innovation in scaling up: Boeing’s Dreamliner and the challenge of socio-technical transitions

Radical technological innovations are needed to achieve sustainability, but such innovations confront unusually high barriers, as they often require sociotechnical transitions. Here we use the theoretical perspectives and methods of Science and Technology Studies (STS) to demonstrate ways that existing theories of innovation and sociotechnical transitions, such as the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP), can be expanded. We test the MLP by applying STS methods and concepts to analyze the history of aircraft composites (lightweight materials that can reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions), and use this case to develop a better understanding of barriers to radical innovation. In the MLP, "radical innovation" occurs in local niches—protected spaces for experimentation—and is then selected by a sociotechnical regime. The history of composite materials demonstrates that radical innovation could not be confined to "niches," but that the process of scaling up to a wholly new product itself required radical innovation in composites. Scaling up a process innovation to make a new product itself required radical innovation. These findings suggest a need to refine sociotechnical transitions theories to account for technologies that require radical innovation in the process of scaling up from the level of sociotechnical niche to regime.     

Public Funding for Science and the Value of Corporate R&D Projects; Evidence from Project Initiation and Termination Decisions in Cell Therapy

How do firms decide which R&D projects to pursue and which ones to cast aside? We use a real options approach to advance our understanding of how firms manage uncertainties in R&D project management, in particular uncertainties linked to the external scientific environment. Our findings highlight how these uncertainties have an impact on the initiation and discontinuation of R&D projects. We examine these effects in the context of shifts in US science policy in the cell therapy field, using a dataset on 570 R&D projects in the global cell therapy sector, initiated over the period 1986–2011. We find decreased R&D project initiation rates and higher discontinuation rates for projects initiated by US firms in the aftermath of policy shifts that increased uncertainties about public funding support for US cell therapy research. We also highlight how this effect was reversed as the US public funding outlook for such research recovered.     

Learning capabilities,human resource management innovation and competitive advantage

The growing literature on innovation pays limited attention to the role of human resource management (HRM) innovation in creating competitive advantage. This paper adopts a knowledge-based approach to examine how firms design and implement HRM innovations (HRMIs) and how such innovations support competitive advantage. Drawing from multiple streams of literature and qualitative evidence from Australian manufacturing and service firms, our findings reveal that human resource (HR) functional-level learning capabilities, through which HR professionals build and nurture new knowledge configurations, facilitate the design and implementation of HRMIs. The findings also reveal that HRMIs, when coupled with top management support, can play a vital role in firm competitive advantage. Addressing the limitations of the term radical innovations to fully capture HRMIs and based on our findings and extant literature we propose a new classification that will capture the unique nature of HRMIs. In addition to contributing to theory, our paper provides valuable insights to practitioners for building and nurturing learning capabilities for HRMI-related competitive advantage.     

Qualitative methodology and its pitfalls in educational research

There is considerable controversy in educational research with respect to the use of qualitative and quantitative data and as to what constitutes scientific research. The objective of this study is to explore the degree to which in-service teachers understand the difference between qualitative/quantitative data and methods, validity/authenticity, generalization and how these can be used to solve problems faced by the teachers. The study is based on 84 participants who had registered for a 10-week course on Methodology of Investigation in Education, as part of their Master’s degree program. The course is based on 11 readings drawing on a history and philosophy of science perspective (positivism, constructivism, Popper, Kuhn, Lakatos). Course activities included written reports, class room discussions based on participants’ presentations, and written exams. Based on the results obtained it is concluded: (a) Most participants understood that the problem to be investigated precedes the method and determines the methodology to be used; (b) As all observations are theory-laden, it is preferable that interpretations based on both qualitative and quantitative data be allowed to compete in order to provide validity to our research findings; (c) The difference between validity and authenticity was controversial and most participants considered the need for interpreting data and hence favored authenticity; (d) Discussions led to the idea of ‘degrees of validity’ as both validity in the quantitative sense and authenticity in the qualitative sense, ultimately depend on critical appraisals of the community; (e) Generalizability of results obtained from qualitative studies was a controversial topic and most participants agreed that it is not desirable to generalize; (f) Discussions suggested an alternative: In both qualitative and quantitative research generalizability is possible, provided we are willing to grant that our conceptions/theories are not entirely grounded in empirical evidence but rather on the degree to which the community can uphold such a consensus; (g) Most teachers considered the use of participant observation in qualitative research as non-controversial. Class discussions led to the understanding that emphasizing observations may lead us to the Aristotelian ideal of empirical science; (h) Formulation of hypotheses, manipulation of variables, and the quest for causal variables was considered by many teachers to be equivalent to the scientific method. Discussions facilitated the understanding that this led to idealization and thus helped to reduce the complexity of a problem.     

高校科研管理团队运作模式的探析

随着经济的发展,我国对科研水平的要求也逐渐增高,目前高校的科研团队肩负重任,成为为我国培养人才的重要摇篮,提供了人才和知识的储备,但是目前我国高校的科研团队运作模式仍未达到最佳效果,起作用尚未完全发挥出来,其管理观念和体系仍不完善,我国高校科研团队运作模式存在着团队组成结构不高效、团队管理制度不完善、团队考评体系不科学、忽略团队文化等问题,我国高校科研团队运作模式应从团队的组建、团队内外管理制度、科学合理的考评体系、团队文化等方面进行改善,从而使其发挥最大效率,为我国培养出优秀的人才。     

Towards a global accounting qualification? A Report from the 16th Session of the ISAR Group of the UN Palais de Nations,Geneva, 17-19 February 1999

Viewing Zimmerman (2001) as propagating for an economics-based monolithic paradigm to be adopted in management accounting research, we examine the nature and implications of such Kuhnian ‘normal science’. Acknowledging that normal science can produce cumulative knowledge efficiently, we examine its risks as well. Similarly as with any normal science, that based on economics also inherently offers a narrow window to the world, and creates areas of ‘non-discussables’. We illustrate how such a regime would limit our abilities to construct and examine interesting propositions and develop meaningful stories about management accounting in its social, organizational and behavioural contexts. Accepting the rule of a monolithic economics-based paradigm would limit our abilities to develop a critical stance, and threatens the ability of management accounting research community for good scientific conversation and progress. Hence, in contrast to Zimmerman, we argue for remaining open for heterogeneity in management accounting research.     

大学科技园促进高校师生科技创新创业研究

"十二五"期间是我国推进创新型国家建设的关键时期。2011协同创新计划为大学科技园提供了促进高校师生科技创新创业的发展契机。本文深入分析大学科技园促进高校师生科技创新创业的内部优势和劣势,外部机会和威胁,提出大学科技园应依托政府、高校和社会资源协同合作推进高校师生科技创新创业工作。     

Top Management Team Advice Seeking and Exploratory Innovation: The Moderating Role of TMT Heterogeneity

Research on strategic decision making has considered advice‐seeking behaviour as an important top management team attribute that influences organizational outcomes. Yet, our understanding about how top management teams utilize advice to modify current strategies and pursue exploratory innovation is still unclear. To uncover the importance of advice seeking, we delineate between external and internal advice seeking and investigate their impact on exploratory innovation. We also argue that top management team heterogeneity moderates the impact of advice seeking on exploratory innovation. Findings indicated that both external and internal advice seeking are important determinants of a firm's exploratory innovation. In addition, we observed that top management team heterogeneity facilitates firms to act upon internal advice by combining different perspectives and developing new products and services. Interestingly, heterogeneous top management teams appeared to be less effective to leverage external advice and pursue exploratory innovation.     

The Application of External Knowledge: Organizational Conditions for Exploration and Exploitation

A firm's ability to acquire and exploit external knowledge is often critical to achieving and sustaining a competitive advantage. In this study, we adopt a multi-dimensional view of absorptive capacity and focus specifically on the application of external knowledge that has been obtained via university-firm collaborations. We examine various organizational conditions that we propose influence a firm's ability to apply external knowledge for explorative and exploitative innovations. We collected data by a survey of firms in industries that frequently work with university research centres (URCs) and from publicly available sources. Results show that predictors of exploration and exploitation of the application of external knowledge differ. Surprisingly, technological relatedness, a common measure of absorptive capacity, is negatively associated with the application of external knowledge to explorative innovations, indicating that knowledge from more distant sources is applied more to exploration. Results also indicate that the effects of two external learning capabilities (prior experience with URCs and technological capability) on knowledge application are moderated in such a way by the tacitness of the knowledge transferred that experience is a stronger predictor when the knowledge is more explicit and technological capability is a stronger predictor when the knowledge is more tacit. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on the application of external knowledge.     

Plausibility,not science,has dominated public discussions of the COVID pandemic

COVID-19 put to the test the understanding of the meaning of “science” by the medical profession, the media, and the public. Unfortunately, the vast majority of individuals were misled by those who spoke on behalf of science but who confused plausible stories with scientific explanation. Scientific understanding comes from theories, which generate hypotheses, which are, in turn, confirmed or disconfirmed by empirical evidence that is evaluated using statistical methods. In our daily lives, we may judge the validity of a hypothesis based on its plausibility, and for most trivial cases that is sufficient. But it is a mistake to imagine that science can proceed on that basis. Yet, scientists themselves are often confused about the foundations of the scientific method. “Evidence-based medicine” is now being used to discredit all medical evidence other than randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the supposed “gold standard” of medical research. This insistence on a single method that is deemed “best practice” has the ironic effect of replacing science with plausibility in medicine. RCTs fail to live up to their vaunted status because of frequent insufficiencies in randomization related to confounding errors and their magnitudes. When randomized trials were compared with observational studies in a meta-analysis of thousands of studies, the differences in conclusions were negligible. The entire framework of COVID-19 policy has been based on plausible hypotheses, not backed by genuine scientific evidence. Critics are correct in claiming that COVID-19 policies have been based on politics, not science.     

A project management research framework integrating multiple theoretical perspectives and influencing factors

The increasing projectification of the business world corresponds with a high diversity of theoretical perspectives used in project management research. This diversity is reflected by a variety of influencing factors, which have been the subject of empirical studies. This article aims to systemize the different streams of research on the basis of a literature review and at developing a research framework by integrating multiple theoretical perspectives and influencing factors. We elaborate on the crosslinks between the perspectives and identify fundamental elements of a project management theory. The framework consists of three dimensions: design, context, and goal. Its purpose is to support the combination of different perspectives and the development of strategies for further research.     

Determinants of corporate hedging: A (statistical) meta-analysis

While literature provides several hedging theories, evidence on the corporate incentives to hedge remains ambiguous. We synthesize data of empirical studies via statistical meta-analysis to test different hedging hypotheses. To our knowledge, this constitutes the first application of such a methodology in financial economics. Our results imply that financial distress costs induce firms to hedge. We find weak evidence that the underinvestment problem and the dependence on costly external financing influence hedging behavior. Taxes and agency conflicts do not show explanatory power. Because statistical and narrative reviews yield different outcomes, we see various other application possibilities for meta-analysis in financial economics.     

Harmonizing science and business agendas for growth in new biotechnology firms: Case comparisons from five countries

In seeking to support the longevity of firms in high technology industries, much research effort has been directed at understanding the stages of growth and development of these firms. One industry regarded as vitally important to most national economies is biotechnology. Although our knowledge of the growth of biotechnology firms remains embryonic, we know that it is a multistage process requiring a changing blend of scientific and business skills at points along a developmental path. In this paper data are presented from a multiple case study, in which new biotechnology firms (NBFs) from five different countries were analyzed using in-depth interviews with CEOs, supported by archival and observational research. A conceptual model is developed from the literature which is further refined using the empirical evidence of the multiple case study. The resultant model captures the temporal aspects of the tension between the science and business agendas as the NBF traverses its commercialization pathways. The authors find that a common feature of successful NBFs is their ability to harmonize the changing scientific and business agendas as the company progresses through its development cycle.     

Through the Looking‐Glass: The Impact of Regional Institutional Logics and Knowledge Pool Characteristics on Opportunity Recognition and Market Entry

This study investigates how regional variations in institutions and knowledge pools impact new firm entry into emerging industry sectors. Using the cleantech industry sector as a research context, we hypothesize and find that supportive regional institutional logics – shared meaning systems in a community that confer legitimacy upon particular goals and practices – generate cognitive schemas (mental models) that facilitate opportunity recognition and increase new firm entry rates. Drawing from research on socially situated cognition, we demonstrate that supportive institutional logics have a greater impact on new firm entry when a regional knowledge pool is larger, but a reduced impact on new firm entry when the knowledge pool is more specialized. These findings integrate previously distinct perspectives from institutional theory and knowledge economics, while contributing to research on how new industry sectors emerge.     

External corporate venturing modes as new way to develop dynamic capabilities

Today, firms encounter scarce resources and rapid technology change which render formerly successful business models obsolete. Research shows that some firms perform better than others in continuously discovering, evaluating, and exploiting opportunities in volatile environments and that this is dependent on firm’s dynamic capabilities. Besides obtaining dynamic capabilities through internal R&D activities, firms have open up their innovation process to pursue dynamic capabilities outside their organizational boundaries through external corporate venturing by accessing startup's technological capabilities necessary to innovate. External corporate venturing is a means to develop new distinctive capabilities and businesses by exploring and exploiting business opportunities outside a firm’s existing boundaries. Drawing on the dynamic capability literature, we use a multiple case study approach to examine the contribution of external corporate venturing to firms’ dynamic capabilities. Our results reveal that firms indeed use corporate venturing to identify and exploit startup’s technological knowledge and competencies to increase firm’s dynamic capabilities. But our empirical data also shows that not every firm is fully profiting from all dynamic capability phases as their corporate venturing modes are not linked with each other and cumulative effects are not realized.     

Green innovation and knowledge: The role of size

This paper reports research on relationship between firm's knowledge sourcing strategy and green innovation. The data are taken from Spanish Technological Innovation Panel survey during 2007–2011. The study contributed to the literature by focusing on the moderating role of firm size on the relationship between knowledge sources and green innovations. Results from over 5,000 firms indicate a shift in the focus from internal knowledge to external knowledge when developing green innovations as firms grow in size. Despite benefits from broad knowledge search on green innovations, the relationship has an inverted U shape. The diminishing returns of knowledge breadth on green innovations are present for smaller firms and disappearing as firms get larger. Government policies promoting more coordination and knowledge complementarity between private and public sector will help to influence more knowledge transfer, ensuring a more sustainable and green economy.     

论航空企业科研生产管理进度优化及控制方法

航空技术是国家科技水平的一种象征,在世界飞速发展的今天,我们需要优化航空企业科研生产管理来保证我国航空技术的领先地位,主要从科研生产管理的信息化建设、科研生产管理中的均衡生产以及实现对科研生产管理的不确定性的定量化三个方面入手来实现航空企业科研生产管理的进度优化及控制。     

Top management: the missing stakeholder in the HRM literature

Abstract

Despite the significant influence that top management exerts on different aspects of people management, it remains the missing stakeholder in the HRM literature. In this paper, we take stock of previous research, and conclude that it is scarce and lacks consolidation. On the basis of our findings, but also thinking in terms of what is still missing, we develop a conceptual framework that may guide further research, advocating for the need to consider co-evolutionary approaches in an attempt to integrate selection and adaptation perspectives, as well as multi-level and multi-actor factors. Future work should systematically address and distinguish top management characteristics from top management agency and link these more clearly to a diversity of HRM dimensions. By doing so, scholars will help to firmly incorporate the role of top management in the research agenda of HRM and pursue different avenues that can be scientifically sound as well as practically relevant.     

基于知识管理的科技创新平台发展优化研究

科技创新平台对区域的科技创新发展以及核心竞争力塑造尤为重要。本文通过研究发现,平台参与各方来自不同的利益集团,如何让不同的参与方充分发挥自身的积极性以及主动进行知识、资源共享成为一个难题,因此本文引进知识管理模式来促进科技创新平台内部的良性共享,进而带来平台发展效率的提升,促进平台各方的发展。发现平台发展动态演化中存在的问题,建立相应的模型,提出合理化建议,进而为科技创新平台的发展提供借鉴。