Management innovation in complex products and systems: The case of integrated project teams

This paper examines the process of a management innovation in complex products and systems (CoPS). Prior literature offers limited theoretical and empirical insights into how an inter-organizational relationship delivers CoPS by moving towards ‘integrated project teams’ over time. The research is based on an in-depth, longitudinal case study, drawing on 34 semi-structured interviews and secondary data from following a client-contractor relationship in the UK water industry over time. The study draws out the various management innovation development phases. It also provides detailed insights in the developments and benefits of setting up integrated project teams. The study contributes to extant literature and practice by linking previously separate research streams of organizational design and management innovation with the management of CoPS.     

Fostering knowledge management deployment in R&D workspaces: a five-stage approach

In recent years, R&D institutes have encountered various intensified challenges. New instruments are needed to manage knowledge-related activities more effectively and efficiently. This paper presents and discusses the lessons learned from a case study in fostering knowledge management (KM) initiatives and systems in a research-oriented institute serving the metal industry, specifically the Metal Industries Research and Development Centre (MIRDC) in Taiwan. We perform a comparative review of the experience of embarking on KM among Taiwanese R&D institutes, a very rarely performed job. Following this, we investigate, by conducting the primary and secondary researches, how MIRDC has adopted a five-stage approach to develop a deliberate framework of KM deployment in order to manipulate the KM operations in the context of a Chinese R&D institute. The MIRDC case demonstrates a sophisticated KM process that provides an activity-based perspective of the plan, control, coordination and evaluation framework in an R&D workspace. This paper argues that well-defined deployment frameworks embody qualities of goal pursuing that are important to KM activities and compel managers to examine more closely how to realize the KM initiatives. This paper also reveals that a rigid hierarchical R&D structure inhibits the dynamics of the knowledge cycle due to technology segmentation. A parallel R&D structure supported by mission offices and a 'pioneer and innovation program' that is cross-departmental and industry-focused can positively motivate horizontal 'coopertition' networking so as to better exploit and leverage knowledge assets. The practices applied in these elemental KM activities are useful to other R&D organizations by suggesting how each of the KM activities can be configured and implemented.     

The co-development of innovative projects in CoPS activities

While CoPS literature extensively covers how suppliers use modularity and systems integration to innovate, it fails at providing insights on the marketing and sales processes supporting innovation. We aim to contribute at filling this gap by comparing the contrasted approaches developed by two suppliers to integrate an innovative sustainable demand related to a tramway project. Based on analytical grid derived from CoPS, project marketing and solutions literature, our in-depth case analysis enables to propose a preliminary model for the co-development of innovative projects in CoPS activities. Our findings capitalize on these complementary research streams and contribute an integrated model of the marketing and sales processes supporting CoPS innovation.     

Inter-organizational collaborations for social innovation and social value creation: Towards the development of new research agenda and theoretical perspectives

The intensifying poverty and poorer living conditions, the need for greater social welfare along with ongoing damages to the natural environment in several contexts of the world have proved the increasing importance of social innovation for creating positive social and environmental change. This special issue addresses to the limitations in social innovation literature by providing insights into the role of inter-organizational collaborations in the process, practice and outcome of social innovation. Thus, the papers published in this special issue advance current knowledge and scholarship on different aspects of the social innovation phenomena occurring in inter-organizational contexts. The current paper reviews existing perspectives and studies on social innovation undertaken inter-organizational contexts, develops the future agenda for improving scholarship on social innovation occurring through inter-organizational collaborations, and provides the development of new theoretical ideas by focusing on some key studies in the literature and papers published in this special issue. With a focus on subsistence contexts that are characterized by limiting institutional environments, this paper identifies the types of partnerships that are being formed by social enterprises and individual social entrepreneurs, and how they may facilitate and foster social innovation practice and performance through social value creation.     

Inter-organizational relationships and strategy quality in green supply chains — Moderated by opportunistic behavior and dysfunctional conflict

This paper presents a new research model to examine the factors influencing the quality of strategies developed and implementation in inter-organizational relationships in a green supply chain. In this study, we examine how attitude toward relationship orientation affects inter-organizational strategy quality, and how this association is affected by the opportunistic behavior and dysfunctional conflict. Relationship orientation, measured by relational benefits, relational proclivity, and connectedness, refers to the desire to develop and maintain relationships with green supply chain partners. Data are collected from 451 manufacturing firms that are among the top 1000 Taiwanese manufacturing firms of 2010 listed by Business Weekly. Relationship orientation, or the desire to develop and maintain relationships with collaborative partners, was found to be positively associated with the strategy quality. Our results show that opportunistic behavior and dysfunctional conflict decrease the willingness and damage efforts to establish relationships to enhance the strategy quality for the green supply chain.     

转型背景下中国企业基于社会资本的知识管理研究

本文研究和分析了企业外部社会资本和内部社会资本在知识管理中所发挥的作用,论述了处于不完善的制度环境和组织制度下的中国企业如何突破制度限制以应对全球化竞争和知识经济挑战等问题。在此基础上,提出了概念模型和理论假设。并利用607家中国企业的有效数据对假设进行了检验,实证结果表明:内外部社会资本的构建有利于我国企业在制度环境不完善背景下的知识管理,有利于企业通过外部知识的获取和知识整合来构建自身的竞争优势。     

B2B relationship management in complex product systems (CoPS)

The management of complex product systems (CoPS) has been studied in the academic literature, so far, from a process, organizational, external environment, and technological perspective. Little research has investigated stakeholders' perspectives, particularly when the management of innovative customized solutions is involved. When firms are engaging more and more in complex projects, to create a competitive advantage, academic research should focus on stakeholder interactions and the detailed processes they use, to reinforce stakeholder engagement and to co-create value. Hence, this call for paper was an invitation for scholars to submit papers to study CoPS from a relationship management perspective.     

Interest,sensemaking and adaptive processes in emerging business networks — An Australian biofuel case

We contribute to the literature, firstly by elaborating sensemaking as an inter-organizational process. Second, we contribute by displaying how processual research captures reality in flight. Third, an interest model is developed in conjunction with how managers jointly develop an understanding and adapt their surrounding business network, so as to fit R&D into the social-economic environment. We develop the concept of inter-organizational sensemaking by elaborating the in-between; a joint and multi-actor understanding of the way resources-activities and the network of actors can change. Sensemaking is undertaken purposefully and so the interests of society, individual managers, firms and the mutual interests inherent with inter-organizational change also play a part. Our processual method studies events and activities through sequences of phases and periods defined by the researchers. A longitudinal case study of an emergent biofuel network exemplifies this approach. The paper discusses future research and managerial implications.     

组织间关系的拓展与演进：基于组织间知识互动的研究

知识经济时代,产品竞争力更多来自于知识层面,知识整合成为组织最为重要的能力。本文从产品知识基础的复杂性出发．根据其与组织知识领域的关系以及组织间知识的互补性划分出组织间知识互动方式。在此基础上．本文不仅对知识利用中的单向交流与双向交流的组织间关系进行阐释．还提出了基于组织间共同进行知识开发的组织间关系进行了探索性的研究,从而将组织间关系的市场与科层的二维平面拓展到由科层、市场以及共同体构成的三维空间,并由此构成了组织间关系的组合。最后．本文结合日本相机制造业的发展对组织间关系组合的演进进行了分析．进一步论证了本文的观点。     

Industrial distributors: Can they survive in the new economy?

As e-commerce evolves and gains power in the business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, what lies ahead for the industrial distributor? The fundamental issue from the distributor's point of view is how to compete more effectively and profitably, given the changing business environment of the new economy. This paper reviews the literature on the distributor's role and relationships and introduces a conceptual model of distributor viability. The model identifies sources of value that distributors offer to manufacturers and customers, including customer relationship management (CRM), production and operations management (POM), and knowledge management (KM). The paper explores the managerial implications of distributor relationships and sources of value. This provides the foundation for better understanding of the viability of industrial distributors in the new economy.     

跨组织信息系统研究述评

分工与合作越密切的组织,信息分享需求越高,因此．越需要重视跨组织的信息整合。今天,跨组织信息系统已成为企业获取竞争优势的一种战略需要。文章讨论了跨组织信息系统的定义、研究跨组织信息系统的理论视角和创建跨组织信息系统的意义,并进行了述评。     

Mapping knowledge management and organizational learning in support of organizational memory

The normative literature within the field of knowledge management has concentrated on techniques and methodologies for allowing knowledge to be codified and made available to individuals and groups within organizations. The literature on organizational learning, however, has tended to focus on aspects of knowledge that are pertinent at the macro-organizational level (i.e. the overall business). The authors attempt in this paper to address a relative void in the literature, aiming to demonstrate the inter-locking factors within an enterprise information system that relate knowledge management and organizational learning, via a model that highlights key factors within such an inter-relationship. This is achieved by extrapolating data from a manufacturing organization using a case study, with these data then modeled using a cognitive mapping technique (fuzzy cognitive mapping, FCM). The empirical enquiry explores an interpretivist view of knowledge, within an information systems evaluation (ISE) process, through the associated classification of structural, interpretive and evaluative knowledge. This is achieved by visualizing inter-relationships within the ISE decision-making approach in the case organization. A number of decision paths within the cognitive map are then identified such that a greater understanding of ISE can be sought. The authors therefore present a model that defines a relationship between knowledge management (KM) and organizational learning (OL), and highlights factors that can lead a firm to develop itself towards a learning organization.     

Measuring inter-organizational trust—a critical review of the empirical research in 1990-2003

This study reviews empirical research on inter-organizational trust. Since the early 1990s, researchers on inter-organizational relationships have consistently argued that mutual trust is an essential factor of relationship quality and performance. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the advancements and setbacks in current empirical research in terms of measuring inter-organizational trust. This paper analyzes the theoretical approach, the conceptualization and operationalization, and the measurement issues covered in studies on inter-organizational trust conducted from 1990 to 2003. Although trust has emerged as an important factor in inter-organizational relationships, there are still major conceptual and methodological challenges to be met in studying this complex concept. The results show major inconsistencies in conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement of trust. The paper concludes with suggestions for further empirical research.     

Knowledge Creation in Strategic Alliances: Another Look at Organizational Learning

This paper argues that a certain amount of partner conflict must exist for knowledge creation to occur in a strategic alliance. We argue that such tensions can generate opportunities for firms to challenges each other's assumptions and paradigms, leading to novel perspective and new solutions. This position is contrasted to existing theories that present conflict minimization as the route to alliance success. The paper exploits the generative or double-loop learning process (Liedtka et al. 1997; Argyris and Schon 1996) to build a model of inter-organizational knowledge creation and explicitly considers the implications for partner interactions. We suggest that knowledge creation often occurs in turbulent and discontinuous environments associated with the tension between alliance partners of different cultural origins. This paradox is critical to understanding the reasons why strategic alliances often fall short in their potential to create new knowledge.     

The role of information technology in strategic buyer–supplier relationships

Information technology (IT) has long been acknowledged as an integral part of inter-organizational business exchange. The extant research, however, tends to emphasize the focal company perspective and focuses on operational issues, perceiving IT and business relationships as separable. Through a qualitative dyadic case study, our study defines how IT is positioned with regard to various elements of a strategic buyer–supplier relationship and the respective actors' operational and managerial behaviors. The study defines the role of IT regarding the structural, action, and management layers of a relationship and shows how IT can be a strong element around which relationship management activities are implemented to improve the consistency and performance of the relationship. The study prepares the ground for further qualitative and quantitative research to enhance a holistic understanding on IT in relation to the structures and processes in inter-organizational contexts of business relationships and networks.     

Trust and knowledge sharing in context: A study of international buyer-supplier relationships in Thailand

How does trust facilitate knowledge sharing between business partners in an emerging market? We advance the relational view of knowledge sharing by theoretically developing and empirically testing moderators of the impact of trust on knowledge sharing between MNE subsidiaries and their local suppliers. Distinguishing inter-organizational and inter-personal trust, we argue that the positive relationship between inter-organizational trust and knowledge sharing is moderated by characteristics of the transaction, while the positive impact of inter-personal trust is moderated by the organizational context in which the relationship is embedded. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 156 buyer-supplier relationships between MNE subsidiaries and local suppliers in Thai manufacturing, and find empirical support for our theoretical arguments. We conclude with managerial implications on how to facilitate knowledge sharing in an emerging market.     

A fast method for analysing and improving complex software processes

This paper presents a simple, fast method (or management tool) for the analysis and improvement of software-intensive complex products and systems (CoPS) called software analysis-software improvement (SA-SI). The tool relies on outside intervention, rapid data collection and structured in-company workshops. The distinctive feature of the method is that it focuses on the 'soft', human side of the software development process and examines and compares formal (or rational) processes ('what should be') with real, actual practices ('what is'), in order to identify problems, their causes and strategies for improvement. The tool complements existing formal approaches by delivering a 'bottom up', grass roots, practitioner view of real processes in action. The purpose of SA-SI is to help overcome the severe problems of measuring, analysing and improving performance in large scale, complex software projects. An illustrative case example (Company X) is used to show how the tool is applied and how it confronts the problem of actual/real processes differing from ideal/formal processes. It also shows how SA-SI is used to identify process 'hot spots'(severe problems), analyse their causes and identify solutions. The paper provides guidance on typical problems encountered in running SA-SI and how to overcome them. It also shows how the tool has been modified and extended to deal with other complex domains and innovation management issues. Although SA-SI cannot be a substitute for a change programme, it can play a useful part in complementing ongoing improvement activities. From a research perspective, the method helps link up studies from the organisational development and software fields and assists in 'closing the loop' between innovation research and business practice.     

知识存量、双元学习与企业绩效关系研究

知识是企业的战略性资源，是企业竞争优势提升的重要源泉，但关于知识如何影响企业绩效的内在机理尚不明晰。本文引入企业双元学习中介，探索并检验知识存量对企业绩效的作用过程。采用回归方法分析了223家科研技术类企业数据后，本文得出结论：（1）企业知识存量对企业绩效有着促进作用；（2）知识存量是通过作用于双元学习而对企业绩效产生影响；（3）企业规模在此过程中有着显著调节作用。本文研究为企业有效开展知识积累及双元学习活动提供启示。