Trust, coordination and knowledge flows in R&D projects: the case of fuel cell technologies

This paper explores influential factors for research and development project success as a result of knowledge flows rising from a trust-based mechanism within and outside the project. Project success is herein defined in terms of results obtained and partner commitment. A sample of 85 organizations involved in 17 European research and development projects under the fifth Framework Programme focused on fuel cell technology projects is used to test the hypotheses. Results provide several insights. First, organizations should take care of trust as the mechanism supporting internal knowledge flows arising from projects in which they are directly involved; second, external R&D ties arise from a kind of interlocking partner mechanism, but the latter does not contribute to the focal project success.     

Quality Management: A Key Process in the Service Industries

Project management is a developing area in the service industry, as more unique and customer-tailored services are being developed. This paper presents a benchmarking research study, aimed at improving project planning capabilities in the service industry. Based on data collected from 275 project managers from several industries, including 79 from the service sector, project management strengths and weaknesses within the service industry were investigated. It was found that project managers from the service sector excel in cost and procurement planning processes, compared to project managers from other industries. On the other hand, project managers from the service sector achieve the worst score in quality management processes. Moreover, in the service industry quality management was found to have the most significant impact on project success. Hence, managers in the service sector would benefit from acquiring proper knowledge and techniques relating to quality management in the planning phase of projects. It was also found that the success level of projects performed in the service sector depends most on the qualifications of the project manager. A project manager in the service sector gets very little support from the organisation itself. Support processes should focus on the main weaknesses of the service industry, mainly ‘developing project management procedures’ and ‘increasing the extent of training of their project managers’. The paper presents and analyses strengths and weaknesses of the service industry in project planning and suggests a detailed roadmap for improvement.     

The impact of external environmental on business process management and organizational performance

The external business environment as a variable for explaining the impact of business process management (BPM) on organization performance is investigated. The developed model is tested using partial least squares, using a survey on human resource/information technology managers in Malaysia. Statistical results show that dynamism and hostility influence the degree of implementation of BPM. The extent of BPM also has an impact on organization performance. The model can be used by organizations to assess their level of BPM success depending on specific environmental characteristics. This research also contributes to understanding an environment–BPM–performance interface in a developing economy, not previously examined.     

Determinants and performance impacts of external technology acquisition

An important issue technology managers face today, and a vital component of any coherent technology strategy, concerns the decision to chose between developing technical capabilities internally or acquiring them through external means. While there is a clear indication in the literature of a greater reliance on external sources of technology, the factors driving this phenomenon and the potential benefit to firm performance have received limited empirical attention. This study addresses these issues by testing the relationships between several potential determinants of external technology sourcing, and the differential impacts of external vs. internal sourcing on firm performance.The study addresses three potential determinants of external technology sourcing: discontinuous technological change life cycle stage (the stage of the resulting life-cycle patterns developed around radical technological changes, or DTC-life cycle), intellectual property protection, and internally available resources. DTC-life cycles, and the industries built around them, are characterized by patterns of competitive behavior and a few key milestones, particularly the emergence of a dominant design. For example, the early stages of the life cycle are characterized by a focus on product technologies, as firms compete to develop the technical standard for the industry, while the later stages are more concerned with process technologies, as firms compete to produce the standard at the lowest cost. We argue that DTC-life–cycle analysis can inform the “internal vs. external” decision and that the evolution from a product-based competition to a cost-based competition will affect not only the focus of that external sourcing but also the benefits received as a result. Further, we suggest that perceived intellectual property protection and the level of resources available internally to the firm will also impact the decision to source technology externally.The growing interest in external technology acquisition would appear to reflect a positive effect on firm performance. The literature, however, is equivocal and often anecdotal, focusing only on a limited perspective of firm performance. We investigate the relationship between external technology acquisition (vs. internal technology development) and firm performance from three perspectives: product-, market-, and finance-based measures of performance. Further, given that the focus of external technology acquisition will be driven in part by life-cycle stage (earlier stages focus on product technology and later stages focus on process technology), we also study the effect that focus has on related firm performance measures; i.e., how will product-related external technology acquisition affect product-based performance measures and how will process-related external technology acquisition affect cost- (or finance) based measures. Finally, we investigate the impact of internal resource capability on the existing relationship between external technology acquisition and firm performance; i.e., the absorptive capacity argument.Data collected from 188 U.S. subsidiaries of both domestic (U.S.) and foreign firms were used to test hypothesized relationships among these variables: DTC-life cycles, intellectual property protection, internally available resources, external technology acquisition, and firm performance. While not all hypotheses were supported, the results on the relationship between external technology acquisition (vs. internal technology development) and the three firm performance perspectives warrant caution for technology managers considering or currently utilizing external sources of technology. The more salient results and implications for managers are presented below.First, regarding the potential drivers for external technology acquisition, the results varied with theoretical expectations. Contrary to theory, neither DTC-life cycle nor intellectual property protection exhibited a significant relationship to external sourcing, in general. However, consistent with expectations, the level of available internal resources did exhibit a direct and negative relationship to external acquisition. Firms with greater internal resources are less inclined to source externally.Second, technology managers would be well advised to consider a number of issues when approaching the decision to acquire technology externally or develop it internally. In all cases where a statistically significant relationship between external technology acquisition and firm performance was found, the direction was negative, indicating that acquiring technology externally detracts from firm performance. Further, in limited cases, that negative relationship is compounded in the presence of internal technology capabilities. Also, a significant relationship was found between external product technology acquisition and product performance measures (and not for financial performance measures), and between external process technology acquisition and finance performance measures (and not for product performance measures), as expected, and were both negative. In other words, the dimension of performance most hindered by external technology acquisition is precisely that dimension that managers might strategically target at a given stage in the technology life cycle. The availability of technical resources internal to the firm was in all cases positively associated with product, market and financial performance measures.These results taken together suggest that firm performance is negatively impacted by external technology acquisition, firms with internally available resources typically do not tend to seek external technology, and when they do, in some cases the negative relationship between external sourcing and performance is increased. Clearly, external technology acquisition is not a panacea and great care must be taken to ensure firm success—and our findings suggest that all else equal, firms may want to err on the side of internal development.     

A new way of thinking about IT project management practices: Early empirical results

Despite decades of efforts to improve the management of Information Technology (IT) projects, failure rates remain high. This article first reviews literature about information systems success and IT project success. Most of the improvement efforts have focused on advancing variations of the traditional project management paradigm, such as embodied by the Project Management Body of Knowledge. This article describes a new way of thinking about managing IT project called Value-Driven Change Leadership (VDCL), and reports the results of an initial empirical exploration to identify project success factors stemming from VDCL as well as the traditional paradigm. The results are based on data collected from 16 medium-sized IT-intensive projects at eight Chicago-based organizations from six different industries. The results, although not based on a large sample, point to several project management practices associated with project success that stem from both the traditional paradigm as well as VDCL. For example, traditional practices managing stakeholders’ expectations, scope, and schedule are associated with project success, as are practices stemming from VDCL, such as managing the end-product’s architecture, business value added, and the organization change associated with systems implementation. The results of this study also suggest that further research into new ways of thinking about IT project management may be fruitful.     

Performance‐Based Logistics and Interfirm Team Processes: An Empirical Investigation

Practitioners are using performance‐based logistics (PBL) strategies to reduce cost and improve value in industries such as defense, transportation, manufacturing, and healthcare. PBL is part of a group of increasingly popular buyer–supplier strategies that focuses on outcomes as oppose to the delivery of products or services. A key tenet of PBL is the use of innovation to create cost avoidance that benefits buyers and suppliers. In this research, we explore the interfirm team‐level factors associated with innovation in successful PBL strategies. This research brings together business, organizational behavior, and engineering literature to study PBL team success. The study entailed interviews with 17 managers involved in large scale PBL projects. The interviews and follow‐on member checking sessions resulted in a model composed of eight emergent categories and associated propositions. Both practical and theoretical implications are provided.     

Project management in retailing: integrating the behavioral dimension

The retail environment is globalizing, requiring high levels of consistent experimentation. Project management can be used to help retailers test new ideas and implement the most successful ones. Unfortunately, project management in the retail setting often delivers unsatisfactory results. Project management has traditionally focused on conventional planning tasks. The people dimension is often overlooked as a key to project management success. However, human behavior is particularly important in the retail setting, where projects are generally focused on testing new concepts, increasing collaboration, and implementing new technologies. This research examines the role of the behavioral dimension in retail project management and supports the view that the behavioral dimension is central to retail project management success.     

Barriers to implementing e‐learning: a Kuwaiti case study

The paper reports on a research project that encompasses two key objectives: (1) finding out about the barriers affecting or preventing e‐learning from being adopted by companies as an integral part of their workforce's training and learning processes and (2) establishing a comparison between the barriers and the e‐learning implementation models found in Kuwait and in the practice of Western companies. The practices from Western countries are used as a benchmark for the Kuwaiti experience. The collection of the primary data was carried out through the use of semi‐structured questionnaires with human resources managers as well as IT managers in charge of the e‐learning of 11 of the largest companies in Kuwait. The research results show that the key implementation barriers in Kuwait are (1) lack of management support; (2) language barriers; (3) IT problems; and (4) workload and lack of time. From these, two are common to Western countries (technology and time). The remaining two (management support and language barriers) are specific to Kuwait. Regarding the comparison between the two implementation models, the key finding was that the usual e‐learning development cycle (plan–design–integrate–improve) was not followed in Kuwait. The planning, designing and improving stages were largely ignored, with the emphasis resting almost completely on integrating the e‐learning tools and processes in the rest of the organization. This finding was found to be in line with barrier number one – lack of management support. The key lesson learned from this research is that the problem of e‐learning implementation in Kuwait is not so much one of knowing what the barriers are but one of knowing what the appropriate management processes should be for companies to achieve business success. The paper also provides recommendations for an e‐learning development plan to fit the current business environment in Kuwait.     

New services margin/high success discriminators

The present range of services, particularly financial, is subject to high privatisation and competition. Anticipating the future return of new projects is a critical challenge that confronts marketing managers at present. However, the transfer of success models from new products to services has not allowed a global vision of the internal and external environment that best set up the success of new services. Using a sample of 120 new Portuguese financial services (67 successful/57 failures), this study examines the relationships foreseen by a global model of success determinants of new services, i.e., formulates and tests hypotheses relative to the differentiated impact of the strategic and environmental factors on the multiple return indicators. The results of a binary logistic regression analysis suggest that a group of factors that best discriminate between new services of average and high return, through its different indicators that distinguishes the factors, is slightly different and less than one that distinguishes between successful and failed innovations.     

To be Involved or Not to be Involved? HRM Competences for Internationalization Process in Russian Companies

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the list of human resource management (HRM) competencies that are crucial for a company during the internationalization process. We focus on the Russian context and investigate the level of human resource (HR) managers’ involvement in the implementation of firm’s internationalization strategy, HRM competencies that facilitate internationalization process of Russian companies, and HR manager’s proficiency level, suitable for these competencies. Based on interviews of 125 HR managers from 110 companies, the study proves that communication competence, HR acumen, and relationship management are the most essential competencies that HR managers should possess. This research demonstrates that, in the field of internationalization there is a shift from more universal models to context-related models in terms of competence importance.     

The Impact of Ethical Climate on Project Status Misreporting

Without complete and accurate status information, a project manager’s ability to monitor progress, allocate resources effectively, and detect and respond to problems is greatly diminished, and this can lead to impaired project performance. Many different factors can contribute to intentional misreporting of status information by project members to the project manager. In this study, the impact of organizational ethical climate was assessed through the analysis of responses from 228 project members drawn from a variety of ongoing information systems projects. Our results revealed that project members who perceived their organization to be one in which rules are followed strictly tended to misreport less, while those operating in an environment dominated by personal self-interest tended to misreport more. Somewhat surprisingly, the existence of a caring, team-spirited environment did not appear to have an impact on misreporting behaviors. Implications for researchers and project managers are discussed.     

Sources of competitive advantage in high performing exporting companies

The requirements for success in export market ventures are likely to differ not merely from the critical success factors in the domestic market, but also from the policies effective in the fully internationalized or global enterprise. Exporting activities are a vitally important area of international business, where the foundations for superior performance are not well understood. A recent study of export market ventures in the U.K. links superior exporting performance to the establishment of key competitive advantages, which may be traced to foundations in specific competencies (competitive skills in exporting) and capabilities (competitive resources in exporting). This simple model of the sources of superior export performance and this study's findings provide important insights for executives.     

Choosing among alternative new product development projects: The role of heuristics

The initial screening decision that marketing managers make is critical. It requires the selection of what innovation project to invest in, which is fundamental to marketing success. However, our knowledge of how managers make these decisions and how this impacts performance is limited. By drawing upon cognitive psychology and the managerial decision-making literature, we address two critical questions. The first question focuses on identifying specific decision-making types (e.g., specific heuristics, intuition) used when making an innovation screening decision. Based on this analysis and prior research, we develop specific decision-maker profiles about how an individual manager decides. The second research question is about connecting these profiles with performance. Specifically, it addresses what the consequences of different decision-maker profiles are on the perceived accuracy and speed of decision-making? Data were collected from 122 senior managers in these industries. We find that when heuristics are used alone, or concurrently with intuition, managers make decisions that are as accurate as when they rely on analytical decision-making. However, the process is significantly faster. The findings provide an important step toward a more comprehensive understanding of decision-making at the front-end of innovation.     

Analytic collaboration in virtual innovation projects

Researchers attend to innovation and collaboration issues. Yet, the relevant literature devotes scant attention to the relationship between collaboration effectiveness and virtual innovation team context, while there are clear indications that both subjects relate with growing concerns in today's business setting. This article reviews extant literature and state-of-the art collaboration systems, and elucidate dynamic contextual factors among virtual innovation team members. The results show the antecedents and interrelationship among these factors, suggesting an optimal collaboration model for virtual innovation project teams. This paper documents the empirical observations of a virtual innovation project for advanced textile manufacturing technologies, and examines the due collaboration taking place among different project participants. Understanding the set of contextual factors emerging from virtual innovation projects can help managers classify, and employ the most effective collaboration mechanism for enhancing the corresponding project performance and effectiveness pragmatically.     

Modeling and Simulating Coordination in Projects

A main challenge in managing projects is identification and understanding of interactions between subtasks. These interactions give rise to dependencies between activities in the project plan. The resulting interdependence between members of the project team requires them to coordinate extensively during project execution. Project managers need a systematic methodology for describing and analyzing coordination requirements on project teams. This need is not met in traditional tools for project planning and scheduling. In this article, we describe an object-oriented framework for modeling projects and a methodology for formalizing these models such that they can be used for discrete event simulation of information processing and coordination in project execution. Our modeling framework represents projects in terms of objective (requirements), product (solution deliverables), process (activities), and organization (participants and relations). We then use matrix techniques to explicate the constraints between project requirements and deliverables (complexity), the contingencies in information flow between activities (uncertainty), and the resulting coordination requirements between project team members. The model and coordination measures can be used as input for simulation of project execution and give predictions for the probable effects of carrying out proposed changes in planning and managing projects. To illustrate how enterprise modeling and analysis can inform project planing and execution, we apply our framework and methodology to model and simulate a simplified project for development of hydraulic systems. Our simulation results demonstrate how project performance is contingent on the fit between the project policies and the objectives and preferences of the project team.     

Managerial competency appraisal: A cross-cultural study of American and East Asian managers

This paper reports on the use of managerial commpetency assessment method to appraise 1436 managers from four East Asian countries and 3193 managers from the United States. The results of this research suggest that the assessed competencies of managers from the different nationalities are subject to cultural factors that shape personality and behavioural choices. Outcomes of assessed managerial competencies are likely to be influenced by perceptions of status, the need for consultation and the degree of openness of communication between managers and their subordinates. The study also points to the need for organisations to distinguish the more stable technical skills from the culturally-sensitive people skills when assessing and developing managers of different nationalities and cultures.     

Eleven Misconceptions about Customer Relationship Management

Higher buying rates and lower service costs make long–term customers more profitable and firms increasingly focus their marketing efforts on customer relationship management (CRM). However, they are often disappointed by the performance of CRM projects. These disappointing results are caused by managerial misconceptions about CRM and customer behaviour. This article focuses on 11 of these misconceptions to help managers make well–considered CRM–related decisions and raise the success rate of CRM projects.     

The Role of External Relationships for LSP Innovativeness: A Contingency Approach

Innovativeness is key to the success of logistics service providers (LSPs) and as LSPs often lack competencies for innovation internally, external relations as sources to acquire knowledge relevant for innovation are important. To the authors' knowledge, there is no research identifying the relevant knowledge sources for LSP innovativeness. Based on contingency theory, we develop a conceptual model on the relevance of different external relations in the context of the innovation focus of the LSP. Thus, we extend insights from previous studies that have only discussed the benefits of external knowledge acquisition in general and outline how to use existing business relations of an LSP to facilitate different types of innovation. The hypothesized model is tested based on survey data from 201 LSPs using structural equation modeling. The findings support the model and outline that better relationships with external service firms or other LSPs are not important for internal process improvements and innovations for existing customers, but very valuable for innovations targeting new customer business, while good relations to customers even show a slight tendency to hamper the development of innovations for new customer business. In addition, it is shown that innovativeness is a strong driver of LSP firm performance.     

工程项目成本管理研究

近年来,伴随着国家经济的快速发展,国内对于工程建设项目的投资也在不断增加,使工程项目行业发展很快,成为支撑国民经济的一个重要行业。但是国内工程项目领域长期由于受到计划经济影响,工程项目管理相对落后,成本管理方面问题尤为突出。工程项目的成本管理主要是对项目实施过程中的人力资源和物质资源消耗所产生的各项费用进行管理,达到低成本高产出的目的。工程项目成本管理的结果,直接决定了项目的投入和产出比,是项目效益水平的关键因素,也是目前工程项目管理工作的核心内容。