Careers in public sector science: orientations and implications

There is consensus that the world of science is changing (Ziman, 1994; see for example Nowotny et al., 2002). The environment in which scientists work is typified now as increasingly dynamic, managerialist and commercialised. This paper focuses on how scientists within different organisational and national contexts understand and enact their careers in the face of such changes. Based on empirical work in the UK and New Zealand, this paper introduces four career orientations evident in the career accounts of these participants. The categories are further analysed in terms of the key drivers to career: science, the organisation and the individual. Implications for career management are discussed in each section. In conclusion, the paper makes two related contributions. First, the evidence presented poses a challenge to highly individualised notions of the career actor central to current career thinking, instead revealing scientists' continued attachment to old institutional arrangements alongside new and emerging ways of understanding career. Second, with reference to the issue of career management of research scientists, the study highlights the need for those involved in management to look beyond employing organisations to other life interests, and science itself. It argues the need for those involved in career management to recognise the variety of legitimate ways to run a scientific career.     

Occupational roles and expectations of research scientists and research managers in scientific research institutions†

Publicly funded research institutes in most countries have been pressed by economic and political pressures through the 1990s to become more financially independent, to be more accountable and to adopt more businesslike principles and practices. In this context the occupational roles and career options for scientists and research managers in these organisations have undergone considerable change. As the research cultures of these institutions take on a more commercial perspective, new and critical career path choices for both researchers and the organisations themselves have emerged. This article focuses on the changing occupational roles of research scientists and research managers in the Australian CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), one of the world's largest multidisciplinary research organisations. Two critical occupational pathways are discussed: one between science and science management and another between science management and commercial management. Key points where the pathways diverge are identified and linked to broader issues of organisational culture and human resource management. The authors argue that research institutes such as the Australian CSIRO require a ‘multicultural’ management approach that horizontally integrates the industrial, scientific and commercial domains of the organisations’ research cultures.     

Reshaping European metrology research – the role of national research managers

This paper deals with the role of research and development (R&D) managers in shaping the landscape of public research in Europe. These R&D managers work in the sphere of public research within national government laboratory services. The case we present is of the reconfiguration of metrology research. Metrology is the science of measurement. We examine why scientists and research managers in nationally embedded institutes, which are performing R&D in support of national policy and local industry needs, have chosen to co‐operate in a shared research programme. This means giving up, in part, their national sovereignty over funds and decision making. Furthermore, we examine how they have achieved the shared programme, which was launched as a European Commission (EC) programme through the Article 185 ¹ initiative, which allows the European Union to participate in research programmes undertaken jointly by several Member States.     

The work motivation of research scientists and its effect on research performance

This research examines the work motivation profile of research scientists and the effect of work motivation on research performance. A sample of United Kingdom‐based research scientists (N = 405) working in the chemical, biological and biomedical research domains took part in the study. Participants completed a survey based measure of motivational sources and self‐report research performance evaluation. The motivational sources of internal self‐concept motivation and instrumental motivation were found to be the strongest and weakest respectively for research scientists. External self‐concept motivation was found to be significantly higher among younger scientists. No gender differences were found in the motivational profile of scientists. While controlling for the influences of age and gender, internal self‐concept motivation was found to have a significant positive effect on research performance, and instrumental motivation was found to have a significant negative effect on research performance. Consistent with prior research, differences in research performance across age and gender were also identified. The implications of these findings for our understanding of the effective management of scientific research are discussed.     

Network picturing: An action research study of strategizing in business networks

Our paper is concerned with how managers understand their surrounding network and what strategic actions they take based on this insight. Recent research in the areas of network management and business relationships shows increasing interest in the interplay between cognition and action, particularly on how managers relate perceptions about their business network (“network picturing”) to decision-making and strategizing activities. In this study, we apply a novel research approach combining process research and action research methodology. Our sample is introduced to business network theories and concepts, and the use and adaptation of these concepts results in managerial options being articulated and applied. Our findings add new insight in the field of network strategy and network picturing. Network picturing represents a way to understand the boundaries of the firm and how this understanding affects managers' decisions. This differs from the fundamental distinction between the external and the internal environments of classical strategy analysis. In terms of network picturing, strategizing is a way to understand the resulting actions or network outcomes that managers see as viable within their surrounding network. We also provide a conceptual process exercise as an example of how this insight can be relevant for managers in their decision-making processes.     

How to undertake great cross-disciplinary research

As an applied social science, business-to-business research is inherently cross-disciplinary. The general theories that provide insight into business relationships, systems, and markets have disciplinary foundations in the economics, psychology, sociology, and management disciplines. When conducting cross-disciplinary research, academic researchers, like their counterparts in industry, must overcome functional silos. Depending on the type of research challenge, a multi-disciplinary approach may be required; however, differences in incentives, culture, terminology and jargon, and so forth all can lead to opportunistic and counterproductive behavior. The purpose of this editorial is to explore how to undertake cross-disciplinary research that advances knowledge and understanding in the domain of business-to-business research. To achieve this purpose, we elaborate on the theorizing processes; we examine how to break cross-disciplinary boundaries; and we provide practical guidelines for undertaking cross-disciplinary research.     

Multivariate statistics in industrial marketing management: A practitioner tool kit

Much published work over the years has pointed to the differences between business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) marketing. An undesirable by-product of this sometimes misdirected distinction is that managers working within B2B environments have generally not considered the use of what are seen as B2C techniques, such as multivariate statistical analysis. This article is structured in three parts. First, the argument for the similarities between B2B and B2C marketing is developed; second, three different multivariate statistical techniques are presented and combined to form a practical tool kit for use by B2B managers on strategic, operational, and tactical levels; and third, the results of an application of the techniques in the life science research chemicals industry is reported, demonstrating that the tool kit substantially enhanced managerial understanding of customer decision processes.     

Global Outsourcing Relationships and Innovation: A Conceptual Framework and Research Propositions

Increasing globalization and the rapid growth of information technologies, including the Internet, have resulted in drastic changes in international activities of companies. Once limited to manufactured goods, currently, global outsourcing encompasses a wide variety of knowledge‐based services, such as accounting, financial services, taxation, customer service, information technology, engineering drawings, human resources, research and development (R&D), data processing, and sales. The domain of outsourcing knowledge‐based services is the focus of this paper. Moving beyond the inevitability of global outsourcing, this research takes the perspective of the outsourcer and focuses on managing its transition to providers in the context of innovation. In addition to delivering projected cost benefits to outsourcers, effective transition management can facilitate the generation of innovations. This research attempts to extend the current academic research on global outsourcing in three ways: (1) It offers a framework for understanding the transition process in outsourcing and its relationship to innovation; (2) it takes a broader perspective of outsourcing, including globalization, knowledge‐based services, and core activities of the firm; and (3) using a parsimonious set of theoretical concepts based on control theory, it develops several research propositions to clarify the linkages between variables. Based on our theorizing, outsourcing top management should ask two questions when planning outsourcing of knowledge‐based services to generate innovations in a globalized world. These two questions are: (1) How close is the task to our core competence? And (2) how much tacit knowledge is involved in doing the outsourced task? Next, managers must identify global providers and then spend considerable thought in operational execution of the transition of the task for that is the only time that both complete teams will work together. For tasks that are close to core competence, rigid‐explicit behavioral controls should be put in place; however, for tasks that have high tacit knowledge content, high norms‐based relational control would be more effective. These different types of controls would lead to different innovation outcomes. Rigid‐explicit behavioral controls would produce incremental innovation while relational norms‐based controls would encourage radical innovation.     

Understanding sales manager effectiveness: Linking attributes to sales force values

Although sales managers influence a variety of sales force outcomes critically important in the dynamic business environment of the 21st Century, research examining sales manager effectiveness is limited. As such, an investigation of the attributes of effective sales managers, as well as the impact of these attributes on the sales force, is warranted. To explore these issues, the authors employed value laddering, an in-depth interview technique that facilitates the identification of key attributes and the subsequent linkages of those attributes to consequences and underlying values or goals held by respondents. Data collected from sales professionals resulted in 308 ladders that were subsequently aggregated across subjects and used to generate a hierarchical value map (HVM) reflecting the associations among constructs. The HVM highlights the attributes of effective sales managers, as identified by respondents, and reflects three major sales management roles: communicator, motivator and coach. Each of these roles is explored and managerial and research implications are discussed.     

Role of big data and social media analytics for business to business sustainability: A participatory web context

The digital transformation is an accumulation of various digital advancements, such as the transformation of the web phenomenon. The participatory web that allows for active user engagement and gather intelligence has been widely recognised as a value add tool by organisations of all shapes and sizes to improve business productivity and efficiency. However, its ability to facilitate sustainable business-to-business (B2B) activities has lacked focus in the business and management literature to date. This qualitative research is exploratory in nature and fills this gap through findings arising from interviews of managers and by developing taxonomies that highlight the capability of participatory web over passive web to enable different firms to engage in business operations. For this purpose, two important interrelated functions of business i.e. operations and marketing have been mapped against three dimensions of sustainability. Consequently, this research demonstrates the ability of big data and social media analytics within a participatory web environment to enable B2B organisations to become profitable and remain sustainable through strategic operations and marketing related business activities. The research findings will be useful for both academics and managers who are interested in understanding and further developing the business use of participatory web tools to achieve business sustainability. Hence, this may be considered as a distinct way of attaining sustainability.     

Managing for Creativity: back to basics in R&D

The author addresses the question of how to train R&D managers to encourage scientists to work more creatively. His studies of the preferences of R&D scientists show that they actually enjoy creating. He asserts that in the interests of increasing enjoyment the role of managers is to remove blocks to creativity, such as negative criticism, lack of time, lack of resources and lack of freedom. On the other hand too much freedom can attenuate the creative urge and the manager must be prepared to offer guidance and supportive consultation.
To help R&D managers towards an appropriate management style the author has devised and run creativity workshops structured around a new model that combines features of some well-known srtuational leadership models. He gives examples of how leadership styles can be adapted to address the problem of developing and leading self-directed and responsible subordinates.     

Psychosocial antecedents of communication,trust, and relationship effectiveness in new product development projects: a functional manager perspective

The basic differences between marketing managers and their technically trained counterpart managers [e.g., research and development (R&D), engineering, and manufacturing managers] in terms of work experience, training, and differing decision‐making styles have often been suggested as a source of conflict, which acts as a barrier to effective working relationships and integration during new product development (NPD) work. In this paper, we empirically explore this issue by developing and testing a model of psychosocial differences (thought worlds and psychological distance) between the two groups of managers and their effect on communication, trust, and relationship effectiveness during NPD projects. We find that while thought world differences do still matter, it was from a marketing perspective that they had a stronger effect. These findings have implications for top management trying to manage the functional manager interface during NPD projects. We propose a semi‐formalized approach to relationship building that may speed up the acquisition of social data that is often necessary to elevate working relationships to trusting ones and improve the efficiency of NPD work. Our model is tested using data from two samples, 184 technically trained managers and 145 marketing managers from Australian companies involved in NPD work.     

It’s in the Mix: How Firms Configure Resource Mobilization for New Product Success

This paper aims to deepen the understanding about when and how the mobilization of resources through strong and weak ties in a focal firm’s network can affect new product success. It addresses two significant gaps in the literature. While prior research has advanced the understanding of how factors around tie strength, resource mobilization, and environmental characteristics relate to new product development, it has yet to offer a more holistic understanding of the interconnected structures and the interplay among these factors. Furthermore, limited insights exist about how firms could utilize resource mobilization approaches in different environmental contexts to enhance new product success. Building on resource dependence theory, this paper contributes to prior work by adopting configuration theoretical considerations and performing an empirical investigation to identify necessary and sufficient conditions for new product success. Based on data from a survey of 354 managers from manufacturing and services firms in the United Kingdom, the study conducts a configurational comparative study based on fuzzy‐set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to examine configurations of strong‐tie and weak‐tie resource mobilization approaches within particular environmental contexts for new product success. The findings reveal alternative, equifinal configurations for new product success, and add to the existing body of work by connecting the notions of network ties, resource mobilization, and context dependence, as well as by developing an integrative framework to explain the interplay of remote and proximate conditions for new product success. For management practice, this study offers guidance in describing and diagnosing business contexts that enhance new product success, and in identifying resource mobilization action repertoires to capitalize on these contexts.     

Progress and Challenges in Product Line Pricing

In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in research on product line pricing. Modelers in multiple disciplines have offered methods for the optimal design/selection and pricing of the products in new or modified product lines. Behavioral scientists have contributed insights on how consumers' perceptions of product line prices, attributes, and quality levels influence their evaluation of the alternative choices. Significantly, the work of both modelers and behavioral scientists is distributed across three types of product line contexts: price‐quality product lines, multi‐attribute product lines, and product lines that include a core product plus options. This paper reviews this literature, and assesses its usefulness for managers. One observation is that, while scholars have developed approaches to optimization that offer increased scope and tractability, the applicability of these models is constrained by the narrow specification of profit functions, and the limited consideration of competitive and other dynamic forces. A second conclusion is that the managerial usefulness of the behavioral science research on perceptions and product‐line choice has been limited by a dependence on attribute‐based estimation of utilities, uncertainty about possible interaction effects, and an excessive focus on the cannibalization aspects of product line pricing. Based on the review, a research agenda is identified for enhancing the applicability of research on consumer perceptions and choice to product line pricing decisions, and for building more complete product line price optimization models.     

Information Technology Tools in New Product Development: The Impact of Complementary Resources*,†

Emergent research has examined the antecedents to using information technology (IT) in the new product development (NPD) process and the impact of IT on NPD performance. Based on the resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm, this study hypothesizes that particular resources create IT capabilities that significantly enhance NPD outcomes. More specifically, this research extends previous work by investigating whether three complementary resources, namely an executive champion for IT, global engagement, and organizational innovativeness, influence IT capabilities (IT use frequency and IT replacement frequency), which in turn affect NPD outcomes (NPD task proficiency and NPD performance). To test the conceptual model, survey data were collected from 220 NPD and IT managers in a variety of large Japanese firms. The results show that an executive champion for IT and global engagement are predictors of both IT tool use and replacement frequency while organizational innovativeness contributes only to IT tool replacement frequency. The results also indicate that both IT tool use and replacement frequency have a positive effect on NPD task proficiency, which improves NPD performance. This research contributes to the literature by adding understanding of the role of IT in NPD at the firm level in four ways. First, it examines particular organizational complementary resources and their relationship to IT capabilities. Second, it examines the RBV and IT in the context of NPD, an important business process. Third, it measures IT usage in a more granular fashion (i.e., IT tool use frequency and IT replacement frequency) rather than simply IT usage as a dichotomy. Finally, through testing the proposed model with data collected from Japanese firms, this study provides empirical evidence from an Asian country to answer the call for more NPD research to be conducted in countries other than North American and Western European contexts. The findings of the study also provide implications for managers. Importantly, they indicate that an executive level champion for IT is a key influencer in facilitating IT usage and replacement, and likely can help generate awareness of and support for greater IT investments so the firm can create IT capabilities for effective NPD.     

Bricoleurs and boundary riders: managing basic research and innovation knowledge networks

A major focus of national and institutional research policies during the 1990s has been on improving linkages between publicly funded research activities and industry for the purpose of advancing economic and other national objectives. The transfer of scientific knowledge, however, within and between public research institutions, universities and other innovative organizations is taking place within rapidly changing organizational environments. The emergence of new organizational structures that transcend institutional boundaries, scientific disciplines and the boundaries between basic and applied research are all contributing to as well as responding to changes in the ways science intersects with industrial innovation.
Recent international evidence suggests that innovative organizations during the next decade will depend more on their ability to maintain quite complex organizational research linkages than on their internal organizational research capabilities. Case studies of the organizational approach adopted by companies and commercial-research agency consortia in China and Australia lead to a discussion of a typology of academic-industry alliances. The typology provides insights into different collaborative R&D management strategies associated with different forms of science-industry alliance.     

Sources of knowledge acquisition for Chinese software engineers

This research adopts a triangulation strategy based on ethnographic case study and questionnaire survey shedding light on how Chinese software engineers acquire codified and tacit knowledge in their daily development work. Software engineers make effective use of complementary resources within a broad spectrum of choices for seeking advice, learning how to solve technical problems, and transferring knowledge to the local community of practice from far beyond the organizational boundary. The analysis focuses on patterns of advice seeking relations within and across project team boundaries, also highlighting the Internet software technology forums as an important channel for technical information sharing across organizational boundaries. The implications for R&D managers are also discussed with special reference to software development and other knowledge intensive computer related work in China.     

Increase your divestment effectiveness

In many large diversified corporations there is a largely prevalent habit to consider divestment decisions as ‘top secret’: information concerning potential divestitures is restricted to top management and only a handful of senior managers are involved in the decision making process. The major assumption underlying such behaviour is the fear of failure; that is, top management is concerned about involving line—generally divisional—managers in the process of making up one's mind to divest (a time consuming process as will be seen later) and searching a potential acquirer, in the fear that such involvement might work in counteractive ways and perhaps cause the abortion of the project. As a result, information is most often withheld, decisions in progress are kept secret; an ‘underground’ strategy is developed. The purpose of this article is to show that the most successful divestments are precisely those where line management's co-operation has been elicited at very early stages and to suggest that such a participative management mode is likely to produce better results. Our research, based on the study of 14 divestments in the US and Europe (see Appendix), thus shows that the division manager is a key person on the divestment chess-board and accomplishes varied missions.     

An Organizational Learning Approach to Product Innovation

This article examines product innovation as an organizational learning process. It provides a framework allowing managers and scholars to relate product-innovation learning skills to organizational goals. Daryl McKee shows how different types of organizational learning skills are involved in incremental innovation, discontinuous innovation and institutionalization of innovation within the organization. This conceptualization can help scholars and managers diagnose an organization's learning skills and how they relate to new product management; direct the organization toward learning more efficient and effective product innovation; and provide scholars with a structure for future research.