Evaluation of 4PL operating models: A decision making approach based on 2-additive Choquet integral

By being a supply chain integrator who can assemble and manage the resources, capabilities, and technology of its own organization with those of complementary service providers, fourth party logistics (4PL) providers deliver comprehensive supply chain solutions and form an important option for business outsourcing. The adequate design of the partnership between companies in this type of outsourcing activities is essential. In order to support the effective usage of 4PL services, this paper proposes an analytical multiple criteria decision making approach to evaluate 4PL operating models. While decision criteria and their hierarchy were identified, it is observed that there exist interactions, e.g. simultaneous satisfaction of two or criteria is sometimes required. This situation can not be handled with traditional multi-criteria decision making methods which assume criteria independence. 2-additive Choquet integral is appropriate to model criteria interactions by pairs and is used in this study. The proposed framework is applied for a logistics company willing to expand its operations. Finally, an application is provided to demonstrate the potential of the methodology for 4PL operating model selection.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Reflexivity in New Product Idea Screening*

Pre‐development activities, such as new product idea screening, are considered to play an important role in innovation success. At the screening stage, a management team evaluates new product and service ideas and makes a first go/no‐go decision under high levels of uncertainty and ambiguity. Paying more attention to the decision‐making process in the screening stage appears important because too rigorous a use of rigid evaluation criteria and inflexible methods have been shown to have an adverse effect on market performance of novel products. The present study proposes and tests a model of team‐level antecedents and consequences of reflexivity—the explicit evaluation and discussion of working methods, tools, and criteria within a team. Recently, researchers have proposed that cognitive style and leadership style are major antecedents of decision‐making performance. This study posits that reflexivity offers an explanation of how transformational leadership and cognitive style can eventually affect decision‐making performance in the context of new product idea screening. Results of a survey among 126 top managers from large international firms show that the positive effects of transformational leadership and procedural rationality on the effectiveness and efficiency of screening decision making are largely mediated by reflexivity at the team level. This suggests that screening teams can improve their decision making in the following ways: committee chairs are advised to stimulate openness, develop a stop‐and‐think attitude among screening committee members, and support argument‐based discussion in order to adapt available decision tools, models, and checklists whenever needed. The paper concludes with implications, limitations of the study, and suggestions for further research.     

Formal versus informal knowledge networks in R&D: a case study using social network analysis

The existence of informal social networks within organizations has long been recognized as important and the unique working relationships among scientific and technical personnel have been well documented by both academics and practitioners. The growing interest in knowledge management practices has led to increased attention being paid to social network analysis as a tool for mapping the nature and membership of informal networks. However, despite the knowledge-intensive nature of research and development (R&D) activities, social network analyses of the R&D function remain relatively rare. This paper discusses the role of informal networks in the development, exchange and dissemination of knowledge within the R&D function. A case study using social network analysis is used to compare and contrast formal and informal knowledge networks within ICI. Marked differences between the informal organization and ICI's formal structures for knowledge exchange are revealed and a series of insights into the working habits of technical staff are presented. The implications for managers are clear: through a better understanding of the informal organization of R&D staff, they can more successfully capture and exploit new ideas; more efficiently disseminate information throughout the function; and more effectively understand the working habits and activities of employees.     

Using Intuition in Fuzzy Front‐End Decision‐Making: A Conceptual Framework

The goal of decision‐making during the execution of the fuzzy front end (FFE) is to develop a creative new product concept. Although intuitive decision‐making has been found to increase new product creativity, the theoretical knowledge base as to why and under which conditions intuition use during the process of generating a creative outcome is beneficial, is rather limited. Therefore, this study develops a conceptual framework theorizing why and under which conditions using intuition in FFE execution decision‐making may or may not be (as) beneficial for new product concept creativity. To develop this framework, the authors combine a creativity perspective of the FFE and a dual‐processing perspective of intuition. Interviews with eight FFE practitioners are used to support and illustrate the framework development. The theorizing leads the authors to postulate that intuition use may be beneficial to making generation and evaluation decisions during FFE execution because of the capabilities of the unconscious mind from which intuition results. However, the framework acknowledges that, due to the shortcomings of the unconscious mind, intuition may not be as beneficial to FFE decision‐making in some situations. The authors believe that this framework offers researchers a fertile area for further research and practitioners better insight into when intuition might be effective in FFE execution decision‐making.     

High‐Involvement Work Practices and the Opportunities for Promotion in the Organization

Using the linked employer–employee component from the National Employer Survey, I examine the effect of employees’ participation in high‐involvement work practices (HIWP) on their opportunities for promotion within the organization. I find participation in HIWP to be positively related to promotion opportunities for individuals, especially for those in lower hierarchical levels and for the supervisors of these levels. In part, these findings can be explained by the new skills acquired while participating in these practices through formal training and informal on‐the‐job learning, and by the use of promotions as an incentive mechanism to motivate workers to engage in HIWP.     

Follow the Leader or the Pack? Regulatory Focus and Academic Entrepreneurial Intentions

Drawing on the academic entrepreneurship and regulatory focus theory literature, and applying a multilevel perspective, this paper examines why university academics intend to engage in formal (spin‐off or start‐up companies and licensing university research) or informal (collaborative research, contract research, continuous professional development, and contract consulting) commercialization activities and the role local contextual factors, in particular leaders and work‐group colleagues (peers), play in their commercialization choices. Based on a survey of 395 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) academics working in 14 Scottish universities, the research findings suggest that an individual's chronic regulatory focus has a direct effect on their formal and informal commercialization intent. The results reveal that the stronger an individual's chronic promotion focus the stronger their formal and informal commercialization intentions and a stronger individual chronic prevention focus leads to weaker intentions to engage in informal commercialization. In addition, when contextual interaction effects are considered, leaders and workplace colleagues have different influences on commercialization intent. On the one hand, promotion‐focused leaders can strengthen and prevention‐focused leaders can under certain circumstances weaken a promotion‐focused academic's formal commercialization intent. On the other hand, the level of workplace colleague engagement, acting as a reference point, strengthens not only promotion‐focused academics’ intent to engage in formal commercialization activities, but also prevention‐focused academics’ corresponding informal commercialization intent. As such, universities should consider the appointment of leaders who are strong role models and have a track record in formal and/or informal commercialization activities and also consider the importance workplace colleagues have on moderating an academic's intention to engage in different forms of commercialization activities.     

Why members stay in or leave an R&D consortium: performance and conditions of membership as determinants of continuity

This paper jointly examines performance and conditions surrounding membership as determinants of the decision to stay or leave an R&D consortium. Hypotheses were developed for performance and, by drawing from power dependence and transaction cost theories, for conditions surrounding membership. Analysis of survey questionnaire data from 184 member organizations of U.S.-based R&D consortia indicates that performance and the conditions of knowledge-related involvement, network ties, learning, and alternatives are related to the decision to stay in or leave. These results provide limited support for power dependence but are more consistent with transaction cost theory. Subsequent analyses revealed an interaction between performance and membership conditions, suggesting performance leads to the conditions of membership, and that the continuity decision for a poorly performing consortium differs from that for one performing well. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Decision Analysis and Strategic Management of Research and Development: A comparison between applications in electronics and ethical pharmaceuticals

The process of strategic management of research and development is contrasted through the application of decision analysis in the evaluation of R&D projects—one in an electronics company, and one in a pharmaceutical company.
Issues considered include the different character of applied R&D in each industry resulting from, for example, the shorter product lifecycles that apply to the electronics industry compared to the much longer lifecycles in the pharmaceutical industry. The difference of time horizon between the two industries suggests that different decision criteria might be adopted in project evaluation. Decision-makers in both industries express a need for flexible decision and performance criteria in relation to strategy dialogue about alternative project-options.
Implementation problems encountered include: long term discounting, the nature of the preference function for long-term cash flow streams, issues in making assessments of uncertainty in relation to long-term future time horizons, and the management of research portfolios.     

Balancing creativity and time efficiency in multi‐team R&D projects: the alignment of formal and informal networks

The business world is denoted by an increasing number of multi‐team research and development (R&D) projects, however, managerial knowledge about how to run them successfully is scarce. The present study attempts to shed light at this kind of projects by investigating the alignment of formal and informal network structures and their effect on the challenge to balance project creativity and time efficiency. In order to analyze this issue data in two multi‐team R&D projects in space industry are collected. There are two intriguing findings that are partly contradicting the state‐of‐the‐art knowledge. First, formally ascribed design interfaces and informal communication networks overlap only marginally because the informal communication networks are characterized by many more linkages. Second, the weak overlap between formally ascribed design interfaces and the informal communication networks is inversely U‐shaped associated with the team's creativity, whereas it negatively impacts the team's time efficiency.     

COLLUSION AND RESEARCH JOINT VENTURES*

I examine the question whether cooperation in R&D among firms producing similar products leads to product market collusion. Suppose that firms engage in a stochastic R&D race while maintaining the collusive equilibrium in a repeated‐game framework. Innovation under non‐cooperative R&D leads to an inter‐firm asymmetry, destabilizing collusion in pre‐discovery and post‐discovery periods. Innovation sharing under cooperative R&D preserves the symmetry and also increases total profit, thereby facilitating collusion. However, welfare may increase with cooperative R&D. I also examine the condition for collusion under licensing and compare the results.     

Clarity in Defining Product Design: Inspiring Research Opportunities for the Design Process*

The author argues that given the holistic, cross‐functional, and unique nature of the process of product design, more research is needed to understand product design teams. Specifically, future research should address internal processes cultivated within the product design team, macro influences in the product design environment, and the definition of product design team membership.     

Building product diversification through contractual R&D agreements

Firms engage in contractual R&D agreements for several reasons, including product innovation motives, firm performance goals, and technological diversification. This article demonstrates that firms also might enter into external collaborations to penetrate new markets. This study therefore explores both the effects and the strategic risks of contractual R&D agreements and their related knowledge structures for a firm's capacity to diversify into new markets. Drawing on a novel panel data set obtained from 102 Fortune high‐tech firms, the authors demonstrate that strategic alliances enable knowledge‐integrated firms to penetrate new businesses; however, these organizations should be cautious about engaging in licensing‐in agreements, which have negative effects on product diversification.     

Playing dirty or building capability? Corruption and HR training as competitive actions to threats from informal and foreign firm rivals

Research summary : We examine why a firm takes specific competitive action in nonmarket and resource‐market spaces, particularly when it perceives threats from informal and foreign competitor groups, respectively. We address this question by combining insights from competitive rivalry, strategic groups, and nonmarket strategy literatures in an emerging economy context. Specifically, we theorize how threats from informal and foreign rival firms in an emerging market influence a firm's engagement in corruption activities and its investments in HR training, respectively. We also argue that the likelihoods of such focal firm actions against competitor group threats differ, contingent on the focal firm's market and resource profiles. Results from the empirical analyses, with survey data from the Indian IT industry, provide broad support to our hypotheses. Managerial summary : Based on a World Bank dataset on the Indian IT industry, this study finds that corruption and HR training are pursued by firms in emerging economies as mindful strategies against specific types of rivals—informal and foreign firm rivals, respectively, and are not pursued simply as culturally‐based practices. Multinational companies may need to understand that domestic firms in emerging countries will engage in corruption strategically to reduce their costs and time to market of their products/services. Therefore, multinational firms may need to devise suitable strategies other than corruption to reduce their costs and time to market if they wish to compete with firms in emerging economies for customers who don't care about ethical issues and will buy a cheaper product/service that is delivered quickly. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A conceptualisation of design context to explain design trade-offs in the automotive industry

The paper explores decision-making rationale when making trade-offs in design. A case study of a mass-market car manufacturer was conducted using interviews, qualitative questionnaires and observation. It revealed that decision-making practices in trade-off situations depend on the way that decision makers perceive the relative importance of design targets and trade-off criteria. These practices are unformalised and embedded in the larger processes of car development and often contradict the technical guidelines for making trade-offs that exist in the company. The paper presents a conceptual framework to explain the rationale of trade-offs in different design contexts. How to apply this framework to understand design trade-offs is described with an illustration of its use in two real life examples.     

Thinking strategically about thinking strategically: the computational structure and dynamics of managerial problem selection and formulation

A new model of managerial problem formulation is introduced and developed to answer the question: ‘What kinds of problems do strategic managers engage in solving and why?’ The article proposes that a key decision metric for choosing among alternative problem statements is the computational complexity of the solution algorithm of alternative statements. Managerial problem statements are grouped into two classes on the basis of their computational complexity: P‐type problems (canonically easy ones) and NP‐type problems (hard ones). The new model of managerial cognitive choice posits that managers prefer to engage with and solve P‐type problems over solving NP‐type problems. The model explains common patterns of managerial reasoning and decision making, including many documented ‘biases’ and simplifying heuristics, and points the way to new effects and novel empirical investigations of problem solving‐oriented thinking in strategic management and types of generic strategies, driven by predictions about the kinds of market‐ and industry‐level changes that managers will or will not respond to. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Passion for Work,Nonwork‐Related Excitement,and Innovation Managers’ Decision to Exploit New Product Opportunities

This article investigates the role of affect in innovation managers’ decision to exploit new product opportunities—a decision central to the innovation process. The model proposes that different types of passion can trigger managers’ exploitation decisions but that this effect is contingent on experiencing excitement from events outside their work environment. A field experiment with 90 owner–managers of young firms located in an innovation context (business incubators) shows that passion for work and nonwork‐related excitement levels interdependently impact innovation managers’ decision to exploit new product opportunities. Specifically, harmonious passion has a general positive effect on managers’ propensity to exploit. In contrast, the effect of obsessive passion is more complex and contingent on the additional excitement managers experience such that the positive relationship between obsessive passion and the decision to exploit is more positive with higher levels of excitement. These findings extend the product innovation management literature by acknowledging that decision‐makers’ affective experiences influence innovation decisions and provide a first step toward understanding the role of affect and passion in the product innovation context. Second, the finding that obsessive passion and nonwork‐related excitement interact in explaining opportunity exploitation decisions highlights the need to incorporate contingency relationships in models of innovation decision‐making. Third, in drawing on a field experiment and the experimental manipulation of managerial affect during the decision‐making task, this article answers a recent call in the project management literature to pursue less common methodological approaches and develop “broader theoretical schema” in order to enhance our understanding of innovation management. Finally, this study also has implications for practitioners because it can help innovation managers understand their own decision policies. To the extent that innovation managers are able to regulate their affective experiences, this improved understanding might prevent them from premature and faulty decision‐making.     

R&D employee tenure in MNC subsidiaries: the role of institutional distance and experience

Long tenure of research and development (R&D) employees helps organisations to utilise employees' knowledge over a sustained time period and strengthen their competitive advantage. It also allows organisations to benefit from the training investments made on their R&D employees. Thus, identifying the determinants of R&D employees' tenure is crucial for designing effective R&D employee retention strategies. This paper analyses the factors explaining R&D employees' tenure in the subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs). Building on institutional theory, we claim that formal and informal institutional distance between MNCs' home and host country might lead to R&D employees' short tenure in subsidiaries. We further suggest that R&D employees' international experience and MNCs' host country experience play a moderating role. We find support for our hypotheses by mobilising an original database that combines patent data and the LinkedIn profiles of 939 R&D employees in 256 MNC subsidiaries in India.     

Managing requirements capture within a global telecommunications company

Many firms engage in research activities with the purpose of finding information about the future state of technology, competition and the market. In parallel, companies absorb knowledge through a variety of social and political processes that also influence decision‐making. Such activities enhance understanding of a firm's internal and external environment, so that it can develop and evaluate new product or service ideas more effectively. How firms manage this process is critical to define and prioritise new product development ideas – how organisations find the 'right' idea is critical to ensure future market success. This paper seeks to gain a better understanding of how the knowledge used to create new products and services is acquired, what organisational structures facilitate or impinge this process and how individuals and groups within organisations behave in the very early stages of new product development. An in-depth case study of a global telecommunications company is presented and the management processes for a number of different projects in various divisions of the company are compared and discussed.     

Organisational culture and decision making: a case of consensus management

Abstract
This paper explores how a state-of-the-art concept, organization culture, shapes decision making and consensus generating strategies used in the successful management of product development activities in high technology companies. Engineering development groups interact with many individuals and groups on a wide variety of very comples engineering, manufacturing, marketing and business issues Much uncertainty exists around these issues because information that would allow for a decision to be made is often unknow or unknowable. Trade-offs are made continually resulting in a high degree of interdependence among development groups and others with whom they interact. Achieving a balance between controlling development activities on the on hand, and encouraging creativity and initiative on the other, is a complicated process.
this paper illustrates the role of organizational culture in product development using case material from a very successful US high case material from a very successful US high technology company. 'Consensus management', a major cultural theme at 'DW Enterprises', is a decision making style that involves everyone in the decision making process who might have relevant input. A cultural analysis reveals that the engineers developed specific techniques for generating consensus, and that these related as much to control over participation in product development as to decision making.     

Assessing introduction factors for a new industrial product

The present research involves determinant component analysis [3]. Specifically, the study assesses which components—price, product or environmental—are most important in the design of new entry strategy. Under conditions of abundance, industrial firms primarily analyzed price and product characteristics when making new product decisions. In choosing one supplier over another the stalwart buying motives have been quality, service and price [4]. However, these decision components were conceptualized in a period of abundance. Under conditions of scarcity, are price and product characteristics still important? Are environmental dimensions perhaps more important under shortage conditions when making new product decisions? Besides describing the key components that may be considered in new product programming, the article also outlines an approach that may be used to find determinant decision components.