About “strategy” and “strategies” in supply management

This article addresses the context and content of a generic supply strategy and discusses its strategy-making process. Building mostly on fundamental strategic management theories, the authors explain the role of supply strategy in its managerial context. In so doing, some light is shed on the meaning and use of the terms “strategy” and “strategies”. Also, a practical conceptual framework for supply strategy formulation is provided. The generic checklist, built by segmenting supply management decisions, is intended to guide supply professionals in addressing strategic issues to create value to customers, avoiding confusion and optimising resource allocation.     

The “management‐per‐result” approach to international development project design

Results‐based management (RBM) has proved to be a valuable tool for international development project management; however, there are some inconsistencies that limit the use of RBM at the design phase to manage for results. This article presents a “management‐per‐result” approach to reinforcing the project design function of RBM and illustrates its application to a real‐life project. Shying away from a technocratic approach, it emphasizes a “quick‐and‐dirty” approach and proposes an updated version of the logical framework to include success criteria and factors and very rough estimates for both project costs and benefits for targeted project results for different types of projects (infrastructure development, “process” type of project, and so forth).     

Heavy Constraints on a “Weightless World”?

A bstract .   Late 1990s claims of a shift toward a new economy in the United States and other developed economies were said to accelerate earlier trends reducing the material content of production. The shift toward a postindustrial services economy is said to have been accentuated by application of new information and communications technologies, dramatically reducing the material content of production. This offers the possibility for continuous economic expansion unconstrained by resources supply. This paper provides a critical analysis of these trends in relation to resource use by developed economies. It shows that trends toward a lower material content of production are occurring, and this has led to poor demand conditions for primary producers. Nevertheless, these trends fall well short of eliminating Western economies' dependence on key resources. This paper shows the changing role of resources in economic activity among developed economies.     

“Offshoring”: How big an issue?

Spurred by the political debate in the US and several high-profile corporate moves, "offshoring" has become a lively topic of discussion. This paper by Grant Colquhoun, Keith Edmonds and David Goodger tries to put recent developments in context and argues that "offshoring" should be seen as part of a long-standing and largely beneficial trend of international specialisation. In the short term at least, the transfer of service sector activities abroad is likely to involve relatively small numbers of jobs when compared to overall UK employment and labour market turnover. However, specific areas — such as call centres, back office functions and software programming — are expected to be increasingly affected, impacting upon regions of the UK with heavy exposure to those activities and giving rise to adjustment costs. In contrast, retailing, hotels and catering and personal services could well benefit from the move of low value-added jobs abroad. Overall, the impact of "offshoring" on the UK economy in terms of output and productivity should be positive.     

“Please don't make me a hero”: A re-examination of corporate heroes

Recent discussions of corporate heroes focus on benefits without examining costs. Although our perceptions are not entirely negative, we have discovered several reasons to be cautious about corporate heroes. We present some of the potential problems associated with creating heroes, and another set of dysfunctions occurring once heroes have been created. Our intention is not to debunk heroes, but to attach a cautionary note to their use in organizations. We fully expect the natural emergence of heroes in many organizations, but also propose that managers can accomplish as much, and often less hazardously, by working on perspective, praise, and trying to influence daily practice in their organizations. This approach is both more explicit and direct in infusing organizations with the same benefits of motivation and meaning derived from having heroes. Moreover, it can lay a foundation of values that ultimately determines what kinds of individuals emerge as heroes.     

Is the financial system to blame for “low”UK investment?

The sluggishness of capital spending over the recovery has reinvigorated the debate over UK investment performance. It has frequently been alleged that the UK financial system holds back investment, while the institutions of continental European countries – particularly Germany – are more supportive of long-term spending by companies. In this article, Harold Rose examines the theoretical and factual basis for this line of argument. He warns policy-makers against acting to promote investment on the basis of arguments which are either not securely founded or which are directly contradicted by the evidence.     

“What does the word ‘inflation’ mean to you?” and “What is the connexion between wage claims and rices?” Findings from two national sample surveys in 1966 and 19711

Even in 1971 it is evident that a large proportion of Britain's population does not understandthe process of inflation and sees no connexion between wage claims and prices.     

“100% EDI-connected suppliers” projects: An empirical investigation of success factors

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is becoming increasingly important, and new organizational forms based on EDI suppliers’ capabilities are emerging. Therefore, taking advantage of recent technological changes, especially the development of Web-based EDI systems, many big industrial buyers are seeking to get all their suppliers EDI-connected. Based on previous research on EDI adoption, we conducted a survey to study the opportunities of success of such a “100% EDI-connected suppliers” policy using data from the vehicle industry. Findings from our survey helped us to understand suppliers’ responses to such a policy and to provide recommendations to industrial buyers who are seeking to succeed in a “100% EDI-connected suppliers” project. This includes employing tailored communication strategies and selecting appropriate incentives that take into account different levels of suppliers’ EDI-capabilities and suppliers’ dependence.     

When is a “KO” OK? Capitalizing on existing knowledge structures to facilitate pre-training transfer

Emerging research on training suggests that cognitive and adaptive approaches to training design can facilitate the “pre-training transfer” of trainees' relevant knowledge and skills to the training context. Little empirical work has tested this notion, in part, because of a weak theoretical base and inadequately developed testable hypotheses. This article reviews instructional and cognitive research and proposes that training effectiveness is a function of the correspondence between training treatments (e.g., discovery, remedial, didactic) and the nature of the overlap between trainees' pre-training knowledge structures and training's target knowledge structures. We identify 5 different types of overlap that influence the selection, and subsequent effectiveness, of training treatments: congruence, unrelatedness, conflict, over-generality or over-specificity.