Employee buyouts and employee involvement: a case study investigation of employee attitudes

This article investigates the association between employee share ownership (ESO) and employee involvement (EI) in an employee‐owned firm.Based on data from the firm’s employers and employees, the article concludes that the mere presence of share ownership is no guarantee on increased involvement for employees, highlighting instead the significance of other variables.     

Improving road transport operations through lean thinking: a case study

Traditionally, logistics and transportation problems have been addressed through mathematical modelling, operations research, and simulation, but criticism has emerged about their effectiveness to actually address real-life problems. This paper documents a case study whereby the road transport operations of a leading Mexican brewery were improved through lean thinking and waste reduction. Two lean-based principles and tools were combined: the Seven Transportation Extended Wastes and Transportation Value Stream Mapping. Three systematic steps were proposed to facilitate the implementation of improvement. Feasibility studies conducted in this research suggested that lean thinking is an effective alternative for the improvement of road transport operations. The findings of this research could be used as guidance for transport managers to improve road transport operations. This paper also expands the limited evidence of the application of lean thinking in road transport logistics and highlights the research areas where its application has been concentrated in this sector.     

The role of certification in the buyer/planner position: a case study at Harley-Davidson Motor Company.

The use of buyer/planners may becoming more popular. If they are, the reason is probably that many companies are integrating materiel management skill sets as a way of increasing the effectiveness of their supply chains. Harley-Davidson recently created a supply management function composed of buyer/planners. This article describes the method it used to achieve the transition, the training plan it implemented to support the process, and the role management played in achieving success.     

Creating new business through strategic community management: case study of a multimedia business

For the last few years, the videoconferencing system and multi-point connection service market represented by multimedia technology have enjoyed strong growth in Japan. Behind the recent upturn in this market was the strategic alliance of NTT, Japan's largest telecommunications carrier, and PictureTel of the US, followed by the birth of business communities centred around or outside NTT, thus intensively creating and boosting a new market referred to as interactive video communication. This article reviews the challenges that faced NTT, one of the big businesses in Japan, followed by PictureTel and other players within and outside NTT, all of which were lined up to create various strategic business communities. The article gives careful consideration to the measures taken by these players who achieved success in such a way as to alter employee consciousness, vitalize organizational morale, entrench the new NTT 'Phoenix' brand (videoconferencing system) in the Japanese market and create an emergent new video multi-point connection network service market. And it was under the innovative leadership of community leaders that communities' core competencies were elevated, and innovation of the multimedia business achieved, as a function of the creation and harmonization of new value outlooks within the business community, inside as well as outside the companies.     

Supplier involvement in new product development and innovation: Taking stock and looking to the future

This paper provides a comprehensive and critical review and synthesis of the current state of empirical research into supplier involvement in new product development (NPD). The paper begins by defining supplier involvement in NPD and evaluating the rationale for supplier involvement in NPD. This suggests that early and extensive supplier involvement in NPD projects has the potential to improve NPD effectiveness and efficiency, however, existing research remains fragmented and empirical findings to date show conflicting results. The paper takes stock of the research on supplier involvement in NPD, tracing the origins of the literature to the late 1980s, and evaluating the development of the field up to the present day. From this broad base of empirical research the analysis identifies a set of factors affecting the success of supplier involvement projects. The paper concludes with a discussion of two emerging themes: (1) supplier relationship development and adaptation; (2) supply network involvement in product innovation.     

Just-in-time purchasing: a case study

This article presents a case study on how Hutchinson Technology Incorporated (HTI) organized and implemented just-in-time (JIT) purchasing.     

Nonlinearity measures: a case study

Summary An important problem in applied statistics is fitting a given model function f (β) with unknown parameters β to a data vector y. Minimizing the residual sum of squares provides the least squares estimates of β. If f (β) is linear in β the precision of these estimates is well-known. In a nonlinear case approximate (though asymptotically exact) confidence statements can be made. B eale [1] introduced measures of nonlinearity which can be used to indicate when approximate confidence statements are appropriate. G uttman and M eeter [2] showed that in some, severely nonlinear, cases Beale's measures do not give the right indication. In this paper two new nonlinearity measures are introduced and their use is illustrated on a practical problem described by W itt [3]. A more detailed discussion of the theoretical background can be found in references [1] and [2].     

Innovation through boundary management—a case study in reforms at Matsushita electric

In fiscal 2001, Matsushita electric, a traditional Japanese manufacturer of general electrical appliances, recorded the largest loss in its history. Then, following drastic structural reforms, the company's business results experienced a rapid V-shaped recovery. By transforming its product development strategy from the old technology-led type to a customer-led type and implementing far-reaching organizational reforms, Matsushita emerged as a global leader in the field of digital household appliances. The source of Matsushita's new product development capability was founded on the formation of a number of strategic communities (SCs), which represent the organizational boundaries within and outside Matsushita Group companies, and the organizational integration of these SCs. In this paper, the author uses a detailed case study to describe the mechanism of boundary management that enabled Matsushita electric to simultaneously establish a new market position and achieve competitively advantageous capability in the hi-tech field of digital appliances by balancing vertically integrated SCs and horizontally integrated SCs.     

Building strategic alliances: a case study

It takes much coordination, communication, patience, and persistence to build and manage supplier partnerships in order to lower total costs, reduce lead times, improve the quality of products, optimize inventories, and streamline administrative process. In the absence of the latest technology, it takes talented and enthusiastic team members who take pride in their work, who can think progressively, who can generate optimism in any situation, and who can maintain grace under pressure in order to be successful.     

Changing legitimate discourse: a case study

This study is concerned with the explanations that managers give to various company stakeholders, in the case of factory closures for example. More generally, the paper examines the way justifications of managerial action are produced and “consumed”, and how the “legitimacy” on which they are based can change over time. With the help of a longitudinal case study the paper describes and seeks to explain the legitimisation processes involved in the major organisational transformations that the case firm has had to face due to radical market changes (joining EU) and organisational changes. It is argued that managers may become prisoners of their context. This may mean that even if they made “correct” decisions, they may still justify these actions “incorrectly” relative to the new cultural and market environment, and thus do not acquire legitimacy. In the reported case almost the whole executive board of the firm was fired—the first time such a thing had happened in the history of Finnish corporate life. It is also shown that the justification of managerial action may be deliberately manipulated in public discourse. One powerful legitimative device in such discourse is to invoke financial distress, or the idea of such distress, which may be needed for triggering genuine changes.     

Charity Technology Trust: a case study

Charity Technology Trust (CTT) is one of a new breed of philanthropic initiatives aimed at helping UK charities become more efficient by better use of technology. Its founder believes that charities are ideally placed to benefit from the reduced costs and shared benefits of jointly developed strategies and fundraising, communications and data management tools. CTT was formed to catalyse a move in this direction from the major UK fundraising charities and is supported by the personal philanthropic contributions of its trustees—a group of successful businessmen. The challenge for such a new organisation with a new idea is considerable, but after 18 months CTT is working with 27 of the top 100 UK charities on projects from online raffles through e‐mail communications to IT strategy. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

Decentralisation of collective bargaining: a case study

While a number of surveys have identified a trend towards decentralised bargaining, this article is one of the first to examine the process of decentralisation. The decision of Coats Viyella PLC to decentralise bargaining in its apparel division is examined in detail and the outcomes of the first round of decentralised negotiations are analysed.     

Informal ties in organizations: a case study

Network techniques are applied to a case study. The results show that using a joint approach can help in giving further insight into the analysis of informal ties in an organization. Special emphasis is given to centrality. The concept of mutual awareness, both on an individual and a global levels, is introduced and illustrated.     

Advanced supplier partnership practices: a case study

This article describes how a supplier partnership was set up to avoid the typical purchasing relationship--price being inversely proportional to quantity and having the purchaser take all the risk of product obsolescence. The case study also describes how rate-based replenishment replaced time-based delivery, and how all these advantages were achieved at reduced administrative costs.     

Improving corporate biodiversity management through employee involvement

This paper presents an empirical examination of the role of employee involvement in the internalization of corporate biodiversity management. A qualitative study in natural resource companies was conducted, based on semi‐directive interviews with managers, consultants, and experts in this area. The findings show that employee involvement is essential to improve biodiversity practices in natural resource companies, which largely rely on organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment. The role of tacit knowledge, voluntary initiatives, and prevention of harmful behaviors in the workplace are highlighted. The main obstacles to the internalization of biodiversity issues include their complexity, the lack of corporate commitment, the externalization of initiatives, and the lack of training for employees. The contributions to the literature on corporate environmental management, internalization of new practices, and organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment are explained. Managerial implications and avenues for future research are also provided.     

Supplier scheduling in a quick response environment

Achieving the goal of reduced cycle time requires new techniques and new management approaches within a company and between customer and supplier. This article will cover the underlying technology and management orientation required for quick response (QR). Decision criteria for using customer-managed or supplier-managed QR will be discussed. Methods to benchmark and attain QR benefits will be reviewed.     

Managing compliance with privacy regulations through translation guardrails: A health information exchange case study

Information privacy is increasingly important in our digitally connected world, particularly in healthcare, and privacy regulations are ramping up to promote appropriate privacy practices. As a digital platform that enables healthcare providers to exchange protected health information (PHI), a health information exchange (HIE) is governed by health information privacy regulations. The challenge for HIEs is to operate in a way that will maximize information exchange while maintaining compliance with regulations that may constrain the sharing of PHI. Regulations impose a measure of universality through compliance requirements, while being flexible to allow adaptation to the local context. However, our longitudinal case study into the privacy policies of an HIE, demonstrates that the journey of privacy ideas from their original formulation in regulations, to their ultimate enactment in an organizational setting, is accompanied by translations, such that the final implementation may vary extensively from its original form. Such variability often results in interpretations that differ from what the regulators intended. Consequently, translation guardrails are necessary to protect against problematic translations of regulatory ideas which could lead to compliance issues and loss of platform participation. Our findings offer two contributions. First, we contribute to the compliance literature by explaining how guardrails can balance the use of permission and obligation schemas which are necessary to translate regulations into effective organizational policies for the success of HIEs and other information exchange platforms. Second, we contribute to extending translation theory by explaining how pragmatic reasoning schemas function as the mechanism through which translation of regulations occurs.     

Supplier development and cost management in Southeast Asia—Results from a field study

This paper is about supplier development when international companies have production sites in Southeast Asia and look for opportunities to switch from international suppliers to local suppliers. We conducted a field study involving site visits to companies in Thailand and Vietnam, and interviews at corporate supply chain departments. Some key observations are: cost management was a dominant motive for taking local supplier development initiatives. Furthermore, local sourcing and local supplier development were important for international companies to improve access to local customer markets. Firms deliberately assessed whether a particular supplier would likely be able to improve sufficiently to warrant investing in supplier development, which typically involved a combination of initiatives, requiring the international firm to take considerable efforts. Local sourcing strategies and priorities for supplier development initiatives tended to focus on items with low supply risk and low volume. These findings are discussed based on transaction cost economics, and we suggest that firms use several ways to reduce the risk of transaction-specific investments in supplier development initiatives.