The organizational adoption of high-technology products “for use”: Effects of size, preferences, and radicalness of impact

This research reports the results of a study on organizational adoption of high-technology products “for use” in contrast to “for manufacture.” Additionally, the study examines high-technology adoptions which often have different issues that are important to the decision process relative when compared to the adoption of less-technical products. For example, the level of compatibility or the availability of complementary products (e.g., network externality considerations) are often important issues for high-technology adoptions. As such, this study provides additional information in the relatively underresearched organizational adoption literature, particularly as it relates to high-technology products. In order to maintain connectivity with past work, we look at the firm size versus adoption issue. At the same time, we add new information by also examining how organizational preferences for products, and the degree of radicalness of the products affect organizational adoption. We use a proportional-hazards model to test our hypotheses using panel data on 400 firms that are drawn from 14 industries. As part of the research effort we developed an improved scale for judging the radicalness of a product than has been used in prior research. Furthermore, we extended the Booz, Allen, & Hamilton New Product Categories (1982) approach to incorporate innovation impact. As expected, the results show that size “does matter,” but that it is modified by degree of product radicalness and organizational preference. Interestingly, we found that for high-technology products “for use,” organizations prefer radical impact products but adopt incremental impact products. Hence, preferences and purchase behaviors do not match.     

‘You monitor performance at every hour’: labour and the management of performance in the supermarket supply chain

With reference to the performance management research agenda, this article focuses on the politics of production in food manufacturing and distribution companies in the supermarket supply chain. Burawoy's concept of ‘factory regimes’ is utilised to explore the broader context of labour process change in inter‐linked organisations in the retail supply chain. The article examines the extent to which new despotic or coercive regime characteristics are emerging that weakens the power of both suppliers and labour. In revealing changes in the nature and dynamics of performance regimes within these organisations, the article exposes the connections and linkages between workplaces as distinct moments in the integrated circuit of capital.     

Controlling and combining resources in networks — from Uppsala to Stanford, and back again: The case of a biotech innovation

This paper explores how resources are controlled and combined in a biotech network that spans from Uppsala, Sweden, to Stanford, USA. A case study is reported that describes and analyses how the original discovery, developed at the Department of Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University, Sweden, was combined with other innovations at Stanford University, California, and under the influence and control of several different actors, including venture capitalists, were exploited within a newly founded company, ParAllele.The paper analyzes the resources that are created, combined and controlled in the network around these scientific discoveries and the company hosting them. This analysis shows how actors are using and are exposed to different control mechanisms, such as action, results and personnel controls, in the innovation process. Our discussion emphasizes how the involved actors apply various types of controls on resources in order to reach their objectives. Forms of control that both entail mobilizing other actors and preventing actions in the emerging network are of importance. We conclude the paper by pointing out the features of control in innovation processes as well as obstacles to control in a business network setting.