Smart city networks' governance: The Spanish smart city network case study

The governance of smart city networks emerges as a new research area intersecting smart governance and public networks studies. This work aims to contribute to the literature on smart cities governance by studying councillor's governance in complex networks and on network performance. To carry out this analysis, the Spanish Network of Smart Cities (RECI), one of the first of its kind and an international reference for city networks, is reviewed as a case study, with the main objective of establishing a theory on its global innovation capacity and operations, together with the local level spurring influenced on its members. A PEST (Political, Economic, Social and Technological) analysis was carried out in order to assess the impact of the smart city network both at local, national and international level. This research was completed with a consultation carried out among some of RECI's municipalities. The analysis of the results shows how RECI can be considered an example of a well organised network with quantifiable savings for its members, capable of configuring future policies in local administration, necessarily related to efficiency, digitalization and citizen-centricity and with key topics to build the future. The study also suggests recommendations oriented to potential improvements that smart city networks could undertake.     

Assessing and strengthening internal alignment of new marketing units: An interpretative tool

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing is a complex field requiring companies to put in place organizational units that are able to handle multifaceted interaction processes at the customer interface. Moreover, B2B marketing is characterized by high levels of technological, institutional etc. change. As a consequence, and in order to adapt to new market conditions, companies create new organizational units to take over tasks such as key account management, category management or social media management. These new units are developed within the pre-existing organization. Typically, these new units also display a high degree of cross-functionality since their activities are interdependent with the activities of other units. Hence, the question of alignment is of major importance. In this conceptual paper, we provide a framework for both scholarly research and managerial application. It is based on the concept of frame alignment and offers a lens allowing analyzing internal aligning processes for new B2B marketing units.     

How to select the right public partner in smart city projects

Firms that want to exploit Smart City's opportunities need to cooperate with local governments. From a managerial point of view, there is scant research on how to select public partners in Smart City projects. In fact, while there are several cities claiming to be ‘smart’, not all cities fulfil the essential requirements for successful Smart City projects. This paper shows how to build successful public–private alliances in Smart Cities and, more specifically, how to select the right city to test, develop or sell smart technologies. This study uses a multiple-case research design and follows an exploratory and qualitative methodology. The results show that firms improve the success of their projects if they assess three main aspects of partner selection, these being partner complementarity, commitment and compatibility. The paper, therefore, provides several managerial implications regarding how firms may be more effective in selecting where to start their Smart City projects and how public organisations may become more attractive. Finally, academic implications, limitations and future lines of research are presented.     

Telecommunications as ecosystem: An Australian case study

In describing methods of analysing and evaluating alternative policy options of large systems, like the Australian Telecommunications Commission, this article proposes a set of criteria to test the policy options of Telecom Australia. The criteria are developed through three levels of enquiry. The rational enquiry describes the objective characteristics of the system; the mythological enquiry describes that set of beliefs which justifies the system's organization; and the ecological enquiry evaluates the adaptability of the system. This article concludes that re-evaluation at the mythological level is necessary for the successful continuation of Telecom Australia.     

Identifying smart city archetypes from the bottom up: A content analysis of municipal plans

This paper presents a comparative analysis of 60 municipal smart city plans drawn from countries around the world, with the goal of enumerating the specific policies and programs that are included under the general rubric of “smart city” initiatives. The objective is to identify the combinations of projects that are most often deployed together, and thus to define “archetypes” or “models” in smart city development. We follow an inductive method and conduct content analysis of 60 smart city plans, with each plan coded for the presence or absence of activity in 25 program categories. Cluster analysis identified four different models: an essential services model, smart transportation model, broad spectrum model, and a business ecosystem model.     

页岩气开发既要重视更须务实

受美国“页岩气革命”的启发,我国从2009年开始了页岩气开发的前期研究工作,通过页岩气开发先导示范区建设,积累了初步的经验.政府正在陆续制定和完善鼓励开发非常规油气的政策.2012年3月1日,国土资源部发布《全国页岩气资源潜力调查评价及有利区优选》成果,保守估计全国页岩气可采资源量为12.5万亿立方米.我国页岩气开发处在起步阶段,还有很长的路要走.对页岩气开发既要重视,又要务实.当前工作重点:一是处理好常规油气与非常规油气勘探开发的关系；二是加大页岩气开发技术攻关；三是改革完善投资机制,调动各方面的积极性,参与页岩气开发；四是抓紧页岩气开发示范区的建设,积累经验,逐步推广,为工业化生产做好准备.     

Marketing ecosystem: An outside-in view for sustainable advantage

In the modern business environment, consumers are increasingly influenced by megatrends involving marketplace, technology, socioeconomics, geopolitics, and natural environment. Simultaneously, the data and insights that can inform consumer attitudes and behaviors often reside outside of firms' direct control. Consciously incorporating these interdependent factors into firms' decision-making is essential for adaptability and sustainable profitability.Building on the “outside-in” perspective, we propose that firm strategies should be informed through the lens of the marketing ecosystem that considers the interrelated and dynamic megatrends. By leveraging advances in data and technology, firms can sense-make the marketplace by extracting insights from massive amounts of diverse consumer data with modern-day analytics. By mapping out the megatrends with marketing analytics, firms can 1) more accurately predict consumers' changing preferences and formulate appropriate strategies to engage with them; and 2) become more market-adaptable and competitive in the present and the future.To deliver sustainably compelling value to customers, firms should adopt an ecosystem mindset and cooperate with various stakeholders. A broad-thinking, agile, and humble firm culture can enable the development of more robust outside-in capabilities. We elaborate on the megatrends in the interconnected world of the marketing ecosystem, and propose emerging research directions in each area.     

The impact of management commitment alignment on salespersons' adoption of sales force automation technologies: An empirical investigation

Marketing and information systems scholars have explored several factors that affect sales force automation (SFA) technology adoption. In this study, we introduce a new antecedent to the SFA adoption model, management commitment alignment (MCA). We show that alignment between top management and immediate supervisors' commitment to the SFA technology is an important factor in influencing SFA adoption. Results show that while commitment from both leadership levels (perfect alignment) is the most conducive to SFA adoption, misaligned commitment conditions have differential effects on adoption. Specifically, even when supervisors are committed to sales technology, lack of top management commitment can hurt SFA adoption. Managerial implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

The importance of internal and external R&D network linkages for R&D organisations: evidence from Singapore

This paper examines the importance of internal and external R&D networks for R&D organisations of multinational firms (MNCs) in Singapore and investigates corresponding R&D management requirements in this context, namely a late-industrialising country in Asia. A unique feature of Singapore is its ability to attract 'high quality' foreign direct investment, involving activities of higher value added and more complex technology without having developed full-fledged R&D activities among its business organisations, thus creating a challenging situation for subsidiary R&D managers, both in the internal R&D organisation as well as in the external research environment. This paper analyses these issues.
Based on in-depth interviews with 53 R&D subsidiaries of MNCs operating in Singapore, this paper identifies internal and external R&D management needs. Through our analysis of data gleaned from these interviews, we found that subsidiary R&D managers need to increase and/or maintain the strategic importance of their R&D site internally within their global corporate R&D organisation. This requires constant upgrading of the technological level at the R&D subsidiary and intense communication with headquarters as well as other R&D subsidiaries. Furthermore, our findings indicate that in the external research environment, subsidiary R&D managers need to create an efficient local network of external players. If these internal and external issues are properly addressed, the R&D subsidiary can effectively contribute to the corporate R&D organisation and be a critical partner in the local research network. Lessons learned from the Singapore experience include the need to develop sufficient local expertise as well as to change the mindset of managers to focus on creativity rather than precise execution.     

Universal service in Vietnam: An institutional approach

Applying institutional theory to look at the Program 74 (a universal service policy) in Vietnam, this paper concludes that the Vietnamese universal service policy was strongly affected by formal institutional factors (the international agreements and the directives of the Communist Party of Vietnam - CPV), in which the international agreements played a leading role and the CPV's directives played a guarantee role. The formulation and implementation of the universal service policy in Vietnam were mainly concentrated on action at levels 2 and 3 (formal and informal institutional arrangement, and formal institutional environment). The paper recommends that nations favouring a top-down approach not based on a market-oriented regime should deregulate and emphasize the role of provincial governments as well as encourage private sectors/social organizations and rural users to be more involved in the formulation and implementation of universal service policies. Moreover, the government should set up and force the contractual relations between governmental entities and telecom providers.     

An exploratory study into brand alignment in B2B relationships

B2B relationships are characterized by strategic partnerships between firms and the suppliers of goods and services integral to their offerings. Failure to choose the right partner could jeopardize the survival of both partners. While a number of studies suggest that partnering firms need to be aligned operationally, few studies look at whether there should be alignment between the brands of firms and their suppliers. Therefore, we build on existing studies on sexual selection to develop a theory of whether similarity in brand attributes affects the success of B2B relationships. We propose that firms wishing to portray particular brand images to their customers choose suppliers whose images mirror their own. To develop our proposition, we investigate the brand personality alignment between well-known firms and their suppliers in four industries. The findings of our analysis have significant implications for scholars and managers interested in the nature and success of B2B partnerships.     

The blame game: An attribution theory approach to marketer-engineer conflict in high-technology companies

Marketer-engineer conflict is a pervasive and as-yet unresolved problem of critical importance to high-technology companies. This study updates and extends marketing literature by applying qualitative research methods including the critical incident technique to examine the causes of conflict between marketers and engineers in high-technology companies. Narratives from both marketers and engineers are interpreted from an attribution theory perspective as well as in the context of recent management research on interfunctional conflict. Results draw attention to a high proportion of personal attributions, indicating high levels of relationship-conflict; these results are in contrast to the task-conflict typically addressed by the marketing literature. Discussion highlights the changes in high-technology organizational culture since first by described by Workman 15 years ago [Workman, J. (1993). Marketing's limited role in new product development in one computer systems firm. Journal of Marketing Research, 30 (4), 405-421.], and recommendations for managers are offered.     

An activities-based approach to network management: An explorative study

Over the last few decades, the industrial marketing literature and the business network literature have promoted a holistic approach to marketing and provided a framework for understanding interorganizational networks. However, our understanding of how interorganizational networks govern themselves when developing innovations is still limited. Most network management literature does not focus on the activities employed by network actors and/or does not recognize that there may be different modes of network management. This study explores how, why and in which combination network management activities are employed in a network and in doing so proposes a new conceptualization of network management. Using primary and secondary data pertaining to eleven innovation projects, this study reveals how network management consists of combinations of (rather than individual) management activities undertaken to manage a network. This study identifies three distinct modes of network management: basically coordinated, control-oriented and reward-oriented. Moreover, this study proposes that network actors try to match the management mode to their prevailing mental model as well as the type of network (e.g. in terms of project innovativeness).     

Production planning: An improved hybrid approach

This paper proposes an extended linear programming model for the hybrid approach proposed by Byrne and Bakir (International Journal of Production Economics 59 (1999) 305) and Kim and Kim (International Journal of Production Economics 73 (2001) 165). In this new model the workload of jobs is sub-divided to introduce the unit load concept of JIT. While an optimum plan is sought, due to this unit load concept, the model takes account of the requirement of small lot sizes which is one factor of the JIT approach. The effective loading ratio (ratio of the output quantity to the input quantity) is modified by omitting the slack time for each job. This helps to ensure that correct quantity of product is produced in each period, thus minimising any excess inventory or backlogging. Omission of slack time will also improve equipment utilisation and throughput. A flexible capacity constraint is also introduced which takes into account the availability of resources based on their previous histories.The incorporation of the unit load concept and modification of resource requirements and constraints in the proposed LP formulation are expected to help to improve the planning model by reducing the level of WIP and total flow time.     

The importance of being first : The case of prescription drugs in Canada

There is a growing literature on the importance of being first, which suggests that where there is uncertainty about the product quality of late entrants' brands the pioneering brand will retain a competitive advantage. This is consistent with studies of the U.S. drug industry. Using Canadian data for the drug industry it is shown that eliminating quality differences is a necessary but not sufficient condition for late entrants to gain market share. In addition, price competition has to be stimulated. Under these conditions the late entrants have taken up to 100 percent of the pioneering brands market.     

Executive succession: The importance of social capital in CEO appointments

Research Summary: Firm performance and corporate governance have been shown to influence CEO selection, but our understanding of the role of social capital is more limited. In this study, we seek to provide further insight into the role of social capital by examining the influence of both “bonding” and “bridging” forms of social capital on CEO appointments. We find that candidates who have relational social capital, in terms of overlap with the CEO in organizational tenure, board tenure, and CEO tenure are more likely to be appointed as CEO. We also find that candidates who have external linkages to the CEO in the form of geographic, prestigious university, and prior employment affiliations are more likely to be appointed CEO. Managerial Summary: The appointment of a new CEO has significant and widespread implications for the firm’s future strategic direction and performance, the relationship between the board and CEO, and perceptions by investors, employees, and other key stakeholders. Our study finds that candidates who have shared connections and experiences with the CEO in terms of geographic, prestigious university, or prior employment affiliations as well as overlap in terms of organizational tenure, board tenure, and CEO tenure are more likely to be appointed CEO. Given the enormous impact that executive appointments have on the strategic direction and performance of the company, it is important to recognize that social factors such as shared experiences and connections influence how candidates are perceived, and thus, may affect appointment decisions.     

Corporate entrepreneurship initiatives: Antagonizing cognitive biases in business model design

Entrepreneurs designing novel business model configurations face cognitive biases that derive from limited mental capacity to deal with complex and uncertain decision contexts. Building on the notion of the business model as an idiosyncratic mental representation that organizes managerial understanding of value creating and value capture, we investigate how entrepreneurs cope with cognitive biases inherent in business model design. We conducted a total of 35 in‐depth interviews with entrepreneurs situated in 15 corporate entrepreneurship initiatives in Germany. Our study results suggest that entrepreneurs counter cognitive biases by combining intuitive and deliberate reasoning approaches. Specifically, we identify five cognitive mechanisms and two higher level cognitive processes undergirding entrepreneurial reasoning in the design of new business models. Our findings provide empirically grounded insights into the cognitive perspective in business model research and help to theorize managerial reasoning during the process of business model design.     

Strategic market analysis and definition: An integrated approach

Two distinct approaches to market analysis and definition have evolved. Those approaches which adopt a top-down persepective, tend to specify markets in terms of competitive capabilities and resource transferability. The alternative bottom-up perspective emphasizes customer requirements or usage patterns when defining markets. An integrated approach begins with a common model of the principal dimensions of a market. The second element is the recognition that different market definitions are needed for different strategic purposes. Next, the strategic planning framework which links business units and product-market units should be compatible with these purposes and reflect a strategically relevant balance of cost and demand factors. A procedure for forming business units from groups of product-markets is shown to be effective for achieving this balance.