Management structure in an industrial research laboratory

The relation between the need to maintain an efficient research resource and the need to use it effectively for the benefit of the business is best met by a matrix structure. The example of a single laboratory in a large organization is discussed.     

Countercyclical safety nets for the poor and vulnerable

Relatively little is known about how government safety net programs insure against low consumption and stabilize asset bases, compared to what is known about their role in transferring income. The insurance function requires a flexible budget that can be scaled up rapidly to meet unanticipated circumstances. Safety nets serving an insurance function also differ from other transfer programs in their targeting; they need to determine transitory need rather than more chronic correlates of poverty. Moreover, insurance safety nets need a more flexible implementation strategy than do more permanent programs. This paper reviews these issues from the perspective of low income countries.     

Customer involvement in big data analytics and its impact on B2B innovation

Extant literature assumes that customers mainly serve as passive data providers and that firms take responsibility for big data analytics. In line with a current trend in real-world practice, this research, based on the open innovation literature, challenges this assumption and argues that customers can have more engagement in big data analytics. The authors distinguish two constructs: Customer as Data Provider (CDP) and Customer as Data Analyst (CDA). The former is consistent with the mainstream view that customers serve as the data source. The latter, on the other hand, sheds light on an active role customers play in big data analytics – that is, customers participate in a co-creation process where they acquire, analyze and act on big data. Using survey data of 148 Business-to-Business (B2B) innovation projects, the authors find that both types of customer involvement facilitate B2B product innovation. Furthermore, the authors examine moderation effects of customer need tacitness and customer need diversity. Results show that customer need tacitness negatively moderates the relationship between CDP and new product performance while customer need diversity yields a positive moderation effect. Customer need tacitness is also found to positively moderate the relationship between CDA and new product performance.     

The future role of international telecommunications institutions

The telecommunications world is being swept by technological and national regulatory changes. The international telecommunication institutions — the ITU, INTELSAT and CEPT — were founded in times when technological trends were more stable and national regulation was more homogeneous. How will they cope with these new changes? In an era of growing heterogeneity, the ITU may need to look increasingly beynd itself to maintain its centrality. Meanwhile, INTELSAT faces challenges from new market entrants and a more flexible approach to new technological and commercial imperatives in satellite and cable services. The EEC is awakening to the need for institutional change within Europe and this is already having an impact on CEPT. It is concluded that to survive and to maintain relevance the existing international institutions will need to initiate changes or face a loss of authority to other institutions such as OECD and EEC.     

垄断行业的效率、改革与规制重构——转型经济中的经验与教训研讨会观点综述

行政垄断的判定与垄断程度的测度需要一个完善的标准。实证表明,行政垄断造成了巨大的经济效率损失,而消除行政垄断只能分步骤有序进行。竞争政策的设计应结合本国国情,竞争政策的目标也应该是多元的,同时需要构建完善的反垄断体系。垄断行业的改革应根据行业自身特点与市场空间来确定其市场化的程度和规制的程度,需要系统设计改革时序,重构并建立科学的规制体系。     

Factors Influencing the Adoption of Mass Customization: The Impact of Base Category Consumption Frequency and Need Satisfaction

Mass customization has received considerable interest among researchers. However, although many authors have analyzed this concept from different angles, the question of which factors can be used to spot customers most likely to adopt a mass‐customized product has not been answered to a satisfactory extent until now. This article explicitly deals with this question by focusing on factors related to the base category, which is defined as the group of all standardized products within the same product category as the mass‐customized product under investigation. Specifically, this article investigates the influence of a customer's base category consumption frequency and need satisfaction on the decision to adopt a mass‐customized product within this base category. A set of competing hypotheses regarding these influences is developed and subsequently evaluated by a combination of partial least squares and latent class analysis. This is done by using a sample of 2,114 customers surveyed regarding their adoption of an individualized printed newspaper. The results generated are threefold: First, it is shown that there is a significant direct influence of base category consumption frequency and need satisfaction on the behavioral intention to adopt. The more frequently a subject consumes products out of the base category or the more satisfied his or her needs are due to this consumption, the higher the behavioral intention to adopt a mass‐customized product within this base category. Second, the article provides an indication that base category consumption frequency has a significant moderating effect when investigating the behavioral intention to adopt in the context of the theory of reasoned action and the technology acceptance model. The more frequently a subject consumes products out of the base category, the more important will be the impact of perceived ease of use mediated by perceived usefulness. Finally, this article shows that different latent classes with respect to unobserved heterogeneity regarding the latent variables base category need satisfaction or dissatisfaction have significantly different adoption behaviors. Individuals who show a high level of need dissatisfaction are less interested in the ease of use of a mass‐customized product than its usefulness (i.e., increase in need satisfaction). On the other hand, subjects who have a high degree of base category need satisfaction base their adoption decision mainly on the ease of use of the mass‐customized product. These results are of managerial relevance regarding the prediction of market reactions and the understanding of the strategic use of product‐line extensions based on mass‐customized products. This work provides an indication that base category consumption frequency and need satisfaction positively influence the behavioral intention to adopt a mass‐customized product. Hence, mass customization can be seen as one way to deepen the relationship with existing clients.     

Effective Control of New Product Projects: The Interaction of Organization Culture and Project Leadership

In all organizations where technological innovation plays a key role, a state of creative tension exists between those responsible for technological development of new products and the organization's need to satisfy customer demands. The need to maintain a balanced state of tension is clear. When the balance swings too far in the direction of technological development, technological wizardry runs amok. When it swings too far in the direction of satisfying customer demands, innovativeness can be stifled and technological stagnation can result. Maintaining a state of creative tension is important, then, for producing viable and technologically innovative products. A key task confronting managers, therefore, is fostering innovation while at the same time controlling and channelling it to meet the business needs of the organization. Perhaps nowhere is this need greater than in the new product development process. Edward McDonough and Richard Leifer report the results of a study which suggest that this task may be accomplished by relying on a bounded delegation style of project leadership and a culture which emphasizes a business orientation.     

BRITISH MANAGERS: A STUDY OF THEIR EDUCATION,TRAINING, MOBILITY AND EARNINGS

This study uses information from the National Training Survey to investigate the education, qualifications, mobility and earnings of persons with managerial responsibilities. From this analysis, we conclude that there is a need for both private and public organisations to increase the quantity and improve the quality of the training available to their managers and potential managers. More important though is the need to monitor the impact of training programmes and reward managers accordingly.     

New industrial product performance: The effects of market characteristics and strategy

There's no need to state again the complexity of the problem of achieving high performance in the new product process. What we do need is a framework to help sort out the complexity, and that is what Eunsang Yoon and Gary Lilien provide in this article. They first differentiate between original and reformulated new products. Then they examine how patterns of R&D and marketing activities determine short and long-run success.     

A Review of: “OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUES IN QUANTITATIVE ECONOMIC MODELS” By J. K. Sengupta and K. A. Fox American Elsevier Publishing Company,Inc. 1970 478 pp. $22.50

A survey of firms in the chemical, computer, and pharmaceutical Industries provides insight into Investment decision making practices under environmental/ social uncertainty. The practices are fairly simple, appropriate only when a new product is very similar to existing products. The practices ' perceived advantages and disadvantages establish a general blueprint for the development of new decision making techniques. The new techniques need to improve accuracy as much as possible without losing simplicity, and need to be generally acceptable to all the firms in the industry     

Working with concepts in the fuzzy front end: exploring the context for innovation for different types of concepts at Volvo Cars

Automotive firms are balancing the increasing needs for cost and time efficiency with the necessity of developing more innovative products to stand out on in a competitive market. The strive for efficiency has led to an increasingly structured development process with limited allowances for deviations. Previous academic work has pointed out the importance and embedded potential of the fuzzy front end, where new concepts still have the possibility to impact the new product development (NPD) process. However, most research has focused on the transfer of new technologies, while concepts based on e.g. customer or market knowledge have been more or less neglected. This paper discusses the need for alternative and contingent approaches in the front end of NPD to also consider the transfer of other types of concepts. More specifically, it addresses the need to distinguish between different types of concepts and to explore their different prerequisites in NPD. It is argued that customer- and market-based concepts experience certain difficulties due to the history and power of technology in research and development (R&D) domains in the automotive context as well as a lack of support from the existing, formal processes. In this paper, we argue that all new concepts need to be conceptualized before being introduced to the NPD process, but that does not always suffice. Concepts other than technology concepts also need a contingent package to enable an evaluation in the context of the R&D process – they need to be contextualized. This paper draws on an in-depth case study of Volvo Cars within a long-lasting collaborative research setup. It is based on an interview study with key persons in the areas of concept work and NPD, and uses an insider/outsider approach.     

Perspektiven zur aktuellen Kapazitätsmarktdiskussion in Deutschland

Over the last years, proposals for the implementation of capacity mechanisms in Germany have been published. However, some basic questions have not been answered yet: regarding the need for capacities, the functioning of the energy-only-market and the objective and type of a possible capacity mechanism. The actual need for capacities is an important input factor for capacity mechanisms and crucial to determine whether these are required. Currently, uncertainties prevail due to differing assumptions regarding the capacity credits of renewables and other capacities. Existing studies show highly diverse estimates for capacity needs after 2020. It is also unclear whether the energy-only-market can provide sufficient investment incentives. The current low prices cannot be interpreted as a sign for market failure. They represent overcapacities due to European integration and increasing renewable shares. The mid-term effects of increasing renewable shares on electricity prices still need to be analyzed in detail. At last, the objective of a capacity mechanism is not clear in the German context. This makes the selection of an adequate capacity mechanism and an effective market design more complicated. Furthermore, effects on the energy market need to be considered. Parameterization errors can be expensive. Also, capacity mechanisms do not necessarily guarantee higher investment security. As a consequence, the authors advise against the prompt introduction of a capacity mechanism, especially as the new EnWG guarantees the operation of system-relevant power plants until 2017. Instead, an incremental improvement of the energy-only market and in-depth analysis of the described questions seam necessary.     

Imperfect Tests and Natural Insurance Monopolies

In a housing insurance market buildings have different damage probabilities. High-risk houses need investment, low-risk houses don't. Insurers use imperfect tests to assess risks. The market is a natural monopoly: with more than one active insurer, high-risk house owners continue to apply to insurers until they are eventually assigned to the low-risk class. The natural monopoly need not be sustainable. In equilibrium the incumbent accommodates entry even when the natural monopoly is sustainable. We explain recent observations from Germany and Switzerland where damage rates and prices went up drastically after the transition from state monopolies to competitive environments.     

The motivation and need satisfaction of Papua New Guinea managers

Maslow theorised that people share a concern for five levels of needs. These are arranged in a hierarchy in which higher level needs become more dominant as lower level ones are satisfied. In order of prepotency the needs are: security, social, esteem, autonomy and self actualisation. Haire et al (1966) and Clark and McCabe (1971) found a different but consistent ranking of need importance and satisfaction from that proposed by Maslow. They surmised that despite cultural differences and different stages of economic development, managers from different countries attached similar importance to the five need categories.The applicability of the Haire et al conclusion was tested by comparing the feelings Australian and Papua New Guinea (PNG) managers attached to the five need categories. Australia and PNG are neighbours. Australia is a developed country where individualism is a feature of life. PNG, however, is a developing country where wantokism permeates almost every facet of people interaction. It was found that the PNG results on need importance and satisfaction was dissimilar to that of Australia. The PNG results showed a remarkable similarity with those of the developing countries. Cultural differences and differing stages of economic development, it appears, affect the degree of importance attached to the five need categories and these factors should be taken into account when designing organisation structures and setting up reward systems.     

Effective technology and design teaching: getting it right in the classroom

Technology and design was added to the Northern Ireland curriculum in September 1992 and through it, teachers seek to address the need for pupils to understand the ever-changing man-made world by developing skills and understanding in its four elements of designing, communicating, manufacturing and the use of energy and control. To be effective in attaining these goals, it is important that teachers allow pupils to have a voice in their learning. They should do this by taking account of pupil responses to the tasks they issue and using those responses as a basis for making choices about instruction and support strategies. This is particularly important in technology and design as pupils need to interpret instructions in light of their design ideas. This paper outlines how three case studies of technology and design teaching were used to identify a range of teaching and learning strategies and evaluate them for their potential to create a learning dialogue with pupils. Drawing on aspects of the effective teaching debate, this learning dialogue was then applied to how teachers exploited pupil histories, managed a range of collaboration strategies and provided effective task orientation. The case studies were based on observations, interviews and content analysis of work over a complete design-and-make project in each school. The paper outlines three continua for effectiveness in each of the three areas observed. The first continuum shows that teachers need a more individualised view of building on pupil histories, the second outlines a range of strategies for the management of pupil collaboration in learning and the third suggests that pupils need to be orientated into complex tasks in ways that support a progressively increasing level of independence in their thinking.     

A paradigm for examining second-order factor models employing structural equation modeling

We present here a paradigm for assessing second-order measurement models. Our approach is hierarchical in nature. We discuss the need for higher-order models from a conceptual perspective and illustrate how some common challenges in empirical research can be resolved through the deployment of higher-order modeling. Essentially, we argue that many constructs can be meaningfully described by a higher-order structure and testing for the existence of such structures requires a careful examination of alternative models. There is a need for conceptual as well as empirical support. In order to demonstrate our paradigm, we use data that relate to airline service quality. Our sample includes two databases. Responses from 170 individuals are employed for exploratory purposes and responses from 437 individuals are used for subsequent data analyses.     

Why Strikes Occur: Evidence from the Capital Markets

New and existing empirical evidence regarding the stock market reaction to strikes is used to test the validity of three strike theories. A review of the existing capital market evidence reveals the need for information regarding the intraindustry announcement effects of strikes against manufacturing firms. This need is filled by applying event-study methodology, in a manner consistent with earlier studies, to a sample of strikes during the period 1982–1999. This new evidence, combined with that of previous studies, consistently supports the validity of Hick's theory that strikes are the result of bargaining errors, misperceptions of bargaining goals, or discrepancies between the expectations of union leaders and the rank and file.     

Focus on Europe: Defining telecommunication or bounding the ethereal

To Europeans the sight of a quasi-legal body, the US Federal Communications Commission, holding hearings to define the boundary between computing and telecommunication may easily seem absurd. However that distinction, and the distinction between those services and broadcasting, is crucial in both Europe and North America. Previous practical distinctions have been based on technology and so inevitably become obsolete. The US process for achieving a distinction may appear cumbersome, but it does outline the problem and the importance of the underlying issues. Europeans cannot be complacent about the need for such a definition or smug about the superiority of a regulatory process that appears to avoid that need.     

The motivation and need satisfaction of the thai managerial elite

Conclusions Broadly speaking, the need importance of Thai managers was similar to that of managers from the developing countries category sampled in the Haireet al. study. That their need satisfaction was rather dissimilar (more closely resembling those of the Nordic-European, Anglo-American and Japanese clusters in the Haireet al. study) is a reflection of the fact that the Thai sample comprised more senior managers than did the Haireet al. study. These results serve to caution researchers against generalizing their findings across managerial levels. Beyond that, the study has provided some interesting data on the need structure of the Thai managerial elite.The authors are in the Faculty of Management Sciences of the Prince of Songkla University, Thailand.     

Some lessons of the Windscale inquiry

. This article reviews the context in which British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. applied in 1977 for outline planning permission for a plant to reprocess spent uranium oxide fuel at the Windscale Works in Cumbria. It summarizes the report of Mr Justice Parker, the inspector who was appointed to conduct a public inquiry into the proposal, and examines Parliamentary and press responses to the report. Finally, it draws certain lessons from the issue, including the need to keep options open in complex technological decisions, the need for better access to information, and the need for better procedures for evaluating proposals of this type.