Managing knowledge in industrial markets: New dimensions and challenges

Managing knowledge in industrial markets has become an increasingly important task in the last 10 years. Many industrial firms paid little attention to the topic, since it was felt that knowledge was easily handled internally and was a simple process. The growth of information technology that centered on the collection, analysis and dissemination of information during the 1990's and early 2000's has necessitated that managing knowledge be taken seriously by industrial marketing managers. By doing so industrial firms can make available increased knowledge content in the development and provision of products and services to industrial marketing managers on all levels of the firm, achieve shorter new product development cycles, and facilitate and manage organizational innovation and learning. This article outlines the new dimensions in knowledge management in industrial marketing that are important for industrial managers, academic researchers, and business firms to understand for the future.     

Managing customer share in key supplier relationships

Supply base consolidation is an important issue in many business markets. Against this background, the allocation of purchasing budgets across vendors becomes an area of vital interest to suppliers. In the present research, we argue that customer share is a key decision variable in business marketing settings and investigate how a supplier can proactively manage the share of its customer's business. We report the results of a cross-sectional study among purchasing managers in U.S. manufacturing industries. Our findings confirm the role of customer value as an antecedent to customer share in business relationships. The study further shows that customer share influences the stability of key supplier relationships. Rather than displaying a direct impact, our results suggest that trust mediates and dependence moderates the link between customer share and search for alternative suppliers. Based on these findings, we propose a framework for managing customer share in key supplier relationships. Four approaches of how industrial vendors can proactively manage customer share are discussed.     

Managing supplier-retailer relationships: From institutional and task environment perspectives

This study develops an integrated model of managing channel relationships that involves task and institutional environment perspectives. Using survey data from automobile dealers in China, the authors provide empirical evidence to demonstrate the utility of the legitimacy-based institutional environment perspective in clarifying channel relationship issues, which have been considered mostly only from an economic efficiency-based task environment approach. As the institutional environment perspective's factors, imposition asymmetry and bypassing have indirect impacts on trust in supplier and the level of conflict in a channel relationship. As the task environment standpoint's factors, explicit contracts and supplier's transaction-specific investments (TSIs) are posited to have direct effects on trust in supplier and the level of conflict, however, the hypothesized relationship between supplier's TSIs and the level of conflict is not supported. The results also indicate both building a retailer's trust in its supplier and lowering the level of conflict lead to improved relationship performance.     

Key account relationships: An exploratory inquiry of customer-based evaluations

The management and retention of key accounts is imperative in facilitating a firm's long-term viability. Previous examinations of key account relationships have revealed valuable insights into the factors facilitating key account management and driving relationship strength. However, account managers often fail to recognize weaknesses within their existing key accounts and the sources of their relationship vulnerabilities. Utilizing an exploratory inquiry of in-depth interviews with 99 executive decision makers across 52 key accounts cases, the authors assess customer relationship evaluations prior to contract expirations for account retention opportunities valued at over $1.3 billion. Unique positive and negative drivers of key account relationship evaluations are identified in a thematic categorization, along with a subsequent content analysis highlighting their patterned associations with positive and negative relationship evaluations, future business intentions, and business referral behaviors. These patterned associations reveal that positive and negative perceptions of relational drivers often affect outcomes in a differential manner, resulting in a classification of conventional constructs, prevention constructs, and promotion constructs. The results indicate that the desire of a supplier to maximize positive relational outcomes or minimize negative relational outcomes is driven by distinct underlying associations and allow for insights into resource allocation strategies within key account relationships.     

航天电子关键通用产品发展规划的制定与管理

<正>一、产品规划的成因中国航天电子技术研究院以惯性导航、测控通信、微电子与计算机、机电组件等传统专业技术为核心,其产品都是航天型号的关键分系统,是航天型号提高性能的主要技术基础及提高可靠性技术水平的重要保证条件,具有关键性和基础性双重属性。     

Alliance capability,stock market response,and long‐term alliance success: the role of the alliance function

This paper addresses two key questions: (1) what factors influence firms' ability to build alliance capability and enjoy greater alliance success, where firm‐level alliance success is measured in two ways: (a) abnormal stock market gains following alliance announcements and (b) managerial assessments of long term alliance performance; and (2) are the two alternate ways of assessing alliance success correlated? We find that firms with greater alliance experience and, more importantly, those that create a dedicated alliance function (with the intent of strategically coordinating alliance activity and capturing/disseminating alliance‐related knowledge) realize greater success with alliances. More specifically, firms with a dedicated alliance function achieve greater abnormal stock market gains (average of 1.35%) and report that 63 percent of alliances are successful whereas firms without an alliance function achieve much lower stock market gains (average of 0.18%) and only a 50 percent long‐term success rate. We also find a positive correlation between stock market‐based measures of alliance success and alliance success measured through managerial assessments. In addition to providing insights into the development of alliance capability among firms, this paper is one of the first to provide empirical support for the efficient markets argument by demonstrating that the initial stock market response to a key event positively correlates to the long‐term performance and value of the event. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Initial conditions or process of development? Critical incidents in the early stages of new ventures

Past research on new venture creation has focussed on initial conditions of start–ups or on the process of evolution. However, few studies have investigated the transitory stage when initial conditions changeover to a process of evolution. The aim of this paper is to investigate critical incidents infant new ventures face in this transitory stage. The paper covers two areas. First, a review of selected process models of new venture creation is conducted. Results from this review concludes that existing models as described in the literature are associated with several weaknesses: they oversimplify the phenomenon studied as they most often focus on one aspect only and they do not deal with how entrepreneurs adapt to specific situational conditions. Furthermore, the review indicates that the starting–point of a process often is hard to specify and characterize. Second, an empirical study based on the critical incident technique is reported on. On the basis of interviews with founders and entrepreneurial service providers related to the companies 65 critical incidents were identified. This equals an average of 8.1 incidents per company during a period of 6–18 months. Financing and recruiting were the most frequent and most important activities to manage. Then follows reference/first customer in third place. A common pattern of occurring incidents was identified among the ventures. However, in relation to the first round of venture capital financing a strategic choice was made. Either the companies followed a growth strategy and recruitment and organizational development were key goals, or the company focussed on building a patent portfolio. A tentative model is suggested that describes this process in detail.     

Estimating the benefits from collaboration: The case of SEMATECH

SEMATECH (SEmiconductor MAnufacturing TECHnology) was established in 1987 as a not-for-profit research consortium with an original mission to provide a pilot manufacturing facility where member companies could improve their semiconductor manufacturing process technology. Since its inception, SEMATECH's mission has become more general. This paper presents the findings from a quantitative case-based analysis of the returns to member companies from their investments in SEMATECH. The findings suggest that SEMATECH has provided an organizational structure in which important processes and technologies have been advanced which could not have been justified on economic grounds outside of a collaborative research arrangement.     

Identifying intraorganisational and interorganisational alliance conflicts—A longitudinal study of an alliance pilot project in the high technology industry

The extant literature on alliances tends to neglect the effects of intraorganisational relationships within each alliance partner on the implementation of the alliance. To address this gap, this paper investigates both interorganisational and intraorganisational conflicts occurring during the implementation of a service alliance and aims at developing categories of conflicts as well as analysing how these conflict categories affect the implementation of the alliance. Thus, the overall purpose is to contribute to our understanding of implementation issues in alliances for the delivery of services. In order to do so, one case of a high-technology alliance has been studied longitudinally, with the researcher acting as a participant observer. Three interrelated categories of conflicts are developed through an analysis of the data: 1) the scope of the alliance, 2) the customer relationship, and 3) the implementation process. One important conclusion of this study is that the perspectives of several of the stakeholders, including the customers indirectly involved in the alliance, should be included when implementing service alliances.     

Managing learning in informal innovation networks: overcoming the Daphne-dilemma

In this article we discuss the nature and productivity of informal innovation networks, i.e. informal collaborative arrangements between organizations engaged in product or process innovation. Such networks can be used in any phase of the innovation process, but their informal nature makes them especially suited for its fuzzy front end. We explore their potential in technology exchange and learning on the basis of a combination of organization network theory and knowledge management theory. We discuss issues in network governance and network operational management and discuss the basic dilemma – which we named the Daphne-dilemma – facing attempts to improve the productivity of informal innovation networks: too little management effort may lead to under-exploitation of their potential and poor productivity, but too much management effort may destroy their informal nature and hence their creative and explorative potential.     

Factors influencing strategic alliance outcomes in a manufacturing supply chain: Role of alliance motives,interdependence, asset specificity and relational capital

Integration of various theories is essential to completely understand and explain strategic alliances in a supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework by integrating the features of transaction cost theory, resource-based theory, contingency theory, social exchange theory, and Kelley's personal relationship theory and test the framework through empirical research. The present study addresses the impact of strategic alliance motives, environment, asset specificity, perception of opportunistic behavior, interdependence between supply chain partners, and relational capital on strategic alliance outcomes. Besides, the study has also tested the role of relational capital as a central mediating construct. A sample of 2156 companies representing different industries in manufacturing in Malaysia was selected for the distribution of questionnaire. We tested the structural model using structural equation modeling (SEM). Based on the results, we conclude the following significant relationships: (1) strategic alliance motives and perception of opportunistic behavior on interdependence and relational capital, (2) interdependence on relational capital, (3) environment on strategic alliance motives, (4) relational capital on strategic alliance outcomes, and (4) the mediating role of relational capital. The current study adds significantly to the body of knowledge on strategic alliances and can help managers identify factors that influence the success of strategic alliances and provide a proper direction to develop robust and effective collaborative relationships between supply chain partners.     

Managing Capacity in the High-Tech Industry: A Review of Literature

This article surveys a new generation of analytical tools for capacity planning and management, especially in high-tech industries such as semiconductors, electronics and bio-techs. The objectives of the article are to (1) identify fundamental theory driving current research in capacity management, (2) review emerging models in operations research, game theory, and economics that address strategic, tactical and operational decision models for high-tech capacity management, and (3) take an in-depth look at capacity-optimization models developed in the specific context of semiconductor manufacturing. The goal of this survey is to go beyond typical production-planning and capacity-management literature and to examine research that can potentially broaden capacity-planning research. For instance, we explore the role of option theory and real options in modeling capacity decisions. We not only examine capacity-planning problems from the perspective of a particular firm, but also the interaction of capacity investment among supply chain partners. Not only are these issues increasingly important in the fast-changing high-tech environment, they draw on new tools from different disciplines and pose significant intellectual challenges. We also examine papers that represent the multifaceted nature of high-tech capacity planning, integrating capacity decisions with issues related to contracting, coordination, sourcing, and capacity configurations.     

Understanding the role of marketing-purchasing collaboration in industrial markets: The case of Russia

This study aims to investigate the role of interfunctional collaboration between marketing and purchasing functions in industrial companies. Interfunctional collaboration is considered as a measure of the internal alignment and partnership between departments in the firm, which in turn contributes to the creation of sustainable advantages via improved external partnerships and facilitating demand chain integration. We test the impact of customer orientation as well as the interactions between departments (specifically marketing and purchasing) as collaboration antecedents, and analyze the direct impact of marketing-purchasing collaboration on business performance. The model is tested on a sample of 148 industrial companies in Russia with two key respondents in each firm, incorporating the purchasing as well as the marketing perspective. The results show that marketing-purchasing collaboration mediates the effects of interfunctional interaction as well as customer orientation on business performance. Alternative model testing shows that the direct effects of these antecedent constructs on performance are non-significant in the context of Russian industrial companies.     

Global alliance networks: A comparison of biotech SMEs in Sweden and Australia

The role of networks in business operations is widely recognized. We discuss social network theory, identify its main constituents, and outline a methodology and procedure that enable the identification and valuation of informal networks in an international business-to-business environment. Research is carried on informal Internet networks among firms in the biotechnology industry from Sweden and Australia. We use the methodology to recognize salient nodes, determine prominence and identify structural holes that allow the unveiling of brokerage opportunities that lie latent in networks. Global firms and suppliers of industrial products that are or can position themselves effectively in a social network are in a position to leverage considerable value.     

Achieving success in technology alliances: The Rover-Honda strategic collaboration

Dynamic changes within global markets are creating a need for different strategies for firms in the pursuit of competitive advantage. International technology alliances are one mode of organising the acquisition of competitive technologies which is especially important in technology-intensive industries. However, managers have an especially difficult challenge when trying to deal with problems of high technical risk, frequent changes in technologies, different cultural and managerial styles and perspectives. This article addresses these issues as it examines the planning and implementation of the international technology alliance between Rover and Honda, during the past fourteen years. By most criteria used, this alliance was highly successful, and the article discusses not only the areas of successful technical impact which the alliance had on these companies, but also the insights learned by Rover from the management process of the alliance. It also develops a framework of issues which managers can use to implement and manage international technology alliances.     

Managing in the New World of Manufacturing

It is widely accepted that over two-thirds of the average annual increase in per capita wealth of the United States is attributable to technological change as it becomes embodied in new products, new capital equipment and new production methods. Technological change is the result of research and development (R&;D) carried out by the scientific and engineering communities. Surprisingly, since the first issue of The Engineering Economist appeared in 1966, only one article has addressed R&;D as a public policy issue. Our profession distinguishes itself from that of conventional economists in that we are both economists and technologists. Apropos “going to the next level,” it is time to take a broader view of our professional role. Technology policy is defined as the government's decisions of how and whether to intervene in private R&;D and its provision of funds for public R&;D. This article addresses one instrument of technology policy: the research and experimentation (R&;E) tax credit. Using a traditional engineering economics framework, we evaluate the potential effectiveness of the tax credit in stimulating R&;D. Our general conclusion is that the R&;E tax credit is a weak incentive for stimulating R&;D.     

Managing the Sources of Uncertainty: Matching Process and Context in Software Development

There is increasing interest in the literature about the notion of a contingent approach to product development process design. This interest stems from the realization that different types of projects carried out in different environments are likely to require quite different development processes if they are to be successful. Stated more formally, a contingent view implies that the performance impact of different development practices is likely to be mediated by the context in which those practices operate. This article provides evidence to support such a view. Our work examines whether projects in which the development process matches the context achieve superior performance. We focus on two sources of uncertainty that generate challenges for project teams: platform uncertainty, reflecting the uncertainty generated by the amount of new design work that must be undertaken in a project; and market uncertainty, reflecting the uncertainty faced in determining customer requirements for the product under development. We develop hypotheses for how these sources of uncertainty are likely to influence the relationships between a number of specific development practices and performance. We then test these hypotheses using data from a sample of 29 Internet software development projects. Our results provide evidence to support a contingent view of development process design. We show that in projects facing greater uncertainty, investments in architectural design, early technical feedback, and early market feedback have a stronger association with performance. The latter relationships are influenced by the specific sources from which this uncertainty stems: platform uncertainty mediating the impact of early technical feedback and market uncertainty mediating the impact of early market feedback. Our results also indicate that while greater uncertainty is associated with making later changes to a product's design, this practice is not associated with performance. Our findings suggest that managers carefully must evaluate both the levels and sources of uncertainty facing a project before designing the most appropriate process for its execution. In particular, they should explore the use of specific development practices based upon their usefulness in resolving the specific types of uncertainty faced. Importantly, these decisions must be made at the start of a project, with purposeful investments to create a process that best matches the context. Reacting to uncertainty ex‐post, without such investments in place, is unlikely to prove a successful strategy.     

Managing Flow: A Process Theory of the Knowledge-Based Firm by Ikujiro Nonaka, Ryoko Toyama, and Toru Hirata in collaboration with Susan J. Bigelow, Ayano Hirose, and Florian Kohlbacher

Books reviewed in this issue:

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  Managing Flow: A Process Theory of the Knowledge-Based Firm
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  Strategy, Innovation, and Change: Challenges for Management
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  Marketing Metaphoria: What Deep Metaphors Reveal about the Minds of Consumers

     

In search of confidence: Context,collaboration, and constraints

The development of any field of scientific inquiry involves global scholarly conversations. While we agree with Meyer’s (2006) key tenets, we extend his discussion of Asia management scholars’ need for self-confidence by exploring the role of context, collaboration, and constraints in global scholarly discourse. In particular, we highlight the need for consideration of multi-level context, the development of theories that are good for local stakeholders’ management practice and technology-facilitated and super-institutional collaboration. We illustrate our arguments for the development, legitimization, and institutionalization of Asia Pacific management research with examples from management and other scholarly disciplines in Australia, China, Europe, and North America.