Collecting Event Histories with TrueTales:Techniques to Improve Autobiographical Recall Problems in Standardized Interviews

This article deals with the challenges autobiographical recall processes present to validity of events and their dates in the collection of life histories in standardized interviews. Effective interviewing techniques should support the idiosyncratic cognitive structure and the reconstructive memory processes of autobiographical memory by allowing to flexibly explore the interconnections between memories. We describe the techniques and strategies of interviewing and data recording used in the German Life History Study, namely modularization, forward recall and single case data edition. We introduce TrueTales, a CATI- Program designed to support memory and communication in the interview, and results of its experimental evaluation. TrueTales personalizes instructions, questions and probes and permits controlled flexibility in dealing with individual biographies and recall strategies. Working with a calendar-based time-line, it yields more complete, consistent and valid event histories. Finally, we discuss implications for standardized interviewing practices and the concept of standardization.     

Measuring productivity of research in economics: A cross-country study using DEA

We measure productivity in leading edge economic research by using data envelopment analysis (DEA) for a sample of 21 countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Publications in ten top journals of economics from 1980 to 1998 are taken as the research output. Inputs are measured by R&D expenditure, the number of universities with economics departments and (as an uncontrollable variable) population. Under constant returns-to-scale, the US emerges as the only efficient country. Under variable returns-to-scale, the efficiency frontier is defined by the US, Ireland and New Zealand. With the exception of the US, all countries in our sample display increasing returns-to-scale, and thus have the potential to raise their efficiency by scaling up their research activities.     

Where process development begins: A multiple case study of front end activities in process firms

The front end phase of the new product development has been examined extensively, yet few if any studies have examined the front end phase of new process development. By means of a multiple case study of process firms, this article aims to bridge this knowledge gap. Our results show that substantial differences in front end activities exist between the product development and process development domains. We conceptualize the front end in process development to be an iterative trial-and-error process, dominated by activities such as idea generation and refinement, literature reviews, anticipation of end-product changes, and various forms of experiments in bench scale, lab scale, and full-scale production. In addition, we highlight key problems in the front end and managerial remedies for how to mitigate them. While these findings provide theoretical implications for research into product development, process development and production management, the findings are particularly relevant to process development managers, plant managers, and development engineers interested in increasing the efficiency of production processes.     

Cross-functional alignment in supply chain planning: A case study of sales and operations planning

In most organizations, supply chain planning is a cross-functional effort. However, functional areas such as sales, marketing, finance, and operations traditionally specialize in portions of the planning activities, which results in conflicts over expectations, preferences, and priorities. We report findings from a detailed case analysis of a supply chain planning process that seemingly weathers these cross-functional conflicts. In contrast to traditional research on this area, which focuses on incentives, responsibilities, and structures, we adopt a process perspective and find that integration was achieved despite formal functional incentives that did not support it. By drawing a distinction between the incentive landscape and the planning process, we identify process as a mediator that can affect organizational outcomes. Thus, organizations may be capable of integration while functions retain different incentives and orientations to maintain focus on their stakeholders’ needs. Through iterative coding, we identify the attributes of the planning process that can drive planning performance—information, procedural, and alignment quality—but also find evidence that achieving alignment in the execution of plans can be more important than informational and procedural quality. In addition to process attributes, we also identify social elements that influenced the performance of the planning process and place the information processing attributes within a broader social and organizational context.     

Exploring external and internal pressures on the environmental behavior of paper enterprises in China: A qualitative study

As one of the typical high‐polluting and high‐energy‐consuming industries in China, the paper industry's environmental behavior has become the focus of a range of stakeholders, policy makers, and the whole society because the industry's business activities are a main source of environmental pollution and contribute to massive energy consumption. This study used a qualitative approach to examine the relative importance of external and internal pressures (EP and IP) in driving the environmental behavior of paper enterprises in China. Based on grounded theory, this study aimed to examine the EP and IP on the environmental behavior of paper enterprises to create a comprehensive theoretical model based on grounded theory code analysis. It was found that government pressure, economic pressure, social pressure, and IP have direct and significant positive effects on the corporate environmental behavior (CEB) of paper enterprises in China. Furthermore, government, economic, and social pressures have indirect and significant positive effects on CEB through other pressures. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of these four pressures and provides policy implications.     

Sharing my way to success: A case study on developing entrepreneurial ventures using social capital in an OSS community

While Open Source Software (OSS) communities provide opportunities for knowledge creation, we have a limited understanding of how entrepreneurs leverage OSS communities for their entrepreneurial ventures. Using social capital theory in a mixed methods case study, we compare entrepreneur and non-entrepreneur behaviors to investigate how entrepreneurs build social capital within an OSS community. This study shows that entrepreneurs differentiate themselves from non-entrepreneurs by focusing on cognitive and relational capital building activities, which in return makes it possible for them to leverage their social capital to influence and shape the environment in which they are operating. Our findings suggest that entrepreneurs strategically select which activities within the community to expend their limited resources on (e.g., developing code over participating in email conversations) and build their social capital more through their actions than through their words (e.g., showing their commitment to the community through code commits, bug fixes, and documentation). Given the liabilities of newness and smallness as well as other challenges faced by entrepreneurs, applying an open innovation strategy in OSS communities could be one approach where entrepreneurs, by developing and freely revealing their intellectual property to the community, share their way to success via OSS-infused entrepreneurial business ventures.     

Work transformation and the HR ecosystem dynamics: A longitudinal case study of HRM disruption in the era of the 4th industrial revolution

Disruption in human resource management (HRM) practices necessitates processes of mutual adjustment within the organization that seeks to address these changes properly, overcome tensions, and fit strategic needs. In our single longitudinal case study of a new HRM practice development concerning blue-collar worker talent management, we examine how HR professionals and managers interact and develop new HRM practices as a response to disruptive work transformation. Considering these interactions from the perspective of HR ecosystem alignment dynamics, we find that both managers and HR professionals engaged in fruitful collaboration processes along three differentiated steps to provide value for the whole organization. We propose a grounded theorizing of HR ecosystem alignment that is based on the progression of successive convergent and divergent phases and introducing collaborative spaces of work.     

The development and application of a process model for R&D project management in a high tech firm: A field study

In R&;D organizations of high tech firms, multiple R&;D projects are executed concurrently and timeliness of project completion - i.e., developing the right products at the right times - is a matter of serious concern. Given that the priority of R&;D projects and the interdependencies between the projects in a high tech firm change dynamically, high tech R&;D project management is a complex and challenging endeavor. To improve the understanding and management of high tech R&;D projects, this paper reports the findings of a field study where we, first, develop and empirically estimate a model that relates project priority over time with the generative mechanisms of market pull and technical challenge associated with R&;D projects. Next, we develop and demonstrate the application of a process model within which the time-varying project priority model is embedded. The process model makes it possible to allocate fixed resources among competing projects with time-varying interdependencies, thereby improving the timeliness of project completion. This research was conducted in collaboration with a major U.S. high tech firm. The corporate R&;D center of the firm served as the research setting for the field study. We present an application of the process model to delineate the evolution of the R&;D organization with the merger of its (technology driven) parent firm with another (market driven) high tech manufacturing firm. The application of the process model generates theoretical insights that are used to develop testable propositions. Implications of the study findings and directions for future research are discussed.