Production flow analysis—Cases from manufacturing and service industry

Production flow analysis (PFA) is a well-established methodology used for transforming traditional functional layout into product-oriented layout. The method uses part routings to find natural clusters of workstations forming production cells able to complete parts and components swiftly with simplified material flow. Once implemented, the scheduling system is based on period batch control aiming to establish fixed planning, production and delivery cycles for the whole production unit. PFA is traditionally applied to job-shops with functional layouts, and after reorganization within groups lead times reduce, quality improves and motivation among personnel improves. Several papers have documented this, yet no research has studied its application to service operations management. This paper aims to show that PFA can well be applied not only to job-shop and assembly operations, but also to back-office and service processes with real cases. The cases clearly show that PFA reduces non-value adding operations, introduces flow by evening out bottlenecks and diminishes process variability, all of which contribute to efficient operations management.     

Brands: Just for consumers? Introduction to the special issue on B2B branding

Although there is significant interest in branding in a B2C context substantially less research has been conducted in B2B marketing. The research in B2B marketing is somewhat fragmented and a research agenda to develop coherent models and provide guidance to practitioners is required. Despite the disjointed nature of the research in this area, B2B branding has been found to convey a number of benefits e.g. conferring uniqueness. This special issue consists of eleven papers covering a range of topics including brand alliances, brand personality, brand equity and brand relationships, brand identity, corporate branding and social media.     

Introduction to the Special Issue on “The Intersection Between Industrial Organization and Healthcare Economics”

This article introduces the special issue on the intersection between industrial organization and healthcare economics. This intersection has received increasing research interest, growing from 2% of the industrial-organization literature in 1991 to 6% in 2016. We describe the nine included articles, which cover a range of healthcare markets that include hospital services, insurance, and pharmaceuticals.     

The value of branding for B2B service firms—The shareholders' perspective

Increasingly fierce competition in many B2B service industries led managers to seek a competitive advantage through branding, as many firms operating in B2C markets have done. Although advertising spending in B2B service industries has soared and branding could be relevant for customers' purchase decisions, the distinct characteristics of B2B service transactions can make the creation of brand equity challenging. Conceptual arguments thus both support and question the net financial value of B2B service brands and, since empirical research on that value is missing, managers are left with no agreed upon and validated guidance. Drawing on observations of the brands and shareholder values of 380 U.S.-based public B2B service firms, this study introduces a shareholder perspective to empirically examine the financial value of B2B service brands. Results reveal that B2B service brands have positive value to shareholders. However, the extent of that value depends on a firm's branding strategy (corporate branding vs. multi-branding) in conjunction with the type of services offered (professional services vs. other B2B services) but not in conjunction with the breadth of services offered (degree of diversification). This research provides new insights for researchers and managers with regard to B2B service brands' value and important contingency factors.     

Economies as an Antitrust Defense: The Welfare Tradeoffs—Introduction to the Special Issue

Review of Industrial Organization - This special issue is occasioned by the 50th anniversary of the publication of Williamson’s (Am Econ Rev 58:18–36, 1968a) seminal analysis of the...     

The effect of ‘can do’ and ‘reason to’ motivations on service–sales ambidexterity

Salespersons are increasingly expected to explore cross-/up-selling opportunities while simultaneously fulfilling customer service requests; an activity known as service–sales ambidexterity. Engaging simultaneously in these seemingly conflicting tasks may pose self-regulatory and motivational challenges for salespersons. Drawing from regulatory mode and self-determination theories, this study argues that salespersons' engagement in service–sales ambidexterity is driven by the ‘can do’ motivations of locomotion and assessment orientations, and the ‘reason to’ motivations of enjoyment of work and driven to work. This study contributes to the new literature stream on service–sales ambidexterity by testing a model that integrates the two behavioral motivation explanations. Results indicate that service–sales ambidexterity is jointly determined by the ‘can do’ and the ‘reason to’ motivations, both directly and through their interactions. The study offers new theoretical and managerial implications on ambidexterity at the individual level of analysis.     

Every cloud has a silver lining — Exploring the dark side of value co-creation in B2B service networks

This research explores the dark side of value co-creation (VCC) in B2B service networks. Whilst VCC is attracting a great deal of academic attention and a number of studies have highlighted the benefits of VCC, researchers often fail to consider the potentially negative consequences of VCC, especially in the context of business networks. This study explores the negative aspects associated with VCC in advertising service networks and identifies role conflicts and ambiguity, opportunism and power plays on the dark side of VCC. Tensions created by role conflicts during VCC interactions are highlighted. Also sharing of responsibilities during VCC can result in managers having a lack of clarity about what is expected of them, leading to role ambiguity and misunderstandings between firms. Managers engaging in VCC display weak-form opportunistic behaviors. These softer forms of opportunism are found to be tolerated and almost expected within long-term relationships. This research suggests that the exertion of power often shapes VCC activities within the advertising service network. Power plays are used as a means to mobilize appropriate resources and to influence network actors to adhere to value co-creation objectives. The presence of role conflicts, role ambiguity, opportunistic behaviors and power plays indicate that there is indeed a dark side to VCC that is currently omitted from existing VCC frameworks. A further contribution of our study is to highlight that a bright-dark dichotomy does not fully describe the complexity of VCC in B2B service networks and we show how the dark side may lead to positive outcomes.     

The influence of intellectual capital on organizational performance—Knowledge management as moderator

The main objective of this study is to explain the global performance of firms from an intellectual capital perspective. Samples were selected from a list of the top 1,000 Taiwanese companies using a type of purposive sampling. The selection criteria required sample companies to be located in Taiwan and to compete globally. This study collected 146 valid questionnaires from 146 companies. The results confirm that intellectual capital is positively associated with a firm’s global performance. The results also confirm a moderating effect of knowledge management strategy on the relationship between intellectual capital and global performance. These results imply that a combination of the right type of knowledge management strategy with the right form of intellectual capital will enhance a firm’s performance, although neither the technology-centered nor the people-centered approach should be overused.     

Empirical Research of the Indemnificatory Housing Community Facility Management——A Case Study on X Community of Guangdong

保障性住房小区的社区管理是社会管理的重要组成部分.以广东省较早建设的保障性住房社区X小区为例,调查了社区物业管理现状,发现物业管理公司存在服务质量差、居民对服务满意度低;业主委员会缺乏监督、内讧严重等问题.在此基础上,从物业公司、业主委员会、住户等方面分析了问题的深层次原因.最后提出建立政府主导、居民参与、业委会负责、物业管理公司提供服务、物业管理监督委员会监督的保障性住房小区物业管理新模式,并辅以建立多维度的物业服务评价考核制度保证服务水平.     

Business Establishment with Good Faith,Innovation and Development——Paper on Maidilang Group Co., Ltd.

After ten years of deploitation and enterprising, ten years of efforts, and ten years of manoeuvring among various political groupings, Maidilang has started from a small family factory of over RMB30,000, finally grown into a group company with total assets     

The Industrial Advantage Revolution——Reconstruction and Upgrading in Sild Industry——The Third Series of Reports on Shengzhou:Building the Global Silk Industrial Cluster

Due to the increasing price of raw material,the appreciation of RMB and the change in draw- back tax policy,the tie producing industry of Shengzhou has met a new crossroad after 20 years’ development.The Shengzhou government is researching in the prospective development of tie industry,and has decided to implement the"Silk Expanding Project",whose goal is to form a silk industry base of China and even the world basing on the tie industry and other related textile industry.     

Empirical Evidence on the Success of R&;D Cooperation—Happy Together?

In this paper we analyse the effect of past R&D cooperation on current firms’ innovation performance. Success measures are: sales of innovative products, distinguishing between products new to the firm and new to the market, and cost reductions due to innovative processes. Particular attention is paid to the impact of different cooperation partners. The analysis rests on firm-level data of the annual German innovation survey. We find that R&D cooperation with competitors leads to greater cost reductions that are attributable to innovative processes. R&D cooperation with research institutes has a positive influence on a firm’s economic success with market novelties.      

Blind date? Intermediaries as matchmakers on the way to start-up—industry coopetition

This article explores intermediaries as a missing link in initiating coopetition between established industry firms and start-ups. Research establishes that partner search and compatibility are critical success factors from the very beginning of coopetition. As many relationships fail owing to the absence of partner fit, knowledge on facing the challenge at this early stage is highly relevant. By applying a network perspective, we propose that intermediaries can bridge partners and hence overcome this initial hurdle. Based on a case study of an intermediary high-tech incubator, we examine the triad of start-ups, incubator, and established industry firms. Findings show how the involvement of an intermediary can facilitate the initiation of coopetition. The key contribution is an inductive model illustrating the interaction of the dimensions of incubator-initiated start-up–industry coopetition. We highlight an incubator's quality filter function evolving from bridging matchmaker and initial broker and demonstrate the added value to the initial partner search and compatibility. We enrich coopetition with network theory and provide implications on how incubators can provide an important foundation for establishing coopetition between start-ups and industry firms.     

The Effect of Human Capital on the Income Level of Construction Workers——A Case Study of Nantong Construction Firms

为了研究建筑行业的人力资本状况,建立明瑟工资方程,采用最小二乘法( OLS)和分位数法(Quantile Regression)进行回归分析.结果显示:建筑工人的教育、经验、培训和年龄的回报率分别为1.37％、4.66％,11.76％和-0.34％,教育的回报率不明显,年龄对收入增长有副作用,培训对促进建筑工人收入增加的作用最显著.另外,建筑行业人力资本变量存在歧视外来务工者和“马太效应”等不公平现象.     

The impact of sustainable public procurement on supplier management — The case of French public hospitals

In the public sector, procurement managers are now required to comply with new sustainable regulations and to look for suppliers able to provide a sustainable offering. Stating that contracts can only frame part of the interaction and that parties often turn to more negotiated agreements, we investigate whether sustainable expectations within public hospitals could impact supplier management and imply rearrangements between public buyers and private providers. Data were collected from fifteen French hospitals through semi-structured interviews. Findings first highlight the sustainable expectations of public buyers from global key providers, and, second, that sustainable procurement does impact the relationship by creating new rules. Building on these results, managerial implications are suggested.