Information Technology Tools in New Product Development: The Impact of Complementary Resources*,†

Emergent research has examined the antecedents to using information technology (IT) in the new product development (NPD) process and the impact of IT on NPD performance. Based on the resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm, this study hypothesizes that particular resources create IT capabilities that significantly enhance NPD outcomes. More specifically, this research extends previous work by investigating whether three complementary resources, namely an executive champion for IT, global engagement, and organizational innovativeness, influence IT capabilities (IT use frequency and IT replacement frequency), which in turn affect NPD outcomes (NPD task proficiency and NPD performance). To test the conceptual model, survey data were collected from 220 NPD and IT managers in a variety of large Japanese firms. The results show that an executive champion for IT and global engagement are predictors of both IT tool use and replacement frequency while organizational innovativeness contributes only to IT tool replacement frequency. The results also indicate that both IT tool use and replacement frequency have a positive effect on NPD task proficiency, which improves NPD performance. This research contributes to the literature by adding understanding of the role of IT in NPD at the firm level in four ways. First, it examines particular organizational complementary resources and their relationship to IT capabilities. Second, it examines the RBV and IT in the context of NPD, an important business process. Third, it measures IT usage in a more granular fashion (i.e., IT tool use frequency and IT replacement frequency) rather than simply IT usage as a dichotomy. Finally, through testing the proposed model with data collected from Japanese firms, this study provides empirical evidence from an Asian country to answer the call for more NPD research to be conducted in countries other than North American and Western European contexts. The findings of the study also provide implications for managers. Importantly, they indicate that an executive level champion for IT is a key influencer in facilitating IT usage and replacement, and likely can help generate awareness of and support for greater IT investments so the firm can create IT capabilities for effective NPD.     

Revenue management for make-to-order manufacturing systems with a real-life application

Abstract

Due to successful applications of revenue management in the airline industry, in recent years, there has been a growing interest to adopt revenue management in make-to-order (MTO) manufacturing systems. Several interrelated decision problems such as order acceptance/rejection, short-term capacity planning, due date assignment, and order scheduling need to be studied simultaneously in order to manage revenues effectively in MTO manufacturing systems. Both the producer’s and customer’s requirements need to be taken into account through some negotiation mechanisms that are sensitive to the service-level reputation of the manufacturing companies. In this article, we propose a new dynamic bid price–based revenue management model that considers all of the aforementioned decision problems simultaneously. A simulation optimization approach is utilized in order to determine the best possible values of control parameters for bid price, due date assignment, and price increment/reduction mechanisms. The performance of the proposed integrated revenue management model is tested on both a hypothetical example and a real problem of a bridal gown company. The computational results show that the proposed model provides significant improvements in total revenue compared to other static and dynamic bid price policies.     

Career success schemas and their contextual embeddedness: A comparative configurational perspective

We introduce career success schemas as critical for understanding how people in different contexts perceive and understand career success. Using a comparative configurational approach, we show, in a study of 13 countries, that two structural characteristics of career success schemas—complexity and convergence—differ across country contexts and are embedded in specific configurations of institutional factors. Adopting complexity and convergence as primary dimensions, we propose a taxonomy of career success schemas at the country level. Based on this taxonomy, we contribute to the understanding of subjective career success across countries, discuss the importance of schemas for organisational career systems in multinational enterprises, and propose specific guidelines for future comparative careers research.     

Order anticipation around predictable trades

I study the presence of order anticipation strategies by examining predictable patterns in large order trades. I construct three simple signals based on child-order execution patterns and find empirical evidence that stronger signals are correlated with higher execution costs. I use the SEC's (Securities and Exchange Commission's) ban on unfiltered access and increase in noise trading as shocks to order anticipatory activities of algorithmic traders and find that the price impact of predictability is smaller when order anticipation becomes difficult. The empirical findings are mostly consistent with the back-running theory that predicts delayed price impact as strategic traders learn about large orders gradually.     

基业常青的关键:创新力与控制力的统一

现有理论对基业常青的贡献与缺陷，传统管理学中控制职能对创新的不适应性剖析，借用力学原理提出的创新力有效控制的三要素和控制系统创新五要素模型架构。结论：创新力与控制力的均衡统一是基业常青的关键。     

Strategies and boundaries: Subcontracting in construction

A central concern in studying organization environment relationships has been the issue of how boundaries of organizational activity are defined and altered. A specific organizational response that pertains to the issue of boundaries is subcontracting. Construction is one industry where subcontracting is used extensively. Eccles' (1981a) study shows, however, that there is great variation in the subcontracting practices of contractors. This paper reports an exploratory study on the possible determinants of the extent of subcontracting by the construction firm.     

International Evidence on Risk Taking by Banks Around the Global Financial Crisis

This study models the risks of commercial banks from the United States and developed, emerging, and frontier countries while controlling for bank- and country-specific variables within a panel framework. Bank risk is measured by both the traditional Z-score and a composite bank risk index proposed by the authors. The findings suggest that even though the riskiness of all banks from different country groups increased following the financial crisis, the magnitude of the change is not the same across groups. During the post-crisis period, banks in developed, emerging, and frontier countries experienced a smaller increase in their risk compared to their counterparts in the United States. This article provides support for the claim that banks in emerging and frontier countries have experienced the effects of the financial crisis to a lesser extent compared to those in the United States.     

Impact of ICT on the productivity of the firm: evidence from Turkish manufacturing

This paper aims to explore the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on labor productivity growth in Turkish manufacturing. This is the first attempt at exploring the impact of ICT on productivity in Turkish manufacturing at the firm level. The analysis is based on firm level data obtained from Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) and covers the period from 2003 to 2012. The data used in the analysis includes all firms employing 19+ workers in Turkish manufacturing industry. Growth accounting results show that the contributions of conventional and ICT capital to value added growth are not significantly different from each other. On the other hand, results based both on static (fixed-effects) and dynamic panel data analysis highlight the positive influence on firms’ productivity exerted by ICT capital. The findings show that the impact of ICT capital on productivity is larger by about 25 to 50% than that of conventional capital. This contribution of ICT capital is higher than that of non-ICT capital for small sized and low-tech firms. Our findings imply that investing in ICT capital increases firm productivity by increasing the productivity of labor and also that convention growth accounting approaches may not be adequate to identify such linkages.     

Macroeconomic Drivers of Loan Quality in Turkey

We analyze the drivers of nonperforming loans in the Turkish banking system after the 2000–01 Turkish banking crisis. By constructing a vector autoregression model, we perform dynamic out-of-sample forecasts, which yield quite accurate results compared to the actual data. Since forecasting is a very crucial tool for both policy makers and market players, these results are some of the main strengths and contributions of this study. This article shows various patterns between the economic and financial indicators and the nonperforming loans. One important message obtained from the results is that policy makers should be concerned about the status of the economy and the market expectations to maintain stability in the banking system.     

Overcoming the psychological barriers to energy conservation behaviour: The influence of objective and subjective environmental knowledge

Energy conservation is a crucial aspect of responsible consumption which is the reflection of individual efforts for sustainability. However, especially young consumers are reluctant to reduce their energy consumption despite their pro‐environmental attitudes. Resistance to behavioural change can be attributed to various psychological barriers that help consumer to avoid engaging in pro‐environmental actions. In this context, the first aim of the study is to extend the theoretical and empirical evidence regarding impeding effects of psychological barriers on individual energy conservation behaviour. Secondly, the study investigates the alleviating role of environmental knowledge on those barriers that limit energy conservation. Proposed impeding effects of objective and subjective environmental knowledge on various denial mechanisms, which are in turn expected to hinder energy conservation, were tested using the survey data collected from young Turkish consumers. Results suggest that denial mechanisms hinder young consumers’ energy conservation behaviour indirectly through diminishing feelings of moral obligations. Moreover, it was found that objective environmental knowledge's effect can be used to break down the psychological barriers and to facilitate the change towards more sustainable energy consumption patterns. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.