Competitive advantage through service differentiation by manufacturing companies

This paper examines the relationship among the complexity of customer needs, customer centricity, innovativeness, service differentiation, and business performance within the context of companies that have made a service transition from pure goods providers to service providers. A survey of 332 manufacturing companies provides the basis for the empirical investigation. One key finding is that a strong emphasis on service differentiation can lead to a manufacturing firm's strategies for customer centricity being less sensitive to increasingly complex customer needs, which can increase a firm's payoff for customer centricity. In contrast, the payoff from innovativeness appears to be higher if the firm focuses its resources on either product or service innovation; that is, a dual focus does not work well. This paper discusses the implications of these findings for researchers and managers.     

Residual affective commitment to organizations: Concept,causes and consequences

Research on affective organizational commitment has largely been conceptually restricted by the temporal boundaries of organizational membership, while only few authors have addressed how individuals may commit to an organization before becoming members. Given that individual careers increasingly span across a greater number of organizations, this restriction limits our ability to capture how employees experience their workplaces throughout their careers. Addressing this gap, this article contributes to the literature on affective commitment by arguing that individuals may remain affectively committed to an organization after having left it. We extend the temporal structure of affective commitment beyond separation by introducing the concept of residual affective commitment, and present a model of how such commitment is formed. We elucidate the interplay between residual and current affective commitment, complementing research on organizational newcomers. Finally, we open up new avenues for research by discussing theoretical consequences of the introduction of residual commitment.     

Organizational Moral Learning: What,If Anything,Do Corporations Learn from NGO Critique?

While organizational learning literature has generated significant insight into the effective and efficient achievement of organizational goals as well as to the modus of learning, it is currently unable to describe moral learning processes in organizations consistently. Corporations need to learn morally if they want to deal effectively with stakeholders criticizing their conduct. Nongovernmental organizations do not ask corporations to be more effective or efficient in what they do, but to become more responsible or to learn morally. Current research on the moral aspect of organizational learning has been primarily of a theoretical nature and is in need of empirical verification. Results of a longitudinal case study as Citigroup’s conflict with the Rainforest Action Network show that current organizational moral learning theories do not fit the moral learning path observed at Citigroup. More empirical research is needed to describe organizational moral learning.     

Relationales innovationsmanagement — oder: Innovationen entwickeln heißt Lernen verstehen

Zusammenfassung  Bislang hat sich die wissenschaftliche Diskussion über Innovationsmanagement eher um die Bedingungen zur Weiterentwicklung von Technik gekümmert und die dafür traditionellen M?glichkeiten der Entwicklung untersucht. Der Aufsatz rückt die eigentlichen Produktionsbedingungen von Innovationen, die Wahrnehmungsmuster und Handlungsstrukturen der Organisationen in den Mittelpunkt. Es wird gezeigt, dass mit systemtheoretischen Analysen ein neues Verst?ndnis der Entwicklungsbedingungen von Innovationen m?glich ist. Die Theorie der Selbstorganisation erm?glicht dabei Einblicke in die emergenten Wege der Komplexit?tsbew?ltigung. Die Kongitionswissenschaften und der Konstruktivismus geben Hinweise auf die sehr unterschiedliche Wahrnehmungs-, Entscheidungs- und Kommunikationsformen. Anschlie?end werden die Voraussetzungen skizziert, unter denen Innovationsmanagement heute betrachtet werden kann, und im letzten Teil des Textes werden geeignete Hinweise für die Umsetzung in die Praxis gegeben. Hierbei stehen die Betrachtung der Prozesse auf Basis des so genannten Solution Cycle und die strukturelle Organisation im Mittelpunkt. “Der vernünftige Mensch passt sich der Welt an, der Unvernünftige versucht beharrlich, die Welt sich anzupassen. Deshalb h?ngt aller Fortschritt vom Unvernünftigen ab.” (George Bernard Shaw) Prof. Dr. Gustav Bergmann lehrt systemisches Marketing an der Universit?t Siegen. Er verfügt darüber hinaus über intensive Praxiserfahrung als Unternehmer, Berater und Trainer. Der Autor engagiert sich besonders in der Entwicklung des systemischen Management- und Marketing Ansatzes. Seine Forschungsbereiche sind Erfolgsfaktorenforschung: empirische und theoretische Erfassung von Grundmustern erfolgreichen Managements (Best Patterns) unter der Zielsetzung Vitalit?t des Systems (Existenzsicherung, Weiterentwicklung), Prozessmanagement in sozialen Systemen und Ableitung „vitalisierender“ Interventionsformen. Er hat mehrj?hrige Weiterbildungen absolviert, die sich mit Organisationsentwicklung (Prozessmanagement, Interventionsformen) und Schlüsselkompetenzen (Soft Skills) besch?ftigten. Jürgen Daub, M. A., studierte Soziologie, Philosophie und Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Er arbeitet freiberuflich als Soziologie in den Feldern systemische Organisationsentwicklung, Lernen, Kompetenz- und Kulturentwicklung in Unternehmen. Ebenso geh?ren industrie-, arbeits-, betriebs- und organisations-soziologische Fragestellungen zu seinen Arbeitsfeldem. Jürgen Daub hat langj?hrige praktische Erfahrung in der Beratungsarbeit mit Unternehmen sowie in den Arbeitsgebieten der qualitativen Sozialforschung. Sein Hauptaugenmerk liegt auf der Verknüpfung von grundlegenden Erkenntnissen und praktischer Anwendung.     

An investigation of the relationship between behavioral processes, motivation, investments in the service business and service revenue

Despite the established benefits of services in manufacturing companies, very few managers are motivated to invest resources in extending the service business. On the basis of a combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches, we illustrate that managers cannot be easily motivated. Managerial motivation to extend the service business in manufacturing companies is more like a process that must grow organically. To do so, managers have to overcome some of the typical behavioral processes of manufacturing companies. In greater detail, we explore how the disbelief in the financial opportunities of services risk aversion in exploiting strategic opportunities, setting overambitious objectives and an overemphasis on obvious causalities limit managerial motivation to extend the service business. If manufacturing companies can overcome these behavioral processes, the managerial motivation will increase, leading to more investments in the service business and thus enhancing service revenue and overall profitability.     

The new protectionism and the Third World

Although there is general agreement on the fact that the new protectionism of the industrialised countries is damaging to developing countries, the majority of the latter show hardly any interest in a return to the classical GATT system. Prof. Körner provides an explanation for this apparently paradoxical attitude on which be bases his case for a reform of the existing system of international trade.