Aligning ERP systems with companies’ real needs: an ‘Operational Model Based’ method

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems offer standard functionalities that have to be configured and customised by a specific company depending on its own requirements. A consistent alignment is therefore an essential success factor of ERP projects. To manage this alignment, an ‘Operational Model Based’ method is proposed. It is based on the design and the matching of models, and conforms to the modelling views and constructs of the ISO 19439 and 19440 enterprise-modelling standards. It is characterised by: (1) a predefined design and matching order of the models; (2) the formalisation, in terms of modelling constructs, of alignment and misalignment situations; and (3) their association with a set of decisions in order to mitigate the misalignment risk. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of the alignment management during ERP projects is given. Unlike existing methods, this one includes decisions related to the organisational changes an ERP system can induce, as well as criteria on which the best decision can be based. In this way, it provides effective support and guidance to companies implementing ERP systems, as the alignment process is detailed and structured. The method is applied on the ERP project of a Small and Medium Enterprise, showing that it can be used even in contexts where the ERP project expertise level is low.     

Why does not everybody purchase fair trade products? The question of the fairness of fair trade products' consumption for consumers1

Current statistics show that more than three out of four people in France have heard about fair trade. However, fair trade goods are purchased in significantly higher proportions by executive class people, individuals with a postgraduate education, urban dwellers and high‐income earners. Why does not everybody purchase fair trade products? An important question follows: is fair trade not really fair for consumers? This paper seeks to gain deeper insight into what social features give rise to the consumption of fair trade goods using quantitative and qualitative data to verify the reasons for which fair trade goods are consumed by particular groups in society. It shows that the lack of access to information and financial resources can explain consumers' refusal to purchase fair trade products. But this explanation is incomplete, as the meaning given by consumers to their consumption appears to be a key‐factor to understand their behaviour: refusing to buy fair trade goods can be a deliberate choice.     

New Networks of Technological Creation in Energy Industries: Reassessment of the Roles of Equipment Suppliers and Operators

Energy industry companies have succeeded in maintaining and even increasing their production of knowledge during the last 15 years (1985/1998) within a financial context of reducing their in-house R&D expenditures. To understand these apparently paradoxical changes, elements of analysis are sought within an evolutionary framework, and especially referring to the related developments to network-firms, user-supplier relationships, and interactive nature of innovation processes. Empirical data are provided on patents granted to a sample of the top 15 world largest companies, both operators and equipment suppliers, and for the oil production and power generation industries. Interpretation of the results suggests that two dynamics ought to be distinguished. On the one side, dynamics of the networks of technological creation are characterized by a movement upstream of the head of the network towards suppliers. On the other side networks of creation of competitive advantages and bargaining power continue to be based on the operators and their strategies of adaptation to the constraints and opportunities of their institutional, financial and competitive environment.     

Utterly fresh perspectives on consumer research and advertising: Introducing the special issue from the 2013 La Londe conference

This article provides an overview of the papers from the 40th La Londe Marketing Communications and Consumer Behavior Conference that were selected for this special issue of the Journal of Business Research. The La Londe conference is a biennial event that attracts top researchers from across the world. A small and selective conference, its intimacy combined with high-quality presentations serves as an incubator for new ideas and fresh perspectives on consumer research, and does so through an international lens that is reflected in the diversity of countries represented on the conference program, the co-chairs of the conference, and the La Londe Conference Scientific Committee.     

RISKY PRODUCTION WITH EX-ANTE PRICES UNDER MONOPOLY ANALYTICAL AND SIMULATION RESULTS

This paper concerns the case of a monopolist facing multiplicative uncertainty in demand. Karlin and Carr (1962), henceforth KC, show that, when price and production are both chosen ex ante , the uncertainty price exceeds the certainty price. They also give a sufficient condition under which the firm locates above the certainty demand curve, but they do not consider the effect on the output level. In this note we replicate the KC results and then go further. In the special case that the price elasticity of certainty demand is constant, and the probability distribution for the uncertainty parameter in the demand function is uniform, output is unambiguously lower under uncertainty, and KC's condition for the firm to locate above the certainty demand curve can be strengthened to one that is both necessary and sufficient. The robustness of these results is tested under less stringent assumptions on demand, abandoning symmetry for a lognormal distribution of the uncertainty parameter. Simulation confirms that the results hold up, and also determines the effects upon the firm's decisions of an increase in demand uncertainty.