Business Commons^™

Revitalizing Ethiopia's Manufacturing Enterprises Through The Japanese Production Management Strategy, Asayehgn Desta

Asayehgn Desta

Global Delivery Models: The Role Of Talent, Speed And Time Zones In The Global Outsourcing Industry, Stephan Manning, Marcus Larsen, Pratyush Bharati

Pratyush Bharati

We investigate antecedents and contingencies of location configurations supporting global delivery models (GDMs) in global outsourcing. GDMs are a new form of IT-enabled client-specific investment promoting services provision integration with clients by exploiting client proximity and time-zone spread allowing for 24/7 service delivery and access to resources. Based on comprehensive data we show that providers are likely to establish GDM configurations when clients value access to globally distributed talent pools and speed of service delivery, and in particular when services are highly commoditized. Findings imply that coordination across time zones increasingly affects international operations in business-to-business and born-global industries.

Satisfaction With Airline Service Quality: Familiarity Breeds Contempt, Tamilla Curtis, Dawna Rhoades, Blaise Waguespack

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

The objective of this study is to investigate frequency-of-flight issues and the differences between frequent and non-frequent flyers’ levels of satisfaction and the importance attributed to overall airline service quality and select attributes. The results indicate that the level of satisfaction with overall airline quality and select attributes decrease the more passengers fly. Conversely, the level of importance attributed to airline amenities increased with flight frequency. Perceptions of airline quality may vary between different nationalities and different socioeconomic groups. Differences between the short- and long-haul flights, as well as domestic and international services could also exist. Airline managers need to …

Regional Jet Aircraft Competitiveness: Challenges And Opportunities, Tamilla Curtis, Dawna Rhoades, Blaise Waguespack

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

The regional jet aircraft is a unique market niche. Particularly suitable for providing capacity in the 30 to 90 seat range, these jets are often used to connect smaller airports to network carrier hubs, as well as to fill in during slow periods. The market is currently dominated by two manufacturers: Brazil's Embraer and Canada's Bombardier. Due to the nature of the global aircraft industry, Embraer and Bombardier are largely dependent on the international sale of their aircraft for steady revenue streams. Orders and deliveries of aircraft with fewer than 100 seats have grown rapidly over the past ten years. …

How High Will Russian Aviation Fly?, Tamilla Curtis, Irina Swenson

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

The study provides the historical context of the Russian aviation industry reflecting the periods of its growth and decline. It reveals the competitive advantage strategies that have been implemented by the Russian government in an attempt to revivify an enfeebled nation's aeronautic industry. The paper discusses the newly formed Joint Stock Company (JSC) United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and its strategies to break into global markets, including UAC innovative product offerings. Whether or not, the recent efforts of the Russian government serve as a fulcrum for the Russian aviation industry that will leverage Russia into the global market, remains to be …

Crm In Russia And U.S. -- Case Study From American Financial Service Industry, Tamilla Curtis, Tom Griffin, Donald Barrere

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

This paper discusses Customer Relationship Management in two sharply contrasting business cultures: the United States and Russia. Included in the present work is a case study of a midsized American financial services firm that illustrates a common path to the decision to have a CRM system: the planning, selection, and the implementation of the CRM program, including a discussion of the likelihood of success. The clients in this case are Financial Advisors, who in turn sell the investment products to the end user individual investors. CRM in Russia is yet in its infancy as the economy emerges from 200 years …

Corporate Brand Management In Higher Education: The Case Of Erau, Tamilla Curtis, Russell Abratt, William Minor

Dr. Tamilla Curtis

There is evidence in the literature that organizations struggle to formulate and implement their corporate branding strategies. This paper aims to provide an overview of the corporate brand building process in higher education. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative methodology was used in this study. A single case study of a private American university was used to gather information about their corporate brand building process. University administrators and documents were used to gain insights into their brand building process. Findings – The corporate brand building process addressed three key areas; web administration, program marketing and corporate brand positioning. The corporate brand building …

Joint Sector Review Assessment, Ghana, Advancing Mutual Accountability Through Comprehensive, Inclusive, And Technically Robust Review And Dialogue, Samuel Asuming-Brempong, Stephen Frimpong

Stephen Frimpong

In any sector, policy dialogue is a critical component to efficient and harmonious policymaking and implementation. A joint sector review (JSR) is an annual review of the sector to identify where challenges are preventing coherent dialogue. In Ghana, the first agriculture JSR was instituted in 2008 with the goal of reaching a common point- of- view among key sector stakeholders on important achievements in the preceding year. Stakeholders include the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA); development partners (DPs); other ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs), the private sector, and civil society. In addition, the JSR seeks to review key remaining …

Using Strategic Partnerships To Create A Sustainable Competitive Position For Hi-Tech Start-Up Firms, Arnoud De Meyer

Arnoud DE MEYER

In most cases these companies chose or were forced to engage in a technology partnership in order to develop and survive. As one would expect, some of these partnerships succeeded whilst others failed. With hindsight it occurred to the author that success or failure was not necessarily a random event, or idiosyncratic to one particular company, but that there seemed to be a pattern. Some partnerships failed because they were a strategic misfit, others probably because they were badly implemented. Based on these clinical case studies, The author addresses these questions: when and under what conditions a partnership is needed; …

Technology Strategy And China's Technology Capacity Building, Arnoud De Meyer

Arnoud DE MEYER

China has the potential to become a major source of innovation for the world. The scientific investment is in place and rapidly growing. But in order to reap the benefits of this investment its organisations will have to become better at managing innovation. One of the key elements of innovation management is the determination and implementation of a sound technology strategy. The purpose of this paper is to offer a framework and a detailed overview of what it entails to develop and implement a technology strategy. The paper emphasizes the alignment of the strategy with the organisational competencies and the …

Interpreting And Responding To Strategic Issues: The Impact Of National Culture, Susan C. Schneider, Arnoud De Meyer

Arnoud DE MEYER

Perceptions of environmental uncertainty and organizational control influence strategic behavior. As national culture influences these perceptions we expect to find cultural differences in interpretation and response to strategic issues. Given a case describing an issue concerning deregulation of the U.S. banking industry, managers completed questionnaires rating interpretations and responses to that issue. National culture was found to influence interpretation and responses. In particular, Latin European managers when compared with other managers were more likely to interpret the issue as a crisis and as a threat. Latin Europeans were also more likely to recommend proactive behavior. This study indicates that different …

Ecosystem Advantage: How To Successfully Harness The Power Of Partners, Peter James Williamson, Arnoud De Meyer

Arnoud DE MEYER

Changes in the global environment are generating opportunities for companies to build advantage by creating loosely coupled networks or ecosystems. Ecosystems are larger, more diverse, and more fluid than a traditional set of bilateral partnerships or complementors. By leveraging ecosystems, companies can deliver complex solutions while maintaining corporate focus. This article describes six keys to unlock ecosystem advantage: pinpointing where value is created, defining an architecture of differentiated partner roles, stimulating complementary partner investments, reducing the transaction costs, facilitating joint learning across the network, and engineering effective ways to capture profit.

‘Campus Connect’: An Infosys Program To Develop India’S Information Technology Ecosystem, Arnoud De Meyer, Peter Williamson, Havovi Joshi, Christopher Dula

Arnoud De Meyer

This case is set in April 2013, and discusses the key elements that have contributed to the success of Infosys Ltd’s Campus Connect Program (CC) in developing India’s IT talent over the past eight years. The CC programme had been developed by Infosys in response to a growing belief among India’s IT industry majors that the large number of fresh graduates they were looking to recruit from engineering colleges were neither readily employable nor sufficiently industry-ready. The programme was envisaged to address this problem through an industry-academia initiative that would architect the education experience of engineering students. The goal was …

Encompass: Creating Innovation In Broadcast, Everyday, Arnoud De Meyer, Anne-Valerie Ohlsson-Corboz

Arnoud DE MEYER

Headquartered in the United States, Encompass Digital Media provides digital media services through its broadcasting facilities in the United States, the United Kingdom and Asia. Encompass delivers tailor-made solutions for the management and distribution of content, including a diversified range of TV content, as well as live sports events for companies such as ESPN, IMG, Star Sports and Sony Entertainment.

Encompass Digital Media (Asia) began its operations in Singapore in 2009. By 2012, the company had captured over 50 per cent of the market for outsourced Digital Playout services in Asia. While manpower costs were significantly higher than in China, …

Competitive And Harmonised R&D Policies For International R&D Alliances Involving Asymmetric Firms, Rodney Falvey, Khemarat Teerasuwannajak

Rodney Falvey

We examine research and development (R&D) policies when a national firm forms an R&D alliance with a foreign competitor. Firms differ in their R&D capabilities, and adopt a profit-sharing rule when R&D decisions are coordinated. National R&D tax/subsidy policies are set independently or harmonized. When firms coordinate their R&D decisions and governments choose R&D policies independently, R&D taxes are chosen. But there is no intervention if policies are harmonized. These policy outcomes affect the types of R&D alliance choosen. Agreements to share R&D information may be preferred to those combining coordination of R&D decisions and information sharing because of the …

Sentosa (C): Advancing Sentosa’S Strategy Through Integrated Customer Engagement, Jason Woodard, Kevin Sproule

C. Jason Woodard

This case is the third part of a three-part series on the Sentosa Leisure Group based in Singapore. The three cases focus on: Case (A) – Marketing / Analytics Case (B) – IT solution design Case (C) – Long-term strategy Sentosa (C): After successfully answering the ‘big’ questions like how to drive Sentosa’s core revenue and designing a new IT platform, students are asked to tie it all together. How can their learning be used to chart a strategy for the Sentosa Leisure Group? How can they realise the aggressive revenue and profit goals set forward by the board? In …

Coping With Growth Transitions: The Case Of Chinese Family Businesses In Singapore, Wee-Liang Tan, Siew Tong Fock

Wee Liang TAN

Families control more than half of the corporations in East Asia. The contribution of family businesses to Asia's economic growth is predicated upon successfully growing their businesses. Many family businesses in East Asia, spanning countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia, are Chinese owned and managed. Some claim that these businesses will never develop into full-fledged multinational enterprises because of their cultural heritage (Redding, 1990). However, some Chinese family businesses have successfully made the transition.This paper presents an in-depth study of five Chinese family businesses in Singapore that have successfully made the transition in growth and size …

Blackness And Governance, Fred Moten, Stefano Harney

Stephen Matthias Harney

No abstract provided.

The Culture Of Management, Stefano Harney

Stephen Matthias Harney

From filo faxes to palm pilots; from cell phones to laptops; from spreadsheets to online banking, many of us try to make the most of our day, to not waste any time, to maximize our efficiency. These are the hallmarks of time, financial, and information management. More and more we find ourselves managing our time, health, finances, careers and families. We are all managers now. In The Culture of Management, Stefano Harney investigates how the principles of management now shape our lives, both individually and collectively. Ironically, as we embrace the tools of management in our personal lives, as workers …

Migrating To The Cloud: Pepperdine Libraries At Web Scale, Michael Dula, Gan Ye

Gan Ye

No abstract provided.

Interlocks And Firm Performance: The Role Of Uncertainty In The Directorate Interlock-Performance Relationship, Geoffrey P. Martin Dr, Remzi Gozubuyuk Dr, Manuel Becerra Dr

Geoffrey P Martin

Socioemotional Wealth As A Mixed Gamble: Revisiting Family Firm R&D Investments With The Behavioral Agency Model, Luis R. Gomez-Mejia Dr, Joanna Campbell Dr, Geoffrey P. Martin Dr, Marianna Makri Dr, David Sirmon Dr, Robert Hoskisson Dr

Geoffrey P Martin

Theoretical explanations for family firm under-investment in R&D relative to non-family firms remain nascent. We revisit this question using a refinement to the behavioral agency model (BAM) – the mixed gamble – that allows us to examine the socioemotional trade-offs that R&D represents for the family firm and how this differentiates their R&D investment decision from non-family firms. We do so in an empirical context where R&D investment is of greatest importance – high technology industries. Moreover, we examine three contingencies that allow us to explore heterogeneity across family firms in their R&D decisions due to their effect upon the …

Theories For Competitive Advantage, Hui-Ling Wang

Hui-Ling Wang

Introduction Competitive advantage is obtained when an organisation develops or acquires a set of attributes (or executes actions) that allow it to outperform its competitors. The development of theories that help explain competitive advantage has occupied the attention of the management community for the better part of half a century. This chapter aims to provide an overview of the key theories in this space. The overview will span a long timeline, starting from the 1960s to formulations that were introduced in mid-2013. In the early period, there were two dominant theories of competitive advantage: the Market-Based View (MBV) and the …

Institution Building In Nascent Markets: Lessons From The Carbon Offset Market, Hans Rawhouser, Brandon Lee

Brandon Lee

In order to compete in nascent markets, an infrastructure of institutions that support economic exchange needs to be built in order. Little is known about whether and to what extent benefits accrue to firms that help develop a nascent market’s institutional infrastructure. To address this gap in the literature, we argue that involvement in building the regulative institutions in a new market—one form of participation on institutional building—helps a firm to build a reputation for as a leader in the market with a firm’s stakeholders. We argue that firms with reputations that are more established and more positive are benefit …

Technology Licensing In A Differentiated Oligopoly, Aniruddha Bagchi, Arijit Mukherjee

Aniruddha Bagchi

Corporate Social Responsibility In A Remedy-Seeking Society: A Public Choice Perspective, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

Written for the Chapman Law Review Symposium on “What Can Law & Economics Teach Us About the Corporate Social Responsibility Debate?,” this Article applies the lessons of public choice theory to examine corporate social responsibility. The Article adopts a broad definition of corporate social responsibility activism to include both (1) those efforts that seek to convince corporations to voluntarily take into account corporate social responsibility in their own decision-making, and (2) the efforts to alter the legal landscape and expand legal obligations of corporations beyond traditional notions of harm and duty so as to force corporations to invest in interests …

Editorial For Dynamics Of Innovation And Competitive Strategy In Transportation Research, Janet K. Tinoco

Janet K. Tinoco

No abstract provided.

The Practice Of Scenario Planning: An Analysis Of Inter- And Intra- Organizational Strategizing, Gary Bowman, Ryan Parks

Gary Bowman

Strategic activity is often punctuated through the application of strategy tools. Despite widespread use, opacity surrounds how these tools shape the strategy process. We examine the application and effect of a scenario planning process at an inter- and intra-organizational level. We use a longitudinal case study to demonstrate the importance of sensemaking in strategizing activity at the inter-organizational level. We also demonstrate the relative weakness of the scenario narrative as a boundary object capable of transferring knowledge to the intra-organizational level. Through empirical and theoretical integration we develop a model depicting the flow of knowledge in inter- and intra-organizational strategizing.

Possible Futures, Present Logics: A Neo-Institutional View Of The Scenario Planning Process, Gary Bowman, Ryan Parks

Gary Bowman

This paper integrates work on institutional logics with that of sensemaking in the context of the scenario planning process. We explore the influence of three societal-level institutional logic struggles, as manifested within the context, content and process of a large public sector organization’s scenario development exercise. We view this as a significant opportunity to employ institutional logics to enhance our understanding of the political nature of public policy development and as an opportunity to challenge the assumptions of scenario planning as a strategy tool. Conversely, we also use the sensemaking-sensegiving activities of scenario planning to identify occasions where institutional logics …

Strategic Management For Economic Development: Remaking The Singapore 'Model', Caroline Yeoh, Wilfred Pow Ngee How

Caroline Yeoh

The dynamics of international economic competition have far-reaching policy implications for both developing and developed countries. Established industrial and trade policy regimes in most countries are under tremendous strain, and this applies even to the dynamic Newly Industrialising Economies (NIEs). The outward-oriented development strategies of the Asian NIEs, which once seemed unbeatable, have run up against protectionist barriers in the developed countries, and increasingly, against competitive pressures from other up and coming developing countries. Governments in these NIEs have had to re-examine accustomed policies and strategies, and search for alternative strategies and programs, in order to re-position their economies for …