Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons^™

Enhancing Dyadic Performance Through Boundary Spanners And Innovation: An Assessment Of Service Provider–Customer Relationships, Scott J. Grawe, Patricia J. Daughterty, Peter M. Ralston

Peter Ralston

Firms recognize that working together through collaborative relationships offers potential benefits such as improving cooperation, information sharing, and overall performance. An additional and extremely valuable benefit of working together is the potential for creating innovative business approaches and solutions. Thus, developing external linkages has become a higher priority within many organizations. Boundary spanning employees offer one means of achieving closer cross‐firm relationships. We investigate the roles of boundary spanners by examining service providers and their relationships with customers. More specifically, we examine boundary spanning employees that are physically on‐site at customer facilities. Results provide strong support that boundary spanners perceiving …

Intra-Organizational Communication, Understanding, And Process Diffusion In Logistics Service Providers, Scott J. Grawe, Peter M. Ralston

Peter Ralston

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate, using survey data, how a firm may be able to leverage innovation or processes specifically developed for one customer across its entire customer network using onsite, or implanted, employees.

Design/methodology/approach – Data collected from a survey of 309 implanted logistics service provider (LSP) representatives are analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Findings – The findings show that intra-organizational task interdependence and face-to-face communication can lead to a greater understanding of firm processes developed for specific customers and greater diffusion of these new processes to other customers. Rather than separating customers that …

Impact Of Life-Cycle Costs Threshold Criteria In The Alternate Design Pavement Bidding Practices Of Public Transportation Agencies, Ilker Karaca, Douglas Gransberg, Ashley F. Buss

Ilker Karaca

This paper proposes a model that enables Department of Transportation (DOT) policy makers to quantify the expected volume of projects that will qualify for letting in their alternate design/alternate bid (ADAB) pavement bidding programs. Current guidance on alternate bidding recommends a fixed percentage as the life cycle cost (LCC) threshold criterion to determine whether pavement selection decisions should be made through ADAB bidding practices. The paper’s analysis shows that the fixed LCC threshold percentage approach may have considerable shortcomings. Instead, a dynamic threshold value is proposed that can subsequently be calibrated by agencies, based on the desired size of their …

Factor Market Myopia: A Driver Of Factor Market Revalry, Peter Ralston, Steven Lemay, Rose Opengart

Peter Ralston

The New Panama Canal In A Global Context, Herman L. Boschken

Herman L. Boschken

Without the "container revolution" (1970-present) and its redesign of seaport and maritime-trade infrastructures, globalization as we know it would not exist. With the recent enlargements of the Panama and Suez Canals, many new implications for U.S. economic trade are unfolding. This presentation at the Commonwealth Club of California, outlines recent changes in world trade and infrastructure development, and poses five factors that will likely determine winners and losers in the unfolding developments of this highly competitive world trade-route system.

Humanitarian Logistics Network Design For An Effective Disaster Response, Soumia Ichoua

Soumia Ichoua

In this paper we address the problem of pre-positioning emergency supplies prior to a disaster onset. The goal is to ensure a fast and effective response when the disaster strikes. Pre-positioning of emergency supplies is a strategic decision aimed at determining the number and location of local distribution centers as well as their inventory levels for emergency supplies. These decisions must be made in a highly disruption-prone environment where a timely response is vital and resources are scarce. We present and discuss a scenario-based model that integrates location, inventory and routing decisions.

Green Freight Asia (C): The Road Ahead, Jason Woodard, Christopher Dula

C. Jason Woodard

Green Freight Asia is a three-part case series featured in the 2014 APEX Business-IT Global Case Challenge. The case is best used for group projects or workshop assignments concerning business-IT related topics. In this case, students take on the role of a small firm pitching to collaborate with GFA on an IT solution partnership to support GFA’s programme for the adoption of green freight practices in the Asia Pacific region. The case could also be adapted for classroom facilitation with adequate preparation.

Green Freight Asia (C): The Road Ahead is the third and final part of the case series. It …

Green Freight Asia (A): Driving The Adoption Of Sustainable Supply Chain Practices, Jason Woodard, Christopher Dula

C. Jason Woodard

Green Freight Asia is a three-part case series featured in the 2014 APEX Business-IT Global Case Challenge. The case is best used for group projects or workshop assignments concerning business-IT related topics. In this case, students take on the role of a small firm pitching to collaborate with GFA on an IT solution partnership to support GFA’s programme for the adoption of green freight practices in the Asia Pacific region. The case could also be adapted for classroom facilitation with adequate preparation. The first part, Green Freight Asia (A): Driving the Adoption of Sustainable Supply Chain Practices, chronicles the formation …

Green Freight Asia (B): Navigating Toward A Successful Partnership, Jason Woodard, Christopher Dula

C. Jason Woodard

Green Freight Asia is a three-part case series featured in the 2014 APEX Business-IT Global Case Challenge. The case is best used for group projects or workshop assignments concerning business-IT related topics. In this case, students take on the role of a small firm pitching to collaborate with GFA on an IT solution partnership to support GFA’s programme for the adoption of green freight practices in the Asia Pacific region. The case could also be adapted for classroom facilitation with adequate preparation. The second part, Green Freight Asia (B): Navigating Toward A Successful Partnership, explores how a collaborative partnership between …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

Innovation, Proximity, And Knowledge Gatekeepers –Is Proximity A Necessity For Learning And Innovation?, Deogratias Harorimana Dr

Dr Deogratias Harorimana

Organisational desire for innovation and growth can be best achieved when they are in proximity. Geographical or technological proximity represent network structure in which a focal organisation is embedded, which has structural, cognitive and relational dimensions. Proximity influences innovation indirectly by its influence on agents’ ability to exchange and combine knowledge in four related ways: by giving access to exchange partners that provide opportunities for learning, increasing the anticipation of value, increasing the motivation to exchange, and by giving access to resources necessary for committing exchanges.

Победители И Проигравшие: Производство В Странах С Быстроразвивающимися Рынками, Bryane Michael

Брайн Майкл

Какое влияние на быстроразвивающиеся рынки окажут новые технологии производства, такие как трехмерная (3D) печать? При подготовке данного исследования мы пришли к выводу, что в странах, подобных Индии, вероятно, суммарное такое влияние будет положительным. Китай на очередном подъеме производства почти наверняка окажет- ся в проигрыше. Страны с высокими доходами и страны-члены ОЭСР (в особенности Германия, США и Япония), скорее всего, продолжат производить дорогостоящие товары. Такие страны, где рабочая сила обладает высокой квалификацией, а экономика ориенти- рована на сферу услуг, смогут быстро среагировать на развитие аддитивного производ- ства. Данный вид производства, или «печатание» продуктов, разрушит прежний подход к конкуренции затрат и экономическому …

What Is Strategy?, Steven Slezak

Steven Slezak

A presentation outlining the nature of strategy, emphasizing its paradoxical nature, describing its structure, and describing competitive advantage and the value chain.

Sustainability And Innovation In The Business Enterprise, Chris D. Bellamy

Dr. Chris D. Bellamy

Sustainable entrepreneurs apply innovation that often intersects social, economical and environmental management theory. This paper identifies eight current research articles (published within the past five years) that identifies four major innovations or new technologies that demonstrate how sustainable entrepreneurs use roadmaps for future sustainable development. The research articles are used to define and describe each major innovation. The four techniques are ranked from 1-4, with 1 being the most important. The ranking are justified with reference to the research articles.

Strategic Planning Of Seaport Development In A Global Economy: Observations Of An Executive Port Director, Herman L. Boschken

Herman L. Boschken

Seaport management is central both to the use of coastal resources and to the needs of a global economy. As a major point of supply-chain activity along the coast and as a source of pollution, ports need to be administered strategically to provide the greatest benefit according to economic and environmental demands. This article is an annotated conversation that provides a practitioner's insight into the management of change along the coastal zone. To address the problem, we probe organization theory for new insight and attempt to apply concepts to practice.