1,721,048 research outputs found
The magnitude of a product recall: offshore outsourcing vs. captive offshoring effects
The escalation in product recalls in recent years is attributed to the rise of globalisation and associated challenges of offshoring. Extant SCM research suggests that product recalls have a significant negative impact on financial performance, but gaps exist relative to the managerial actions to minimise their impact. Recall response strategies have become more important in the press, given that a single recall may result in the mandatory withdrawal of millions of products from the market, with firms incurring enormous logistics costs and brand damage. In this study, we address this gap in the research, and using a measure of product recall defined as the volume of products withdrawn from the market due to product quality failure. We explore the scale of the recall in the context of pharmaceutical sector global sourcing strategies, exploring whether the variation in global sourcing decisions not only increases the likelihood of a recall, but also influences the capability to minimise the total cost of recall. Our results suggest that offshore outsourcing and captive offshoring have opposite effects in terms of their influence on the magnitude of product recall. We summarise the implications through a compelling set of insights for future global sourcing strategy research themes
Change Is Good, But Not Too Much: Dynamic Positioning in the Interfirm Network and New Product Development
This research considers the dynamic positioning of an enterprise in an interfirm network and its propensity for new product development. Specifically, we explore how firms reconcile the dichotomy between central and structural holes network positions, by dynamically shifting from a central to a structural holes position (and vice versa) over time. By grounding this research in network dynamics theory, we argue how prior strong central (structural holes) network positions in the interfirm network increase the likelihood the firm will benefit from structural holes (central) positions in the following time period. We also propose that these positions can be modeled by an inverted U-shaped relationship, which determines the firm's ability to develop new products. Indeed, by balancing central and structural holes positions, firms derive product development advantages from both network positions while reducing the relative drawbacks. However, a risk of such dynamic behavior is that when applied too often, it may prevent firms from assimilating the advantages brought by the two network positions. We test our theoretical framework with a sample of firms from the biopharmaceutical industry over a period of 10 years (2001 until 2010) using two approaches. First, we test the presence of dynamic behaviors using a panel data sample consisting of a network of 3121 firms observed for 10 years (2001–2010). Second, we explore the effect of dynamic behavior on each firm's ability to develop new products using a cross-sectional data sample of 544 public firms belonging to the network of the 3121 firms. Our results suggest that a dynamic perspective employed in reconciling the dichotomy between central and structural holes network positions increases the ability of a firm to develop new products. However, findings also suggest that if firms shift too often from one network position to another, benefits of the dynamic network strategy are diminished
Transitioning additive manufacturing from rapid prototyping to high-volume production: A case study of complex final products
This article seeks answers to the question: what are the key factors that enable the scaling of additive manufacturing (AM) from rapid prototyping to high volume production? Using a longitudinal case study, we collected primary and secondary data to trace the AM scaling journey of AeroCo, a highly innovative aerospace firm. Based on the case findings, we position AM as a whole system technology because it can print components for a wide range of subsystems in a complex final product. Scaling AM requires a significant realignment of existing, and often deeply entrenched, new technology and product development processes. To achieve this alignment, AeroCo formed institutional alliances with the UK government and universities to establish university technology centres, which facilitated early stage ideation and ‘catapult’ centres, which enabled high volume testing in factory-like facilities. The case reveals how multiple functions needed to integrate, including R&D, product design, and future programmes, to ensure that design changes cascaded from one subsystem to another, and that new technologies were linked to a future product to create a final product pull. These findings inform a managerial framework for additive manufacturing scaling that is generalizable to other digital technologies used in the design and production of complex final products, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, smart factories and cyber physical production systems. Our framework contributes to innovation thought and practice by explaining how new product development processes and organizational structures change under the effect of digital technologies.Peer reviewedFinal article publishedadditive manufacturingdigital technologies3D printingcomplex final productsnew technology scalingartificial intelligenc
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Effects of Concurrent Engineering on Make-to-Order Products
A critical evaluation of the research paper: Handfield, Robert B. Effects of Concurrent Engineering on Make-to-Order Products. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. 41 (Nov. 1994)
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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