1,721,041 research outputs found
Work intensification and employee involvement in lean production: new light on a classic dilemma
No full textMitigating resource dependence on internet visibility providers: Exploring complementarity effects in the positioning of small hotels on online intermediaries
Full text linkBy integrating a resource dependence perspective with a complementarity view, this article investigates how online visibility affects the performance of hotels, through user-generated reviews and their presence on Internet portals. Our core argument is that when firms have gained a positive reputation from user-generated reviews, they should reduce their asymmetric dependence on Internet portals. Using a unique panel dataset of 276 small and medium-sized hotels from 2012 to 2014, we have found that good online visibility and the presence on multiple Internet portals are complementary conditions for the profitability of a hotel, and that the impact on profitability, due to the number of Internet portals on which firms are visible, is negative in the case of a poor reputation and leads to diminishing marginal returns in the case of a positive reputation
The impact of IT–business strategic alignment on firm performance: The evolving role of IT in industries
Full text linkThis study proposes and validates a new industry taxonomy to understand the use of IT that generates superior economic returns based on the specific economic and competitive characteristics of four different industry types and the strategic role of IT in each of these industry environments. Our findings extend the well-established industry taxonomy on the strategic role of IT (Automate, Informate, Transform) by considering how IT is changing the nature of the product/service in industries where transformational logics prevail. We found that in industries where the product/service is digital in nature, the firms that achieve higher economic returns are those where IT is used to support dual strategies based on the integration of cost leadership and differentiation. Conversely, in other industries - with the exception of those producing commodities - the firms that achieve superior returns are those that use IT to support differentiation. The results of this study can help managers make intelligent decisions about competitive strategies and IT investments, depending on the business environment of the sector in which the firm operates and the generative potential of emerging technologies to do new things
Closing the middle-skills gap widened by digitalization: how technical universities can contribute through Challenge-Based Learning
Full text linkThe digitalization of operations is disrupting frontline technical jobs, entailing new competency needs currently not being met by upper secondary education and corporate training programs. To discuss how technical universities can help bridge the resulting “middle-skills gap” without incurring an unwarranted academization of these professions, a two-cycle participatory action research was conducted within the empirical setting of a leading Italian electric-power distribution company. First, an in-depth case study investigated how the advent of smart grids is transforming the work of frontline operation and maintenance workers. Second, a Challenge-Based-Learning intervention was co-designed according to the emerging competency gaps, and tested with two classes involved in the company’s school-based apprenticeship program. The findings contribute to literatures on knowledge creation and transformation by academics, and on developmental universities, respectively: technical universities can design effective challenge-based programs thanks to state-of-the-art laboratories, multidisciplinary research, diverse teaching domains, and a stimulating environment; moreover, they can transfer these innovative research-based teaching methods and restore the socio-economic attractiveness of technical schools and professions, thus playing a developmental role in the middle-skills gap issue. A major policy implication that emerges is the – rather urgent – need to foster initiatives aimed at a deeper integration between upper secondary and higher education systems
Digitalising products: Towards an integrated view of challenges in development, design and user acceptance
No full textMaking products smarter and connected through digital technologies requires firms to combine a product-oriented logic with a service logic. The challenges of such a combination are manifold and we have just begun understanding how firms should deal with these challenges. The papers included in this special issue have recalled the attention on the importance of horizontal integration mechanisms in the product development process and of a balanced managerial attention on the product and the service-side of innovation. In the same way, a crucial role in determining the market success of smart connected products is played by design decisions aimed at increasing the level of usefulness and efficiency of smart connected products compared to established solutions. This requires firms' attention not only on the design choices for product functionalities, but also on the capability to influence the institutional framework (i.e., the sets of meanings, values, and managerial principles) that affects how products are used
Algorithms for operational decision-making: An absorptive capacity perspective on the process of converting data into relevant knowledge
Full text linkThe organisational mechanisms through which algorithms can be exploited in the process of converting data into relevant knowledge for operational decision-making have not yet been fully investigated from an absorptive capacity perspective. Previous studies underlined a rise in new digital specialised roles, but they said little about how the organisational knowledge and structures should be redesigned to take advantage of these data-rich operational environments. In this article, we present the findings of a case study on the way algorithms can be exploited in the electrical sector to shed light on these issues. We then develop a framework to theorise how the organisational mechanisms associated with absorptive capacity influence the way algorithms can be exploited to convert data into relevant knowledge for operational decision-making. Our emerging framework reveals that to convert data into relevant knowledge for operational decision-making, the involvement of line employees and liaison roles are required to introduce system-level knowledge that algorithms are able to capture less effectively. Additionally, more formalisation is needed in operational work to ensure the quality of the data that feed such algorithms. Finally, socialisation tactics facilitate the convergence between the knowledge produced from algorithms and the experiential knowledge of line employees
When culture meets digital platforms: Value creation and stakeholders’ alignment in big data use
Full text linkResearch on big data has highlighted that a crucial element to create value from data is the capability of aligning different stakeholders’ interests. However, it has not yet been investigated empirically how this process of alignment can be realized. We conduct a multiple case study on the two leading platforms involved in the online dissemination of cultural heritage – Europeana and Google Arts & Culture. Our findings reveal that a platform overtakes a rival one when it turns on multiple drivers of value creation in such a way that the drivers contribute to realigning the interests expressed by the stakeholders whose strategic objectives and beliefs were formerly divergent – or simply unrelated – to each other. This capability of realigning different stakeholders’ interests is independent of the level of industry-specific knowledge that the platform orchestrator has. The dynamics we document imply that Google has assumed a system integration role in the cultural ecosystem. This generates new trade-offs for museums in the way they generate value for the tourism industry. The paper enriches our understanding of what strategies digital platforms adopt to create value in big data contexts and provides a base to continue the investigation on other ecosystems driven by big data
How to Measure the Et-Et (Continuous Innovation) Construct. Comparative Analysis of Measures and New Measurement Proposal
No full textAlthough there is broad agreement that ambidexterity somehow relates to the simultaneous pursuit of exploratory and exploitative activities, there exists a lack of conceptual clarity regarding the extent to which ambidexterity concerns matching the magnitude (BD) of exploration and exploitation on a relative basis, or concerns the combined magnitude (CD) of both activities. This fragmentation has inspired different operationalization of the construct and limited its usefulness both for scholar and practitioners since interpretations, comparisons and analysis between cross studies or researches become more difficult. The paper proposes and tests an alternative measure of ambidexterity, which attempts to simultaneously and explicitly include in an overall index both the combined (CD) and the balanced dimension (BD)
Organizing for External Knowledge Search. A Study on Search Practices and Innovation Performance
No full textDesigning flexible work practices for job satisfaction: the relation between job characteristics and work disaggregation in different types of work arrangements
Full text linkThe literature on flexible work practices has not yet evaluated in detail how the characteristics of a job affect job satisfaction. This study makes a distinction between two types of flexible work practices according to their aims: the accommodation of employees' personal lives (employment practice) and the operational reasons of a firm (work practice). Based on this distinction, we studied how the characteristics of a job, which reflect the use of ICT to support the spatial disaggregation of business processes, influence the relationship between the two types of flexible work practices and job satisfaction. We show, through a survey conducted on 987 workers, that the characteristics of a job that favour work disaggregation positively moderate the influence of flexible work as a work practice on job satisfaction, but they do not moderate the influence of flexible work as an employment practice. The implications for managers, workers and scholars are discussed
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