bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Exploring management control in radical innovation projects
Authors: Chiesa Vittorio , Frattini Federico , Lamberti Lucio , Noci Giuliano 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThis paper seeks to endorse the management control system taxonomy by Robert Simons to explore whether, how and why different approaches to management control are more intensely employed: in different phases of the radical innovation process; and in innovation projects showing different degrees of radicalness. Moreover, it aims to discuss the influence exerted by some contextual variables.Design/methodology/approachCase studies concerning four innovation projects (two radical in nature and two incremental) implemented by two companies operating in the home automation industry in Italy were conducted.FindingsIt is found that radical innovation projects, especially in the early stages of development, are characterized by a stronger reliance on flexible and social control management systems, while diagnostic control mainly emerges in late development and commercialization. Moreover, the moderating effect of the hypothesized contingent variables is widely discussed.Research limitations/implicationsThe work shows that Simons' taxonomy of the management control systems is a useful framework for exploring management control in radical projects at a strategic level, but also that it should be refined, as evidence shows a systematic hybridization of the systems adopted. An important implication is the great reliance on interactive systems, especially in the early stages. In this perspective, a deeper analysis on the nature and the proper management of interactivity could represent an interesting development of this study.Practical implicationsThe recurrent features in the two cases provide practitioners with a useful benchmark about management control of radical innovation projects in two successful companies. Case histories suggest the great importance of information sharing among the functions, and the need to properly develop interface structures between the involved functions to favor it in radical innovation processes.Originality/valueThe paper is one of the first works on management control in radical innovation projects, and it contributes to the literature debate in two main ways: it tests Simons' taxonomy of management control systems for innovation projects, and it highlights the areas of improvement for analyzing “radicalness” in innovation processes.
Product innovation in small manufacturers, market orientation and the industry's five competitive forces
Authors: Hernández‐Espallardo Miguel , Delgado‐Ballester Elena 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study whether the effectiveness of innovation in improving a firm's performance varies in different competitive situations and to analyze whether the competitive forces act as a motivator or as an inhibitor.Design/methodology/approachThe paper formulates some hypotheses from the literature review. These hypotheses are tested using structural equation modelling with data collected from 218 manufacturers.FindingsThe findings show that small firms must invest in innovation preferably when competitive forces are more intense. Moreover it is found the positive role that market orientation plays in promoting innovation and performance, no matter the level of the competitive forces.Research limitations/implicationsA decision had to be taken on the range of concepts and the domain used for measuring each concept. For future research the paper suggests considering different types of innovations (e.g. incremental vs radical) to get a more precise explanation of the set of relationships considered in this research.Practical implicationsSMEs have to use product innovation in accordance with their competitive situation. When competitive pressure is low, SMEs should be cautious about exaggerating investments on product innovation, whereas investments in other type of market oriented behaviours could be more productive. On the other hand, firms should focus on innovations based on market orientation when the competitive forces expose them to a harsh environment.Originality/valueThis paper provides a clarification of the reasons that may be behind a positive, a negative, or a non‐significant moderating effect of the firm's competitive forces on the market orientation‐product innovation relationship in small manufacturers.
Implementation of strategic green orientation in supply chain
Authors: Hong Paul , Kwon He‐Boong , Jungbae Roh James 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a research model that defines the inter‐relationships between strategic green orientation, integrated product development, supply chain coordination, green performance outcomes and business unit performance. This paper aims to address innovation issues by integrating strategic orientation, internal business practices, supply chain coordination, and performance outcomes measures.Design/methodology/approachThe international data of 711 firms accessed through the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS IV) are used to validate this model.FindingsA firm's strategic green orientation involves past green practices, implementation of innovative environment improvement program and future commitment for environmental practices. This strategic green orientation is supported by a set of inter‐organizational innovation practices such as integrated product development practices, effective coordination of supply chain network and relevant and measurable performance outcomes.Originality/valueThe model, variables, empirical tests and results in this paper suggest a new understanding about strategic green orientation and its relationships with product development practices and supply chain coordination. The framework is intended both to explicitly inform senior executives of the importance of inter‐organizational innovation practices such as strategic green orientation in terms of past, present and future practices as well as to the factors that effectively implement such strategic direction and commitment. It is also intended to provide a lens with which further research can be directed to enhance environmental reputation and outcomes of firms through new product development practices and supply chain network coordination and the sustainable long‐term competitive advantages of the firms.
Weblogs for market research: finding more relevant opinion documents using system fusion
Authors: Osman Deanna , Yearwood John , Vamplew Peter 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the usefulness of fusion as a means of improving the precision of automated opinion detection.Design/methodology/approachFive system fusion methods are proposed and tested using runs submitted by the Text REtrieval Conference (TREC) Blog06 participants as input. The methods include a voting method, an inverse rank method (IRM), a linear‐normalised score method and two weighted methods that use a weighted IRM score to rank the document.FindingsMean average precision (MAP) is used as an indicator of the performance of the runs in this study. The best system fusion method achieves a 55.5 percent higher MAP result compared with the highest MAP result of any individual run submitted by the Blog06 participants. This equates to an increase in detection of 2,398 relevant opinion documents (21 percent).Practical implicationsSystem fusion can be used to improve upon the results achieved by existing individual opinion detection systems. On the other hand, multiple opinion detection approaches can be combined into one system and fusion used to combine the results to build in diversity. Diversity within fusion inputs can increase the improvements achieved by fusion methods. The improved output from a diverse opinion detection system will then contain a higher number of relevant documents and reduce the incidence of high‐ranking non‐relevant documents and low‐ranking relevant documents.Originality/valueThe fusion methods proposed in this study demonstrate that simple fusion of opinion detection systems can improve performance.
An examination of social tagging interface features and functionalities
Authors: Shiri Ali 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report on a comparative and analytical examination of ten social tagging systems' interfaces and their features and functionalities. The specific objective of the study was to examine the ways in which the user interfaces of social tagging systems encourage and provide users with features to assign, explore, browse and make use of tags during their interaction with social tagging sites.Design/methodology/approachThe user interface features and functionalities of ten social tagging sites (six social bookmarking and four social media sharing sites) are examined. A categorisation of tag‐related features is developed for analysis. The sites are selected based on such criteria as popularity, variety of site type, and inclusion of tagging features and content type.FindingsThe findings of this study show that there is an emerging interface design paradigm with respect to social tagging sites that reflects a particular focus on exploratory search and browsing features and services. Some of the key areas discussed are: user tagging features; exploratory and tag browsing features; and interface layout.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study of the user interface features of social tagging sites provide a comprehensive picture of the possible and potential features that can be incorporated into new social tagging systems. Based on the evidence found in the examined social tagging interfaces, recommendations are made on the design of tag posting, tag use, tag browsing, tag lists and tag clouds. The design recommendations offer ideas for the development of more sophisticated exploratory and interactive user interfaces for social tagging systems.Originality/valueThis is the first paper that reports on a comparative and exploratory examination of social tagging user interface features and functionalities.
Examining the robustness of web co‐link analysis
Authors: Vaughan Liwen , Tang Juan , Du Jian 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the robustness of web co‐link analysis for business intelligence.Design/methodology/approachThe method is tested in two different Chinese industries, the electronics/IT industry and the chemical industry. Web co‐link data are collected in two different time periods from a different search engine in each period. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) is used to map the co‐link data into business competition positions.FindingsWeb co‐link analysis is fairly robust in that the mapping results reflect fairly well the business competition landscape for both industries and in both time periods. The mapping results are better when the data collection is restricted to Chinese language webpages only. The study also finds that the Chinese webpages are very consumer‐oriented, a phenomenon that is not seen in previous studies of international companies.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the understanding of the robustness and applicability of the co‐link analysis method. The method is useful for business intelligence and can also be applied to the non‐business environment. The paper also contributes to the understanding of a specific Chinese web phenomenon.
Framework for a generic work breakdown structure for building projects
Authors: Makarfi Ibrahim Yahaya , Kaka Ammar , Aouad Ghassan , Kagioglou Mike 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for the standardisation of the work breakdown structure (WBS) for building projects. This is based on the premise that buildings in general retain basic elemental options, and that there is a commonality of activities in the procurement of building projects.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the objective, the general practice of developing the WBS is investigated. This is achieved by means of an industry‐wide questionnaire survey designed to identify the most widely used criteria among UK construction organisations in segregating building works into packages. The survey also investigates the sequencing of these criteria across the WBS hierarchy.FindingsThe findings reveal that the most frequently used decomposition criteria in the formulation of WBS for building projects are elements, work sections, physical location and construction aids. The proposed framework is presented as a hierarchical decomposition of a building project based on these criteria. It allows for flexibility in level of detail while maintaining a rigid sequencing of the criteria based on their frequency of use.Originality/valueThis paper reports on a specific part of an EPSRC funded project that aims to investigate the application of computer vision techniques to the on‐site measurement of construction progress. The part reported in this paper addresses planning issues that will lead to automatic generation of work packages. Previous studies have focused on automating the planning aspect by associating individual components with schedule information. However, large construction projects usually consist of thousands of components. Planning and tracking progress at the level of the component is unrealistic in these instances. The standardisation framework reported in this paper will form the basis for automating the formulation of work packages, thus providing a uniform basis for tracking progress (based on computer vision) during project execution.
Extended GIS for construction engineering by adding direct sunlight visualisations on buildings
Authors: Bansal Vijay K. , Pal Mahesh 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe applications of geographic information systems (GIS) are described in the civil engineering literature for generation, visualisation and evaluation of the construction schedule. GIS use is also explored for construction quantity takeoffs and cost estimation. The purpose of this paper is to supplement the already explored capabilities of GIS in construction by providing the methodology for direct sunlight visualisation on buildings.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed methodology for direct sunlight visualisation is to calculate the solar angles and use them for spatial distribution representation of the amount of sunlight received on different faces of a building by rendering it with the colour of varied gradients. The colour gradient on any face of a building depends upon the amount of direct sunlight received. The solar gain is demonstrated through the multi‐dimensional data visualisation like sun angle variations with diurnal and annual cycles in a navigable 3D animation.FindingsGIS‐based methodology provides the planner a way to control the natural lighting and solar gain on a building which can be combined with the project schedule, quantity takeoffs, cost estimate and 4D visualisation in a single environment. Beginning with this idea, the planner may store and share information about a construction project, site and surrounding geography.Originality/valueMost of the existing 4D CAD technologies do not have project management capabilities and are used mainly for the planning and design stage of a construction project. In comparison, GIS‐based tools may be used in different stages. These are more management‐based and allow more collaborative and cooperative relationships between designer, constructor and client. By using a GIS‐based approach, construction documents like schedules, drawings, quantity takeoffs, cost estimates, project specifications and direct sunlight visualisations are more consistent with each other.
Validation of an empirical model for innovation diffusion in Australian design firms
Authors: Panuwatwanich Kriengsak , Stewart Rodney A. , Mohamed Sherif 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe paper is an extension to a previous empirical study that models the process of innovation diffusion in Australian architectural and engineering design (AED) firms. This paper aims to utilise explanatory case studies to assist in the verification of this empirical model that depicts pathways that explain the role of enabling “climate for innovation” constructs in determining the level of innovation diffusion outcomes (IDO), and subsequent business performance (BPM) in Australian AED firms.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents the latter of a two‐stage sequential mixed method research design: quantitative empirical study; and qualitative explanatory case studies. Specifically, this stage extracts findings from five explanatory case studies using a qualitative pattern matching analysis technique. Interview‐based data collected from the case studies are analysed to formulate the relationship patterns between constructs, which are then compared with those predicted by the empirical model. This approach affords a determination on the extent to which the case‐based findings (i.e. work‐setting phenomena) explains (i.e. validated) the empirical model.FindingsThe results of the case studies on five Australian AED firms indicate that the model can be adequately explained by the actual phenomena. This is evident in four of the cases providing a good to perfect match, and one showing a partial match to the predicted patterns of relationships between the model constructs. Thus, the paper presents verified empirical pathways for AED firms, which suggest that, by increasing the level of leadership for innovation, the level of team climate and organisational culture for innovation can be improved. The improved culture for innovation will then heighten the level of IDO, which can in turn, result in an enhanced BPM.Originality/valueThis paper expands and improves upon the current understanding of how the diffusion of innovation can be accelerated within the AED firm context. By focusing on the socio‐psychological processes, the paper depicts the pathways to improve IDO and BPM through fostering a robust climate for innovation. These pathways have been constructed empirically and are verified in this paper under real‐work settings. Based on the validated model and the specific insights derived from the explanatory case studies, the paper also highlights a number of strategic implications for AED firms seeking to enhance their BPM through improving innovation diffusion practices.
Sell‐offs, internal capital markets, and long run performance: Canadian evidence
Authors: Francoeur Claude , Niyubahwe Alain 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe paper's aim is to analyze excess returns generated by Canadian sell‐offs and their links to changes in firms' internal capital allocation efficiency to test the efficiency of internal capital markets after assets divestitures.Design/methodology/approachThis study investigates the relationship between the level of the excess returns subsequent to sell‐offs and changes in the capital allocated through internal capital markets. The authors measure excess returns by calculating buy‐and‐hold abnormal (BHAR) returns up to three years after divestitures and test whether changes in value are related to changes in investment efficiency. The paper uses the relative value added by allocation (RVA) as developed by Rajan et al. to measure the variation in allocational efficiency of the internal capital market.FindingsThe study reveals that on average assets divestitures enable Canadian firms to keep up with the performance of their peers of the same industrial sector during the long‐run post divestiture period. A closer look at the results shows that the variation of long‐run post divestitures performance among Canadian firms is significantly and positively linked to changes in the allocational efficiency of the internal capital markets. These results suggest that dismantling some parts of the internal capital market does lead to improvements in firm value in the long run.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample is limited to a group of firms that sell off a portion of their assets. Further research could be conducted to determine whether other divestiture methods (spin‐off, sell‐off or equity carve‐out) have any impact on internal capital allocation efficiency and long run financial performance.Originality/ValueThe paper adds to other studies examining the source of gains from divestitures by documenting the effects of changes in internal capital allocation efficiency on the creation of long‐term shareholder wealth.
The relationship among board of director characteristics, corporate social performance and corporate financial performance
Authors: Dunn Paul , Sainty Barbara 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between qualitative measures of a firm's Board of Directors and its corporate social performance (CSP).Design/methodology/approachCSP is a function of qualitative measures of a firm's Board of Directors, as well as firm risk and financial performance. A longitudinal sample of 104 Canadian firms is used.FindingsBoard independence is positively related to social performance but shareholder orientation is not. In addition, a positive relationship between social performance with both financial performance and debt is found.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the sample is small and restricted to Canadian firms, the results are quite robust. Future studies should consider using qualitative measures on a larger international sample of firms.Originality/valueThis paper uses qualitative measures – the degree of independence of the Board and the Board's level of shareholder orientation – to examine the interrelationship between a firm's Board of Directors and its CSP.
B2b inter‐organisational digitalisation strategies
Authors: Ivang Reimer , Rask Morten , Hinson Robert 
Published: October 2009

PurposeDigital technology is increasingly important for businesses as it has the capability to enable, support and sometimes influence the overall strategic direction of the corporation. This paper investigates business‐to‐business (b2b) inter‐organisational digitalisation strategies in one of Denmark's biggest companies with an annual turnover of €3 billion and over 30,000 employees. This paper specifically seeks to understand to what extent the widely used strategic continuum (planning – incremental) is sufficient to understand the process of creating inter‐organisational digitalisation strategies in the case.Design/methodology/approachThis paper utilises degree of freedom analysis (DFA). DFA is in essence a “pattern‐matching” between theoretical propositions and observations in a set of data. Inline with the DFA tradition in‐depth interviews were conducted and finally the results and interpretations are returned to the respondents for final feedback.FindingsThis paper concludes that a strategic continuum spanning planning to interaction, where the incremental approach is in the middle is more powerful as an analytical tool in relation to the specific case. The case further illustrated that the actors in the empiric context utilising the digital technology successfully mostly organised their strategic work as described in the interaction approach to digitalisation strategy.Practical implicationsThe study demonstrates a pragmatic route to deepening digitalisation success in a large firm with considerable e‐business investments.Originality/valueDocumenting the need for new thinking and theorising in the area of digitalisation strategy. This paper opens the organisational black box relating to how strategy actually is performed and, thus, helps to develop a more holistic understanding of how strategies are developed and implemented. Finally, this is one of the few studies utilising DFA to understand digitalisation strategy.