Outsourcing and climbing a value chain

A value chain is a core concept of manufacturing economics. Yet, business reporters often misuse the concept when discussing global outsourcing in electronic equipment manufacturing. This confusion is, fortunately, correctable with one big insight: There are two distinct strategies for improving a firm's value chain. Once these strategies are clarified, it exposes the problems with today's policy debate about outsourcing.     

Dominant actors, political agendas, and strategic shifts over time: a critical ethnography of an enterprise systems implementation

Much of the literature on enterprise systems implementation suggests that ERP systems should support the strategic objectives of the organization. In fact some ERP vendors tend to assume that implementing their products is a straightforward translation from strategy to IT-enabled business processes. But the strategic management literature reveals that corporate strategy is often contested terrain. Conflict over strategy has the potential to delay or derail ERP implementation efforts, leading to cost overruns, failures, and lack of expected benefits.This paper seeks to understand and explain how conflicts over strategy can affect the success of ERP implementations. We studied one firm's attempt to pursue information technology-enabled enterprise integration using critical ethnography. The firm is a small-to-medium sized enterprise within a large conglomerate in the Asia-Pacific region. Our findings show that, as the dominant actors and political agendas changed, so too did the company's enterprise integration strategy. The ERP system was designed to support a future corporate world and work environment that never arrived.     

IT alignment strategies for customer relationship management

Customer relationship management (CRM) is the overall process of building and maintaining profitable customer relationships by delivering superior customer value and satisfaction. A CRM strategy involves the entire enterprise and is employed on an ongoing basis. Despite the fact that CRM projects incur huge expenditures, a large percentage fails to achieve the stated objectives. Failure in CRM initiatives could be avoided if a firm's CRM strategies are intelligently linked with its employees, customers, channels, and IT infrastructure. In this paper, we focus on those linkages, particularly on the linkages between an organization's CRM strategies and its IT infrastructure. Even though the relationships between IT and business strategies have been extensively explored in the IT alignment literature, prior research has not addressed how a firm's CRM strategies are aligned with its IT infrastructure. In this paper, we investigate the issues relating to CRM-IT alignment based on an in-depth case study of a large, well-known Internet travel agency.     

Aligning the IT portfolio with business strategy: Evidence for complementarity of corporate and business unit alignment

Research on alignment between business strategy and information technology (IT) strategy has generated extensive insights over the last three decades. That research has focused primarily on the fit between business and IT strategies, while cross-domain alignment, i.e., alignment between business strategy and IT infrastructure components, has received far less attention. Further, previous studies have focused on the implications of alignment for firm performance while the effects of cross-domain alignment on business unit performance in multi-business organizations (MBOs) are yet to be examined. This issue is important as IT infrastructures are evolving rapidly. Specifically, MBOs are increasingly turning to corporate IT platforms to support a common set of shared IT needs, while still allowing individual business units to manage unique aspects of their own IT needs through local IT applications. Extending prior research, this study proposes that performance of business units in MBOs is influenced by two complementary forms of cross-domain alignment, viz., alignment between the corporate IT platform and the corporate business strategy, and alignment between the business unit’s portfolio of IT applications and its business strategy. Using data from a global survey of 120 organizations, we find evidence that complementarity between these two forms of cross-domain alignment creates a joint positive effect on business unit performance. We also find that this effect varies with the extent of process digitization within business units. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Information Technology and Financial Performance: The Impact of being an Internet-Dependent Firm on Stock Returns

The choice of a particular technology to implement a firm's business strategy may impact the firm's market performance. This study assesses the impact of being an Internet-dependent firm on a firm's stock valuation. The empirical results indicate that in a booming economy, Internet-dependent firms have lower excess returns than non-Internet firms. These high returns can be explained by the fact that in such an economy, Internet stocks trade at relatively higher prices than non-Internet stocks. Therefore, choosing a particular technology to implement business strategy may have a significant impact a firm's stock performance.     

Communities of practice model driven knowledge management in multinational knowledge based enterprises

Existing research in intelligent manufacturing literature has highlighted the need for linking organizational culture, business strategy with Knowledge Management (KM) as well as measuring the performance of knowledge management systems for best practice. Communities of Practice (CoPs) are accepted as best practice and distinct from organizational structures while implementing KM. Besides, employing CoPs as an approach for linking business strategies with KM design, CoPs can be the prevailing way for group learning and innovation building within firms. As firms grow in size, scope, and complexity, CoPs members who regularly engage in sharing and learning based on common interests, could improve organizational performance. The purpose of this work is to design a CoPs model for KM which addresses issues related to organization culture, business strategy and performance measurement reported in earlier publications in intelligent manufacturing. A CoPs evaluation hierarchy for KM is developed. It includes four dimensions and sixteen criteria for studying and evaluating organizational culture and business strategy. Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach has been employed to quantitatively analyze various criteria priorities and business strategy preferences of CoPs. In order to validate the CoPs model, a case study has been undertaken in two multinational knowledge based organizations and the results are compared to differentiate strategic preferences. The contributions of this paper include: a) Definition of a CoPs model based on sixteen criteria which helps to understand an organization’s KM culture or CoPs; b) Employing these criteria to link an organization‘s KM culture with four business strategies; c) Develop a quantitative method for measuring KM performance in the context of four business strategies, and d) Validating the CoPs model through its application in two multinationals in Taiwan and Japan. The CoPs model thus can be used by organizations to understand their KM culture, allocate resources towards the chosen business strategy and measure KM performance in the context of the chosen business strategy.     

The strategic design and development of ERP and RTMS

One of the crucial requirements of global manufacturing strategy is the ability to optimise the use of information technology. This paper describes a process to implement manufacturing strategies that are consistent with a particular company's overall business strategies and results with conceptual system architecture. A methodology is proposed and used to identify and implement an integrated manufacturing strategy which consists of two major horizons: Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) and a Real-Time Monitoring system (RTMS). RTMS, which can provide up-to-date information for the planning and scheduling of manufacturing orders, monitoring quality, improving communication and increasing productivity, is implemented and is integrated with an ERP system. The architecture of the ERP system is designed for a global manufacturing environment. The implementation was designed with a Distributed Object-Oriented Technology (DOOT) which increases the system scalability, configurability, flexibility and interoperability. The ERP is designed to support real-time data collection and processing for all required production and inventory analysis with a flexible architecture which can meet the distributed business requirements.     

E-MEMO: a method to support the development of customized electronic commerce systems

In many industries structural change through E-Commerce is challenging firms to re-align their strategies as well as re-engineer their business processes with new competitive environments while taking advantage of technological opportunities. This article presents E-MEMO, a method for multi-perspective enterprise modelling with special emphasis on processes and technologies for E-Commerce. It serves to analyse and design corporate information systems that are balanced with a company’s E-Commerce strategy and its organisation. E-MEMO offers specific languages for modelling strategies, business processes, and related resources. In addition to that, it provides a library of reference models including strategy networks to guide strategic planning and models of business processes. In order to further support the implementation of information systems a transformation has been defined that allows for generating workflow schemata from business process models. Since design-oriented research is not predominant in the Information Systems field, the epistemological challenges of the chosen research approach are discussed, too.     

A framework for multinational information systems planning

The purpose of this study was to develop and identify formal strategic planning and control approaches and requisites to better manage and integrate the information systems resources (e.g. information systems, telecommunications and office automation) more effectively with the business plans and processes in a large multidivisional, multiproduct and transnational corporate environment. Additionally, an examination of certain external and internal environmental factors and pressures was conducted to assist business and information systems executives, and professionals to focus on those factors which influence the successful management and direction of the multinational information systems resources and functions (MNISR) within their environments.Twenty-five U.S. based multinational organizations participated in the research. Most of the organizations were selected from the manufacturing (e.g. energy, pharmaceuticals, consumer products and electronic) industry with some representation from the banking and financial services industry. In addition, four case studies were conducted to provide in-depth analysis, comparisons and verifications of actual MNISR planning and control practices.A pragmatic strategic planning framework and structure consisting of multiple but interrelated components and activities is suggested as the formal end product of this research. In addition, five general conclusions stand out from the research. First, the MNISR plan structure must accomodate both the similarities and differences between the domestic and international MNISR environments and the key factors which influence them. Second, business and MNISR plan linkages must be established by addressing strategic business and MNISR support issues and strategies at several organizational levels based on the involvement of multiple personnel across business and geographic unit boundaries. Third, the utilization of a uniform MNISR planning language, process, cycle and structure similar to the business plan language, process, cycle and structure is critical. Fourth, the role of the corporate (central MNISR) staff should be well defined and limited to only those activities where its expertise is either clearly recognized and/or established by corporate policy. Fifth, corporate MNISR should provide funding for MNISR strategies that are either mandated by corporate headquarters or have a demonstrable comparative advantage to the individual multinational business components as well as the corporation as a whole.     

Segmenting online customers to manage business resources: A study of the impacts of sales channel strategies on consumer preferences

This study extends our current knowledge in the area of online consumer behavior by examining how a business's sales channel strategy could influence consumer's sales channel preferences. It makes a new argument that business strategies could play an important role in consumer sales channel preference development. When a business offers multiple sales channels (a hybrid model), its customers can compare sales channels either within or outside of the same corporate business. Such freedom is, however, diminished when a business employs the Internet as the only transaction medium (pure Internet store). A matrix was developed to demonstrate how business strategies could interplay in the consumer preference formation process and later was used to segment our respondents into three different groups. They were segmented according to the sales channel strategies of their selected Internet store and the brick-and-mortar store that they used to make a comparison. MANOVA and structural equation modeling tests were performed on 435 survey respondents. Four preferential factors, including transaction cost, product, risk, and social experience, were used as examples and tested across three groups of respondents. Results revealed that online users employ different sets of preferential factors when comparing different sets of sales channels. Such results were thereafter used to draw a new set of online strategies that could be used to allocate business resources more effectively.     

基于服务网格的制造资源集成

提出了一种基于服务网格的制造资源集成方法，通过将服务网格技术引入制造行业，实现了制造资源的虚拟化，为制造资源提供了统一的接口和互操作协议、屏蔽平台及所使用技术的异构性。平台采用基于服务的协同工作流技术，在动态变化的环境中，能够根据用户需求优化业务逻辑及其执行过程，选择、配置和调度相应的制造资源完成指定的任务，实现跨组织的资源共享和任务协同。     

An Information Security Strategy for Networkable Devices

Networkable Windows-based operating system devices present information security challenges to both vendors and users of such devices. This article highlights some of those threats and offers measures to improve the link between a firm's business strategy, its operational activities, and its information security strategy.     

Cluster analysis application for understanding SME manufacturing strategies

Small and medium size enterprises’ (SME) manufacturing strategy configurations are identified in a small developed economy with the aim to explore how SME manufacturing strategy configurations affect business stability and performance during a period of macroeconomic shock. Drawing on a survey-based dataset, our two-step cluster analysis results suggest that three distinctive manufacturing strategy configurations can be observed among the SMEs of the Finnish manufacturing sector, namely: Responsive niche-innovators, Subcontractors, and Engineer-servers. Furthermore, we are able to establish a link between the strategy configurations and business stability and performance. The results support conclusions that the nature of manufacturing strategy taxonomies are driven by the business context, and that volume flexibility, design flexibility and service provision capabilities enable better business outcomes during macroeconomic shocks, in comparison to the more easily achievable conformance quality as well as delivery speed and dependability. In light of this research, best performing cluster under the macroeconomic shock is the Engineer-servers, emphasizing flexibility-oriented broad product line and after sales service, while having less priority concerning low price and volume flexibility. The results offer important insights for managers, but also for other stakeholders in the form of for example expert systems development for SME funding decisions.     

Designing an effective management system for enterprises: Concepts and verification

In this article lean and agile manufacturing are considered as separate organizational strategies of enterprise management. Therefore, a model of these strategies for business situations as well as assigning modern concepts and methods of management to these strategies and business segments has been proposed. This model, called LABDM (lean agile business development model), has been provisionally verified in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises from the gas engineering industry in the Wielkopolska province in Poland. In 17 enterprises of this industry the use of modern concepts and methods of management have been studied. With the help of the rough sets theory, a set of concepts and methods that are crucial for the effective enterprises has been identified. By comparing these concepts and methods to the LABDM, the model's rationality is proven. In conclusion, the LABDM can be used as a tool when considering a lean or agile strategy, and modern concepts and methods that are associated with these strategies. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Doing business in the wired world

Using the Internet for business use, ie., electronic commerce, promises to dramatically alter the structure and processes of commerce. Managers will have to invent new business models that reemphasize scale, differentiation, and brands to effectively compete on a noisy infrastructure with low transaction costs. They will also have to spend substantial time redesigning transaction processes and participating in industry groups to develop new e-commerce conventions. Effectively implementing these strategies and simultaneously reconciling new and existing business models will be key to a firm's success     

Optimal decision making for online referral marketing

Widely available web 2.0 technologies not only bring rich and interactive user experiences, but also easily help users advertise products or services on their own blogs and social network webpages. Online referral marketing, for example, is a business practice that rewards customers who successfully refer other customers to a website or upon completion of a sale usually via their own social contacts. The referral rewards come in different forms such as shopping vouchers, redeemable points, discounts, prizes, cash payments, etc. We develop an analytical model to evaluate the business potential of incorporating an online referral marketing program into the firm's product selling strategies. Under different demand dynamics, we investigate the optimal decision making including the pricing and referral strategies to maximize the seller's profitability. We find that, under simple decision making environment such as fixed product price and myopic strategy, different demand dynamics yield the same prediction of the referral payment, which turns out to be a static policy. However, under complex market situations, both the optimal product pricing and referral offering critically depend on the demand side dynamics. Under the nonlinear demand dynamics, the referral payment is an all-or-nothing decision throughout the product selling horizon. In contrast, under the linear demand assumption, the referral payment can be partially offered in initial phase of the product introduction. We further offer some managerial insights to guide practical implementation of the online referral marketing strategy.     

An empirical study of information technology enabled business process redesign and corporate competitive strategy

Business process redesign (BPR) has been widely touted as a means for leveraging the power of information technology to change business processes radically, resulting in substantial improvements in organizational effectiveness and efficiency. This study represents an early attempt at examining the strategic nature of the phenomenon. Because BPR is radical change and has the ability to alter both the competitive and operational nature of the corporation, it is critical that BPR be coordinated with corporate strategy. Through a survey of information system executives, the relationships between corporate competitive strategy and three types of BPR – intrafunctional, interfunctional and interorganizational – were examined. It was found that organizations following a cost strategy tended to do more BPR projects on interfunctional processes. Furthermore, the positive effect of a cost strategy on interfunctional BPR was found to be strengthened by the degree of integration of IS and business planning. It was also found that while interorganizational BPR was not related to a specific strategy, it was strongly related directly with IS–business planning integration.     

Towards lean service bus architecture for industrial integration infrastructure and pull manufacturing strategies

The Lean Manufacturing approach requires advanced and efficient manufacturing technologies in order to meet customer demands. Manufacturing companies have increased their productivity and efficiency over time by implementing new strategies, business processes and IT solutions. Best practices also allow companies to achieve on-demand manufacturing through the integration of pull flow production strategy. In order to achieve agility to meet business needs, a key for success is a flexible integration of different information system components to enable the flow of exchanged data and information. To insure the agility of an enterprise’s organization, ISA S-95 standard can be used to determine which information has to be exchanged between system components. We propose an Industrial System Integration Architecture, a Lean Enterprise Service Bus which relies on Lean Manufacturing constraints based on semantic aspects with respect to the ISA S-95 standard. This architecture aims at enhancing the interoperability between the production system and the global enterprise information system in terms of business and manufacturing requirements and establishes semantic interoperability to achieve an industrial semantic.     

面向制造服务的企业间信息集成方案

针对制造企业向供应链后端扩展的战略意义,文中从W企业开展以产品维修服务为主体内容的制造服务发展战略与业务需求为背景,坚持“业务驱动、IT引领”的方针,在新的需求基础上,充分理解业务,采用信息化手段优化、管理、控制业务流程,使业务数据标准化、规范化、集成化。文中以此为目的,提出了以维修服务为主体业务的制造服务企业间信息集成方案,研究了维修服务系统的工作原理以及整体需求。结合具体的系统需求,应用基于组件的系统分析设计思想,获取了系统业务组件及其组件问的依赖关系,最终给出了维修服务系统组件部署方案。     

Alignment within the corporate IT unit: an analysis of software testing and development

Strategic alignment between an organization's business strategy/capabilities and those of its information technology (IT) unit is an extensively researched subject that addresses the issue of fit between business and technology strategies. A key gap in the literature is lack of recognition that underlying this macro level of alignment are other, more granular levels of alignment involving the interdependent subunits within the corporate IT unit. Given the critical interdependencies between development and testing subunits in software engineering, this paper focuses on an alignment model for ensuring that these two functions work together effectively. A development-testing alignment (DTA) model is described, and a case study investigating its value and application is presented. This DTA is decomposed into distinct components for the purposes of theoretical clarity and pragmatic application. The case study analysis uses the model to understand and interpret development-testing alignment in a Fortune 500 company. We found that the development and testing functions were significantly misaligned, and our model identified close to twenty specific aspects that needed to be considered to enhance alignment. These included changes in specificity of scope, governance, resource availability, competencies, and processes. Our analysis shows that the DTA model can be usefully applied for the purpose of understanding tactical alignment between subunits within a corporate IT unit. It also demonstrates that there is value in considering alignment as a dynamic, context-driven, social phenomenon as well as a useful interpretative lens for exploring organizational interactions and interdependencies.