The internationalization-performance relationship at Swiss firms: A test of the S-shape and extreme degrees of internationalization

Abstract and Key Results

Flexible product platforms: framework and case study

Customization and market uncertainty require increased functional and physical bandwidth in product platforms. This paper presents a platform design process in response to such future uncertainty. The process consists of seven iterative steps and is applied to an automotive body-in-white where 10 out of 21 components are identified as potential candidates for embedding flexibility. The paper shows how to systematically pinpoint and value flexible elements in platforms. This allows increased product family profit despite uncertain variant demand, and specification changes. We show how embedding flexibility suppresses change propagation and lowers switching costs, despite an increase of 34% in initial investment for equipment and tooling. Monte Carlo simulation results of 12 future scenarios reveal the value of embedding flexibility.

Coaching product development teams: a conceptual foundation for empirical studies

Global product development teams work in ambiguously complex dynamic networks. Characterization of the distributed work environment includes many factors, including: individuals and sub-teams are geographically distributed; they belong to different organizational cultures; they operate in different time zones and within different cultural and professional-frameworks. From a communication perspective, individual team members may speak different languages and lack a common tongue. Even in these scenarios, project teams are expected to produce quality products and bring them quickly to the market. The design-to-market life cycle has shortened markedly in the past decade in many industries. How do they manage to perform effectively in the face of these many obstacles? Development team “Coaching” has emerged as a guiding force in many project-organized environments. Individuals may have arrived at the role informally, tacitly responding to the needs of teams around them, or they are professionals with formal training as we find in SAP’s “Design Team Services” group (Plattner 2007, personal comunication). We have observed that the coach provides project team members with assistance that ranges from problem solving to moral support. In spite of the growing use of coaching, there is significant confusion about the nature of the role, the attributes of good versus poor coaching, associated terminology and definitions. We report on the development of a conceptual framework for further research in the emerging domain of design engineering coaching. Our efforts began with an extensive literature review that yielded leading candidates for role terminology and the scope of the subject. With that framework in hand, we performed a field assessment (survey) in an industry-academic environment that is noted for the extreme nature of its project-based learning paradigm and deep corporate engagement, including a mixture of industry liaisons and academic advisors who are in coaching roles. We expect the combination of methods to provide common ground for further work and to better explain the issues to students and industry partners. The resulting framework consists of five main roles that design-team coaches have been observed to assume. It is anticipated that our results will help others identify new research questions and apply an expanded set of empirical methods.     

Strategic orientations and mass customisation capability: the moderating effect of product life cycle

This study examines the influence of three strategic orientations (customer, competitor and innovation) on mass customisation (MC) capability via the organisational learning process known as customisation knowledge utilisation (CKU). The moderating effect of product life cycle (PLC) is also investigated. Using data collected from 204 manufacturers, we show that all three strategic orientations positively contribute to MC capability, both directly and indirectly through CKU. Further, our empirical findings suggest that the effects of customer, competitor and innovation orientation on MC capability are contingent on PLC. The effects of customer orientation on CKU and the effects of competitor orientation on CKU and MC capability are stronger when a product is in the maturity stage of its life cycle, whereas the effect of innovation orientation on CKU and MC capability are stronger in the growth stage. These findings suggest that to effectively improve MC capability, managers need to leverage external and internal orientations at different stages of the PLC.     

Knowledge creation and diffusion of Taiwan's universities: Knowledge trajectory from patent data

The university sector, receiving government funding to perform basic research, is designated to produce and widely disseminate innovative knowledge to industry in many countries, particularly in latecomer countries such as Taiwan. Knowledge flows occurring in university research can be traced with patent data. This exploratory study aims to investigate knowledge creation and diffusion of Taiwan's universities by using university patents as the proxy. The empirical analysis finds a dramatic increase in the number of university patents after 2002. Some implications are derived based on this empirical analysis. Moreover, the cross-national citation behavior of university research would be worthwhile for conceptualizing transnational innovation networks in future studies.     

The good, the bad and the ugly: An engineer's view of product liability litigation in the United States

This talk presents a cross section of case studies which exemplified the best and the worst of the system. The technical aspects of each case, along with the legal theories and the final resolution is discussed. The author will present his philosophical prospective of the process based on over 25 years experience.     

Computerized product process: Measurement and continuous improvement

Product development has until recently been considered pure art instead of being a controllable process. However, the current competitive environment has forced companies to take a closer look in the way new products are being developed. A key element in this assessment is the development of a set of metrics, which describe the whole product development process. This article explores the data-based opportunities for continuous improvement in the product development process emerging alongside the increasing utilization of networked Information Technology (IT) applications. Based on data from information systems in the case-study companies, three different product process visualizations are presented. Each visualization is discussed both from the viewpoint of its explanatory power as well as its limitations.The results of the case-studies clearly indicate that the computerization of the engineering and design processes is generating new ways of measuring, understanding and improving product development. The appropriate measures combined with open communication and a learning environment can be used to create a cycle of continually improving the product development process.     

Integrating RAMS engineering and management with the safety life cycle of IEC 61508

This article outlines a new approach to reliability, availability, maintainability, and safety (RAMS) engineering and management. The new approach covers all phases of the new product development process and is aimed at producers of complex products like safety instrumented systems (SIS). The article discusses main RAMS requirements to a SIS and presents these requirements in a holistic perspective. The approach is based on a new life cycle model for product development and integrates this model into the safety life cycle of IEC 61508. A high integrity pressure protection system (HIPPS) for an offshore oil and gas application is used to illustrate the approach.     

CdTe photovoltaics: Life cycle environmental profile and comparisons

We discuss the emissions of cadmium throughout all the life stages of CdTe PV modules, from extracting, refining, and purifying the raw materials to producing, using, and disposing or recycling of the modules. Then, we compare these emissions with those in the life cycle of three different types of crystalline Si PV modules. The energy requirement and energy pay back times (EPBT) of CdTe PV modules are considerably shorter than that of crystalline Si modules, although the latter exhibit higher efficiencies. This difference is primarily due to the energy used to process silicon, a fraction of which is derived from fossil fuels, inevitably producing Cd and many other heavy-metal emissions. The lower energy requirement of CdTe PV results in lower emissions of all pollutants, including cadmium.     

人事决策专家与新手的知识诱发和多维空间结构分析

本研究运用认知工程学实验方法，对21名人事管理干部(专家)和大学生(新手)进行人事决策知识的诱发与获取实验，并采用多维量表法作出多维空间结构分析。结果表明，两类知识结构存在较大差异，等家的知识结构表现出“人一职”元素之间的依存关系．知识元素分化程度较高，并具网络特征；而新手的知识结构则缺乏分化和明确的维度特征，较少结构化。本研究为多层次决策支持与辅助提供了新的实验依据。