School of Management (SoM)

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Open Access
1% for 10%: Executive Strategies for Customer Care
(John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2006-03-01T00:00:00Z) Kakabadse, Andrew P.; Savery, Lawson; Kakabadse, Nada K.; Lee-Davies, Linda
This paper avoids the linear route to establishing where the biggest impact on customer service lies and instead examines the influences on the quality of the customer experience from all angles in an organization. From the culture and policies of the organization itself, to the front-line individuals and their managers, it is evident that customer satisfaction is influenced at many levels and this directly affects organizational success and competitive standing. The Cranfield Top Executive Leadership studies, across 12 countries, examine senior managers' commitment to customer focus. The sample's division, into three distinct groups according to their customer focus commitment levels, highlights a range of arguments about individual, management and corporate dedication to levels of customer satisfaction with hints at where these may conflict with each other. By taking a rounded look at the customer focus process from all its pivots within an organization, potential bottlenecks in the process are also highlighted. Most interestingly, it is concluded that there is actually little difference between the groups in pure quantitative terms, but it is that small difference indeed which makes all the difference to a substantial increase in positive customer experience.
Open Access
15 steps to peak performance
(2013-10-01T00:00:00Z) Denyer, David
The transformation of British cycling from near bankruptcy to a dominant global force offers insights for any business looking to improve their performance.
Open Access
The 2012 Olympic leadership agenda
(2012-08-31T00:00:00Z) Burke, V
Open Access
The 3 Ts of highly effective supply chains
(Sckc Cranfield University, 2003-01-01T00:00:00Z) Wilding, Richard D.
In recent years the recognition that the supply chain, is a source of competitive advantage has driven organisations to pursue the dual goals of achieving both value advantage and operational excellence. Customer responsiveness is generally the key differentiator in markets today. Globalisation is resulting in many organisations experiencing market pressures that are forcing a fundamental rethink of the way business is conducted. Trade- offs between for example labour costs, transportation costs, inventory costs and response time to customer are becoming increasingly complex. It is no longer seen as possible only to focus on one’s individual organisation to gain competitive advantage. It has been recognised that the success of the individual organisation is dependent on the performance and reliability of its suppliers and also customer
Open Access
Accidental activists: headhunters as marginal diversity actors in institutional change towards more women on boards
(Wiley, 2016-05-06) Doldor, Elena; Sealy, Ruth; Vinnicombe, Susan
We present a qualitative study that examines the role of headhunters as actors in a broader institutional change process aiming to increase gender diversity on corporate boards. We draw on institutional and diversity management theories to conceptualise their change agency in the broader field of women on boards. We describe their role as ‘accidental activists’ and theorise two micro-processes that define their change agency in this field: voluntaristic framing of intentionality and role redefinition by drawing on competing logics. This conceptualisation does not match the heroic image of the institutional entrepreneur driving institutional change, or that of the tempered radical championing diversity, but rather casts light into a marginal and previously neglected change role. We demonstrate the opportunistic and precarious nature of this role with regard to both institutional change and diversity management and discuss its possibilities and perils.
Open Access
Accounting analyses of momentum and contrarian strategies in emerging markets
(Taylor & Francis, 2017-01-30) Nnadi, Matthias Akandu; Tanna, S.
We analyse the momentum and contrarian effects of stock markets in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) using accounting data. The five markets show different characteristics with the Indian market having the strongest momentum effect. Stock markets in China and Brazil show significant short-term contrarian profit and intermediate to long-term momentum profit while South Africa shows short-term momentum effect and intermediate to long-term contrarian effect. The Russian stock market reveals largely insignificant momentum portfolio returns. We also find evidence that the contrarian profits in South Africa and China are caused by relatively high loser returns while positive momentum profit in India results from relatively high winner returns.
Open Access
Accounting for competitive advantage: The resource-based view of the firm and the labour theory of value
(Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, 2010-03-01T00:00:00Z) Bowman, Cliff; Toms, S
This article uses accounting concepts to assist the field of strategic management in its search for a theory of value, competitive advantage and superior profitability. Specifically, it argues that the resource-based view of the firm requires a labour theory of value creation. Using the circuit of capital as an organizing framework this article integrates RBV and Marx's value theory, by introducing the notion of value as socially necessary labour time, into the analysis of resource-based advantage. This enables us to identify the impact of particular sources of competitive advantage as they become diffused through an industry. Some resource-based advantages, when eventually imitated lead to an overall reduction in industry profitability, and other advantages lead to increases in industry average profitability.
Open Access
Achieving Customer Satisfaction through Integrated Products and Services: An Exploratory Study
(Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2013-11-01T00:00:00Z) Raja, Jawwad Z.; Bourne, Dorota; Goffin, Keith; Cakkol, Mehmet; Martinez, Veronica
Much of the research on satisfying customer needs is strongly influenced by the product or service dichotomy. Customer solutions however represent a type of offering that integrates products and services. Thus, solutions provide a special context that requires research attention. In this paper, we conducted an exploratory study of four customer organisations using solutions. Using the repertory grid technique we conducted 33 interviews with participants and identified 29 attributes. The data was analyzed using the Honey technique to identify which attributes are important for users and buyers of customer solutions. The findings identify relational dynamic between customers and the solution provider to be a complex and multifaceted set of dependencies that involves a number of key attributes identified. These closely related attributes included: knowledge, innovation, control, access and contract in satisfying the needs of users and buyers. The lesson that providers need to be aware of in designing NPD/NSD for solutions is that in the customer organization buyer and user attributes may vary as the two groups may have different needs. Therefore, providers of solutions need to cater for both groups when designing offerings. Importantly, the solutions context entails both product (good) and service elements that require closer attention.
Open Access
Achieving manufacturing excellence through the integration of enterprise systems and simulation
(Elsevier, 2016-02-24) Rashid, Asif; Tjahjono, Benny
This paper discusses the significance of the enterprise systems and simulation integration in improving shop floor’s short-term production planning capability. The ultimate objectives are to identify the integration protocols, optimisation parameters and critical design artefacts, thereby identifying key ‘ingredients’ that help in setting out a future research agenda in pursuit of optimum decision-making at the shop floor level. While the integration of enterprise systems and simulation gains a widespread agreement within the existing work, the optimality, scalability and flexibility of the schedules remained unanswered. Furthermore, there seems to be no commonality or pattern as to how many core modules are required to enable such a flexible and scalable integration. Nevertheless, the objective of such integration remains clear, i.e. to achieve an optimum total production time, lead time, cycle time, production release rates and cost. The issues presently faced by existing enterprise systems (ES), if properly addressed, can contribute to the achievement of manufacturing excellence and can help identify the building blocks for the software architectural platform enabling the integration.
Open Access
Achieving sustainable development goals through common-good HRM: Context, approach and practice
(SAGE, 2024-05-04) Aust, Ina; Cooke, Fang Lee; Muller-Camen, Michael; Wood, Geoffrey
This introduction to the special issue Achieving Sustainable Development Goals through Common-Good HRM: Context, approach and practice draws the links between the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the concept of Common-Good HRM and the practice of human resource management (HRM) to extend intellectual and empirical insights into this important field. Particular attention is accorded to the collective social and environmental dimensions of SDGs and the place of HRM in contributing to the ‘common good’ within and beyond the workplace. Firms may create space and incentives for HRM to promote sustainability, or actively work to constrain meaningful action in this regard. This collection brings together a broad cross-section of articles dealing with the SDGs and HRM, identifying emerging common ground and contestation as a basis for future HRM theory building, empirical enquiry and practice.
Open Access
Achieving the paradox of concurrent internationalization speed: Internationalizing rapidly in both breadth and depth
(Springer, 2021-09-10) Batsakis, Georgios; Theoharakis, Vasilis
In this paper, we draw on the notions of breadth and depth of internationalization speed in an attempt to examine the performance implications for multinational enterprises (MNEs) that rapidly and concurrently internationalize in new and existing foreign markets. Specifically, we examine the organizational paradox which suggests that firms which grow internationally by concurrently expanding rapidly in both new foreign markets (breadth) and in foreign markets they currently operate (depth), are better off than firms which do not adopt such an approach. Since past research has not examined the interaction between the breadth and depth of MNE internationalization speed on firm performance, we contribute to the temporal dimension of the internationalization process by developing a novel, yet paradoxical approach. Our analysis is based on a longitudinal sample of the world’s largest retail MNEs covering the period 2003 – 2012, which includes the 2008 financial crisis that had a significant effect on the global economy. We find that concurrent internationalization speed positively relates to firm performance during periods of stability. Further, we draw from the upper-echelons theory and find that the aforementioned relationship can be strengthened by the level of CEO international experience and CEO education.
Open Access
Adam Smith’s implicit theory of distributive justice
(Athens Institute for Education and Research, 2024-05-31) Arevuo, Mikko
Adam Smith wrote at a time when new commercial forces were reshaping national politics, pulling people from the countryside into growing towns, and altering the physical, social, and ideological landscapes. He broke with the mercantilist position, which assumed that all that mattered was the wealth of the ruling classes and the state. Smith argued that the best indicator of a country’s success was the prosperity of the workers, created through a commercial system based on natural liberty of self-ownership, equality, liberty, and justice. Although Smith didn’t explicitly develop a theory of distributive justice, he considered the interests of the three main social and economic classes in mid-18th century Britain: workers, owners of capital and landlords. Smith thought of equality as a combination of two ideas that were novel at the time: an account of liberty that was rooted in the nascent discipline of economics and a democratic social ideal of dignity for ordinary people. Grounded in Smith’s moral philosophy that places human equality as its core value, this paper unpacks his theory of economic growth and efficiency, where rents and wages increase as society develops economically while profit and interest rates fall, thus resulting in an overall fall in inequality.
Open Access
Adam Smith’s moral foundations of self-interest and ethical social order
(Wiley, 2023-09-11) Arevuo, Mikko
This article draws on textual evidence from The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations to address mistaken interpretations of Adam Smith's fundamental concept of self-interest as greed that has been said to have had a corrosive influence on markets, commercial behaviour, and widening inequality. To the contrary, Smith's complex set of human motivations, including self-interest, his economic system that is based on free markets, and institutional frameworks governing productive property rights and the rule of law are argued to increase aggregate wealth, improve the position of those least well off, and maintain ethical social order.
Open Access
Adaptation of supply management towards a hybrid culture: the case of a Japanese automaker
(Emerald, 2016-01-11) Jia, Fu; Gao, Ruihong; Lamming, Richard; Wilding, Richard D.
Purpose – This paper aims to identify problems caused by cultural differences between Japan and China that face supply chain managers by applying Japanese-style supply management practices within supply networks in China and present solutions to this problem. Design/methodology/approach – A single, longitudinal case study conducting two waves of data collection (i.e. interviews and observation) plus the collection of much archival data was performed. It goes beyond the dyad by examining supply management of a Japanese company’s supply chain up to three tiers in China. Findings – The four supply cultural differences between Japan and China, which caused the cultural clashes between JVCo and some of its suppliers were revealed and a model of adaptation of Japanese supply management to the Chinese business system was developed. Adaptation involves creating new supply management practices out of selective adaptation, innovation and change of existing Japanese and Chinese supply management practices rooted in different Japanese, Chinese and Western cultures. A list of organisational factors affecting the adaptation has also been provided. Research limitations/implications – Due to the adoption of a single case study method, caution should be given to generalising the findings to all Japanese firms. Practical implications – The Japanese, Chinese and Western managers were provided with insights on how to mitigate the problems caused by cultural differences within supply relationships in China and some innovative ideas on how managers from all three cultures could blend the elements of the three cultures to form a hybrid culture and reduce cultural clashes. Originality/value – This is one of the few attempts to study the transfer of Japanese supply management practice to China. Organizational theory (i.e. transfer of organizational practice and hybridization) is applied and provides a robust framework to explain the supply management practice. This study also answers the call for a global supplier relationship management paradigm.
Open Access
Additive manufacturing integration in E-commerce supply chain network to improve resilience and competitiveness
(Elsevier, 2022-10-27) Yetkin Ekren, Banu; Stylos, Nikolaos; Zwiegelaar, Jeremy; Eroğlu Turhanlar, Ecem; Kumar, Vikas
In light of recently increased e-commerce, also a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study examines how additive manufacturing (AM) can contribute to e-commerce supply chain network resilience, profitability and competitiveness. With the recent competitive supply chain challenges, companies aim to decrease cost performance metrics and increase responsiveness. In this work, we aim to establish utilisation policies for AM in a supply chain network so that companies can simultaneously improve their total network cost and response time performance metrics. We propose three different utilisation policies, i.e. reactive, proactive – both with 3D printing support – and a policy excluding AM usage in the system. A simulation optimisation process for 136 experiments under various input design factors for an (s, S) inventory control policy is carried out. We also completed a statistical analysis to identify significant factors (i.e. AM, holding cost, lead time, response time, demand amount, etc.) affecting the performance of the studied retailer supply chain. Results show that utilising AM in such a network can prove beneficial, and where the reactive policy contributes significantly to the network performance metrics. Practically, this work has important managerial implications in defining the most appropriate policies to achieve optimisation of supply network operations and resilience with the aid of AM, especially in times of turbulence and uncertainty.
Open Access
Addressing international mobility confusion - developing definitions and differentiations for self-initiated and assigned expatriates as well as migrants
(Taylor & Francis, 2014-01-14) Andresen, Maike; Bergdolt, Franziska; Margenfeld, Jil; Dickmann, Michael
The literature on international human resource management indicates a growing array of different forms of international work experiences such as assigned and self-initiated expatriation. However, the criteria for demarcation of these different forms and the term ‘migrant' are often unclear which leads to an unfortunate lack of comparability of research and a potential confusion for readers. Based on the sociological, psychological and economics literature, this article reviews and synthesizes the existing definitions of the three terms in the current research. A qualitative content analysis and the Rubicon model [Heckhausen, H., and Gollwitzer, P.M. (1987), ‘Thought Contents and Cognitive Functioning in Motivational Versus Volitional States of Mind', Motivation and Emotion, 1, 101-120.] are used as a theoretical base to structure the findings. The paper creates a criteria-based definition and differentiation of terms and then develops a typology of four different types of expatriates: assigned expatriates, interself- initiated expatriates, intra-self-initiated expatriates and drawn expatriates. Implications for management as well as for future research are outlined.
Open Access
Adopting Industry 4.0 by leveraging organisational factors
(Elsevier, 2021-12-21) Kumar Srivastava, Deepak; Kumar, Vikas; Yetkin Ekren, Banu; Upadhyay, Arvind; Tyagi, Mrinal; Kumari, Archana
The manufacturing sector needs to focus on social, environmental and technological factors to integrate Industry 4.0 in production planning, logistics and supply chains. Technical Education Institutes (TEIs) can play a key role in achieving this ambition as they are responsible for the workforce of the digital future. To this end, a learning factory is often referred to as a realistic manufacturing environment. However, the existing research regarding the successful adoption of a learning factory based on Industry 4.0 is scant in the literature. We, therefore, aim to address this research gap by examining key factors that affect the decision to adopt Industry 4.0 in technical education institutes. We have adopted the theoretical lens of the Technology-Organisation-Environment (T-O-E) framework to study industry 4.0 adoption in TEIs. The findings based on 134 valid responses from TEIs in India indicate that the organisational dimension is critical in determining whether or not to adopt Industry 4.0. Our study shows that top management support, internal resources, and the capabilities of the teaching staff are vital for the adoption of Industry 4.0. Additionally, our findings indicate that significant differences exist between public and private TEIs concerning the adoption of Industry 4.0.
Open Access
The adoption of consortium B2B e-marketplaces: An exploratory study
(Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam., 2007-03-01T00:00:00Z) White, Andrew; Daniel, Elizabeth; Ward, John; Wilson, Hugh
Despite the considerable number of electronic B2B marketplaces formed and the benefits cited as arising from their use, many have gone out of business. This exploratory study seeks to provide a qualitative exposition of the specific factors influencing the adoption of consortium-owned B2B e-marketplaces. The study is based upon case studies of twelve companies trading through three different consortium B2B e-marketplaces. Twenty-six specific factors are identified and their impact on adoption is discussed. The identification of a significant number of factors specific to this domain provides real meaning and depth to those interested in the future of e-marketplaces. In particular, the factors identified provide those that operate such e-marketplaces with a detailed and actionable understanding of the issues they should address in order to survive, and provide users or potential users of consortium marketplaces with a practical framework with which to assess individual marketplaces. The factors can also form the basis of future studies of other types of marketplaces and of quantitative studies of adoption.
Open Access
Advancing social procurement: an institutional work perspective
(Emerald, 2023-11-06) Razmdoost, Kamran; Alinaghian, Leila
Purpose: The adoption of social procurement, the emerging practice of using a firm's spending power to generate social value, requires buying firms to navigate conflicts of institutional logics. Adopting an institutional work perspective, this study aims to investigate how buying firms change their existing procurement institutions to adopt and advance social procurement. Design/methodology/approach: The authors conducted an in-depth case study of a social procurement initiative in the UK. This case study comprised of 16 buying firms that were actively participating in the social procurement initiative at the time of data collection (2020–2021). The data were largely captured through a set of 41 semi-structured interviews. Findings: Four types of institutional work were observed: reducing institutional conflicts, crossing institutional boundaries, legitimising institutional change and spreading the new institutional logic. These different types of institutional work appeared in a sequential way. Originality/value: This study contributes to various strands of literature investigating the role of procurement in generating value and benefits within societies, adopting an institutional lens to investigate the buying firms' purposeful actions to change procurement institutions. Secondly, this study complements the existing literature investigating the conflicts of institutional logics by illustrating the ways firms address such institutional conflicts when adopting and advancing social procurement. Finally, this work contributes to the recently emerging research on institutional work that examines the creation and establishment of new institutions by considering the existing procurement institutions in the examination of institutional work.
Open Access
The adverse consequences of quantitative easing (QE): international capital flows and corporate debt growth in China
(Oxford University Press, 2024-03-23) Maiani, Stefano; Lamla, Michael; Wood, Geoffrey; Yvonne, Ehrstein
The economic institutionalist literature often suggests that sub-optimal institutional arrangements impart unique distortions in China, and excessive corporate debt is a symptom of this condition. However, lax monetary policies after the global financial crisis, and specifically, quantitative easing have led to concerns about debt bubbles under a wide range of institutional regimes. This study draws on data from Chinese listed firms, supplemented by numerous macroeconomic control variables, to isolate the effect of international capital flows from other drivers of firm leverage. We conclude that the rise in, and distribution of, Chinese corporate debt can partly be ascribed to the effects of monetary policy outside of China and that Chinese institutional features amplify these effects. Whilst Chinese firms are affected by developments in the global financial ecosystem, domestic institutional realities and distortions may unevenly add their own particular effects, providing further support for and extending the variegated capitalism literature.