School of Management (SoM)

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Open Access
Additive manufacturing in pharmaceutical supply chain
(Logistics Research Network and CILT, 2023-09-08) Li, Wenqi; Ekren, Banu Y.; Aktas, Emel
Purpose: A resilient and efficient pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC) ensures access to essential medicines during pandemics and other emergencies. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for continued investment and innovation in this area, and concerted efforts by all stakeholders are necessary to achieve this goal. Additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, can enhance PSC resilience and performance, reduce waste, and improve environmental sustainability. 3D printing can help address drug shortages, patient-specific dosages, and personalised medicine in the pharmaceutical industry. Moreover, 3D printing technology enables local production of drugs and medical devices, reducing transportation costs, carbon footprint, and lead times, transforming how products are designed, produced, and delivered to end-users. This study aims to investigate the multifaceted benefits of 3D printing technology on the PSC, including its potential to streamline processes, increase SC efficiency, enhance responsiveness, and improve sustainability. Additionally, the study seeks to identify the interrelationships between these benefits and how they can contribute to the overall success of the PSC. Research Approach: To achieve this, we comprehensively analyse the potential benefits and shortcomings of 3D printing technology on the PSC by compiling relevant literature and internet sources. Findings and Originality: The study identifies ways in which 3D printing can positively impact the PSC, including simplifying the supply chain (SC) process, localising production, and transitioning from make-to-stock to make-to-order production. These changes can significantly impact inventory levels, increasing SC sustainability, efficiency, responsiveness, and resilience. However, this study also identifies unique shortcomings and future research opportunities associated with implementing 3D printing in the PSC, providing a holistic view of the technology's potential impact. Research Impact: The research highlights the potential of 3D printing to revolutionise the PSC by enabling a more streamlined and sustainable manufacturing process. Practical Impact: The study's findings offer the pharmaceutical industry insights on how to tackle SC shortcomings such as supplier shortages, fluctuating demand, and short response times. As a result, this study offers a valuable resource for both practitioners and researchers who wish to leverage 3D printing technology to enhance the PSC's performance and understand the technology's impact on the PSC.
Open Access
Addressing the food supply chain challenges for UK disadvantaged communities
(The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, 2023-09-09) Sawyerr, Emmanuel; Bourlakis, Michael
Introduction: In pursuit of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), many developed countries have invested various resources to address hunger as specified under the UN SDG2: Zero Hunger. Even in the West, there is a growing population of disadvantaged persons (such as single-parent households, low-income families, lone and vulnerable adults, the physically and mentally disabled, among others) who disproportionately suffer from diet-related ill-health, food insecurity and food poverty. The UK is no different. Despite various practical and research interventions, the role of logistics and supply chain management in addressing these challenges in the UK has been underexplored. Consequently, this research investigates the supply chains that deliver food to the disadvantaged to identify the processes, infrastructure and challenges, and to highlight ongoing attempts and propositions for addressing these. The paper starts with a literature review of food waste and surplus food redistribution and food supply chain mapping in the UK. This is followed by a discussion of the data collection and analysis approaches for mapping the food supply chain serving disadvantaged consumers. The findings and discussions section presents an overview of the processes and infrastructure in the supply chain and presents recommendations for the various actors and stakeholders for process optimisation. The paper concludes with the research and practical implications.
Open Access
Advancing temporal organizing: the case for a practising school in project-based organizing
(Academy of Management, 2022-07-06) Antonacopoulou, Elena P.; Turner, Neil; Altabbaa, Omar; Michaelides, Roula; Schuster, Andrew
Navigating complexity remains one of the key pragmatic challenges that call for temporal organizing as a response. Whilst project-based organizing is established as an approach integral to deploying temporal organizing we still know little about the lived experiences of project managers as they enact it. It, therefore, merits academic study and attention to analyze further how project-based organizing is practised and why it is practiced in unique ways that offer insights into the practical judgements that underpin project managers’ action choices. We present findings from a study investigating the lived experience of 43 project managers from key sectors in countries around the globe. We use the empirical findings of this qualitative study to show how project managers embody and not only enact the dynamics of temporary organizing in the ways they navigate project complexities and form their judgements on an ongoing basis. This process of practising is marked by leaps of faith that can mark new measures of project success beyond the traditional parameters of project completion on time and budget. This paper makes a compelling case for a new school of thought in advancing temporal organizing that we will call the ‘Practising School’, which informs our understanding of the dynamics of project-based organizing and offers insights into how practitioners navigate the ongoing project complexities inherent in project-based organizing. We pave the way for advancing a practice-based perspective for studying projectification and extend current conceptualizations of temporal organizing.
Open Access
The anatomy of account-based marketing - a conceptualisation of strategic dimensions
(American Marketing Association, 2022-06-11) Mullen, Adam; Marcos Cuevas, Javier; Theoharakis, Vasilis
Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise an emerging B2B strategy known as account-based marketing (ABM). ABM is a mid-to-long-term strategy deployed by enterprise organisations to target, engage, and grow high-potential accounts. Design/Methodology/Approach — A mixture of academic and practitioner literature has been synthesised to create a tentative conceptual model of ABM. Findings — In ABM, digital technologies can be used to scale the engagement process, allowing selling teams to switch from targeting one account to many using pooled intelligence, smart resources, and automation. Originality/Value — This paper presents a conceptual model of ABM, whilst providing a foundation for future research.
Open Access
Balancing the exploitation-exploration paradox during major geopolitical disruptions: the importance of supply chain structural ambidexterity
(Academy of Management, 2023-07-24) Moradlou, Hamid; Skipworth, Heather; Bals, Lydia; Aktas, Emel; Roscoe, Samuel
We answer the question “How do companies develop and deploy supply chain structural ambidexterity to effectively manage geopolitical disruptions?” by investigating three significant geopolitical disruptions: Brexit, the US-China trade war, and the Covid-19 pandemic. We use an inductive theory-elaboration approach to build on Organisational Learning Theory and Dunning’s eclectic paradigm of international production. We conducted 29 elite interviews with senior supply chain executives across 14 multi-national manufacturing firms and validated the analysis by triangulating secondary data sources, including standard operating procedures, annual reports, and organizational protocols. When faced with significant geopolitical disruptions, companies develop and deploy supply chain structural ambidexterity by (1) developing parallel supply chains; (2) significantly reconfiguring their supplier networks, and (3) restructuring their internal sub-units. We contribute to Organisational Learning Theory and Dunning’s eclectic paradigm by empirically examining how companies reconfigure supply chains to pursue exploration and exploitation activities in response to geopolitical disruptions. During significant geopolitical disruptions, managers make decisions in tight timeframes. Therefore, we propose three types of supply chain structural ambidexterity based on the transition time available. We conclude with a managerial framework to assist firms in developing supply chain structural ambidexterity in response to geopolitical disruptions.
Open Access
Barriers to transitioning towards smart circular economy: A systematic literature review
(Springer, 2021-09-18) Lobo, Ana; Hofmann Trevisan, Adriana; Liu, Qinglan; Yang, Miying; Mascarenhas, Janaina
This paper defines smart circular economy as an industrial system that uses digital technologies to implement circular strategies such as reduce, reuse, remanufacturing and recycling. The smart circular economy has been regarded as a promising approach to enhance sustainability. However, barriers exist in various stages of the transition towards smart circular economy. This paper employs a systematic literature review to identify the main barriers that prevent companies from this transition. We adopt a change management perspective to study this transition and propose that it follows a classical three-step process of organizational change: unfreeze, move, and refreeze. We identified 24 barriers in five categories: finance, management, infrastructure, network, and technology. Then, we placed the barriers into the three steps to further investigate how they affect each stage of the transition. Our analysis suggests that: (a) stakeholders play a central role in the process; (b) companies often have financial issues in the early steps of change; (c) technological challenges emerge in the advanced steps. The findings can help diagnose companies’ current status, identify solutions to tackle the barriers and predict future challenges.
Open Access
Big data applications in food supply chains
(AIP Publishing, 2024-04-09) Aktas, Emel
Food supply chains are characterized by innovation, not only in products but also in processes. This paper aims to identify big data applications in the food and drink sector and present its findings as a state-of-the-art literature review. Academic databases were searched using ‘food’ or ‘drink’ and ‘big data’ keywords. Scholarly publications from 2015 onward are identified and presented in broad categories of demand prediction and retail operations optimization. The review recognized big data applications as a great opportunity for food supply chains. The applications aimed 1) to understand the customer base and inform marketing communications strategy, 2) to predict demand and organize retail operations to meet this demand, and 3) to optimize prices, assortment, and inventories based on demand patterns. Applications in this review focused more on descriptive and predictive analytics than prescriptive analytics, possibly due to the emergent nature of these applications. Descriptive analytics applications focused on capturing data, summarizing the status quo, and developing customer segments which can then be managed using varying marketing strategies. Predictive analytics applications focused on demand prediction with novel approaches proposed by the machine learning community. Prescriptive analytics applications aimed at promotion optimization and pricing for profit maximization. Cognitive analytics applications extracted customer reviews from online stores to inform which products should be marketed in what way. The review offers managerial insights on circumstances where big data analytics could prove beneficial. Managerial implications suggest that data integrators enable big data applications by ensuring the data collected are accurate, timely, and complete to inform descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytical models.
Open Access
Blockchain implementation in the food supply chain: a systematic literature review
(University of Warwick, 2020-06-30) Vu, Nam; Ghadge, Abhijeet; Bourlakis, Michael
This study explores the literature on the implementation of Blockchain in Food Supply Chain Management (FSCM) and attempts to disseminate key insights along with potential directions for future research. A systematic and rigorous process of searching and scanning resulted in 53 peer-reviewed papers for the review. Findings from the selected papers include drivers and barriers to the adoption of the technology, current applications of Blockchain, and typical structure of the system in FSCM. Suggestions for future researches include empirical works to examine Blockchain implementation at supply chain level and influential factors to the implementation process.
Open Access
Building and Sustaining Learning Networks.
(2003-06) Bessant, John; Barnes, Justin; Morris, Mike; Kaplinsky, Raphael
Research suggests that there are a number of potential advantages to learning in some form of network which include being able to benefit from other’s experience, being able to reduce the risks in experimentation, being able to engage in challenging reflection and in making use of peer group support. Examples of such configurations can be found in regional clusters, in sector groupings, in heterogeneous groups sharing a common topic of interest, in user groups concerned with learning around a particular technology or application and in supply chain learning. Although there is clear potential in such shared learning and some evidence of its being achieved in a few cases it is clear that learning in such configurations does not take place automatically. This paper addresses some of the management challenges involved in setting up and nurturing learning networks. It draws particularly on case examples of learning networks in operation in the automotive components and timber products industries in South Africa.
Open Access
The capabilities for implementing key account management: a systematic review
(American Marketing Association, 2022-06-11) Sun, Liang; Marcos Cuevas, Javier; Prior, Daniel
Purpose – To identify the capabilities that facilitate KAM Implementation Design/methodology/approach –A systematic review of 90 studies published from 1990 through to 2021 is conducted. A descriptive analysis and a thematic synthesis are presented. Findings – The paper draws a distinction between KAM formulation and implementation. A framework is developed that classifies the resources and capabilities as tangible and intangible resources, operational, relational, and dynamic capabilities. Originality/value –This study refines previous classifications of tangible and intangible KAM resources and identifies relational capabilities as uniquely related to KAM implementation.
Open Access
Characteristics of Supply Relationships and related People Management Issues
(2003-07-01T00:00:00Z) Koulikoff-Souviron, Marie; Harrison, Alan
A large body of research exists on inter-organisational relationships and related concepts such as partnerships and strategic alliances. This is sometimes criticised for too much attention paid to the antecedents rather than to the management stage. Thus, Spekman et al. (1998) state: “It would appear that while academics purport to understand the concept of alliance formation, the practice of alliance management continues to pose a significant challenge” (p.7
Open Access
Collaborative Leadership Learning; Developing Facilitation Skills for Collaborative Learning in Leadership Learning Groups.
(2003-06) James, Kim; Mann, Jasbir; Creasy, Jane
many organisations working for example, with less hierarchical structures, with cross- organisational partners, or in professional environments. Leadership at all levels must be supported by leaders in top executive positions who develop their own capabilities both as leaders and in their role of leading the learning of leadership throughout their organisations. Their ideas of their role in leading learning will be shaped by their own leadership development experiences. Collaborative learning for leadership may be a model of learning that reflects the new leadership required; it may enable leaders to develop their own leadership capability in such a way that they feel enabled to work with others on their leadership development.
Open Access
Communicating Philanthropy: Multiple Representations to Multiple Stakeholders?
(2003) Moir, Lance
Why do firms engage in Corporate Philanthropy? What role does communication play in the giving activity? This paper examines the accounts given by 100 large firms in the UK for their involvement with the Arts. Formal content analysis is undertaken of annual reports, social accounts, websites and press releases. It finds that firms speak most of wanting to be a good corporate citizen and attend to communities. There is little overt marketing in contrast to other studies that find that corporate philanthropy can be aligned to advertising. This research finds support for strategic philanthropy, but that the strategic intent may be more about meeting a form of social contract or securing a licence to operate. This would support the stakeholder and political models of giving rather than neo-classical and altruistic models. This paper adds to the literature by combining the corporate philanthropy and social accounting literatures. The ability to communicate may be an important part of the motivation for corporate giving. Paper presented at the 2003 Academy of Management Conference
Open Access
Comparative life-cycle assessment of novel steel section design with wire arc additive manufacturing
(Springer, 2025-02-22) Arrè, Lidiana; Pagone, Emanuele; Laghi, Vittoria; Martina, Filomeno; Palermo, Michele; Lazou, Adamantia; Meskers, Christina; Olivetti, Elsa; Diaz, Fabian; Gökelma, Mertol
Additive manufacturing, particularly Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM), is emerging as a promising technology in the construction sector due to its potential to reduce environmental impacts. Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a crucial methodology for evaluating the environmental footprint of products and processes that can be carried out from raw material extraction to the end of production, commonly referred to as “cradle-to-gate” analysis. This study focuses on the environmental impact of 3D-printed steel elements using WAAM technology for construction applications. Specifically, the conventional production of Circular Hollow Section (CHS) steel components was compared with the innovative production of Tubular Sandwich Section (TSS) steel components using WAAM. The analysis provides a comparison of the carbon footprint associated to both production methods, highlighting in detail the emission factors associated with each step of the WAAM production. The results highlighted that WAAM not only offers design and structural benefits to build complex-shaped geometries but also contributes to more sustainable construction practices with a lower “cradle-to-gate” carbon footprint due to the reduced material consumption associated with material efficiency.
Open Access
Conducting a practice-based study in a novel context: Methodological challenges
(British Academy of Management, 2017-09-07) Bond, Angela; Pilbeam, Colin; Turner, Neil
The methodological issue addressed in this paper is how to conduct a practice-based study in a novel context. We present and build on Korica, Nicolini and Johnson's (2015) proposal to explore managerial work from a practice perspective, and to understand the implications of temporary organisation for management practice (Bakker et al., 2016). We present an argument for using Schatzki’s (2002) site ontology and summarise the key features that are relevant to, and being applied in, a current empirical study. Using the study as an illustration we discuss the methodological implications of a practice-based study and conclude with recommendations for research.
Open Access
Configuring knowledge in practice-grounded research networks: a Contemporary Example
(2002-08) Partington, David; Young, Malcolm
Management scholars have an opportunity to play two important roles in helping to address the practice-grounded management research agenda. First, they are wellplaced to act as cross-sector integrators of management knowledge within networks of organizations which are faced with similar management problems but which are otherwise dissimilar and unconnected. Second, they potentially have access to a wide range of advanced or specialized research skills, in particular the development and application of innovative quantitative and qualitative methods to new problems. In this paper we describe a research initiative that aims to combine these two roles in the pursuit of knowledge about the characteristics of competent strategy implementers. Taking the perspective of strategic programs, we highlight important theoretical differences between programs and rationalistic, reductionist, generic approaches to project management which, for many management professionals, are the principal source of program management knowledge. We argue that a variant of the interpretive research approach known as phenomenography may be combined with traditional, rigorous grounded theorizing to answer important practically-oriented questions about program management competence, with the ultimate aim of generating useful knowledge about the selection and development of strategic program managers in contrasting contexts.
Open Access
Continuous manufacturing and product-process archetypes: implications for supply network design in Pharma
(Production and Operations Management Society, 2013-05-31) Harrington, Tomás Seosamh; Alinaghian, Leila; Singh Srai, Jagjit
Continuous Manufacturing has enabled the potential for significant step changes within the Pharmaceutical industry. However, adoption rates remain in the range of 5%. This research examines the challenges and implications of the shift from ‘batch’ to ‘continuous’ processing in terms of e.g. product variety and supply network design.
Open Access
Corporate Social Responsibility in the Board Room: The Need for a Coherent Business Case.
(2003) Barratt, Ruth; Korac-Kakabadse, Nada; Barratt, Mark
Much has been made in recent years of the advantages to business of being a good corporate citizen; numerous studies now show a positive link between financial performance and ethical behavior. There is however little work which explores the role of the board and in particular how Non Executive or Outside Director (NEDs) affect corporate behavior. This study into the role and contribution of the Non Executive Director highlights an interesting dilemma; the majority of work in the boardroom is quantitative in nature. For many boardroom members especially those not working on a day to day basis within the organization, the very complexity of steering a large organization requires that data be presented in an easy to follow numerical format, and that a business case be established for individual projects. As a result of this NEDs are typically uncomfortable with the label CSR, which for them has connotations of simply “giving away profits”. Many NEDs in the study seemed to prefer the term “Corporate Responsibility” which for them implies a more reciprocal approach, whereby the organization establishes projects which then either directly or indirectly provide a straight forward return to the company for example; a company working in Africa establishes a number of HIV programs to ensure a healthy workforce, thereby lowering risk, and in doing so increases political support, raises worker moral and improves corporate reputation.
Open Access
Corporate social responsibility programmes and their impact on business decision making
(2005-12-07T00:00:00Z) Knox, Simon; Maklan, Stan
Based upon an empirical study of CSR programmes across a number of multinational companies, we explore some of the underlying reasons why CSR seems to have a low impact on business decision-making through a validated framework linking CSR programmes with business and social outcomes.
Open Access
Corporate Social Responsibility: Why do CSR Programmes have such a low Impact on Business Decision-Making?
(2007-05-01T00:00:00Z) Knox, Simon; Maklan, Stan
Based upon an empirical study of CSR programmes across a number of multinational companies, we explore some of the underlying reasons why CSR seems to have a low impact on business decision-making through a validated framework linking CSR programmes with business and social outcomes.