An Empirical Study of Operational Performance Parity Following Enterprise System Deployment

This paper presents an empirical investigation into whether the implementation of packaged Enterprise Systems (ES) leads to parity in operational performance. Performance change and parity in operational performance are investigated in three geographically defined operating regions of a single firm. Order lead time, the elapsed time between receipt of an order and shipment to a customer, is used as a measure of operational performance. A single ES installation was deployed across all regions of the subject firm\u27s operations.Findings illustrate parity as an immediate consequence of ES deployment. However, differences in rates of performance improvement following deployment eventually result in significant (albeit smaller than pre-deployment) performance differences. An additional consequence of deployment seems to be an increased synchronization of performance across the formerly independent regions

Organizational forgetting in higher education

This paper compiles and unifies the literature about turnover, organizational unlearning and especially, organizational forgetting. From this departure, the researchers propose a pilot study: An inductive research in order to identify the factors that affect organizational forgetting. To achieve this goal, the researchers have carried out a literature review of the topic in depth and an empirical study based on the analysis of a set of interviews in the field of university education, more specifically, in a whole university department. This paper presents the methodology, the results and the conclusions of this pilot study. The final objective of this research is to present a framework about the factors that influence organizational forgetting when turnover takes place.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Livelihood Disruption and Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship as Technology Adoption A Comparison between Kentucky and Shaanxi Farmers

In the US, The Tobacco Transition Payment Program, also called the "tobacco buy-out," helps tobacco quota holders and producers transition to the free market. In China, the transaction of Land Use Rights providing farmers’ ability to buy or sell Land Use Rights has been seriously considered by the Chinese government. The uncertainty in household income and changes in economic environment during the US Tobacco Transition Payment Program and the Chinese Land Use Rights Regime lead many individuals into entrepreneurial activities. Entrepreneurship often means making changes in livelihood activities that involve substantial risks to income. While the rewards may be substantial, transactions costs may make decisions irreversible. This paper draws a comparison between entrepreneurship and technology adoption. Adopting a new production technology also involves substantial risks. The economics of technology adoption is a well developed literature with many accepted and testable models. Most prominent are the theories of learning by using and learning by doing. We review the technology adoption literature, drawing out lessons for entrepreneurship research. We then apply an ‘entrepreneurship as technology adoption’ model to a unique dataset collected in Kentucky, US and in Shaanxi province, China. Using a sample of 702 Kentucky farmers at the time of the buyout and 730 Chinese farmers, we test several of the implications of this model and compare significant results between Kentucky and Shaanxi farmers. This study finds that both farmers in Kentucky and Shaanxi with a strong social network are more likely to become entrepreneurs. Kentucky farmers with low income are more likely to start new businesses. The finding supports the “push” hypothesis as farmers with low income are pushed into starting a new business. The human capital factor is strongly associated with Shaanxi farmer’s entrepreneurial decision.Farm Management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Learning Curve? Which One?

Learning curves have been studied for a long time. These studies provided strong support to the hypothesis that, as organizations produce more of a product, unit costs of production decrease at a decreasing rate (see Argote, 1999 for a comprehensive review of learning curve studies). But the organizational mechanisms that lead to these results are still underexplored. We know some drivers of learning curves (ADLER; CLARK, 1991; LAPRE et al., 2000), but we still lack a more detailed view of the organizational processes behind those curves. Through an ethnographic study, I bring a comprehensive account of the first year of operations of a new automotive plant, describing what was taking place on in the assembly area during the most relevant shifts of the learning curve. The emphasis is then on how learning occurs in that setting. My analysis suggests that the overall learning curve is in fact the result of an integration process that puts together several individual ongoing learning curves in different areas throughout the organization. In the end, I propose a model to understand the evolution of these learning processes and their supporting organizational mechanisms

Strategic Knowledge Measurement and Management

Knowledge and intellectual capital are now recognized as vital resources for organizational survival and competitive advantage. A vast array of knowledge measures has evolved, spanning many disciplines. This chapter reviews knowledge measures focusing on groups of individuals (such as teams, business and organizations), as they reflect the stock or flow of knowledge, as well as enabling processes that enhance knowledge stocks and flows. The chapter emphasizes the importance of organizational value chains, pivotal talent pools and the link between knowledge and competitive success, in understanding the significance of today’s knowledge measures, and opportunities for future research and practice to enhance them

Learning and Forgetting Curves in Software Development: Does Type of Knowledge Matter?

What type of knowledge, among domain, technology, and methodology knowledge, is most influential to the performance of software development? We answer to this question by empirically investigating the learning and forgetting curves in software development using an extensive archival data set of software development projects in an IT service company. We find that prior experiences with the same methodology or technology have a stronger impact on software project performance than those in the same application domain. Furthermore, our results show that methodology knowledge is more easily forgotten than domain or technology knowledge. Our findings provide managerial implications not only to the development of knowledge and skills, but also to other organizational issues in software development such as project team staffing and career development

The role of religious experience in the knowledge transfer process

The importance given to knowledge in relation to business success has never been so great as it is today and there is a substantive amount of important and informed studies reflecting this. Nonetheless, informed approaches by prominent authors generally focus on knowledge transfer mechanisms and the efficiency of these mechanisms to support and deliver competitive advantage (Nonaka, 1994; Grant, 1996; Argote and Ingram, 2000; Alavi and Leidner, 2001). An overarching objective of understanding efficient knowledge transfer is therefore a central caveat for businesses wishing to achieve success and maintain competitive advantage since it is clear that any significant degradation of efficiency will directly affect this objective. Many studies do recognised the creation of knowledge as a significant factor in determining how effectively a business develops, and knowledge creation, theorised by (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995), is used as a baseline for numerous historic and current studies. To date however, there have been few studies which denote the affect of socio-cultural or religious phenomena within a transfer scenario as significant, and how this interaction may affect the outcome of the knowledge shared or exchanged in a business context. This paper therefore examines how, in a business context, knowledge transfer is influenced by perspectives given to the knowledge. This rational is deliberate since the transfer of knowledge is rarely a simple unproblematic event, (Argote et al., 2000). In this regards, we look at a significant amount of literature and research which has been constructed in a bid to understand both the problematic nature surrounding the mechanics of the transfer sequence and definition of the term ‘knowledge’ to support the establishment of meaningful baselines. The paper then summarises these theoretical baselines into segmented contexts with deliberate intention

The role of religious experience in the knowledge transfer process

The importance given to knowledge in relation to business success has never been so great as it is today and there is a substantive amount of important and informed studies reflecting this. Nonetheless, informed approaches by prominent authors generally focus on knowledge transfer mechanisms and the efficiency of these mechanisms to support and deliver competitive advantage (Nonaka, 1994; Grant, 1996; Argote and Ingram, 2000; Alavi and Leidner, 2001). An overarching objective of understanding efficient knowledge transfer is therefore a central caveat for businesses wishing to achieve success and maintain competitive advantage since it is clear that any significant degradation of efficiency will directly affect this objective. Many studies do recognised the creation of knowledge as a significant factor in determining how effectively a business develops, and knowledge creation, theorised by (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995), is used as a baseline for numerous historic and current studies. To date however, there have been few studies which denote the affect of socio-cultural or religious phenomena within a transfer scenario as significant, and how this interaction may affect the outcome of the knowledge shared or exchanged in a business context. This paper therefore examines how, in a business context, knowledge transfer is influenced by perspectives given to the knowledge. This rational is deliberate since the transfer of knowledge is rarely a simple unproblematic event, (Argote et al., 2000). In this regards, we look at a significant amount of literature and research which has been constructed in a bid to understand both the problematic nature surrounding the mechanics of the transfer sequence and definition of the term ‘knowledge’ to support the establishment of meaningful baselines. The paper then summarises these theoretical baselines into segmented contexts with deliberate intention

The influence of absorptive capacity and technology park services on the relationship between social capital and technology transfer performance

The establishment of technology parks serves as a medium to promote the technology transfer processes in the high technology sector that plays a role to catalyze the productivity and growth of the national economy. Previous studies revealed that although there is anticipation of technology transfer activities among the companies within the technology parks, there is a limitation in the ability of local knowledge workers to produce new technology. Social capital and absorptive capacity were highlighted as essential in ensuring the success of technology transfer. This study examined the impact of technology park services on the relationships among social capital, absorptive capacity and technology transfer performance. It also focused on the influence of absorptive capacity on the association between social capital and technology transfer performance. A theoretical framework was constructed based on the perspective of the knowledge-based view theory to describe the relationships among these variables. Data was collected through a survey of 358 high technology companies operating in four selected technology parks in Malaysia. Out of the 97 questionnaires returned only 90 were usable bringing the response rate to about 25%. Using descriptive and inferential statistics, the data was tested and proven to support the research framework. Pearson correlation and regression analyses established that both social capital and absorptive capacity are essential to ensure high performance of technology transfer. There are mediating effects of absorptive capacity on the relationships between the dimensions of social capital and technology transfer performance. The results also demonstrated that technology park services have moderating effects on the strength of the relationships between the dimensions of social capital and technology transfer performance; as well as between absorptive capacity and technology transfer performanc

Source of Cost Reduction in Solar Photovoltaics

The price of solar panels has fallen rapidly over the last few decades. Using an extensive dataset of prices, costs, output, sales and technical characteristics of firms in the solar industry during 2005-2011, this paper investigates the factors that have contributed to the decline in costs and prices. While previous studies have attributed learning-by-doing and static scale economics as the main drivers of cost reduction, we find that these do not have any significant effect on cost once four other factors are taken into account, namely, (i) reduction in the cost of a principal raw material, (ii) increasing presence of solar panel manufacturers from China, (iii) technological innovations, and (iv) increase in investment at the industry level. Together, these suggest that innovations in the upstream industries that supply the solar panel industry with raw materials and capital equipment have been important drivers of technological progress in the solar panel industry