Living lab methodology as an assessment tool for mass customization

Mass customization has been regularly used as a growth strategy during the last decades. The strength of this approach stems from offering products adjusted to customers' individual needs, resulting in added value. The latter resides in the word 'custom,' implying unique and utilitarian products allowing for self-expression of the consumer. Researchers and practitioners however predominantly focused on the company's internal processes to optimize mass customization, often resulting in market failure. As a response, a framework with five factors determining the success of mass customization was developed. Additionally, Living Lab methodologies have been used to improve innovation contexts that were too closed. This paper will fill a gap in the literature by demonstrating that the integration of the five-factor framework in the Living Lab methodology is well suited to determine the possible success or failure of a mass-customized product in the market by means of a single case study

Factors impacting knowledge transfer success in information systems outsourcing

Despite increased research interest on knowledge transfer in information systems (IS) outsourcing, the field still lacks sound and holistic understanding of the key factors influencing knowledge transfer success. The present paper attempts to provide a synthesis of existing theoretical perspectives and empirical findings related to the factors that facilitate or hamper knowledge transfer success in IS outsourcing. The data collection method is discussed and the key findings are presented. Conclusion is drawn and further research is suggested

Organizational support for intrapreneurship and its interaction with human capital to enhance innovative performance

This study explores the impacts of the internal supportive environment for intrapreneurial activities on firms’ innovative performance and the moderating role of human capital in this relationship by making use of a questionnaire study covering 184 manufacturing firms in Turkey. As for the individual direct effects of the dimensions of Organizational Support (OS), Management Support for Idea Generation and Tolerance for Risk Taking are found to exert positive effects on innovative performance. Availability of a Performance Based Reward System and Free Time have no impact on innovativeness, while Work Discretion has a negative one. As for the role of Human Capital (HC), it is found to be an important driver of innovative performance especially when the OS is limited. However, when the levels of both HC and OS are high, innovative performance does not further increase, probably reaching a temporary performance ceiling. Managerial and further research implications are provided

Manufacturing Transition in Local Economies: A Regional Adjustment Model

This paper addresses changes in capital formation by testing the importance of location factors with respect to the rate of establishment births and deaths in U.S. manufacturing, 2000–2004. A theoretical concept called “localized creative destruction” is tested as a mechanism to explain the dynamics impacting the spatial distribution of manufacturing establishment birth and death rates. While no support of this process was found, results identify a convergence process occurring where counties with high initial birth/death rates have smaller changes in firm birth and death rates. The interpretation is that counties become more equally competitive in terms of firm formation dynamics in lieu of successful counties increasing their lead in the short run. This is potentially relevant to policymakers and economic development practitioners who are concerned with business retention and the impact of new manufacturing establishments on their existing base.location determinants, manufacturing, adjustment models, Community/Rural/Urban Development, L60, R11, R12,

Aligning Evidence-Based Practice With Translational Research: Opportunities for Clinical Practice Research

Magnet(R) and other organizations investing resources in evidence-based practice (EBP) are ideal laboratories for translational nursing research. Translational research, the study of implementation of evidence into practice, provides a unique opportunity to leverage local EBP work for maximum impact. Aligning EBP projects with rigorous translational research can efficiently meet both EBP and research requirements for Magnet designation or redesignation, inform clinical practice, and place organizations at the leading edge of practice-based knowledge development for the nursing discipline

Identifying Opportunities to Improve Competitiveness through Innovation Illustrated on the Example of Hungary

Due to the economic downturn there is an increased need for companies and economies to outperform their competitors and gain sustainable competitive adventage. However, competiveness is a complex concept. There are a number of definitions and methodologies available to define and measure competitiveness. This study examines the data of a widely referred competitiveness report issued by the World Economic Forum annually. The analysis focuses on how innovation contribute to the overall competitiveness, what are the direct and indirect influencing factors of in novation and how the overall competitiveness may be improved through improving the innovation related indicators. The process is illustrated on the example of Hungary in the context of its’ EU and regional competitive position, with the purpose to identify areas of opportunities to improve national competiveness through innovation

Incorporating service quality tools into Kansei Engineering in services: A case study of Indonesian tourists

Due to market dynamics and challenges, it is imperative for companies to put their concern on strategic marketing orientation. In facts, products and services of similar quality are ubiquitous in today’s global market. Basically, functionality and usability alone are no longer prominent success factors in product and service innovation because customers today concern themselves more on satisfying their emotions than merely their cognition. Kansei Engineering (KE) has shown its superiority in investigating and modelling customer emotion (“Kansei” in Japanese) for product development. In dealing with customer needs, service quality tools such as quality function deployment (QFD) and the Kano model, have been applied extensively. But none have been able to incorporate and model customer’s emotional needs. Some attention has been given to investigate this but, thus far, there is no formal methodology that can account for customer emotional needs in service design. To fill this niche, this study proposed an integrative framework of KE incorporating the Kano model and QFD applied to services. This study extended the work by Hartono and Tan (2011) and Hartono et al. (2012) and presented a survey on luxury hotel services involving more than a hundred Indonesian tourists as the subject of study. Luxury hotels are reported to have greater strength of emotion than any other hotel segment. This work confirmed that emotion is to be more important than cognition in impacting overall customer satisfaction. Practically, it gives insight on which service attributes deserve more attention with regard to their impact on customer emotion. Indonesian tourists shared a common response to the Kansei word “elegant” which correlates with their common cultural dimension of “power distance”. Performing a Kansei evaluation to understanding cultural backgrounds may yield valuable insights for international tourist marketing strategies and companies’ business sustainability

Organization of international market introduction: Can cooperation between central units and local product management influence success

When organizing international market introductions multinational companies face coordination problems between the leading central organizational unit and local product management. Based on the assumption that international market introductions are initiated and managed by a central unit we examine the impact of cooperation between the central unit and local product management on success. Our survey of 51 international market introductions reveals that the quality of the cooperation with local product management indeed has a positive influence on success. Yet cooperation itself is not sufficient - to make international market introductions successful local product management needs to be actively involved in the decision making process as well. --