Managing Global Product Development Teams: a mixed-methods study of (Knowledge) Governance Mechanisms

Multinational companies (MNCs) have ceased to concentrate their product development activities on their home countries. To deliver innovative products for global markets that meet local customer demands, MNCs increasingly rely on global teams which often combine global product expertise with local market insights. This dissertation seeks to enhance the understanding of managing such teams by exploring the governance mechanisms applied to manage global teams. More specifically, this dissertation (1) enquires about the governance mechanisms applied to govern global product development teams, (2) explores the impact these governance mechanisms have on product development performance, (3) identifies context factors for the governance and performance of global product development teams and (4) derives practical advice for managers of global product development. While this dissertation studies context factors of global product development, it explicitly keeps some of these context factors constant by focusing on global product development teams operating in German-based MNCs from the business-to-business sector. As product development is a knowledge-intense process, governing global product development teams involves governing global knowledge integration. The Knowledge Governance Approach (KGA) which addresses effective knowledge governance therefore provides the theoretic basis for this dissertation. Based on the propositions of the KGA and recent empiric findings on MNC knowledge governance, this dissertation provides a research framework with hypotheses on the links between (a) governance mechanisms, (b) individual absorptive capacity to share knowledge with a global product development team, (c) knowledge integration within a global product development team and (d) performance of global product development projects. Following a mixed-methods research approach, these hypotheses are tested based on qualitative information from interviews with 11 product development expert practitioners and quantitative information from 120 global product development projects. The interview responses are examined using qualitative content analysis in order to refine the research model and better understand the context of global product development teams in German-based MNCs. The enhanced research model is then tested using quantitative data gathered from managers of global product development projects via an online survey. Out of the 476 individuals invited to participate in the survey, 200 project managers replied (42% gross response rate) and provided 120 complete, usable cases (25% adjusted response rate). The cases are analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). This second generation multivariate analysis tool enables the researcher to assess relationships between latent variables which cannot be directly observed. The results indicate that German-based MNCs mostly apply hierarchical governance mechanisms such as top management attention and heavyweight team structures to govern product development teams. Standard process development processes are also commonly applied as a governance mechanism, whereas rewards and socialization-based mechanisms are applied less intensely. When assessing the effectiveness of global product development mechanisms, significant differences can be observed between companies from high-velocity markets which are characterized by faster innovation cycles and higher development spending as compared to companies from moderate-velocity markets which operate in rather mature industry environments: In moderate-velocity markets, heavyweight team structures, top management attention, standard product development processes and rewards, in descending order, prove to be the most effective governance mechanisms for global product development teams as these mechanisms have the highest total effect on project performance. Socialization-based governance is hardly relevant in these markets. On the contrary, companies from high-velocity markets receive the highest effect on product development performance from standard product development processes, socialization-based mechanisms and rewards. The impact of heavyweight team structures is negligible in high-velocity markets, and top management attention even harms development performance. Besides these important findings on the application of governance mechanisms by industry, this dissertation provides insights on the effects of physical, linguistic and cultural distance between the members of global product development teams, and assesses the impact of tacitness on governance mechanisms. This dissertation uses these findings to derive specific advice to managers of global product development in MNCs. It considers a wide range of context factors impacting the governance of global product development teams, thus answering the call for rigor and relevance in management research. Areas for further research based on this dissertation include an expansion of scope to MNCs from different home-countries, to MNCs in the consumer goods markets or to MNC functions other than product development. Given the increasing internationalization of value chains within and across (multinational) companies, this dissertation provides useful insights on governance mechanisms for managers and management scholars.Administración y Dirección de Empresa

Mapping Governance Gaps on the High Seas

A patchwork of international bodies and treaties manage ocean resources and human activity in areas beyond any state's national jurisdiction. However, these governance bodies vary greatly in terms of their mandate, which determines their geographic scope, their objective, the legally binding nature of decisions they adopt, and whether they regulate one or several activities. Their jurisdictions often overlap, but virtually no mechanisms exist to coordinate across geographic areas and sectors. Too often, this piecemeal governance approach leads to the degradation of the environment and its resources, and makes deploying management and conservation tools such as environmental impact assessments and marine protected areas (MPAs), including marine reserves, challenging both legally and logistically.At the 2010 meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity, States committed to conserve 10 percent of marine environments, a target reaffirmed in the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A 2016 study found that in order to successfully conserve healthy ecosystems and help degraded ones recover, 30 percent of the world's ocean needs protection through MPAs, including reserves. In spite of this global need for marine conservation, less than 1 percent of the high seas are fully protected.States have responded to these governance and conservation gaps by committing to develop an "international legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction" through the United Nations. In March 2016, the process began with the first of four meetings in which governments will begin developing an agreement to protect the high seas. With sustained momentum, the United Nations General Assembly could fully adopt a treaty by 2020.The following maps help to illustrate the current governance gaps on the high seas and emphasize the critical need for this treaty. For governance organizations to effectively manage and conserve life on the high seas, three key elements are necessary: regulatory authority, a mandate to conserve the ecosystem as a whole, and the ability to manage across multiple sectors. Although some organizations have two of these three elements, they all lack comprehensive mandates to effectively manage and conserve ecosystems on the high seas

Healthy Universities: Concept, Model and Framework for Applying the Healthy Settings Approach within Higher Education in England

As part of a Department of Health funded project, the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) – working with Manchester Metropolitan University – was commissioned by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), to: - articulate a model for Healthy Universities whereby the healthy settings approach is applied within the higher education sector - produce recommendations for the development and operationalisation of a National Healthy Universities Framework for England - to ensure effective co-ordination of initiatives and propose next steps for progressing the Healthy Universities agenda. In fulfilment of these objectives, this report provides a background to Healthy Universities, outlines the project implementation process, presents a model, discusses the key dimensions for consideration in formulating a framework, and makes recommendations for taking things forward

Fighting Corruption with ICT: Strengthening Civil Society’s Role

With information and communication technology, civil society plays an increasing role in governance, promoting transparency and accountability to tackle corruption. Development agencies can strengthen civil society-led, ICT -driven anticorruption initiatives by funding projects and programs that foster institutional environments conducive to participation in public affairs, promote cooperation and mobilization, and develop capacities

South American Expert Roundtable : increasing adaptive governance capacity for coping with unintended side effects of digital transformation

This paper presents the main messages of a South American expert roundtable (ERT) on the unintended side effects (unseens) of digital transformation. The input of the ERT comprised 39 propositions from 20 experts representing 11 different perspectives. The two-day ERT discussed the main drivers and challenges as well as vulnerabilities or unseens and provided suggestions for: (i) the mechanisms underlying major unseens; (ii) understanding possible ways in which rebound effects of digital transformation may become the subject of overarching research in three main categories of impact: development factors, society, and individuals; and (iii) a set of potential action domains for transdisciplinary follow-up processes, including a case study in Brazil. A content analysis of the propositions and related mechanisms provided insights in the genesis of unseens by identifying 15 interrelated causal mechanisms related to critical issues/concerns. Additionally, a cluster analysis (CLA) was applied to structure the challenges and critical developments in South America. The discussion elaborated the genesis, dynamics, and impacts of (groups of) unseens such as the digital divide (that affects most countries that are not included in the development of digital business, management, production, etc. tools) or the challenge of restructuring small- and medium-sized enterprises (whose service is digitally substituted by digital devices). We identify specific issues and effects (for most South American countries) such as lack of governmental structure, challenging geographical structures (e.g., inclusion in high-performance transmission power), or the digital readiness of (wide parts) of society. One scientific contribution of the paper is related to the presented methodology that provides insights into the phenomena, the causal chains underlying “wanted/positive” and “unwanted/negative” effects, and the processes and mechanisms of societal changes caused by digitalization

Internet Utopianism and the Practical Inevitability of Law

Writing at the dawn of the digital era, John Perry Barlow proclaimed cyberspace to be a new domain of pure freedom. Addressing the nations of the world, he cautioned that their laws, which were “based on matter,” simply did not speak to conduct in the new virtual realm. As both Barlow and the cyberlaw scholars who took up his call recognized, that was not so much a statement of fact as it was an exercise in deliberate utopianism. But it has proved prescient in a way that they certainly did not intend. The “laws” that increasingly have no meaning in online environments include not only the mandates of market regulators but also the guarantees that supposedly protect the fundamental rights of internet users, including the expressive and associational freedoms whose supremacy Barlow asserted. More generally, in the networked information era, protections for fundamental human rights — both on- and offline — have begun to fail comprehensively. Cyberlaw scholarship in the Barlowian mold isn’t to blame for the worldwide erosion of protections for fundamental rights, but it also hasn’t helped as much as it might have. In this essay, adapted from a forthcoming book on the evolution of legal institutions in the information era, I identify and briefly examine three intersecting flavors of internet utopianism in cyberlegal thought that are worth reexamining. It has become increasingly apparent that functioning legal institutions have indispensable roles to play in protecting and advancing human freedom. It has also become increasingly apparent, however, that the legal institutions we need are different than the ones we have

Governance for sustainability: learning from VSM practice

Purpose – While there is some agreement on the usefulness of systems and complexity approaches to tackle the sustainability challenges facing the organisations and governments in the twenty-first century, less is clear regarding the way such approaches can inspire new ways of governance for sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to progress ongoing research using the Viable System Model (VSM) as a meta-language to facilitate long-term sustainability in business, communities and societies, using the “Methodology to support self-transformation”, by focusing on ways of learning about governance for sustainability. Design/methodology/approach – It summarises core self-governance challenges for long-term sustainability, and the organisational capabilities required to face them, at the “Framework for Assessing Sustainable Governance”. This tool is then used to analyse capabilities for governance for sustainability at three real situations where the mentioned Methodology inspired bottom up processes of self-organisation. It analyses the transformations decided from each organisation, in terms of capabilities for sustainable governance, using the suggested Framework. Findings – Core technical lessons learned from using the framework are discussed, include the usefulness of using a unified language and tool when studying governance for sustainability in differing types and scales of case study organisations. Research limitations/implications – As with other exploratory research, it reckons the convenience for further development and testing of the proposed tools to improve their reliability and robustness. Practical implications – A final conclusion suggests that the suggested tools offer a useful heuristic path to learn about governance for sustainability, from a VSM perspective; the learning from each organisational self-transformation regarding governance for sustainability is insightful for policy and strategy design and evaluation; in particular the possibility of comparing situations from different scales and types of organisations. Originality/value – There is very little coherence in the governance literature and the field of governance for sustainability is an emerging field. This piece of exploratory research is valuable as it presents an effective tool to learn about governance for sustainability, based in the “Methodology for Self-Transformation”; and offers reflexions on applications of the methodology and the tool, that contribute to clarify the meaning of governance for sustainability in practice, in organisations from different scales and types