Making Strategic Supply Chain Capacity Planning more Dynamic to cope with Hyperconnected and Uncertain Environments

Public and private organizations cope with a lot of uncertainties when planning the future of their supply chains. Additionally, the network of stakeholders is now intensely interconnected and dynamic, revealing new collaboration opportunities at a tremendous pace. In such a context, organizations must rethink most of their supply chain planning decision support systems. This is the case regarding strategic supply chain capacity planning systems that should ensure that supply chains will have enough resources to profitably produce and deliver products on time, whatever hazards and disruptions. Unfortunately, most of the existing systems are unable to consider satisfactorily this new deal. To solve this issue, this paper develops a decision support system designed for making strategic supply chain capacity planning more dynamic to cope with hyperconnected and uncertain environments. To validate this decision support system, two industrial experiments have been conducted with two European pharmaceuticals and cosmetics companies

Role of Semantic web in the changing context of Enterprise Collaboration

In order to compete with the global giants, enterprises are concentrating on their core competencies and collaborating with organizations that compliment their skills and core activities. The current trend is to develop temporary alliances of independent enterprises, in which companies can come together to share skills, core competencies and resources. However, knowledge sharing and communication among multidiscipline companies is a complex and challenging problem. In a collaborative environment, the meaning of knowledge is drastically affected by the context in which it is viewed and interpreted; thus necessitating the treatment of structure as well as semantics of the data stored in enterprise repositories. Keeping the present market and technological scenario in mind, this research aims to propose tools and techniques that can enable companies to assimilate distributed information resources and achieve their business goals

Consumer switching in retail electricity markets: Is price all that matters?

We model consumer switching in retail electricity markets in New Zealand to identify important determinants of switching and estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for six non-price attributes of electricity services, namely, call waiting time, length of fixed rate contract, renewable energy, loyalty rewards, supplier ownership, and supplier type. The results provide important insights into residential consumer switching, which inform policy and enable suppliers to differentiate their products. The analysis is based on 2688 choice responses generated using an online choice experiment administered to a sample of 224 residential bill-payers. A latent class model is used to distinguish important determinants of switching and preference heterogeneity. We find that non-price attributes of electricity services are significant determinants of consumer switching. Three latent classes with distinct preferences for the attributes are identified. The first class (40%) is mainly concerned about power bills and would switch supplier to save at least NZ$125 per year in power bills, ceteris paribus. This value mainly captures the status quo effect or preference for incumbent traditional suppliers. The second class (46$135 per year less than traditional suppliers for a 50% chance of attracting customers. The third class (14%) consists of captive and loyal customers who are unlikely to switch supplier for any realistic power bill savings

e-Tendering readiness in construction: the posterior model

Purpose: To verified a conceptual model for e-Tendering readiness in any construction organisation prior to implementation. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the conceptual model called e-Tendering readiness model (e-TRM), this paper empirically examines the e-TRM’s interactions and causal relationships between e-Tendering constructs and e-Tendering readiness. Structural equation modelling is used to test the hypothesised positive inter-relationships. A questionnaire survey is conducted of construction organisations in Saudi Arabia to understand their current e-Tendering readiness and importance of e-Tendering variables. Findings: Supported by empirical evidence, the paper recognises that three out of nine constructs have a direct influence on e-Tendering readiness. One of the constructs is hypothesised for the first time and turns out to have the most effect when tested. Research limitations/implications: The empirical test for the e-TRM is restricted to Saudi Arabia which, though not atypical of most countries’ e-tendering around the world, needs to be further tested in other areas for additional verification. Practical implications: To update previous IT/IS models in construction by adding this tested model to the research literature on traditional and electronic tendering and the body of knowledge in the construction industry. Originality/value: The Service Providers construct is proposed and tested for the first time, which is necessary to support the successful e-Tendering implementation

Resources, autonomy and strategy : perceptions of competitive advantage in the UK automotive components industry.

Theory building in strategic management has traditionally suffered from strong demarcation lines. The case of the resource-based view of firm (RBV) which has emerged as an alternative approach to industry-based explanations of how organisations develop and sustain competitive advantage, particularly demonstrates this divide. Since then, these alternative views of competitive advantage have often been portrayed as mutually exclusive antagonists. This study sets out to examine the perceptions of strategic managers in the UK automotive components industry in relation to these two competing schools of thought which advocate advantage through resources (RBV) or advantage through residence (industry approaches). This industry has been chosen due to the clear potential for industry structure and internal competencies to influence competitive advantage. Using quantitative techniques, data from senior managers is analysed in order to establish the extent to which the views of industry practitioners converge or diverge with the theoretical or anecdotal offerings of the strategy literature. The findings of this thesis suggest that a complex hybrid of perceptions tends to prevail among respondents from the industry. This can be attributed to historical, operational and supply chain factors. Furthermore, the study finds that the lexicon of competitive advantage and the priorities of resources advocated in the literature are not shared by strategists in the industry. Accordingly, the study finds, strategic management theory in relation to the resource-based view requires further research using the methodology developed in this thesis as a foundation