The Impact of Strategies in Supply Chain Management for Better Performance in Manufacturing SMEs in Aguascalientes

This research aims to analyze the impact of the implementation of strategies in the the Supply Chain Management (SCM), Manufacturing for SMEs in Aguascalientes may have a higher yield. The analysis was performed through the design of an assessment tool aimed at managers through an empirical study in the period from August to December 2013. The methodology has been quantitative approach, as well as correlational and descriptive the sample is random. The expected results are intended to influence the decisions taken by the managers in their organizations to the SCM is still complex, it is more efficient through the implementation of strategies for increased output in manufacturing SMEs in Aguascalientes. In this sense, the expected results intended sizing how important the integration of strategies is in the practice of the SCM, and in turn, the impact of this influence on the Performance of Manufacturing SMEs. In this study, structural equation modeling technique was applied to support software EQS 6.

Persistence of and interrelation between horizontal and vertical technology alliances

We examine how and to what extent the propensity to be engaged in alliances with different partner types (suppliers, customers and competitors) depends on prior alliance engagement with partner firms of the same type (persistence) and prior engagement in alliances with the other partner types (interrelation). We derive hypotheses from a combined competence and governance view of collaboration, and test these on an extensive panel dataset of innovation-active Dutch firms during 1996-2004. We find persistence in alliance engagement of all three types of partners, but customer alliances are more persistent than supplier alliances. Most persistent are joint supplier and customer alliances, which we attribute to the advantages of value chain integration in innovation processes. Positive interrelation also exists in vertical alliances, as immediate past customer alliances increase the propensity to engage in supplier alliances and vice versa. On the other hand, while prior engagement in horizontal (competitor) alliances increases the propensity to engage in vertical alliances, this effect only occurs with a longer lag. Overall, our findings are highly supportive of the idea that alliance engagement with different partner types is heterogeneous but interrelated. Our analysis suggests that the inter-temporal relationship between different types of alliances may be as important as their simultaneous relationship in alliance portfolios.R&D collaboration, technological partnerships, innovation, path dependency

Advancing Strategy: How to Lead Change in Corporate Societal Engagement

Implementing a strategy may be even harder than developing it. This learning brief is intended for corporate foundation and CSR leaders who have completed an initial strategy refresh process and who seek effecitve practices and tools to advance this strategy. In our experience advising more than 100 multinational companie, effective leaders facilitate structured, data-informed decisions and enable important organizational improvements to achieve their strategic objectives. Specifically, advancing strategy in corporate societal engagement typically requires leading change in two major areas of the overall portfolio: designing a signative initiative and transforming local giving

Tourism supply chain & strategic partnerships for managing the complexity in tourism industry

The paper aims to investigate the possible relationship between Tourism Supply Chain and Strategic Partnership, read as a way to reduce and better manage the complexity in Tourism Industry. This last has been analysed under multi-disciplinary approaches (economic, sociological, psychological, anthropological and geographic) to better understand its main components. A synthesis of origin of Tourism Supply Chain term was provided. VRIO framework and PEST analysis was used with the aim to better understand the strategic decision of integration the chain with a single or multiple rings. Starting from this, a theoretical framework from a holistic analysis is provided

Using portfolio optimisation to calculate the efficient relationship between maritime port security residual risk and security investment

The research employs an adaptive cross-disciplinary research strategy in an industrial example to address container port facilities’ inability to assess whether their security systems are efficient. The research combines subjective assessments of the performances of the port facilities’ security systems with estimates of terrorism risk from a specialist terrorism underwriter. The research constructs the optimum theoretical portfolio of the three different security systems (access control, biometrics and detection systems) drawn from six different container port facilities owned by a major international ports company to calculate the efficient relationship between maritime port security residual risk and security investment. The research builds on the existing literature and proposes new definitions of security, port security, port security risk and port security risk management. The research also highlights the managerial impact of a chief financial officer’s ability to assess the efficiency of security budget allocation through the residual risk – security investment ratio. The contribution which the research makes is in terms of modelling and measurement of the impact of the introduction of new port security technology and changes to background port security threat levels. The research also juxtaposes for the first time the performance of port security systems with estimates of terrorism risk from a specialist Lloyd’s terrorism underwriter

Future Agribusiness Challenges: Strategic Uncertainty, Innovation and Structural Change

The IFAMR is published by the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association.(IFAMA) www.ifama.orgStrategic uncertainty, innovation, structural change, Agribusiness, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Risk and Uncertainty, ISSN #: 1559-2448,

Simplexity: A Hybrid Framework for Managing System Complexity

Knowledge management, management of mission critical systems, and complexity management rely on a triangular support connection. Knowledge management provides ways of creating, corroborating, collecting, combining, storing, transferring, and sharing the know-why and know-how for reactively and proactively handling the challenges of mission critical systems. Complexity management, operating on “complexity” as an umbrella term for size, mass, diversity, ambiguity, fuzziness, randomness, risk, change, chaos, instability, and disruption, delivers support to both knowledge and systems management: on the one hand, support for dealing with the complexity of managing knowledge, i.e., furnishing criteria for a common and operationalized terminology, for dealing with mediating and moderating concepts, paradoxes, and controversial validity, and, on the other hand, support for systems managers coping with risks, lack of transparence, ambiguity, fuzziness, pooled and reciprocal interdependencies (e.g., for attaining interoperability), instability (e.g., downtime, oscillations, disruption), and even disasters and catastrophes. This support results from the evident intersection of complexity management and systems management, e.g., in the shape of complex adaptive systems, deploying slack, establishing security standards, and utilizing hybrid concepts (e.g., hybrid clouds, hybrid procedures for project management). The complexity-focused manager of mission critical systems should deploy an ambidextrous strategy of both reducing complexity, e.g., in terms of avoiding risks, and of establishing a potential to handle complexity, i.e., investing in high availability, business continuity, slack, optimal coupling, characteristics of high reliability organizations, and agile systems. This complexity-focused hybrid approach is labeled “simplexity.” It constitutes a blend of complexity reduction and complexity augmentation, relying on the generic logic of hybrids: the strengths of complexity reduction are capable of compensating the weaknesses of complexity augmentation and vice versa. The deficiencies of prevalent simplexity models signal that this blended approach requires a sophisticated architecture. In order to provide a sound base for coping with the meta-complexity of both complexity and its management, this architecture comprises interconnected components, domains, and dimensions as building blocks of simplexity as well as paradigms, patterns, and parameters for managing simplexity. The need for a balanced paradigm for complexity management, capable of overcoming not only the prevalent bias of complexity reduction but also weaknesses of prevalent concepts of simplexity, serves as the starting point of the argumentation in this chapter. To provide a practical guideline to meet this demand, an innovative model of simplexity is conceived. This model creates awareness for differentiating components, dimensions, and domains of complexity management as well as for various species of interconnectedness, such as the aligned upsizing and downsizing of capacities, the relevance of diversity management (e.g., in terms of deviations and errors), and the scope of risk management instruments. Strategies (e.g., heuristics, step-by-step procedures) and tools for managing simplexity-guided projects are outlined

Insurer Climate Risk Disclosure Survey: 2012 Findings and Recommendations

2012 was the warmest year on record in the Lower 48 states and the second most extreme weather year in U.S. history. This is not a coincidence. Extreme weather -- stronger, more damaging storms, unprecedented drought and heat in some regions and unprecedented rainfall and flooding in others -- are the predictable consequences of rising global temperatures.Eleven extreme weather events each caused at least a billion dollars in losses last year in the United States. A single event, Hurricane Sandy, caused more than $50 billion in economic losses. Insurance companies are on the hook for tens of billions of dollars in claims as a result of Sandy and other severe weather events. And American taxpayers are on the hook for tens of billions of dollars themselves, thanks to losses sustained by the National Flood Insurance Program as well as disaster relief spendingThis raises a fundamental question: Is the insurance industry prepared? Have insurers analyzed and measured their climate-related risk? Are they planning for life in a warmer world? These should be essential questions for insurance regulators in all 50 states to be asking, and some are

Strategy implementation from a multilevel perspective in a high-growth firm

Effective strategy work is important in terms of company’s competitiveness. However, effective strategy implementation (SI) should not be overlooked, as it is one of the prerequisites for outperforming organizations. Strategies are more likely to fail during the implementation phase rather than during formulation, which calls for attention to seek the best way to implement a strategy. Strategy implementation is important since if a company does not have strategic consensus, the members of the organization are operating for different goals and objectives, which can be harmful to the business. In the literature, strategy implementation seems to be fragmented and missing a unified concept. In this case study, the aim is to follow the strategy implementation process in an organization and to investigate whether it is possible to achieve a consensus between different organization levels via strategy implementation tools. The level of the case organization’s complexity is increased due to the case firm’s characteristics, i.e., being a high-growth firm. The study is conducted by qualitative action research method, and the data is gathered through semi-structured interviews. The research is abductive, which means that the researcher deepens the grasp of both theoretical and empirical phenomena by switching between different types of research activities and between empirical observations and theory. The findings suggest that strategy should be implemented through internal projects, and through the communication of good quality. The case organization’s context requires looking also at the complexity theory’s direction. This thesis provides recent research for the case organization and investigates how the strategy’s implementation process is being executed. As it turns out in the empirical part, internal projects play a significant role in the strategy implementation process in addition to good communication, which has been broadly recognized in the literature. The limitations of this study lie in the company's characteristics and this thesis is for a single case study. However, this thesis provides new insight into projects as strategy implementation tools. The originality of this paper is to investigate strategy implementation from a multilevel perspective in a high-growth firm and to examine projects as an SI tool.Tehokas strategiatyö on yrityksen kilpailukyvyn kannalta tärkeää, mutta tehokasta strategian toteutusta ei tule aliarvioida, sillä se on edellytys organisaation menestymiselle. On havaittu, että strategiat epäonnistuvat todennäköisemmin vajavaisen toteutuksen kuin suunnittelun takia, mikä korostaa huomion kiinnittämistä strategian toteutukseen. Tämä on tärkeää, sillä jos yrityksellä ei ole konsensusta strategiasta, organisaation jäsenet toimivat eri päämäärien mukaan, mikä voi osoittautua haitalliseksi liiketoiminnalle. Kirjallisuudessa strategian toteutuksen nähdään olevan pirstoutunut, ja siitä puuttuu yhtenäinen teoreettinen käsitys. Tässä tapaustutkimuksessa tavoitteena on seurata strategian toteutusprosessia organisaatiossa ja selvittää, onko strategian toteuttamistyökalujen avulla mahdollista saavuttaa konsensus eri organisaatiotasojen välillä. Tapausorganisaation monimutkaisuuden tasoa nostaa tapausyrityksen ominaisuudet tämän ollessa nopeasti kasvava tuotantoyritys. Tutkimus toteutetaan kvalitatiivisella toimintatutkimusmenetelmällä ja aineisto kerätään puolistrukturoiduilla haastatteluilla. Tutkimus on abduktiivinen, mikä tarkoittaa, että tutkija syventää käsitystään sekä teoreettisista että empiirisistä ilmiöistä vaihtamalla erityyppisten tutkimustoimintojen välillä sekä empiiristen havaintojen että teorian välillä. Tutkimuksen tulokset viittaavat siihen, että strategiaa tulisi toteuttaa sisäisten projektien ja laadukkaan viestinnän kautta. Tapausorganisaation konteksti edellyttää myös kompleksisuusteorian suunnan tarkastelua. Tämä opinnäytetyö tarjoaa tuoretta tutkimusta tapaustutkimusorganisaatiolle sekä selvittää, miten strategian jalkauttamisprosessia toteutetaan. Kuten empiirisessä osiossa käy ilmi, sisäisillä projekteilla on kirjallisuudessa laajasti tunnustetun hyvän viestinnän lisäksi merkittävä rooli strategian toteutusprosessissa. Tämän tutkimuksen rajoitteina ovat niin ikään yrityksen ominaisuudet, ja tämä opinnäytetyö on toteutettu yksittäistapaustutkimuksen näkökulmasta. Tämä opinnäytetyö antaa kuitenkin uutta näkemystä projekteista strategian toteuttamisen työkaluina. Tämän artikkelin uutuusarvo muodostuu näkökulmasta tutkia strategian toteuttamista monitasoisesta näkökulmasta kasvuyrityksessä ja tarkastella projekteja strategian implementoinnin työkaluna