The Alignment of Partnering Strategy, Governance and Management in R&D Projects: The Role of Contract Choice

Firms increasingly look outside their organizational boundaries to identify partners that can improve the effectiveness of R&D projects. The strategy for using partners, however, varies significantly across projects. In some, partners are used primarily to lower development costs and/or supplement development capacity; in others they are used to improve the quality of the final product. How should these variations in partnering strategy impact the governance and management choices made within projects? We examine this question, using data on 172 R&D projects from six different industries. We test hypotheses that examine first, how a firm’s choice of contract—whether fixed price, time & materials, or performance-based—is shaped by its partnering strategy; and second, how this choice subsequently affects the levels of partner integration and partner performance observed in a project. Our results indicate that the choice of contract is a function of a firm’s partnering strategy, more flexible contracts being preferred in projects that seek long-run capability-based benefits, and where partnering relationships are broader in scope. These choices, in turn, impact the benefits associated with partner integration. In particular, higher levels of partner integration are always associated with higher project costs, but are associated with higher product quality only in projects using more flexible contract types. Furthermore, major deviations from the “optimal” choice of contract increase the costs and decrease the benefits associated with partner integration. We end by discussing the implications of our findings, and suggest new directions for future research

Sovereign wealth fund on sustainable economic growth in Nigeria

The Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) nations understood that having enough money in easily accessible foreign accounts would be beneficial to the government in times of fiscal crisis, currency devaluation, natural economic calamity, and even political upheaval to help cushion sustainable economic growth. Between Q1 2005 and Q4 2020, the study looked at the impact of Nigeria's sovereign wealth fund on the country's ability to sustain economic development. In order to conduct the empirical analysis, the study used the ARDL technique of analysis. In order to prevent erroneous regression results, unit root tests were performed on each of the variables. The co-integration test revealed that there is a long-term (or equilibrium) relationship between Nigeria's sovereign wealth fund and the sustainability of its economic growth. It was revealed that Nigeria's gross domestic product was significantly impacted by the Nigerian Infrastructural Fund. Last but not least, it was revealed that the stability Fund has a considerable impact on GDP in Nigeria. Future Generation Fund was also found to have a big impact. On the whole, SWF impact significantly on sustainable economic growth in Nigeria. If government wishes to maintain economic growth and improve the lives of Nigerians, it should demand and pursue effective control and monitoring of the infrastructure, future and stabilization funds

PILOTING UNIFIED COMMUNICATION SOLUTION IN ENTERPRISE

Lack of efficient implementation of company’s internal communication sets challenges for IT departments. When implemented efficiently internal communication will increase productivity and degrease costs. On the other hand new systems can be complicated to initiate. This thesis will introduce testing of compatibility of an internal communication system as well as planning of implementation from the perspective of the IT department. This thesis will test compatibility by building a limited access system for internal communication. The system will be planned with the possibility of later use in a production environment. Results from the test environment can be later used in planning and implementation of actual production environment. User feedback gave useful information of compatibility of system for company’s needs and training needs. Company’s future needs and possibilities of expanding system to facilitate external communication were considered when planning a production version implementation. This thesis confirms that the system proved to be compatible with company’s needs. Also integration to existing systems proved successful. Piloting the new system in a limited user base increased buyer knowledge of product and its possibilities. Thorough planning was shown to have a significant impact on the success of implementation of new system. Also user training at the beginning of deployment was shown to increase gains and reduce redundant investments significantly. Step by step documentation provides a positive image of the structure and components of the new system. Documentation also improved quality of maintenance and reduced maintenance time.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

RFID in the supply chain: lessons from European early adopters

Purpose Radio frequency identification (RFID) is increasingly being presented as a technology with the potential to improve supply chain performance, but empirical evidence from early adopters is sparse. This paper aims to rectify this scarcity and contribute to a more informed discussion in and between academic and practitioner communities. Design/Methodology/Approach The paper is based on a conceptual model of factors influencing the success of adoption efforts. It then reports the results of a survey of 612 European supply chain managers, focusing on the 128 respondents who have begun RFID trials. Findings A significant influence on operational deployment is the presence of mandates from key customers requiring the technology’s use. Customer mandates also impact the anticipated benefits of a faster sales cycle and of enhanced systems integration, though the relationships are complex. By contrast, greater cost reduction benefits are anticipated in two industries where mandates are less common – industrial goods and logistics. Perceived organizational innovativeness positively impacts anticipated ROI from RFID. Companies adopting a ‘slap and ship’ approach are less likely to anticipate pricing benefits than those integrating RFID into enterprise systems Research Limitations/Implications The limitations of the paper include the limited sample size of early adopters. In addition, qualitative research is needed into RFID supply chain applications and into different approaches to IS integration of RFID, to inform future survey work. Practical Implications This paper informs supply chain managers and senior decision makers who are examining the potential of RFID technology. It offers guidance on what issues to look for when adopting this technology, approaches to take and the benefits that might be accrued. Originality/Valuer This paper offers a major contribution to understanding the current status of the adoption of RFID in European supply chains. This understanding is put in the context of the wider literatures on supply chain management and the adoption of information systems and te

Scor Quality Model Affecting Manufacturing Firm’s Supply Chain Quality Performance And The Moderating Effect Of Qms

The main objective of this study is hypothesis testing to explain the nature of the relationship between the independent variables (The SCOR quality model) and the dependent variable (Supply Chain Quality Performance) and moderated by (QMS). Objektif utama kajian ini adalah untuk menerangkan hubungan antara model SCOR kualiti dengan prestasi kualiti rantaian bekalan sesebuah firma dan QMS memoderasikan huungan model SCOR kualiti dengan prestasi kuality rantaian bekalan

Exploring the impact of technological competence development on speed and NPD program performance

With growing levels of competition across industries, technological competence is increasingly viewed as crucial for businesses to maintain their long-term competitive advantage. Although there are many theoretical arguments about how firms' competences can yield competitive advantage and performance improvement, we have a limited understanding of where the capabilities originate in the context of NPD or what kind of product portfolios, internal climate and strategic alignment are required to build them. Moreover, empirical evidence for technological competence development is limited and comes primarily from case studies, anecdotal evidence, and management impressions. Accordingly, this research addresses these gaps by presenting and testing a conceptual model of technological competence development in NPD. This study makes advances in applying a dynamic capability approach to technological competence development in NPD, and investigates the impact of innovative climate, technological alignment, and project portfolio management on technological competence development as well as NPD speed. Moreover, the factors that might influence NPD program performance are also investigated. The analysis, based on data collected from 164 firms, shows that a firm's innovative climate, technological alignment and portfolio management are positively associated with technological competence development. While technological alignment was found to be negatively related to NPD speed, portfolio management and technological competence development were found to have positive effects on speed. However, innovative climate had no significant impact on speed. Moreover, technological competence development and portfolio management were found to be positively related to NPD program performance. Finally, the authors found no support for the relationship between speed and NPD program performance

Testing in the incremental design and development of complex products

Testing is an important aspect of design and development which consumes significant time and resource in many companies. However, it has received less research attention than many other activities in product development, and especially, very few publications report empirical studies of engineering testing. Such studies are needed to establish the importance of testing and inform the development of pragmatic support methods. This paper combines insights from literature study with findings from three empirical studies of testing. The case studies concern incrementally developed complex products in the automotive domain. A description of testing practice as observed in these studies is provided, confirming that testing activities are used for multiple purposes depending on the context, and are intertwined with design from start to finish of the development process, not done after it as many models depict. Descriptive process models are developed to indicate some of the key insights, and opportunities for further research are suggested

Impact assessment for vulnerabilities in open-source software libraries

Software applications integrate more and more open-source software (OSS) to benefit from code reuse. As a drawback, each vulnerability discovered in bundled OSS potentially affects the application. Upon the disclosure of every new vulnerability, the application vendor has to decide whether it is exploitable in his particular usage context, hence, whether users require an urgent application patch containing a non-vulnerable version of the OSS. Current decision making is mostly based on high-level vulnerability descriptions and expert knowledge, thus, effort intense and error prone. This paper proposes a pragmatic approach to facilitate the impact assessment, describes a proof-of-concept for Java, and examines one example vulnerability as case study. The approach is independent from specific kinds of vulnerabilities or programming languages and can deliver immediate results