The Human Capital “Impact” on E-Business: The Case of Encyclopedia Britannica

[Excerpt] The term “New Economy” has been coined to describe the remarkable economic performance of the 1990s. Stiroh, (1999) an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York observes that its defining characteristic is a “focus on increasing globalization and expanding information technology” (pg. 87). Research suggests that revenues from electronic based business to business trade will double over the next five years from $43 billion in 1998 to$1.3 trillion in 2003. Revenues from business to consumer trade are predicted to rise from $8 billion to$108 billion over the same time period (Forrester Research, 1998). However, there is increasing attention to the challenges facing business in the new economy, and an increasing chorus of analysts suggesting how tenuous many of these business models really are. A recent Barron’s article showed that many dot-com companies have only days of remaining cash (Willoughby, March 20, 1999). Such a key emerging phenomenon has not escaped the attention of writers, though the existing body of writing has some important gaps. We would classify existing e-business literature into two groups. First, there is a growing body of literature that discusses the how the Internet is transforming business models and organizational strategies. A second, much smaller body of work has focused on e-HR, or more specifically, the implications of the Internet on various HR practices

NPD-Process and Planning in Japanese engineering companies: Findings from an interview research

In this paper we report on the results of an interview research about new product development (NPD) processes and planning in 15 Japanese mechanical and electrical engineering companies. We asked the companies to describe one successful and one less successful project. All in all, we collected data for 29 projects, 15 of which were successful. We explore how these companies structure their NPD processes and conduct their planning activities in order to strike a balance between the needs for efficiency and flexibility, which often carry opposing implications for organizing and managing new product development projects. While the majority of the companies in our sample build their NPD efforts on a similar process model, we find them to employ diverse procedures to achieve their aims. In the companies we interviewed, there is a strong inclination towards planning R&D activities. New product development projects are based on well-defined procedures and written documents, which represent a standard approach to the companies' ; R&D efforts. However, not all aspects are planned in equal depth and later phases of NPD projects, such as the implementation of the product concept into production, which exhibit lower uncertainty, are planned in much more detail. The need for flexibility in planning is highlighted by our finding that the less successful projects failed to anticipate changes - especially within the environment - and therefore were often carried out according to outdated plans and information. Our results suggest that the quality of the initial project plan with regard to the information it is based upon is closely linked to success. Despite the environmental turbulence, there seem to be no pronounced differences between successful and less successful projects concerning changes of the plan throughout the course of the project. Consequently, our interview partners consider the project managers of the unsuccessful projects to be less skilled in marketing and management than their successful counterparts. --New product development,Japanese firms,planning,success innovation,project management

GTTC Future of Ground Testing Meta-Analysis of 20 Documents

National research, development, test, and evaluation ground testing capabilities in the United States are at risk. There is a lack of vision and consensus on what is and will be needed, contributing to a significant threat that ground test capabilities may not be able to meet the national security and industrial needs of the future. To support future decisions, the AIAA Ground Testing Technical Committees (GTTC) Future of Ground Test (FoGT) Working Group selected and reviewed 20 seminal documents related to the application and direction of ground testing. Each document was reviewed, with the content main points collected and organized into sections in the form of a gap analysis current state, future state, major challenges/gaps, and recommendations. This paper includes key findings and selected commentary by an editing team

FACTORS INFLUENCING PROJECT TEAM EFFECTIVENESS AS PERCEIVED BY PROJECT MANAGERS IN MALAYSIA – A PILOT STUDY

As more project teams are formed to help Malaysian organizations in achieving their objectives that individual efforts cannot achieve, there is a compelling reason to understand the critical factors that can influence project team effectiveness, because the effectiveness outcome can yield benefits to organizations. This study developed a research model underpinned on Cohen & Bailey’s (1997) Team Effectiveness Framework to empirically analyze some critical factors that influence project team effectiveness. Results show that project manager’s leadership roles are not directly influencing project team effectiveness, but they are directly influencing both team building & participation, and team shared mental models in which these two factors are directly and positively influencing project team effectivenessProject Team Effectiveness, Leadership Roles, Team Building & Participation, Team Shared Mental Models, Project Manager

The Effects of Team Enablers and Team Cohesion on Project Team Success

The aim of this study was to explore the influences of team enablers (team autonomy and organizational support) and team cohesion dimensions on project team success and to test the mediating effect of team cohesion dimensions in this relation. PLS-SEM was implemented in the study carried out in 110 project teams with 343 team members in a multinational financial institution. The measurement model was tested for validity and reliability. Because the analysis was performed at team level, aggregation of the survey responses to team level were done by calculation of arithmetic mean. The findings of the research revealed that organizational support was a significant antecedent of team task cohesion and team effectiveness. Team task cohesion mediated the link between organizational support and team effectiveness. Although the significant direct positive influences of team autonomy on success dimensions were confirmed, it appeared that none of the dimensions of team cohesion was influenced by team autonomy. In line with the literature, positive influences of task cohesion on  effectiveness and innovation were supported, but the influence of social cohesion on team success was immaterial

The impact of teamwork quality on new product development cycle time : Evidence from Saudi Arabia Telecom Industry

The research filled a gap in existing knowledge regarding the impact of teamwork quality on new product development (NPD) cycle time through the mediation of internal market orientation in the telecommunication industry in Saudi Arabia. The present research also considered environmental turbulence as a moderator in the relationship between teamwork quality and NPD cycle time. Specifically, this research extended previous effort done by providing evidence that high teamwork quality and internal market orientation could decrease the time taken in producing new products or services. Random sampling was used to select respondents for a survey from among members of NPD teams in Saudi telecommunications firms with total respondents 149 teams and response rate of 88.67 percent. PLS-SEM was used to analyze the direct and indirect relationships between teamwork quality, internal market orientation, environmental turbulence, and NPD cycle time, while path coefficient and assessment of measurement and structural model used to test the research hypotheses. Findings indicate that five out of six teamwork quality factors had significant effects on NPD cycle time but not on communication among teamwork members. Internal market orientation was found to affect positively NPD cycle time. Internal market orientation fully mediated the relationship between balance of member contribution and mutual support, and NPD cycle time. Internal market orientation partially mediated communication, coordination, efforts and cohesion, and NPD cycle time. Environmental turbulence moderated the relationship between two factors of teamwork quality, namely, communication and coordination, and NPD cycle time. Environmental turbulence did not moderate balance of member contribution, mutual support, effort and cohesion. The findings suggest that managers should facilitate an environment conducive to teamwork. The study also provides a theoretical understanding of how teamwork qualities drive new product development cycle time. Recommendations for future research and limitations of the study are also highlighted

Is project management the new management 2.0?

This paper considers the evolving nature of project management (PM) and offers a comparison with the evolving nature of management generally. Specifically, we identify a number of management trends that are drawn from a paper that documents a proposed ‘Management 2.0’ model, and we compare those trends to the way in which PM is maturing to embrace the challenges of modern organizational progress.Some theoretical frameworks are offered that assist in explaining the shift from the historically accepted ‘tools and techniques’ model to a more nuanced and behaviorally driven paradigm that is arguably more appropriate to manage change in today’s flexible and progressive organizations, and which provide a more coherent response, both in PM and traditional management, to McDonald’s forces. In addition, we offer a number of examples to robustly support our assertions, based around the development of innovative products from Apple Inc. In using this metaphor to demonstrate the evolution of project-based work, we link PM with innovation and new product development.

The Relationship Between External Turbulence and New Product Development Practices

This dissertation considered whether new product development practices employed resolved the uncertainty and equivocality in information processing created by external turbulence. With external turbulence coming from more sources and arriving with greater frequency, this wave of change must be addressed to achieve desired project outcomes. Healthcare was the target industry for this research and respondents were selected from members of HIMSS, the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society. Five hundred sixty-three survey responses were collected about completed new product development projects. The aspects of the projects reported included the external turbulence experienced, flexible new product development practices employed, the effectiveness of information processing and the project’s outcomes. The results using all respondents did not show support for the crucial hypothesis that reduction of uncertainty and equivocality in the information processing environment leads to desired new product development outcomes. While the full respondent set did not support the main hypothesis, the subset of projects that were completed during the ramp-up of the Affordable Care Act showed the hypothesized relationship. With the Affordable Care Act ramp-up, there was a wave of change and a high volume of new information generated by external turbulence. Those organizations that were successful used their information processing capabilities to reduce uncertainty and equivocality and address the changes. Their information processing capability combined with flexible product development practices was directly related to positive new product development outcomes. The extreme example of external turbulence that occurred during the Affordable Care Act ramp-up supported the crucial hypothesis about information processing. The research also found that external turbulence is related to the positive use of flexible new product development practices and that use of those practices is directly related to desired new product development outcomes. In the presence of external turbulence, product development teams use flexible new product development practices to achieve desired project outcomes. The major implication from this study is the need by product development teams to consider external turbulence as a factor in all product plans. It was the strongest relationship reported

Sales and Operations Planning: A Performance Framework

Despite a robust body of practitioner-oriented literature focused on the importance of balancing customer demand with product supply within companies, there is very little empirical research suggesting how to achieve it. Sales and Operations planning (S&OP) is a tactical approach meant to help firms accomplish demand and supply balance at aggregate levels. While guidebooks authored by consultants suggest best practices that lead to S&OP success, many experts agree that companies have fallen short of achieving the anticipated benefits. Carried out by cross-functional teams, S&OP entails getting people from different thought worlds to work toward a common goal, a challenging task for any company. Academia is still in the early stages of developing empirical pathways predictive of S&OP performance. The purpose of this study is to test a model of S&OP performance grounded in group effectiveness theory. Using a survey-based approach, perspectives were captured from S&OP team members across a wide cross-section of industries representing sales and operations functions. The results of statistical analysis indicate that managers should focus on helping their teams to achieve a superordinate identity. This allows team members to overcome functional biases and constructively engage in S&OP planning which in turn drives S&OP performance. Also of paramount importance are having team-based rewards and incentives that fully support overarching S&OP goals. These findings provide empirically-based guidance for managers seeking to determine which internal team and contextual support factors are most important for S&OP success. Moreover, grounding S&OP in principles of group effectiveness theory within a broad framework will help support future academic study of S&OP and related efforts by firms to achieve demand and supply harmony

The impact of information technology resources on SMEs' innovation performance

This work aims to develop a research framework to examine the impact of information technology resources on the innovation performance of Saudi small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs innovation capability influences growth and technological progress (Bruque & Moyano, 2007). However, many developing countries exhibit moderate or even low innovation performance. For instance, Saudi Arabia is ranked 54th by the Global Innovation Index (GII 2011). Innovation systems studies focus on the alignment between the interactions of innovation actors with their constantly changing environment toward better innovation performance (Etzkowitz & Leydesdorff, 2000). The dynamic capabilities of organisations have been highlighted as a crucial characteristic that helps to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage (Teece et al., 1997). The indirect impact IT resources on innovation performance represents an attractive research area (Benitez-Amado et al., 2010). Therefore, we argue that a closer look at Saudi SMEs information technology resources and their impact on the firm dynamic capabilities and innovation performance would make a significant contribution to existing knowledge. Areas such as the organisation strategies of developing countries, innovation management, dynamic capabilities, open innovation and strategic information systems are few examples of areas that might benefit from this work