Adapted lean thinking for healthcare services: an empirical study in the traditional Chinese hospital

This paper looks at how Lean Thinking can be adapted using a model derived from a case study of a large Traditional Chinese Hospital. After a restructuring in divisions and the implementation of the care programmers and clinical pathways, hospital management found that they had no tools to evaluate if these changes were resulting in a Lean Thinking approach on the work-floor. In agreement with hospital management, an existing tool of Business Process Reengineering measurement was adopted and adapted to the specific context of healthcare. This paper reports on how the quantitative model was changed and validated in order to come up with a useful instrument to measure the Lean Thinking of the employees in the hospital. The Hospital Lean Thinking (HLT) tool can be useful to measure the effects of changes that are assumed to lead to more Lean Thinking or even patient focus. In this way the pay-off of these investments can be made more tangible. The HLT tool offers hospitals a way to evaluate how they are evolving towards more Lean Thinking

Incentivizing CEOs to build customer- and employee-firm relations for higher customer satisfaction and firm value

This research reveals customer- and employee- firm relations to be two routes by which firms can leverage executive incentive structures to create customer and firm value. Analyses of a unique dataset with multiple archival sources show that (1) increases in the proportion of CEOs’l ong-term equity-based compensation positively influence actions that build customer- and employee-firm relations as measured by the Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini & Co. (KLD) data source, (2) such effects are stronger in unstable markets, and (3) customer and employee relationship-building actions affect firm value both directly and indirectly via the mediator of customer satisfaction as measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) data source. The findings have implications for the improvement of customer satisfaction, the role of marketing in the organization, and the design of CEO incentive packages leading to higher customer satisfaction and firm value

Decomposing the effects of organizational memory on marketing implementation

Marketing implementation, Organizational memory, Firm performance,

International entrepreneurial culture of Thai SMEs

This study examines an entrepreneurial culture of international small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Organizational culture is one of the crucial aspects that can differentiate one firm from another. We highlight the role of organizational culture under a new construct International Entrepreneurial Culture (IEC), with a particular emphasis on how cultural values embedded in organizational cultures might influence SMEs' performance through a strategic management process. Using data from SMEs engaged in international transactions based in Thailand, results suggest that IEC consists of three dimensions which are somewhat different from what was conceptually explained in the literature. The combination of these dimensions significantly affects strategy formulation and strategy implementation in a consequential manner, although it is not directly influential in international performance. The findings offer theoretical contribution in the international entrepreneurship literature as well as managerial implications for policy makers dealing with SMEs in small open economies found in emerging markets

Client-perceived performance and value in professional B2B services: An international perspective

Drawing from the resource-based view and a contingency approach, the authors develop and test a model of the antecedents of client-perceived value in the context of international, professional business-to-business services (consultants, engineers, project management, IT consultants, etc.) in a developing economies setting. Further, we examine the effects of key moderators (e.g., country-of-origin (COO), firm's international experience, client's buying experience) on client-perceived performance and value. The results generally support the hypotheses that client-perceived performance is impacted by a firm's internal resources (e.g., technical skills, customer orientation, innovation). In addition, this relationship is contingent upon the COO effect, while client-perceived value is moderated by the client's buying experience. The findings can guide practitioners as to the key drivers of client-perceived value, and under what conditions this value is maximized. Journal of International Business Studies (2009) 40, 274–300; doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400406