Power-by-the-hour: the role of technology in reshaping business strategy at Rolls-Royce

There is a recognised trend of manufacturing companies offering not only products, but services and even complete solutions to business problems. Research has highlighted economic, market demand and competitiveness factors as responsible for the re-shaping of business strategies that this has involved. This study analyses the extent to which another factor, technology, has been a significant factor in the switch from product oriented to service oriented strategies. A case study of the aero engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce is used to analyse the impact of technology, which is found to have led manufacturers to re-shape their business strategies. The study finds that developments in one technology in particular, namely digital electronics, have been a powerful enabling factor facilitating the implementation of service strategies. This provided original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like Rolls-Royce with a competitive advantage relative to conventional service providers, by enabling them to acquire new knowledge management capabilities

Technological discontinuities, outsiders and social capital: a case study from Formula 1

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how and why outsiders, rather than incumbents, are able to take advantage of technological discontinuities. Design/ methodology/approach – The paper employs a case study of a single innovation that transformed the technology of Formula 1 motor racing. Findings – The findings show how social capital made up of ‘weak ties’ in the form of informal personal networks, enabled an outsider to successfully make the leap to a new technological regime. Practical implications – The findings show that where new product development involves a shift to new technologies, social capital can have an important part to play. Originality/value – It is widely accepted that radical innovations are often competence destroying, making it difficult for incumbents to make the transition to a new technology. The findings show how the social capital of outsiders can place them at a particular advantage in utilizing new technologies

Technology strategy and innovation: the use of derivative strategies in the aerospace industry

Strategy has become an increasingly important theme within the management of innovation. This is reflected in the increasing amount of attention given to topics such as technology strategy within the innovation literature. However research into technology strategy has tended to focus on technology acquisition rather than technology exploitation. This paper focuses on one often neglected way in which companies can exploit the technological resources at their disposal, namely through the use of a derivative strategy where new technology is combined with old products or parts of old products in order to develop new products. The paper explores this type of strategy by means of a case study from the commercial jet engine sector of the aerospace industry. The case study provides an opportunity not only to explore the nature of derivative strategies in detail it also highlights the benefits, both direct and indirect, to be gained from this type of strategy as a means of exploiting an organisation's technological resources. The paper shows how a derivative strategy can contribute to the broader strategic goals of companies in technology based industries through strategies designed to ensure the most effective utilisation of the technology base

Global production networks in the aerospace industry: the role of risk and revenue sharing partnerships

The last 30 years have seen a major trend towards the internationalisation of production. In some industry sectors this process has become global as production systems have been integrated on an inter-continental basis. Global production networks have been identified as an important factor in this development. A number of studies have explored the use of global production networks in sectors such as clothing and textiles, electronics and automotive products. In general this research has been confined to consumer items that take the form of standardised, high volume commodities. This study in contrast, examines the use of global production networks by capital goods manufacturers producing non-standardised, high technology products in relatively small volumes. The context is the commercial aerospace industry and an in-depth case study of a single manufacturer, the UK based engine maker Rolls-Royce and the global production network used to develop and manufacture its Trent 1000 engine for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, is presented. The study focuses on the use of risk and revenue sharing partnerships (RRSPs), a form of inter-firm collaboration almost unique in the aerospace industry. It analyses the role of RRSPs in facilitating the creation and operation of global production networks and the driving forces that have led to the use of this form of cooperation. The implications of the move to global production networks are considered both for flagship firms at the centre of such networks and their partners

Patterns of Sponge Abundance Across a Gradient of Habitat Quality in the Wakatobi Marine National Park, Indonesia

Sponges are important components of reef communities worldwide, fulfilling a number of important functional roles. Habitat degradation caused by the loss of hard corals has the potential to cause increases in sponge abundance and percentage cover as they gain access to resources such as space and food. In this study we compared sponge densities and percentage cover at sites with varying hard coral cover in the Wakatobi Marine National Park, Indonesia (WMNP). We found significant differences in sponge densities at the study sites but no significant difference in sponge densities on different surface angles. Unexpectedly, we also found a weak positive correlation between coral cover and sponge density. This indicates that spatial competition is unlikely to be the most important factor determining sponge abundance in the WMNP. In contrast to sponge density data, we found that sponge percentage cover and hard coral cover were weakly negatively correlated, but found no significant difference in sponge percentage cover between the study sites. Finally, multivariate analysis of the benthic communities at the study sites indicated that while sites with higher coral cover were characterised by coral (proportionally), lower coral cover sites were characterised by algae and sponges. This suggests that although there was no significant difference in sponge percentage cover between the study sites conditions that led to the loss of hard coral at lower quality sites mean that these sites are characterised by sponges and algae rather than by any other groups of benthic organisms

Coral bleaching patterns are the outcome of complex biological and environmental networking

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Continued declines in coral reef health over the past three decades have been punctuated by severe mass coral bleaching-induced mortality events that have grown in intensity and frequency under climate change. Intensive global research efforts have therefore persistently focused on bleaching phenomena to understand where corals bleach, when and why—resulting in a large—yet still somewhat patchy—knowledge base. Particularly catastrophic bleaching-induced coral mortality events in the past 5 years have catalyzed calls for a more diverse set of reef management tools, extending far beyond climate mitigation and reef protection, to also include more aggressive interventions. However, the effectiveness of these various tools now rests on rapidly assimilating our knowledge base of coral bleaching into more integrated frameworks. Here, we consider how the past three decades of intensive coral bleaching research has established the basis for complex biological and environmental networks, which together regulate outcomes of bleaching severity. We discuss how we now have enough scaffold for conceptual biological and environmental frameworks underpinning bleaching susceptibility, but that new tools are urgently required to translate this to an operational system informing—and testing—bleaching outcomes. Specifically, adopting network models that can fully describe and predict metabolic functioning of coral holobionts, and how this functioning is regulated by complex doses and interactions among environmental factors. Identifying knowledge gaps limiting operation of such models is the logical step to immediately guide and prioritize future experiments and observations. We are at a time-critical point where we can implement new capacity to resolve how coral bleaching patterns emerge from complex biological–environmental networks, and so more effectively inform rapidly evolving ecological management and social adaptation frameworks aimed at securing the future of coral reefs

Woe from stones: commemoration, identity politics and Estonia's 'War of Monuments'

No abstract available