19 research outputs found
Stuck in the Middle Revisited: The Case of the Airline Industry
When Porter (1980) introduced his typology of business strategies, he used Laker Airways\u27 as an example to illustrate the danger of being stuck in the middle between the two basic types of competitive advantage, namely low cost and differentiation. However, the changing nature of competitive pressure in many business sectors and the accompanying need to perform well simultaneously in several aspects of operations performance, have eventually lead Porter (1990) to revisit his early idea. When presenting Porter\u27s generic competitive strategies, most strategy textbooks now offer a new choice, namely the integrated cost leadership/differentiation strategy (Coulter, 2002; Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2003), or the best-cost provider strategy (Thompson & Strickland, 2001). Given this background, the purpose of this theoretical paper is to build upon the strategic management and operations strategy literature to develop a conceptual framework that will subsequently be used to explore the extent that airline companies successfully pursue the best-cost provider (or integrated cost leadership/differentiation) strategy, and how they manage to resolve the trade-off between low-cost and differentiation. We aim at revisiting the stuck in the middle prescription by demonstrating that a number of aviation strategic options exist between the \u27\u27traditional\u27\u27 and low-cost model
The great divide between business schools research and business practice
In their 2005 Harvard Business Review article, Bennis and OâToole described business schools as being âon the wrong trackâ as a result of their focus on so-called scientific research. Some commentators argue that business schools have slowly lost their relevance since the end of the 1950s when they undertook a major overhaul in response to the harsh criticism of the Ford and the Carnegie Foundations on the state of theory and research in business administration. Inspired by Khuranaâs (2007) book on the development of American business schools, this article describes the debate on the relevance of scientific business research that can be found in the popular business press and the academic literature, and suggests a number of structural and cultural changes to increase the relevance of business research and its impact on practice.
Dans leur article publiĂ© en 2005 dans la Harvard Business Review, Bennis et OâToole dĂ©crivaient les Ă©coles de gestion comme Ă©tant « sur la mauvaise voie » en raison de lâimportance quâelles accordent Ă la recherche soi-disant scientifique. Certains observateurs soutiennent que les Ă©coles de gestion ont lentement perdu leur pertinence depuis la fin des annĂ©es 1950 alors quâelles ont entrepris dâimportants remaniements en rĂ©ponse aux critiques sĂ©vĂšres formulĂ©es par les fondations Ford et Carnegie quant Ă la thĂ©orie et Ă la recherche en administration des affaires. InspirĂ© par le livre de Khurana (2007) sur le dĂ©veloppement des Ă©coles de gestion amĂ©ricaines, cet article dĂ©peint le dĂ©bat sur la pertinence de la recherche scientifique en gestion qui fait rage dans la presse dâaffaires et la littĂ©rature acadĂ©mique, et suggĂšre des changements structurels et culturels qui pourraient amĂ©liorer la pertinence de la recherche en gestion et ses effets sur la pratique
A Focus on Engagement: Defining, Measuring, and Nurturing a Key Pillar of AACSB Standards
The 2013 Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) Standards emphasize three âpillarsâ upon which schools accredited by the association must regularly demonstrate quality improvement, namely, impact, innovation, and engagement. Focusing on the last of these, our article examines the concept of engagement through both a content analysis of the 2013 AACSB Standards and an empirical study exploring different types of course-level engagement within an undergraduate business course (measured using the Student Course Engagement Questionnaire; Handelsman, Briggs, Sullivan, & Towler, 2005). The results of our content analysis of the 2013 AACSB Standards underscore the focus placed on engagement within the AACSB documentation. However, it is also noted that the definition of engagement within the AACSB Standards is somewhat vague. The findings of our empirical study (N = 142) suggest that students were engaged in the course and that three of the four types of engagement measured (skills, participation/interaction, and performance engagement) were positively correlated with final performance in the course
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Le developpement de nouveaux produits: une comparaison des pratiques japonaises, britanniques et nord-americaines
This article presents the results of a study designed to identify the best product development practices in Japan, the United Kingdom and North America
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New product development benchmarks: the Japanese, North American and UK consumer electronics industries
This paper presents the results of a benchmarking study into new product development in the high-end audio industry in Japan, North America and the UK. A total of 38 companies were visited and interviewed, and detailed benchmarking data obtained from 21 companies and 31 new product development projects. Measures of company characteristics, new product development performance, context and practice were taken. Performance was gauged by several measures, including leadtimes, cost and schedule adherence, internal and external quality and product profitability. Factor analysis revealed two main performance indices: âplanning and controlâ and âprofitability/efficiencyâ. The organization of the development process was assessed by examining project team composition, linkages between key constituencies of the development process (e.g. Development, Manufacturing, Suppliers), and processes of information capture and exchange. Comparison between projects in Japan, North America and the UK revealed that UK projects were generally executed more quickly than those in Japan and North America, but displayed a higher incidence of post-launch problems. Japanese leadtimes were the longest, and Japanese companies performed relatively poorly on measures of development productivity. However, their manufacturing performance was vastly superior to that of Western companies
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New product development benchmarks: The Japanese, North American, and UK consumer electronics industries
This paper presents the results of a study into new product development (NPD) in the high-end audio industry in Japan, North America, and the UK. A total of 38 companies were visited and interviewed, and detailed benchmarks of product development performance and practice were obtained from 21 companies and 31 NPD projects. Performance was gauged by several measures including lead times, cost and schedule adherence, internal and external quality, and product profitability. The organization of the development process was assessed through measures of project team composition, linkages between key constituencies of the development process (e.g., development, manufacturing, and suppliers), and processes of information capture and exchange. UK projects were generally executed more quickly than those in Japan and North America, but displayed a higher incidence of postlaunch problems. Japanese lead times were the longest, and Japanese companies performed relatively poorly on measures of development productivity. However, their manufacturing performance was vastly superior to that of Western companies. The paper concludes that organizational and national context significantly shapes NPD practice and that this is reflected in patterns of product development performance
Strategic Management as a Key to Educating the New Aviation Professional
Differences and similarities between management and strategic management are
discussed in this article and a framework for the aviation strategic management process is
proposed. The steps of the aviation strategic management process include 1) scanning the
aviation environment, 2) analyzing the aviation organization, 3) formulating the corporate
strategy, 4) formulating the business strategy, and 5) implementing the corporate and
business strategies through the formulation of functional strategies. The article argues
that knowledge of strategic management principles along the abovementioned process
can help aviation organizations, just like organizations in other industries, achieve high
strategic and financial performance and develop a clear understanding of industry
competitive dynamics. Aviation Strategic Management as a course of study can
significantly enrich the educational experience of students in aviation programs and mold
them into competent aviation professionals as it provides an effective way to synthesize
technical information and apply this information on everyday industry issues. We
propose that strategic management can and should be an inextricable piece in aviation
curricula, both at the graduate and undergraduate levels and can be used as an excellent
theoretical foundation for aviation capstone courses