Encouraging help across projects

Companies struggle with timely project execution despite employing sophisticated management methods. Although help across projects is critical for time performance, it has not been explicitly incorporated into project management ( PM) systems. We model a PM system, based on an innovative real-life practice, that both incorporates and shapes project managers' helping behavior. A help process is at the core of this system, in which project managers may ask for and provide help while top management facilitates such exchanges. We find that companies should take a nuanced approach when designing help exchange and time-based incentives in tandem. A company that faces high project rewards after delays and highly effective help can benefit from inducing help because doing so enables the pursuit of projects it might abandon if delayed or even at the outset. The formal help process delivers value by creating and exploiting interdependencies between projects. These interdependencies allow project prioritization by inducing different effort levels in otherwise identical projects. A help process also allows the company to tune the timing of efforts by front-loading or back-loading project work. The benefits of a help system accrue through cost efficiencies, increased probability of success under help, and intertemporal incentive effects that encourage early efforts. However, because the help process creates the opportunity for free riding, a help system is not always recommended and a no-help system may perform better, especially when there are low project rewards after delay and low opportunity costs for project work

EMPLOYEES' PERSPECTIVES ON DIGITALIZATION-INDUCED CHANGE: EXPLORING FRAMES OF INDUSTRY 4.0

How do employees perceive strategic technology initiatives? Understanding this is crucial for attaining employees' acceptance, and so for successful initiative implementation. Drawing on timely cases of digitalization-induced change initiatives triggered by Industry 4.0, the digital networking of the manufacturing industry, we investigate manufacturing employees' thoughts and feelings with regard to this proclaimed fourth industrial revolution. We employ the Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique (ZMET), a semi-structured, in-depth interview format, to unearth individuals' deep-seated beliefs and values, and thereby identify five distinct frames (utilitarian, functional, anthropocentric, traditional, and playful) which drive employees' attitudes toward Industry 4.0. Based on this inductive approach and our further analysis of frame adoption patterns, we make a first step toward a cognitive theory on the perception of digitalizationinduced change that foregrounds employees' perspectives and helps us understand why and when certain employees accept digitalization-induced change, whereas others do not. Our findings inform managerial practice on (i) how to promote farreaching digitalization initiatives across employees and (ii) how to address the individual employee via frame-contingent communication to increase the likelihood of successful implementation. Furthermore, our study adds to theory on cognitive frames, ambivalent attitudes toward change, and framing effectiveness. Finally, our studymakes a methodological contribution by adapting ZMET, a market research technique (geared toward customers), to the manufacturing shop floor (geared toward employees)

On the Effectiveness of Patenting Strategies in Innovation Races

Which, if any, of a firm’s inventions should it patent? Should it patent at all? Many companies engaged in an innovation race seek a patenting strategy that balances protection of their intellectual property against the knowledge spillovers resulting from disclosure requirements. Not much is known about factors that determine the patenting strategy best able to resolve this trade-off. Although scholars in various management, economics, and engineering disciplines have researched patents and patenting regimes, little work has addressed the normative issues that pertain to forming an appropriate firm-level patenting strategy. We develop an inventory of real-life patenting strategies and integrate them into a coherent framework. Our simulation model characterizes the optimal patenting choices for different environmental and firm-level contingencies while capturing the dynamics between competing firms. We identify the firm’s research and development strategy as the most salient determinant of its optimal patenting strategy. Our research contributes to establishing a contingency theory of patenting strategies

Ensuring responsive capacity: How to contract with backup suppliers

Firms that source from offshore plants frequently perceive the lack of reliability and flexibility to be among the major drawbacks of their strategy. To mitigate against imminent mismatches of uncertain supply and demand, establishing capacity hedges in the form of responsive backup suppliers is a way out that many firms follow. This article analyzes how firms should contract with backup suppliers, inducing the latter to install responsive capacity. We show that supply options are appropriate to achieve sourcing channel coordination under forced compliance, whereas any firm commitment contract imposes a deadweight loss on the system. Whereas price-only contracts are unable to coordinate the sourcing channel under voluntary compliance, utilization-dependent price-only contracts are. Under the former contract, a price-focused strategy on the part of the manufacturer turns out to diminish the system's service level and possibly has negative implications on installed backup capacity, and not least on the manufacturer's profit.Responsive capacity Demand and supply uncertainty Supply chain contracting Operational hedging Backup supplier

Performance Implications of Digital Disruption in Strategic Competition

Pervasive digitalization is changing how firms engage in strategic competition. Some firms are pursuing digital disruption strategies, using digital resources to rewire their value chain and change the landscape of their industry by redefining performance expectations. Other firms are adapting to digitalization by adding digital resources into their existing value chain. Through NK model simulations, we advance our understanding of digital disruption vis-à-vis adaptation in strategic competition in two main ways. First, we unearth important nuances in performance trade-offs: A digital disruption strategy may be effective for relative performance at the expense of absolute performance gains. Second, we explore relevant market- and competitor-related conditions under which firms should opt (or not) for a digital disruption strategy.</p

Avoiding epistemological silos and empirical elephants in OM: How to combine empirical and simulation methods?

Progression of knowledge in operations management (OM) relies on researchers building and testing theories using data from practice. However, standalone empirical research designs have inherent limitations and may not adequately capture complex OM problems. This may result in researchers narrowing the scope of the problems that they create epistemological silos and study empirical elephants. In this introductory article to the special issue, we look at the ways simulation methods can augment and answer questions that are not addressed through traditional empirical methods. We offer a framework regarding how and when to use simulation methods for a given research objectives and design. We conclude by discussing the contingencies of using these methods as well as the role of reviewers and editors in evaluating papers that involve such methods

Sparking Manufacturing Innovation: How Temporary Interplant Assignments Increase Employee Idea Values

Shop-floor employees play a key role in manufacturing innovation. In some companies, up to 75% of all productivity gains are the result of bottom-up employee ideas. In this paper, we examine how employee interplant assignments-short problem-solving jobs at other manufacturing plants within the same firm-influence employee-driven manufacturing innovation. Using unique idea-level data from a large European car parts manufacturer, we show that interplant assignments significantly increase the value of employees' improvement ideas due to the short-term transfer of production knowledge and long-term employee learning. Both effects are amplified by assignments to plants that have high functional overlap (i.e., plants producing similar products using similar processes and machinery). One implication is that, for the purpose of employee-driven manufacturing innovation, assignments between peripheral plants with high functional overlap can be more effective than assignments to and from central plants. These findings are robust to several econometric tests. Our study provides novel and detailed empirical evidence of manufacturing innovation, and goes beyond previous research on the learning curve (learning by doing) by investigating how interplant assignments affect the value of employees' improvement ideas (learning by moving)