Hybrid organizations as a strategy for supporting new product development

Alliances between large, well-established corporations and highly creative small companies or consultancies can be an effective method for promoting innovation

UK Fashion Designers Working in Micro-sized Enterprises; Attitudes to Locational Resources, Their Peers and the Market

This paper contributes to an understanding of the importance of locally based resources and interactions in a globalised industry, fashion design. It examines the product design stage of the fashion production chain, rather than the manufacture and commercialisation of apparel products. We studied the use of their geographies by UK-based fashion designers working in micro-sized enterprises ( < 10 employees) especially because of their likely sensitivity to various aspects of proximity, including their dependence on external resources to supplement their own. Factor and cluster analysis identified four different types of designers, which differed in the manner in which they interacted with peers and markets, and accessed location-based resources. The paper advances explanations for the patterns of behaviour observed in the various clusters, and in making recommendations for further research predicts the types of design position each is likely to prefer

How relevant is transaction cost economics to inter-firm relationships in the music industry?

This paper applies the transaction cost framework to the organisation of product sourcing and development (PS&D) activities within the popular music industry. Two firm types characterise the industry and this particular set of activities; large multinational firms (`majors') and smaller regionally bound companies (`independents'). We find that the Transaction CostEconomies framework of Oliver Williamson (1985, 1999) provides only a partial explanation for the observed hybrid organisational structures established by the two firm types. A more sensitive model can be achieved by including a number of moderating variables drawn from the socially constructed and situationally dependent idiosyncrasies of the assets involved in the PS&D activities under consideration. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2004alliances, popular music industry, transaction cost economics,

How Relevant is Transaction Cost Economics to Inter-Firm Relationships in the Music Industry?

This paper applies the transaction cost framework to the organisation of product sourcing and development (PS&D) activities within the popular music industry. Two firm types characterise the industry and this particular set of activities; large multinational firms (`majors') and smaller regionally bound companies (`independents'). We find that the Transaction CostEconomies framework of Oliver Williamson (1985, 1999) provides only a partial explanation for the observed hybrid organisational structures established by the two firm types. A more sensitive model can be achieved by including a number of moderating variables drawn from the socially constructed and situationally dependent idiosyncrasies of the assets involved in the PS&D activities under consideration. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2004alliances, popular music industry, transaction cost economics,

Product development within a clustered environment : the case of apparel design firms

A great deal of recent academic attention has been paid to the role of location and proximity on the organizing of production. This body of work has identified the likely benefits to firms of co-locating, but despite this, there are gaps, especially in the treatment of creative clusters and the links between location and product creation processes. In this theoretical paper we discuss how clustered apparel designer firms interact with their environment, and how this geography impacts on their designing processes and the designs that emerge. We focus especially on how co-locating with other designers and creative organisations allows them to draw upon a multiplicity of intangible resources such as street scenes, social moods and atmosphere in order to create new designs. These factors are critical in the apparel design sector, but unlike factor inputs such as talent, materials or the financial and physical resources, have hardly been considered in academic writings

Studio design and the management of creative production

This paper examines the design of recording studios in the management of relations within popular music recording projects. The creation of a pop song is a complex endeavor, requiring a large number of decisions involving highly subjective and often contested and contestable judgments. Organized in a flat structure and without established lines of authority this temporary assembly of people are faced with the challenge of making a product characterized by uncertainty over how to make it and what it will sound like once it is completed. The purpose of this paper is to understand how this is achieved. The study is based on observation of the practices, and relationships operating in a recording studio and supplemented by interviews with the participants. Using a socio-material approach, the spatial organization and use of technological objects are included to produce a contextual analysis of how actions are organized and decisions taken. What emerges is an understanding of how the designed arrangement of the participants and the application of sound production and editing technology are used to manage the development of the song and confer decision-making authority upon the music producer. When the spatial organization of the participants is altered by the introduction of new technology and new spaces, the decision-making power of the producer is challenged and artist power is increased. The management of creative projects is achieved through establishing spatial and material relations in order to overcome the challenge of making decisions between temporarily assembled teams engaged in tasks characterized by high levels of uncertainty