How purchasing departments facilitate organizational ambidexterity

Companies must pursue both exploration and exploitation of supplier’s knowledge in increasingly competitive and complex production environments. This has been referred to as pursuing an ambidextrous supply strategy, extending the mobilisation of resources in pursuit of both aims beyond the borders of the lead manufacturer and into supplier organizations as well. Purchasing and supply management plays an increasingly central role in mobilizing and involving the suppliers in the pursuit of this agenda. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on organizational ambidexterity and operations management by exploring how purchasing departments contribute to the organizational pursuit of organizational ambidexterity. We explore practices followed by purchasing departments for mediating tensions between supply networks and organizational functions

How do Management Consultants Contribute to Innovation Processes?

In step with an increasingly knowledge-based competition firms increases their innovation activities. For this purpose integration, of external inputs from management consultants increasingly comes fore. However, the value of management consultants in general and to innovation processes in particular has been challenged. From some perspectives, management consultants are being criticized as dressing up mundane truths in fancy concepts and doing nothing but telling customers what they already know. The purpose of this paper is to try to understand the value of management consultancy from a sensemaking perspective, using a case study of concept development processes in a leading European Kitchen manufacturer. As will be showed, redressing what customers already know may in fact comprise a valuable input for their clients’ ability to identify a conception of reality which entails an actionable conception of reality

Feasibility of a standardized ultrasound examination in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A quality improvement among rheumatologists cohort.

BACKGROUND: Quality improvement is important to facilitate valid patient outcomes. Standardized examination procedures may improve the validity of US. The aim of this study was to investigate the learning progress for rheumatologists during training of US examination of the hand in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: Rheumatologists with varying degrees of experience in US were instructed by skilled tutors. The program consisted of two days with hands-on training followed by personal US examinations performed in their individual clinics. Examinations were sent to the tutors for quality control. The US examinations were evaluated according to a scoring sheet containing 144 items. An acceptable examination was defined as > 80% correct scores. RESULTS: Thirteen rheumatologists participated in the study. They included a total of 104 patients with RA. Only few of the initial examinations were scored below 80%, and as experience increased, the scores improved (p = 0.0004). A few participants displayed decreasing scores. The mean time spent performing the standardized examination procedure decreased from 34 min to less than 10 minutes (p = 0.0001). CONCLUSION: With systematic hands-on training, a rheumatologist can achieve a high level of proficiency in the conduction of US examinations of the joints of the hand in patients with RA. With experience, examination time decreases, while the level of correctness is maintained. The results indicate that US may be applied as a valid measurement tool suitable for clinical practice and in both single- and multi-centre trials

Mobilising supplier resources by being an attractive customer: Relevance, status and future research directions

For buying companies, supplier resource mobilisation is an essential process in gaining and sustaining preferential access to supplier resources. This editorial provides insights into the processes of supplier resource mobilisation and introduces three empirical studies on supplier resource mobilisation. We first introduce the supplier resource mobilisation cycle. This cycle may serve as a roadmap for purchasing and supply management (PSM) practitioners seeking to improve access to supplier resources. In addition, this article informs PSM scholars about the status of the supplier resource mobilisation literature and proposes avenues for future research. The cycle includes six stages: (1) becoming an attractive customer, (2) segmenting suppliers, (3) generating supplier satisfaction, (4) becoming a preferred customer, (5) engaging in supplier-oriented actions, and (6) integrating supplier resources. Finally, we introduce the articles in this issue that each examine a different stage of the supplier resource mobilisation process