Management Challenges for DevOps Adoption within UK SMEs

The DevOps phenomenon is gathering pace as more UK organisations seek to leverage the benefits it can potentially bring to software engineering functions. However substantial organisational change is inherent to adopting DevOps, especially where there are prior and established methods. As part of a wider piece of doctoral research investigating the management challenges of DevOps adoption, we present early findings of a six month qualitative diary study following the adoption of DevOps within a UK based SME with over 200 employees. We find that within our case study organisation, the DevOps approach is being adopted for the development of a new system used both internally and by customers. DevOps, conceptually, appears to be generally well regarded, but in reality is proving difficult to fully adopt. This difficulty is down to a combination of necessity in maintaining a legacy system, lack of senior management buy-in, managerial structure and resistance. Additionally, we are finding evidence of job crafting, especially with the software developers. Taken together, we put forward the argument that DevOps is an interdisciplinary topic which would greatly benefit from further management and potentially psychology oriented research attention

Disruptive Innovation: Enabling Practitioners to Tackle the "Innovators Dilemma" With Graphical Techniques - A Focus on Resource Allocation

This paper presents the findings of part of a 30 month investigation, conducted to better understand the persistent failure of management practitioners to fund potentially disruptive innovations. A Mode 2 case study strategy was employed. The iterative transfer of knowledge, between four industrial cases and academia, has successfully culminated in new academic understanding of disruptive innovation and guidance for practitioners. It was found that funding decisions are mainly constrained by mental not physical processes. Organisations wishing to pursue disruptive innovations can challenge psychological attachments to incrementalism, and overcome the funding barrier, with a holistic understanding delivered through graphical portfolio tools

Knowledge transfer between Food Research Institute and industry in the UK: the role of open innovation and social capital

This paper is part of a wider research project that seeks a conceptualised explanation to how and why knowledge is transferred between food research institutes and industry in the UK, by identifying the mechanisms that drive this process. It presents the findings from 13 in-depth interviews which formed the pilot study conducted through a qualitative approach involving a leading food research institute and main food retailers. An analysis of the Open Innovation and Social Capital literatures lead to the conclusion that these are plausible angles to start the study. Participation in formal and informal networks and the importance of social structures play a significant role in this context as well as different open and collaborative activities. The emergent findings suggests that innovation challenges facing this sector are around sustainability issues such as waste, climate change and food safety. Knowledge transfer between food research institute and industry occurs through open innovation activities, the main motivations being internal learning and access to funding through engagement with industry. Similarly there are many opportunities for intermediaries in the commercialisation of ideas. Moreover, the individual level of social capital provides the network structure and expertise access to engage in collaborative projects

Book review : Not again little owl by Dr Vivien Norris

Dr Vivien Norris, the author, is Clinical Director of the Family Place and her experience as a clinical psychologist, Theraplay and DDP practitioner is evident throughout the book. The book is the story of Little Owl whose Mummy isn't able to look after him properly. It is decided by Rabbit that he should live with his Granny but she can't keep up with his bounciness. So Little Owl is moved again by Rabbit, first to Fox and then on to Hedgehog and then eventually to Badger. Badger is able to help him and can accept him with all his speed and bounciness, and help him with his 'muddles'. Little Owl begins to relax with Badger, they fit together and he starts to feel safe. When Rabbit arrives once more to move him again Little Owl is so upset and frightened. He doesn't know Squirrel and doesn't want to move again. Badger and Rabbit accept his feelings and stay right alongside him during the move. Badger is able to tell Squirrel about all that Little Owl has been through and how hard it has been, and the special ways he needs to be looked after to make him feel safe

The Olympic Games and associative sponsorship: Brand personality identity creation, communication and congruence

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the brand relationships between a mega-sports event, the Olympic Games, and its branded main sponsors, using the lens of brand personality. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses the internet-based website communications of the sponsor and event brands to assess congruence in brand personality identity exhibited in the communications of sponsors and how these relate to the event brand itself. A lexical analysis of the website text identifies and graphically represents the dominant brand personality traits of the brands relative to each other. Findings: The results show the Olympic Games is communicating excitement as a leading brand personality dimension. Sponsors of the Olympics largely take on its dominant brand dimension, but do not adapt their whole brand personality to that of the Olympics and benefit by adding excitement without losing their individual character. The transference is more pronounced for long-running sponsors. Practical implications: Sponsorship of the Olympic Games does give brands the opportunity to capture or borrow the excitement dimension alongside building or reinforcing their own dominant brand personality trait or to begin to subtly alter their brand positioning. Originality/value: This study is the first to examine how the sponsor’s brand aligns with the event being sponsored as a basis for developing a strong shared image and associative dimensions complimentary to the positioning of the brand itself

An exploration of the strategy formation process in diverse business organisations

The business environment is perceived as becoming ever more turbulent. New strategic management theories point to a more organic and emergent strategy formation process, emphasising the paradox of control and questioning management’s role within the strategy domain. This research investigates the theoretical and empirical relationships between strategy formation, management’s role and the business environment within different organisations and at different times. Sixteen cases, representing insights of the strategy formation process in a large high technology company, are presented based on action research conducted over a nineteen month period. A theoretical framework, named the Strategy Formation Matrix, is developed to investigate the relationship between the strategy formation type and the management role. The model is validated and researched theoretically against the strategy literature and empirically in a multiple case study with six diversified companies. The framework is later extended to incorporate the business environment and these relationships are investigated based on a sample of seventeen diversified companies, who represent different industrial sectors and vary in size from small to medium to large. This research has developed new frameworks and models to describe the relationships between the business environment, the strategy formation process, management’s role and the size of organisation. In addition, it adds to existing models and challenges existing theories that link increased turbulence with a more emergent strategy formation process and a static business environment with a more intended strategy formation process.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Regional anti-corruption effort, political connections and firm innovation effort: Evidence from China

This paper examines how firm characteristics and local anti‐corruption effort moderate the influence of political connections on enterprises’ private R&D investment using data from 2,587 Chinese A‐share listed enterprises. Our results show that the local anti‐corruption institutional environment significantly moderates the strong relationship between political connections and enterprises’ private R&D investment. Firm characteristics (i.e., firm size and firm age) also show a moderating effect on the relationship between political connection and enterprises’ private R&D investment; larger and older enterprises are more likely to have innovative resources and business cooperation partners, and thus are able to reduce their degree of reliance on political connections and government funding. The results of our study suggest the importance of having a transparent and fair institutional environment for enterprise innovation activities

Exploring and describing management action for the pursuit of disruptive innovation

Disruptive Innovation as a theory is often misunderstood and as a term it tacks clear definition. Moreover, there is an absence in existing research of a coherent framework to explain the qualitative factors that management practitioners face when attempting to pursue disruptive innovation as part of a balanced approach to innovation management. I In response to these problems, this thesis describes a researcher-led collaborative academic- industrial exploration of disruptive innovation. The research was conducted in three waves; first to generate an holistic appreciation of the organisational effort required in the pursuit of disruptive innovation; second to generate focus; third to explore a primary area of management action that constrains businesses to the pursuit of incrementalism. New qualitative knowledge was generated, based upon the experiences and insights of 127 industrialists from four case study organisations, 11 experts and the researcher's observations over a 33 month period. Findings suggest that the theory of disruptive innovation fails to be translated into practice because managers lack an holistic appreciation of th e innovation agenda. When this is the case, disruptive opportunities invoke management cognitions that drive disruptive innovation rejection strategies. In effect, managers allow their prevailing mental models to dictate an imbalanced focus upon steady-state, sustaining innovation. However, it was found that such inhibitors can be challenged by the use of adjusted portfolio management approaches. The research is primarily exploratory and provides the basis for a new, more grounded understanding of the pursuit of disruptive innovation in average performing organisations.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Supplier integration and firm performance: the moderating effects of internal integration and trust

This study proposes and empirically tests a model of the moderating effects of internal integration and trust on the impacts of information, process and strategic integration with suppliers on firm performance using structural equation modelling and data collected from 261 manufacturing firms in Vietnam. The results show that all three types of supplier integration positively associate with firm performance. Internal integration enhances the impact of process integration with suppliers on firm performance, but does not moderate the impacts of information and strategic integration with suppliers. Internal trust has insignificant, positive and negative influences on the effects of information, process and strategic integration with suppliers on firm performance. The findings show that internal integration and trust play different roles in moderating the positive effects of information, process and strategic integration with suppliers on firm performance, which elucidates a possible reason for previous mixed findings on the relationship between supplier integration and firm performance

Responsible Research and Innovation Revisited: Aligning Product Development Processes with the Corporate Responsibility Agenda

It is well established that society faces some grand challenges ahead that have led to a call for more focus on sustainability and socially responsible business practices (European Commission 2010, 2012; Scherer and Palazzo 2011). It is now widely accepted that human-induced climate change is caused by production and consumption patterns that have emerged to meet society’s evolving needs (Unruh 2000; Foxon and Pearson 2006). There are increasing amounts of legislation to try to encourage more sustainable practices and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. For example, the 2008 United Kingdom (UK) Climate Change Act (UK Parliament 2008) states that “It is the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that the net UK carbon account for the year 2050 is at least 80 % lower than the 1990 baseline” (p. 1). Other legislation is encouraging manufacturers to take back and recycle their products at the end of their useful lives