How Decision Makers Learn to Choose Organizational Performance Measures

This study, framed by decision making, program theory, and performance measurement theory, explored the knowledge and experience that enable decision makers to identify organizational performance measures. It used a mixed method, exploratory sequential research design to discover the experience, knowledge, and skills (EKS) senior decision makers felt were important in learning to choose organizational performance measures. From the analyzed interviews, a survey was designed to measure the importance of the EKS characteristics. Qualitative analysis identified 55 life, work, or educational experience; knowledge; or skill characteristics and 23 effective measure characteristics. Regression analysis and PCA were used to extract 6 components. One-way ANOVA found no significant differences in these factors between gender groups, age groups, and process complexity levels, but found differences for decision-making tenure. MANOVA found no significant differences by the same dimensions. The limited sample size and high number of variables confounded component extraction. Further research with a suitable sample size is required before findings can be generalized

Value indicators and monitoring in innovative PDM: A grounded approach

International audienceLong-term success of firms depends on the efficiency of their management of R&D projects. However, there is a gap between standard economic and strategic indicators and the high uncertainty, complexity of commitments, and organizational issues that can be observed in the more innovative R&D projects. This paper presents the results of an eighteen-month study in the R&D departments of Renault SAS, which aimed to develop a new monitoring approach of R&D projects. In partnership with R&D teams and managers, a first empirical research on a sample of 64 projects assessed a series of hypothesis about what could be an appropriate monitoring for highly innovative projects. Then, a new monitoring system was built, based on a triangular approach of the project status: economic performance (value and reliability of the value), strategic potential indicators, organizational impact and resource assessment. This paper describes this model and associated tools, as well as the research methodology used to implement them. This monitoring system is now used routinely in the company

Resistance noise in Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O8+δ_{8+\delta}

The resistance noise in a Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O$_{8+\delta}$ thin film is found to increase strongly in the underdoped regime. While the increase of the raw resistance noise with decreasing temperature appears to roughly track the previously reported pseudogap temperature for this material, standard noise analysis rather suggests that the additional noise contribution is driven by the proximity of the superconductor-insulator transition

Innovative urban temporalities: conceptive and generative temporal regimes

International audienceIn this paper, we outline management science in a manner that, we hope, will aid future research on individual and city temporalities. Our research question is twofold, but intertwined: how societal temporalities could be innovative understood as conceptive (" aspect of mind that can be used to conceive our world anew 1 ") and generative (" having the power of producing or originating 2 " ,)? How firms could contribute to times design in an innovative way? From our perspective, these questions could be even more generic if we accept the general assumption that firms could be societal mutations producers or contributors. In that, we put aside ethical questions we don't underestimate to concentrate on interactions between societal change, here new time organization, and firm management in public transport sector. First, we propose a social and technical times science overview to better understand contemporary times factory that we observed through two case studies led in intervention-research. That will give a useful framework to underline firm contributions to times design since 19 th. Secondly, that baseline will be used to integrate more specific literature on management science, particularly in organization and design topics. Before going on our vision of conceptive temporalities, we need to clarify some definitions we will use in that paper: times, temporalities, rhythm and temporal regime. We'll speak about times, and not " time " in Augustinian sense (" What, then, is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I want to meet this demand, I do not know ") to mean that time could be polychronical and be described by its manifestations. Using temporalities, we refer to " character of what is in time and time consciousnes

Learning from innovation echoes in mature organizations - The case of the automotive industry

International audienceIn competitive industries, intensive and repeated innovation is a recognized necessity (Wheelwright and Clark, 1992; Le Masson et al., 2010). Literature on innovation (Utterback, 1994; Henderson & Clark, 1990) distinguishes Dominant Design revisions (radical innovations) from local improvements (incremental innovations). Regarding the innovation process management, one success factor lies in the knowledge articulation between front end and new product development (NPD) stages (Koen et al, 2002; Cooper et al, 2001). Then, central issue becomes NPD stakeholders' management (Elias et al., 2002) and their ability to establish perennial learning dynamics across the two parts of the organization (O'Connor, 2008). Our paper fits into this research field for local innovations on the dominant design. We discuss the role of technical expertise level of NDP stakeholders involved in early stages. The research mobilized two longitudinal studies (Yin, 1989) carried out with a global car manufacturer since 2005, one focusing on the innovation management process and organization, while the other was devoted to learning dynamics of engineering development departments. Leading as collaborative management research (Hatchuel and David, 2007), analyses were enhanced through deep interviews with project managers, technical experts and decision-makers. Analyzing local innovation impacts, we find that effect of breakthrough innovation projects on NPD organization was similar to waves: close expertise are quickly and strongly affected while distant expertise are more weakly and later affected. Our research material shows that tracking of key stakeholders is based on functional division of the organization whereas force and temporality of the innovation impact could potentially follow other propagation logic. Stakeholders identified by the organization as key actors could be in reality weakly impacted but we observed they were able to convey useful knowledge to heavily affected actors inside their organization when they had a high level of technical expertise of the dominant design. Expertise robustness plays a screen role that returns, as an amplified echo, the innovation low impact on their technical perimeter toward those heavily impacted

Dynamics of internal R&D stakeholders in the Fuzzy Front-End of breakthrough engineering projects

International audienceIn competitive industries, intensive innovation is a recognized necessity (Wheelwright and Clark, 1992; Le Masson et al., 2010). One success factor of breakthrough R&D projects lies in the knowledge articulation between innovation definition phases, composed of fuzzy front-end (FFE) and innovative new product development (NPD) stages (Koen et al, 2002; Cooper et al, 2001), and industrial development processes. Then, central issue for innovation projectsmanagers becomes internal R&D stakeholders’ management (Elias et al., 2002) and sustainable learning dynamics across the two parts of the organization (O’Connor, 2008). Our paper fits into this research gap for local breakthrough R&D in the dominant design. We discuss the role of technical expertise level of NDP stakeholders involved in early stages of innovative projects. The research mobilized two longitudinal studies (Yin, 1989) carried out with a global car manufacturer through collaborative management research (Radaelli et al., 2012) since 2005, one focusing on the FFE management, while the other was devoted to learning dynamics of engineering development departments. A cartography of the internal network of breakthrough R&D (Mitchell et al, 1997) underlined a stable organizational network across projects. Nevertheless, a quantitative analysis of accounting data on 8 projects highlights important dynamics of involvement or dis-engagement within the network. The analysis showed that the accounting reporting at the portfolio level used to hide to top-managers the heterogeneity and depth of resources dynamics at the project level. The impacts of local breakthrough R&D on the engineering development organization was similar to waves: some stakeholders, who played roles of experts, spokespersons or innovation design strategists, were able to involve quickly the individuals to maintain the project progress, sometime generating an over-commitment on innovation projects. At the opposite, a lack of trust of the design partners generated withdrawal of resources that needed a strong stakeholder management to be prevented

What makes an efficient theme for a creativity session?

International audienceDespite literature has widely investigated the logics of ideation, at early stages of innovation and product development processes (Bjork and Magnusson, 2009; Boeddrich, 2004; Girotra et al., 2010), very few contributions deal with the very starting point of the ideation process, i.e. the initial theme given to workshops participants. Nevertheless, scholars' works on the nature of stimuli and examples (Smith et al.,1993; Ward et al., 2004) underlined they could generate heterogeneous effects on the efficiency of the ideation stage. Moreover, whereas efficiency criteria for creativity sessions are well known (fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration), creativity techniques focus on the improvement and monitoring of ideation management: the problem of designing the initial theme is seldom included in the design parameters of creativity sessions, as if it was not considered as an issue in research on creativity management. Yet, one consequence of the above mentioned literature results is that it should be a key efficiency factor: the formulation could play a key role in conditioning cognitive involvement of individuals and managerial goals achievement. This paper focuses on this specific problem of formulating an efficient theme for a creativity session and its implications on cognitive involvement of facilitators and participants, and the achievement of managerial goals of the session. Based on a single case study led through collaborative action research with the French postal service operator, our research analyses the impacts of the formulation in three innovative-oriented creativity workshops the authors have organized and steered from May to October 2013. The three workshops themes were built to experiment the impact of the theme formulation on: 1/ creativity techniques efficiency according traditional criteria and facilitators' cognitive involvement; and 2/ participants' satisfaction assessed through their ability to link the theme, thus the generated ideas, to the company's innovation strategy. The exploratory study confirms that the formulation of the theme has important consequences, both cognitive and managerial. A first set of results suggests two main dimensions to describe the nature and structure of a theme naming: the accuracy level of the formulation and the degree of conceptual tension. A second set of results is about concrete reasoning when designing the theme and implementing in the formulation links to the firm's strategy. A third set of results is about consequences of theme formulation on the way the creativity session is designed and steered. Key dimensions include: 1/ The degree of cognitive implication of facilitators; 2/ The nature of stimuli and idea generation techniques used during the session (generic versus custom-made); 3/ The degree of commitment of the actors (designers of the theme, facilitators and participants) to the organization's strategy, i.e. to what gives value to the output of the creativity session

Archaeological Investigations at Moody Reunion and Fairgrounds, Floresville, Wilson County, Texas

Archaeologists from the Center for Archaeological Studies (CAS) at Texas State University conducted an intensive pedestrian survey including the excavation of 5 mechanical trenches and 50 shovel tests in Moody Reunion and Fairgrounds, Floresville, Texas, from January 10 through February 23, 2018. The survey was executed in order to assess the project area for potential impacts to cultural resources in advance of the installation of a new baseball complex and associated infrastructure by the City of Floresville. Work was carried out by CAS archaeologists Jacob Hooge and David Macias under Texas Antiquities Permit Number 8276, assigned to Principal Investigator Jacob Hooge. The area of potential effects (APE) includes Floresville River Park, Kiddie Park, and an area extending approximately 1,400 meters northwest of the Floresville Events Center. Other than modern refuse, only one single prehistoric stone tool was observed in a secondary context within a gully near the San Antonio River. The source of the tool could not be identified leading to its classification as an isolated find, and thus, holds little research value, and are not significant to the city’s, state’s or nation’s history. Although soil profiles observed in trenches and a natural erosion feature exhibit potential for buried archaeology, no other prehistoric or historic cultural materials were observed during survey. Accordingly, CAS recommends full regulatory clearance for the installations of all of the proposed features

Low cost strategies to build dynamic capabilities: The creative approach of a French public transport operator

International audienceDynamic capabilities have been discussed as a way to achieve competitive advantage. However, research on the building of dynamic capabilities is still scarce. This article tackles the issue of potential federative guidance to manage this building and illustrates it through the low cost approach adopted by a public transport operator. Resulting of an oriented creativity method combined with the use of two divergent strategies of low cost product development, the company was able to make several improvements that contributed to build dynamic capabilities at both firm and industrial ecosystem levels: (1) reviewed its managerial system, making transversal projects that were previously hard to be launched; (2) increased its absorptive capability and quality of interaction with ecosystem's stakeholders, better targeting and acquiring external knowledge through collaborative explorations; and (3) dealt with the external barriers and core-rigidities at both firm and industrial ecosystem levels through two different and complementary ways of developing low-cost offer for public transport. Thus, low cost approach appears as an eligible federative guidance to build dynamic capability, similar investigation could benefit to other firms