Driving a lean transformation using a six sigma improvement process

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-74).Successive transformations within manufacturing have brought great efficiencies to producers and lower costs to consumers. With the advents of interchangeable parts between 1800 and 1850 in small arms manufacturing (Hounshell, 1984, pp. 3-4), mass production in the early 1900s in automobile manufacturing (Hounshell, 1984, pp. 9-10), and lean production in the early 1950s in automobile manufacturing (Womack, Jones, & Roos, 1990, p. 52), the state of manufacturing has continued to evolve. Each time, the visionaries that catalyzed the transformations were forced to overcome the inertia of the status quo. After convincing stakeholders of the need for change, these change agents: 1. Established a vision for the future 2. Committed resources to attain that vision 3. Studied the root causes for current methods 4. Proposed a new solution 5. Implemented the new solution 6. Quantified the results and sought future improvements. This basic process to implementing change is remarkably simple yet incredibly powerful. By explicitly emphasizing the need for root cause analysis, the process recognizes that improvements will be transient if the root causes of prior problems are not fully understood and resolved. When deploying a lean production system, an understanding of lean principles and tools is necessary but therefore not sufficient. Rather, implementing a lean production system should follow: 1. An analysis mapping the root causes of current production methods back to technical issues and the organization's strategic design, culture, and political landscape. Only by fixing the problems that led to the current production system can a lean transformation be sustained. 2. A detailed plan which achieves a transformation in both the organization(cont.) production system.by Satish Krishnan.S.M.M.B.A

Ethical Behavior of Firms and B2C E-commerce Diffusion: Exploring the Mediating Roles of Customer Orientation and Innovation Capacity

Despite the increasing significance of IT innovations and corporate ethics, we lack research that has investigated whether and how the extent to which firms in a country behave in an ethical manner relates to the rate at which B2C e-commerce diffuses among them. Drawing on the ethical climate theory, the stakeholder theory, and the resource-based view of the firm, we posit that firms’ ethical behavior positively relates to B2C e-commerce diffusion and that their customer orientation and innovation capacity will mediate the relationship. We validated our research model using publicly available archival data from 128 countries. Our findings suggest that 1) ethical conduct leads to higher B2C e-commerce diffusion among a country’s firms, and 2) customer orientation and innovation capacity serve as the underlying mechanisms that explain this relationship. We discuss crucial implications for research and practice

Moderating Effects of Environmental Factors on E-Government, E-Business, and Environmental Sustainability

Utilizing the resource complementarity perspective of the resource based view (RBV) of a firm, and the literature on information technology (IT) and environmental sustainability as the guiding theoretical lenses, we posit that the relationships of electronic-government (e-government) development and electronic-business (e-business) development in a country with its environmental sustainability are contingent on national environmental factors (i.e., complementary assets): (1) human capital; (2) public institutions; (3) macro-economic stability; and (4) gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Based on publicly available archival data from 122 countries, results showed that both e-government development and e-business development had no direct effect on environmental sustainability. However, e-government development and e-business development interacted with other variables to affect environmental sustainability. Specifically, while human capital and public institutions positively moderated the relationship of e-government development with environmental sustainability, the relationship of e-business development with environmental sustainability was contingent on them in the negative direction. Also, while macro-economic stability positively moderated the relationship of e-government development with environmental sustainability, the relationship of e-business development with environmental sustainability was not contingent on it. Finally, the relationships of e-government development and e-business development with environmental sustainability were contingent on GDP per capita in the negative direction. Our findings contribute to the theoretical discourse on the resource complementarity perspective by identifying the roles of national complementary assets and provide indications to practice on improvements in environmental sustainability by effectively managing those assets

Enterprise Systems Implementation and their Impact on Employee Job Outcomes. A review of the literature, synthesis, and framework

Enterprise Systems (ESs) integrate business processes to enhance organizational effectiveness. Organizations make huge investments in procuring and implementing ESs to effectively manage their resources to achieve strategic decision-making and improve operational excellence. Irrespective of the investments, it has become increasingly difficult to reap the full benefits of the systems being implemented. ESs implementation is a massive change event in organizations and in employees’ work routines that affect their day-to-day business activities impacting their job outcomes. To this end, the primary aim of this systematic literature review (SLR) is to synthesize the prior literature that explored the association between ESs implementation and employee job outcomes. Accordingly, our review study systematically analysed fifty empirical studies to identify themes that received substantial attention in the prior literature. The SLR uncovered key gaps, unearthed six themes, identified potential research areas, and proposed a comprehensive framework depicting the current research profile and potential avenues linking ESs and employee job outcomes. Our review provides significant implications for practice and research through the proposed comprehensive framework. We further suggest that ESs implementors need to consider job outcomes as crucial parameters during and post-implementation as successful implementation provides a strategic advantage to organizations and benefits employees

Social Media as a Source of Citizens\u27 Communicative Power: Relating Social Media Diffusion, E-participation, and Corruption

The utility of social media as an anti-corruption mechanism, although widely acknowledged, is less investigated, both empirically and theoretically. Accordingly, in this study, through a cross-country panel analysis and grounding our arguments on Habermas\u27s theory of democracy, we explore the relationships among social media diffusion, e-participation, and corruption, in addition to the evolution of these relationships over time. Our results indicate that social media diffusion has a positive relationship with e-participation, which, in turn, has a negative relationship with corruption. Further, results show that the strength of these relationships wanes over time. These findings can help policymakers make informed decisions regarding the strategies for controlling corruption by increasing social media diffusion and e-participation

IT Readiness, ICT Usage, and National Sustainability Development: Testing the Source-Position-Performance Framework

Utilizing the Source-Position-Performance (SPP) framework of competitive advantage and the literature on information technology (IT) and sustainability as the guiding theoretical lenses, we posit that the government and business IT readiness (i.e., sources of advantage) leads to differentiation in government and business ICT usage (i.e., positional advantage), which in turn affects the national sustainability (i.e., performance) in terms of economic, environmental, and social developments. Based on secondary data from 108 countries, our results generally supported the hypothesized model. Specifically, government and business IT readiness in a country appeared to be a significant enabler of government and business ICT usage respectively, which in turn led to enhancement of national sustainability development. Post hoc mediation analysis indicates that government ICT usage (1) fully mediated the effect of government IT readiness on environmental and social developments; and (2) partially mediated the effect of government IT readiness on economic development. On the other hand, business ICT usage (1) fully mediated the effect of business IT readiness on economic development; (2) did not mediate the effect of business IT readiness on environmental development; and (3) partially mediated the effect of business IT readiness on social development. Our findings contribute to the theoretical discourse on “IT and sustainability” by identifying the role of IT readiness among government and businesses in a country and provide indications to practice on enhancing its sustainability by increasing the levels of ICT usage among them

Electronic government and corruption: Systematic literature review, framework, and agenda for future research

The notion of corruption has emerged as a prominent topic against the backdrop of e-government. However, there are diverse but disorganized viewpoints about the relationship between e-government and corruption, thus creating difficulties in obtaining a structured overview of the existing literature and identifying the avenues to take this research area forward. Despite this, prior studies have made limited attempts to gather these fragmented observations to guide future research holistically. To address this concern, we conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) of 63 articles discussing e-government and corruption and provide a comprehensive synthesis of the current knowledge in this domain. In particular, we offer a thematic classification of prior studies, uncover the key gaps in the literature, identify the potential research areas, and provide recommendations to broaden the avenues for future studies. Furthermore, we propose an integrated conceptual framework to caution policymakers about the incomplete understanding offered by the existing studies and to inspire further research in several ways.publishedVersio

Electronic Government Maturity: Antecedents and Consequences from a Global Perspective

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

The Role of CIOs and Board’s IT Competence on HIT Investments

Healthcare organizations currently face tough decisions regarding allocating resources to reduce costs and improve patient care. While IT investments have consistently been a priority, it is widely accepted as a given, resulting in research primarily examining IT investment outcomes. Recent studies highlight tensions between the role of CIOs and governing boards in determining IT resource allocations. Recognizing this, the current study investigates the dynamics between healthcare CIO presence and the board in driving targeted HIT investments. Drawing on the upper echelons theory, we theorize and propose several hypotheses to clarify the tensions between the CIO and the influence of boards in the healthcare industry, specifically in the context of HIT investments

E-Government Maturity, Corruption, And Eco-Efficiency

There is growing interest in the role and contribution of e-government to the level of corruption and the eco-efficiency in terms of economic prosperity and environmental degradation of nation states. In this paper, we use publicly available archival data to explore the relationships among e-government maturity, corruption, and eco-efficiency (defined in terms of economic prosperity and environmental degradation). Results substantiate a significant relationship between e-government maturity and corruption, and e-government maturity and eco-efficiency through the mediating effects of corruption. The findings suggest that while e-government maturity did not contribute to eco-efficiency, its value could be realized indirectly via its impacts on corruption, which in turn influences eco-efficiency. Our findings contribute to the theoretical discourse on e-government impact by identifying the role of e-government in a country and provide indications to practice on enhancing its eco-efficiency by managing the level of corruption