Linking business analytics to decision making effectiveness: a path model analysis

While business analytics is being increasingly used to gain data-driven insights to support decision making, little research exists regarding the mechanism through which business analytics can be used to improve decision-making effectiveness (DME) at the organizational level. Drawing on the information processing view and contingency theory, this paper develops a research model linking business analytics to organizational DME. The research model is tested using structural equation modeling based on 740 responses collected from U.K. businesses. The key findings demonstrate that business analytics, through the mediation of a data-driven environment, positively influences information processing capability, which in turn has a positive effect on DME. The findings also demonstrate that the paths from business analytics to DME have no statistical differences between large and medium companies, but some differences between manufacturing and professional service industries. Our findings contribute to the business analytics literature by providing useful insights into business analytics applications and the facilitation of data-driven decision making. They also contribute to manager's knowledge and understanding by demonstrating how business analytics should be implemented to improve DM

Green implementation of Lean Six Sigma projects in the manufacturing sector

Purpose – Historically, Lean Six Sigma (LSS) implementation has demonstrated a great deal of enhancement to process efficiency, profitability and customer satisfaction. The emerging market pressure for developing better quality, cheaper and greener products invokes a change of view in LSS economical effectiveness. The purpose of this study is to identify under which condition the final output of LSS projects with traditional strategic benefits are more environmentally friendly. Design/methodology/approach – To investigate the choice of different types of LSS projects, the environmental impact under different conditions and the comparison of those conditions, the author developed an analytical mathematical model and analysed four different propositions. Findings – The final price and production volume were recommended as mediating factors to leverage an LSS project to achieve a greener, customised and finance-oriented outputs. Research limitations/implications – This research contributes to existing LSS research and knowledge development via promoting the different perspectives of LSS and environmental sustainability integration. Practical implications – This study further enables managers to identify the cut-off point in relation to the production volume and finished prices to leverage the expected financial outputs and environmental impact of the LSS project. This would potentially promote a green LSS project in both implementation and output, alongside its traditional values. Originality/value – This study uses a modelling approach to identify the conditions under which the actual methodology of the LSS project could be green via less energy consumption with consideration of expected LSS values and outcomes

When remanufacturing meets product quality improvement: the impact of production cost

Remanufacturing as well as quality improvement are important activities to improve sustainability. However, when coexisting in one company, their interaction is not clear. On the one hand, past research found a positive impact of remanufacturing on product quality. On the other hand, remanufacturing was shown to be negatively affected by an industry technology trajectory of quality improvements. Using a stylized model of endogenous product quality improvement and remanufacturing we find that the main driver of the contradicting results is the change in manufacturing costs caused by improving product quality. A strong increase in manufacturing costs due to product quality improvement may induce the firm to take up remanufacturing when introducing the new product. Conversely, a small impact of product quality improvement on manufacturing costs reverses this effect and may indeed lead the firm to cease remanufacturing when introducing the new product. We find that the latter outcome is never beneficial from an environmental point of view, while the former always is. With endogeneous product quality improvement we then characterize conditions where a remanufacturing manufacturer would take a different product quality improvement decision than a non-remanufacturing manufacturer. We observe that remanufacturing stifles (stimulates) product quality improvement when manufacturing cost of quality improved product are low (high). Neither of the two results are exclusively beneficial or detrimental from an environmental perspective and we characterize the conditions under which product quality improvement is preferable

Impact of perceived importance of cultural readiness factors on perceived importance of Lean Six Sigma success factors for manufacturers

Purpose This study aims at investigating the impact of the perceived importance of critical cultural readiness factors (CRFs) is on perceived importance of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) technical critical success factors (CSFs) in UK manufacturing sector. Design/methodology/approach A survey questionnaire through a multiple embedded case study was conducted. The study involves surveying people in the manufacturing firms followed by non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis test to study the relationships. Findings It was found that the people's perception towards impact of CRFs on technical CSFs of LSS projects is different depending upon each CRF, demographic factors and technical CSFs. This means that particular CRFs need to be prioritised to address LSS technical CSFs. Research limitations/implications The study fills the research gap in investigating the perception of people towards inter-relationship of cultural or soft CSFs of LSS and technical or hard CSFs of LSS in manufacturing firms. Nevertheless, the authors suggest further multi-case study analysis covering different manufacturing fields as future studies. Practical implications The study is crucial for managers financially to be ready to invest on a successful LSS project and it helps them to diagnose the cultural causes of failure in a more timely way and effectively. Originality/value This is a preliminary study focussing on analysing inter-relationship between perceived importance of soft readiness factors and perceived importance of implementing success factors as a missing jigsaw in the current literature

Association between Second-Time Mother’s Prenatal Depression and Firstborn’s Behaviour Problems: The Mediation Role of Parenting Daily Hassles

Background: With the relaxation of birth control policy in China in recent years, second-time mothers’ mental health has raised concerns. However, the impact of firstborn children’s behaviour problems on second-time mothers’ prenatal depression in families transitioning to siblinghood has received little attention from family psychologists. Aims: This research aims to investigate whether firstborn children’s behaviour problems affect second-time mothers’ prenatal depression and the mediation role of daily parenting hassles, i.e., minor stressors associated with parenting, on this relationship. Methods: Data about second-time mothers’ prenatal depression, parenting daily hassles, and firstborn children’s behaviour problems were collected from 105 families transitioning to two children families using mother-reported questionnaires. Regressions were used to analyze the data. Results: About half of the mothers in the sample have depressive symptoms. Firstborns’ behaviour problems did not have a direct effect on the mother’s prenatal depression, but the problems did have an indirect effect via parenting daily hassles. The mothers’ age was significantly associated with prenatal depression. Conclusions: The mediation role of parenting daily hassles in the association with firstborn’s behaviour problems and mother’s prenatal depression suggests the need for support that reduce the levels of daily parenting hassles from firstborn children

Don’t Forget Your Supplier When Remanufacturing

A popular assumption in the current literature on remanufacturing is that the whole new product is produced by an integrated manufacturer, which is inconsistent with most industries. In this paper, we model a decentralised closed-loop supply chain consisting of a key component supplier and a non-integrated manufacturer, and demonstrate that the interaction between these players significantly impacts the economic and environmental implications of remanufacturing. In our model, the non-integrated manufacturer can purchase new components from the supplier to produce new products, and remanufacture used components to produce remanufactured products. Thus, the non-integrated manufacturer is not only a buyer but also a rival to the supplier. In a steady state period, we analyse the performances of an integrated manufacturer and the decentralised supply chain. We find that, although the integrated manufacturer always benefits from remanufacturing, the remanufacturing opportunity may constitute a lose-lose situation to the supplier and the non-integrated manufacturer, making their profits be lower than in an identical supply chain without remanufacturing. In addition, the non-integrated manufacturer may be worse off with a lower remanufacturing cost or a larger return rate of used products due to the interaction with the supplier. We further demonstrate that the government-subsidised remanufacturing in the non-integrated (integrated) manufacturer is detrimental (beneficial) to the environment

The impact of product upgrading on the decision of entrance to a secondary market

Recently developed business models in the book publishing industry have led to the emergence of a self-publishing model in which authors publish their works directly through a dominant e-tailer like Amazon without recourse to traditional publishers. In this paper, we examine whether it is profitable for such an e-tailer to adopt this approach, what publishers should do, and whether it is wise for authors to embrace this self-publishing trend. Specifically, we model the publishing and retailing structure of the book industry to assess how different channel power and structures may affect chain members’ pricing and profits. Our analysis suggests that under certain conditions, it is wise for the publisher to cut off the supply to the dominant e-tailer, unwise for the author to choose the self-publishing model, and better for the dominant e-tailer not to implement a self-publishing mode. Using numerical analysis, we show that when the ratio of e-book buyers is high enough, even when the author’s revenue sharing rate does not change, the publisher may retain the author as a client by encouraging consumers to buy e-books. We also show that although the self-publishing mode greatly reduces consumer welfare, it may increase social welfare

Clicks versus Bricks: the role of durability in marketing channel strategy of durable goods manufacturers

We develop a two-period dual-channel model for a durable goods manufacturer that can sell directly by its own e-channel and indirectly via an independent reseller to investigate how product durability and the channel structure create strategic issues that are significantly different from those in managing a dual channel for nondurables. Our game-theoretic model nests Arya et al. (2007) as a special case when product durability reduces to zero and thus generalizes it to the durable goods setting. The equilibrium solutions indicate that, when the product is durable, both parties' profitability strongly depends on product durability and direct selling cost. In particular, we find that, compared to encroaching the reseller's market by direct selling online, it is optimal for the manufacturer to open an inactive e-channel that serves only as an information medium. Moreover, we find that, contrary to Arya et al.'s (2007) results, if product durability is moderate, for any direct selling cost, manufacturer's encroachment is always detrimental to the reseller, and thus its bright side disappears. We test our model's theoretical predictions on the effects of product durability on manufacturer's and reseller's profitability with data from the U.S. x86 computer server market, and find strong empirical support-profitability of both parties is higher when product durability is sufficiently low or sufficiently high, and lower when durability is intermediate

Strategically decentralize when encroaching on a dominant supplier

A manufacturer may encroach on his suppliers by developing substitutable components. In the presence of encroachment, the manufacturer could assemble products using (high-end) components purchased from the supplier, and assemble products using (low-end) components produced in-house. Thus, the manufacturer must deliberate on how to manage the expanded organization consisting of competing product divisions. In this paper, we examine the quintessential organizational structure decision – the centralization versus decentralization choice – from the perspective of the manufacturer. Our model assumes that the supplier is a dominant player in the supply chain, moving first by pricing the high-end component, and consumers have a higher willingness-to-pay of the product containing the high-end component. In such a context, we find that the manufacturer may encroach on the supplier even if producing one unit low-end component costs more than producing one unit high-end component. The supplier should strategically price to deter or accommodate downstream encroachment contingent on the manufacturer’s organizational structure decision. If the unit cost of low-end components is high enough, product-based decentralization is preferred to centralization due to the supplier’s lower wholesale price. Furthermore, we find that the manufacturer’s strategic decentralization always hurts the supplier, always benefits the customers, and could benefit or hurt the entire supply chain under certain conditions

Carbon emissions reduction and transfer in supply chains under A cap-and-trade system with emissions-sensitive demand

Although ‘Cap-and-trade’ mainly constrains the manufacturer, the decision of the manufacturer’s emission reduction will affect the decision of the whole supply chain. In this paper, we investigate manufacturer and retailer’s decision under decentralized decision and centralized decision and taking into account the impact of carbon price and consumer environmental consciousness. Specially, we analyse the condition of whether a manufacturer transfers the emission reduction task to retailer. Besides, we use computational experiments to analyse the sensitivity by changing the cost function. Through the research, we have some findings: under a decentralized decision, manufacturer transfers emissions reduction task in more times, if the manufacturer transfers the emissions reduction task, the effectiveness of the emissions reduction, demand, retailer's revenue per product and consumer welfare decrease. Under centralized decision, the manufacturer does not transfer emissions reduction task all time, which is affected by emissions reduction cost of the manufacturer and retailer, carbon price and consumer environmental consciousness. In addition, emissions reduction cost function is not the sensitivity factor