DRIVING NPD PERFORMANCE IN HIGH-TECH SMES THROUGH IT AMBIDEXTERITY: UNVEILING THE INFLUENCE OF LEADERSHIP DECISION-MAKING STYLES

The scarcity of IT resources and technological advancements in high-tech small and medium enterprises (SMEs) require leaders to embed IT ambidexterity – simultaneous pursuit of IT exploitation and IT exploration activities – into their organization’s strategy, which could be challenging. To better understand how leaders enable IT ambidexterity, this study focuses on the leadership decision-making style (directive decision-making and participative decision-making) as a key driving factor. Moreover, we examine how and when leadership decision-making styles are most effective in enacting IT ambidexterity by considering new product development (NPD) team diversity and shared vision as two important contingencies. Finally, we test the role of IT ambidexterity in improving NPD performance. We analyse our research model using survey data from 292 high-tech SMEs. Our findings suggest that both decision-making styles enable IT ambidexterity, however, participative decision-making style is more effective in highly diverse NPD teams and directive decision-making style should be preferred when shared vision is a dominant factor among NPD team members. Our results also show that IT ambidexterity significantly enhances NPD performance. We discuss our contribution to information systems (IS) and ambidexterity research and provide implications for practice

Learning the What and How of Annotation in Video Object Segmentation

Video Object Segmentation (VOS) is crucial for several applications, from video editing to video data generation. Training a VOS model requires an abundance of manually labeled training videos. The de-facto traditional way of annotating objects requires humans to draw detailed segmentation masks on the target objects at each video frame. This annotation process, however, is tedious and time-consuming. To reduce this annotation cost, in this paper, we propose EVA-VOS, a human-in-the-loop annotation framework for video object segmentation. Unlike the traditional approach, we introduce an agent that predicts iteratively both which frame ("What") to annotate and which annotation type ("How") to use. Then, the annotator annotates only the selected frame that is used to update a VOS module, leading to significant gains in annotation time. We conduct experiments on the MOSE and the DAVIS datasets and we show that: (a) EVA-VOS leads to masks with accuracy close to the human agreement 3.5x faster than the standard way of annotating videos; (b) our frame selection achieves state-of-the-art performance; (c) EVA-VOS yields significant performance gains in terms of annotation time compared to all other methods and baselines.Comment: Accepted to WACV 202

The institutional politics of change in an outsourced project

This paper focuses on unique longitudinal research within a multi-vendor outsourcing environment in the European Defence Sector. It describes the unfolding relationship between vendors and a major defence organization as the vendors developed, implemented and then managed a human resource management (HRM) system. This paper examines the apparent paradox between the wide scale adoption of outsourcing and its relatively poor performance and outcomes. The research suggests this comes from a loose coupling between the rational logic of outsourcing practice and the interpretation and enactment by interest groups that is exaggerated by the imposition of fixed deadlines and strong contractual governance

Antecedents of low carbon emissions supply chains

Purpose: A low-carbon economy is the pressing need of the hour. Despite several efforts taken by the government and large corporations, there is still research to be conducted exploring the role of top management commitment in translating external pressures into responses that help to build low-carbon emissions in supply chains. Design/methodology/approach: The authors have grounded their framework in institutional theory, agency theory and contingency theory. On the basis of existing literature, four hypotheses were drawn. To test these hypotheses, a questionnaire was developed and pre-tested. Finally, statistical analyses were performed to test the research hypotheses using 176 samples gathered using a pre-tested questionnaire following Dillman’s (2007) total design test method. Findings: The results suggest that coercive pressures and mimetic pressures under the mediating effect of top management commitment have a significant influence on organizational response to low-carbon emissions. The authors further note that supply base complexity has moderating effects on the link between top management commitment and organizational response towards low-carbon emissions. Originality/value: This study offers valuable insights to those managers and environmental consultants who view supply base complexity as a limitation. However, the results indicate that supply base complexity may help to enhance the effectiveness of the top management commitment on organizational response towards low-carbon emissions

World Class Sustainable Supply Chain Management: critical review and further research directions

Purpose Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has attracted considerable interest among academics and practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to present a critical review of the literature, to identify missing links, to argue for the use of world class SSCM (WCSSCM) through a framework, and suggest further research directions. Design/methodology/approach In the paper the authors have undertaken an extensive review of literature and classified articles using a novel classification scheme. Findings Through the extensive review and identification of research gaps, the paper identifies significant differences between definitions and methodologies in the SSCM literature; and argues for “WCSSCM.” This term is elaborated on via a theoretical framework in which 18 dimensions are classified under six constructs of SSCM. Furthermore, a list of potential research directions for WCSSCM is discussed. Research limitations/implications The research is an attempt to critically review literature, argue for WCSSCM, and develop a theoretical framework. Originality/value The paper offers a new approach to SSCM literature, arguing for WCSSCM through a framework, and providing further research directions

Twenty-first century supply chain management: a multiple case study analysis within the UK aerospace industry

In recent years, to stimulate the development of Lean Supply Chain Management (SCM) in SMEs, the UK aerospace industry has developed a change programme named “Supply Chains for the 21st century” (SC21). This programme promotes the use of a simple standard improvement framework, which defines performance goals and standardizes the approaches and tools for continuous sustainable improvement. However, its effective impact on Lean SCM and performance measurement systems (PMS) has not been widely covered in the literature. Adopting a qualitative research methodology approach, this study investigates five significant organizations to explore and contribute to knowledge on Lean SCM and PMS challenges related to the adoption of the SC21 programme. From an academic point of view, the paper highlights the key role of SC21 in accelerating the competitiveness of the aerospace industry by fostering managerial development of supply chain partners. In particular, it highlights the importance of PMS as well as collaboration between supply chain partners for efficient and effective SCM. From a practitioner’s perspective, the SC21 performance award is highlighted as a very successful approach in bridging the gap of differing agendas between supply chain partners. SMEs, with support from their larger supply chain partners, can embrace performance measurement practices to improve their performance. More established SMEs with a headcount of more than 50 employees are capable of developing and documenting strategic plans and more sophisticated PMS

Supply chain agility, adaptability and alignment: empirical evidence from the Indian auto components industry

Purpose: To examine when and how organizations create agility, adaptability, and alignment as distinct supply chain properties to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach: The current study utilizes the resource-based view (RBV) under the moderating effect of top management commitment. To test our research hypotheses, we gathered 351 usable responses using a pre-tested questionnaire. Findings: Our statistical analyses suggest that information sharing and supply chain connectivity resources influence supply chain visibility capability, which, under the moderating effect of top management commitment, enhance supply chain agility, adaptability and alignment. Originality/value: Our contribution lies in: (i) providing a holistic study of the antecedents of agility, adaptability and alignment; (ii) investigating the moderating role of top management commitment on supply chain agility, adaptability and alignment; (iii) following the RBV and addressing calls for investigating the role of resources in supply chain management, and for empirical studies with implications for supply chain design

Green supply chain management: theoretical framework and future research directions

Purpose: Green or sustainable supply chain management (GSCM/SSCM) has in recent years attracted much attention from academia and practitioners in all part of the world. In recent years, all humanity has experienced severe climate change which is widely attributed to human activity. Harmful emissions have made a major contribution to recent climate change which presents major challenges and threats to the entire human race in form of global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunami and floods. The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual GSCM/SSCM framework contributing to knowledge-based view theory and systems theory (ST) and provide an exhaustive list of further research directions. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper the authors have used a systematic literature review to identify building blocks of the conceptual framework, which is the principal contribution of the present paper. Findings: In this paper the authors have proposed a conceptual framework for sustainable supply chain network and at the end the authors have outlined further research directions. Research limitations/implications: The current paper is an attempt to develop a conceptual framework which is grounded in knowledge-based theory. The study helps to extent the prior works which lacks theory focused approach. Originality/value: The present work has immense theoretical value and can be useful to the policy makers or practitioners engaged in GSCM practices