CAPABILITY SOURCING: A SERVICE- DOMINANT LOGIC VIEW

Sourcing is evolving into a strategic process for organizing and fine-tuning the firm’s value chain. Companies need to strategic sourcing in order to survive within the industry, particularly hospitals which are facing rapidly competition to provide high quality services in healthcare. Healthcare organizations need to leverage the right capabilities from the right source, and the right shore, at the right cost to improve their competitive position. Capability sourcing is an organizing process to execute strategic sourcing and improve the firm’s competitive position through gaining access to best-in-class capabilities across the value chain to ensure long-term competitive advantage. The main problem is a lack of technique to explore sourcing alternatives (insourcing, co-sourcing and outsourcing) and choose the right sourcing model. Our research solution is applying conceptual modeling as a technique to create schematic descriptions of alternative solutions based on organization’s capabilities to facilitate strategic sourcing decision making. The fundamental requirement of capability sourcing conceptual modelling is a language as a carrier for modeling intermediate artifacts of sourcing alternatives. Our position is introducing service-dominant logic conceptualisation as a well-defined language for capability sourcing conceptual modeling

Capability-actor-resource-service : a conceptual modelling approach for value-driven strategic sourcing

This PhD research addresses a problem within strategic sourcing, which is a critical area of strategic management that is centered on decision-making related to procurement. Strategic sourcing is related to two disciplines: (i) procurement and supply management and (ii) strategic management. Sourcing is the strategic part of procurement that refers to tasks like determining cost saving and value-driven opportunities, choosing the most appropriate go-to market strategies, and selecting and evaluating suppliers for building long-term and short-term contractual relationships. Many companies face challenges in obtaining the benefits associated with effective strategic sourcing. Although the concept of strategic sourcing is fairly well recognized, managers are still challenged by many barriers to its implementation. The main problem is the lack of practical instruments (i.e., tools and techniques) to implement the value-driven management approach to strategic sourcing, while at the same time preparing companies for fact-based decision-making by delivering data management and data analytics capabilities. This is the problem which is addressed with this PhD research. To address this problem, the research goal has been defined as “develop a modeling approach that enables companies 1) to drive fact-based decision-making with respect to procurement data management and procurement analytics”; and 2) to implement strategic sourcing toward achieving value-driven targets”. We apply conceptual modeling as our main solution approach to achieve the above research goal. We define three major areas where conceptual modeling can contribute to strategic sourcing decision-making: conceptualization, design and computer support. The proposed conceptual modeling approach is characterized by four different perspectives: (i) a way of thinking (i.e., a conceptual foundation), (ii) a way of modeling (i.e., a modeling language and method to use it), (iii) a way of working (i.e., a model-based analysis approach), and (iv) a way of supporting (i.e., a computer-aided design tool). The scope of PhD research is limited to the first three perspectives, while for the fourth perspective a solution architecture will be proposed as part of future research. This PhD dissertation is a paper-based dissertation consisting of six chapters. Three chapters (chapter 3, 4, 5) of this dissertation have been submitted to international peer-reviewed journals (chapter 4 is published and chapters 3 and 5 are accepted) and one chapter (chapter 2) has been published in the post-conference proceedings of an international workshop

A conceptual framework for capability sourcing modeling

Companies need to acquire the right capabilities from the right source, and the right shore, at the right cost to improve their competitive position. Capability sourcing is an organizing process to gain access to best-in-class capabilities for all activities in a firm's value chain to ensure long-term competitive advantage. Capability sourcing modeling is a technique that helps investigating sourcing alternative solutions to facilitate strategic sourcing decision making. Our position is applying conceptual models as intermediate artifacts which are schematic descriptions of sourcing alternatives based on organization's capabilities. The contribution of this paper is introducing a conceptual framework in the form of five views (to organize all perspectives) and a conceptualisation (to formulate a language) for capability sourcing modelling

Value-driven strategic sourcing based on service-dominant logic

Currently, procurement is approached as a tactical process focused on spend management. The aim of this process is the identification of cost savings. A new paradigm of procurement is emerging that recognizes procurement as a value creation practice. This paradigm, referred to as value-driven strategic sourcing, lacks instruments for implementation. This paper presents a new conceptual modeling approach for exploring and evaluating sourcing alternatives that is based on a systemic view of value cocreation. Our approach, called CARS (which stands for capability, actor, resource, and service), is the result of a design science research project. This paper presents the underlying conceptualization of CARS, which was constructed through a mapping between service ecosystem concepts grounded in service-dominant logic and the viable system approach and strategic sourcing concepts derived from the resource-based view theory of competitive advantage, the dynamic capability theory, and the relational view theory of cooperation and competition. Apart from presenting the theoretical foundation of CARS, we also demonstrate by means of a case study of sustainable procurement in a global materials technology company how a model-based approach based on CARS helps in implementing value-driven strategic sourcing. The case study provides a proof of concept of the potential utility of our approach as it addresses specific problems with the company's current procurement practices

Efficacy of Isoflurane-Remifentanil versus Propofol-Remifentanil on Controlled Hypotension and Surgeon Satisfaction in Rhinoplasty: A Single-Blind Clinical Trial Study

Background: Rhinoplasty is a complex but popular surgery in Iran. The main complications of the surgery are post-operative bleeding and nasal septal hematoma due to poor intra-operative controlled hypertension. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of isoflurane-remifentanil (I-R) versus propofol-remifentanil (P-R) to induce controlled hypotension and to assess surgeon satisfaction with each of these combinations during rhinoplasty. Methods: In 2020-2021, a single-blind clinical study was conducted on 98 patients aged 18-50 years undergoing rhinoplasty at Mother and Child Hospital (Shiraz, Iran). Patients were randomly divided into P-R (n=48) and I-R (n=50) groups. Changes in systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and heart rate (HR) were assessed during surgery and in the recovery room. A questionnaire was used to evaluate the level of surgeon satisfaction. Data were analyzed using independent samples t test, Chi-square test, and repeated measures ANOVA with SPSS software. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Five minutes after anesthesia induction, the P-R combination had a greater effect on reducing SBP (P=0.010), DBP (P=0.007), MAP (P=0.003), and HR (P=0.026) than I-R. However, from the 40th minute to the end of surgery and after 30 minutes of recovery, the I-R combination had a slightly better effect on blood pressure reduction than P-R. There was no difference in surgeon satisfaction with either of the two drug combinations.Conclusion: Both P-R and I-R combinations are recommended to induce hypotension during rhinoplasty. However, I-R is more effective than P-R in inducing the desired controlled hypotension

Towards model-based strategic sourcing

Strategic sourcing recognizes that procurement is not just a cost function, but supports the firm's effort to achieve its long-term objectives. Strategic sourcing has become a critical area of strategic management that is centered on decision-making regarding an organization's procurement activities such as spend analysis, capability sourcing, supplier selection and evaluation, contract management and relationship management. Many companies face challenges in obtaining the benefits associated with effective strategic sourcing. From an organizational perspective, procurement data management is a core organizational challenge for chief procurement officers (CPOs) for fact-based strategic sourcing decision-making. To address this challenge, we define research objectives to design a holistic view on strategic sourcing orientations and to develop a conceptual basis for enabling centralization of procurement data and enabling the systemic exploration of sourcing alternatives. From a service ecosystem perspective as a holistic view on strategic sourcing, we define a model driven approach to explore sourcing alternatives based on a common language (C.A.R.S) that enables companies to achieve procurement data management and analytics competencies for fact-based decision-making

Service oriented enterprise engineering: applying viable system approach (vSa) in enterprise engineering for sourcing decision making

Componentization and service orientation are two key firm's behavioral orientations to transform the traditional (rigid) enterprise model into a flexible (dynamic) one in order to support making successful sourcing decisions like sharing services, in-outsourcing, centralization-decentralization and globalization. According to these enablers, a subjective and dynamic view is needed to study the dynamic nature of enterprises and to interpret the complex emerging phenomena of componentization and service orientation such as dynamic configuration of resources (dynamic capabilities), internal and external interaction between components, service exchange and value creation. In this paper, our solution is applying viable system approach (vSa) in Enterprise Engineering; 1) as an interpretive approach to qualify the concepts of the complex emerging phenomena of componentization and service orientation; 2) as a governance approach to investigate the implications of the complex emerging phenomena for sourcing decision making like sharing, in-outsourcing, centralization-decentralization and globalization