State-of-the-Art: the quality of case study research in innovation management

The practice of innovation management is developing fast. As new concepts emerge, exploratory studies are needed and case study research is often appropriate. To investigate the usage and quality of case study research in innovation management, all of the articles published in five top journals over 20 years (1997–2016) were reviewed. Case study research accounted for 818 of the published articles in this period (12%) and an evaluation template (termed case study evaluation template: CASET) was developed to objectively assess these articles against 10 quality criteria. It was found that the quality of case study research has often been low, although it has improved over time. Similarly, quality was found to fluctuate both within and between the different innovation journals. This indicates that the peer review process for case study research is not as robust as it should be. The assessment of individual articles using the evaluation template found significant deficiencies. Many articles: did not justify why case study research was appropriate; did not apply theoretical sampling criteria; were not transparent on how conclusions were drawn from the data; did not consider validity and reliability adequately; and did not go beyond description in their interpretation. However, the evaluation template also identified 23 “exemplary studies,” which clearly addressed nearly every criterion. Such exemplary studies provide innovation management researchers with “benchmark” reading, which can help shape their own research. This article makes four contributions to the innovation management discipline. First, the evaluation template and exemplary studies can help innovation researchers improve the quality of their case study research. Second, clear recommendations are given for how reviewers can use the template to make the peer review process more consistent and robust. Third, journal editors are encouraged to consider the implications of the findings for their particular journal. Fourth, the article should stimulate a long overdue debate on methodology in innovation management research, including the use of case study research

Emerging research and future pathways in digital supply chain governance

Over the past 20 years, the management of supply chain (SC) relationships and, particularly, related governance theories, instruments and mechanisms have received increasing attention in operations management research (cf. Pilbeam et al., 2012; Bonatto et al., 2020). The emergence of fragmented and globally dispersed supply chains has laid the foundation for various forms of interorganizational governance (Gereffi et al., 2005) that utilize contractual and relational mechanisms to balance interdependencies and individual interests in a way that allows effective collaboration and control for improved performance (Pilbeam et al., 2012)

TCO evaluation in physical asset management : benefits and limitations for industrial adoption

Part 1: Knowledge-Based Performance ImprovementInternational audienceNowadays, the evaluation of the total cost of ownership (TCO) of an asset for supporting informed decision-making both for investments and managerial issues within the asset management framework is gaining increasing attention in industry. Nevertheless its application in practice is still limited. The aim of this paper is to analyze the benefits and limitations of the adoption of TCO evaluation in asset management. Based on a literature review, the paper defines a framework that categorizes the benefits and potential applications that a TCO model can have for different stakeholders. Together with that, industry related issues that influence its implementation are also considered. Finally, empirical evidences are analyzed through a multiple case study to understand if those benefits are recognized in practice and which are the limitations for the practical adoption of a TCO model that should allow exploiting such benefits

Pricing in Online Auction Procurement: A Review of Empirical Methods and Current Understandings

The online auction has become an important channel for procurement and sourcing management. As firms often expect lower procurement prices through online auctions, how the prices are determined in online auctions should be of major interest to procurement managers and supply chain researchers. Despite the abundant empirical studies on online auction prices, an aggregated view is still absent. This study fills this gap with a review of extant studies. More specifically, this study provides summaries of all major theories behind online auction pricing, defines and analyzes often encountered econometric issues, and discusses how the treatments of these issues have been operationalized. Towards the end, existing findings on determinants of online auction prices are integrated and examined. The purpose of this study is to provide a convenient and precise package of current studies for researchers and professional

Building trust in agribusiness supply chains: A conceptual model of buyer-seller relationships in the seed potato industry in Asia

In the absence of a certified seed system, potato farmers in Asia must purchase replacement seed tubers from an informal seed system. With no third party assurance that the seed tubers purchased are of good quality, the farmer's decision to purchase seeds may be influenced by the long-standing relationships that have been established between buyers and sellers. Trust is the critical determinant of a good buyer-seller relationship. Through maintaining communication and the making of various relationship specific investments, a conceptual model is proposed which suggests that seed suppliers may engage in trust building behavior which should result in the preferred seed supplier enjoying a greater share of the farmer's patronage

Contracting outsourced services with collaborative key performance indicators

While service outsourcing may benefit from the application of performance‐based contracts (PBCs), the implementation of such contracts is usually challenging. Service performance is often not only dependent on supplier effort but also on the behavior of the buying firm. Existing research on performance‐based contracting provides very limited understanding on how this challenge may be overcome. This article describes a design science research project that develops a novel approach to buyer–supplier contracting, using collaborative key performance indicators (KPIs). Collaborative KPIs evaluate and reward not only the supplier contribution to customer performance but also the customer's behavior to enable this. In this way, performance‐based contracting can also be applied to settings where supplier and customer activities are interdependent, while traditional contracting theories suggest that output controls are not effective under such conditions. In the collaborative KPI contracting process, indicators measure both supplier and customer (buying firm) performance and promote collaboration by being defined through a collaborative process and by focusing on end‐of‐process indicators. The article discusses the original case setting of a telecommunication service provider experiencing critical problems in outsourcing IT services. The initial intervention implementing this contracting approach produced substantial improvements, both in performance and in the relationship between buyer and supplier. Subsequently, the approach was tested and evaluated in two other settings, resulting in a set of actionable propositions on the efficacy of collaborative KPI contracting. Our study demonstrates how defining, monitoring, and incentivizing the performance of specific processes at the buying firm can help alleviate the limitations of traditional performance‐based contracting when the supplier's liability for service performance is difficult to verify