Suppliers' opportunity enactment through the development of valuable capabilities

Available online: http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/840/1/Johnsen_output_3.pdfInternational audienceThe purpose of this paper is to describe the development and application of a theoretical framework to examine the connections between different types of suppliers, their capabilities and opportunities in customer relationships, and the illustration of these connections through the findings from empirical case studies of small and medium-sized suppliers in the metal industry in Denmark. Multiple case studies involving 17 small and medium-sized suppliers within the Danish metal industry were undertaken. By focusing on the development of capabilities that are "valuable" to customers in specific types of supply, small and medium-sized suppliers may improve their responses to opportunities in their customer relationships. Further investigation is needed on the longer-term impacts of valuable capabilities on opportunity enactment by suppliers, and the examination of key issues arising from these findings across different industries and countries. Small and medium-sized suppliers, their customers and government agencies involved with suppliers should advocate and actively support the development of valuable capabilities to enhance the effectiveness of suppliers' relationship and network strategies and their potential to seize opportunities. This study highlights that different types of suppliers require different types of current and future valuable capabilities to seize opportunities and sustain current customers or develop new customer relationships

Reconciling structure and agency in strategy -as-practice research: Towards a strong- structuration theory approach

An overwhelming focus of research on the micro agency of strategic actors has led to the literature being characterized as demonstrating a micro-myopia, resulting in a micro-isolationism. This means we know little about how the micro interrelates with the macro in strategy work. We address this problem in our conceptual article which adopts a structurationist stance to explicate how strategy-as-practice (SaP) research could be enhanced and extended by paying equal attention to both agency and structure. Specifically, we advance strong structuration theory (SST), a promising development from Giddens’ seminal work on structuration theory, to show how strategic activity can be understood as an ongoing process of structuration unfolding over time. We argue for the use of both types of methodological bracketing (context and conduct analysis), advocating systematic attention to the interplay between macro-societal and micro-local levels of analysis. Our discussion concludes with guidance for researchers inviting them to undertake empirical fieldwork that overcomes SaP’s current micro-myopia, creating a more balanced corpus of work

MEPs online: Understanding communication strategies for remote representatives

This article explores the use of the Internet by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), assessing the adoption of online communication as well as its strategic uses. In particular we analysed the websites, weblogs and social networking site profiles of all MEPs who linked to an online presence from the European parliament homepage, a total of 440 MEPs representing all 27 member nations. Through a thorough analysis of the content using a scheme designed to record the presence and functionality of 103 specific features and tools and recency of updates, we assess how MEPs use the Internet to connect with a range of audiences; from journalists to loyal supporters. We find MEPs embracing a range of features which would be appealing to a wide range of different visitors. There is a minor generational divide among MEPs based both on their age and the length of time their country has been a member of the European Union. However overall we suggest there is an ebb and flow of innovation within the online political communication of these parliamentarians

Trading patterns in the European Carbon Market: the role of trading intensity and OTC transactions

International audienceThis paper examines the effect of trading intensity and OTC transactions on expected market conditions in the early development period of the European Carbon futures market. Past duration and trading intensity are used as information related order flow variables in modelling time between transactions in two new specifications of Autocorrelation Conditional Duration (ACD) models. This allows for specific investigation of non-linear asymmetric effects on expected duration and the impact of OTC transactions. Evidence is presented of two main types of trading episodes of increased and decreased trading intensity. Both have a significant impact on price volatility, which increases further if an OTC transaction intrudes. OTC transactions also play a dual role. They slow down trading activity in the short term (over the next five transactions) but increase it substantially in the long term (over ten transactions). Both the liquidity and information price impact components increase following an OTC trade, but the information impact is greater. Price volatility calms down faster than liquidity effects following an OTC trade, and this is more pronounced in ECX and in Phase II. The combined evidence points towards increased market depth, efficiency and maturity of the trading environment

The impact of higher education on students' and young managers' perception of companies and corporate social responsibility: an exploratory analysis

The purpose of this article is to analyse the impact of higher education on students' and young managers' perception of companies and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The research is based on an electronic questionnaire for students and alumni of different institutions of higher education in Nantes (France)

L'externalisation offshore de système d'information

Information Systems Outsourcing has experienced a considerable growth in the last years. Within this trend, the growth of Information Systems Offshore Outsourcing (ISOO) is vertiginous. The aim of this paper is to deepen this new phenomenon : defining this practice, determining its origin and analysing the advantages and risks of ISOO.L'externalisation offshore de système d'information (EOSI) a crû de manière spectaculaire ces dernières années. Par rapport à l'externalisation de système d'information (ESI), l'EOSI apporterait encore davantage de bénéfices: plus de flexibilité, plus de qualité et une importante économie de coûts. Cependant, cette pratique nouvelle induit des risques nouveaux: financiers, techniques, comportementaux et légaux. Les demandeurs sur le marché de l'EOSI sont pour l'instant principalement des multinationales américaines et européennes. Quant à l'offre, l'Inde est le partenaire offshore incontournable alors que la Chine et la Russie sont des acteurs de moindre importance

LE CONTROLE INTERNE AU TRAVERS DES REPRESENTATIONS QUE S'EN FONT LES DIRIGEANTS DE GROUPES DU CAC 40 : UNE ETUDE EXPLORATOIRE

International audienceCet article explore la notion de contrôle interne au travers d'une analyse lexicale des rapports rédigés par les présidents des groupes cotés du CAC 40. Le législateur français, au contraire de la loi américaine, n'ayant pas recommandé de trame conductrice, la liberté du rédacteur et la diversité de contenu qui en découle sont en elles-mêmes des gages de richesse pour l'analyse. Celle-ci confirme certes des tendances déjà pointées par la littérature (prépondérance de la notion de risque et orientation financière notamment), mais elle met aussi en évidence des liaisons parfois difficiles à interpréter (rôle significatif des thèmes déontologie et éthique, pratique de l'autoévaluation...). Cette analyse basée sur les rapports parus en 2005 est à la fois un prolongement des études antérieures et un point de départ pour des recherches ultérieures

A weak product on partially ordered sets to define a compromise between multiobjective optimization problems

Multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) deals with complex engineering problems which are decomposed into several subproblems called disciplines. The disciplines are often hierarchically organized. Moreover, each discipline may have many conflicting objectives to achieve at the same time. Thus, at each level of the hierarchy, trade-offs have to be found between multiobjective optimization problems. Multiobjective multidisciplinary methods designed to solve hierarchical multiobjective optimization problems such as EM-MOGA, MORDACE or COSMOS are searching for the whole Pareto set which corresponds to the multiobjective optimization problem that bring all the objectives of the problem together. But the solutions are just in a subset of the whole Pareto set. In this paper, we propose a definition of compromise between disciplines which are multiobjective optimization problems

Multidisciplinary and multiobjective optimization: Comparison of several methods

10 pagesEngineering design of complex systems is a decision making process that aims at choosing from among a set of options that implies an irrevocable allocation of resources. It is inherently a multidisciplinary and multi-objective process. The paper describes some classical multidisciplinary optimization (MDO) methods with their advantages and drawbacks. Some new approaches combining genetic algorithms (MOGA) and collaborative optimization (CO) are presented. They allow to: 1) increase the convergence rate when a design problem can be broken up regarding design variables, and 2) provide an optimal set of design variables in case of multi-level multi-objective design problem

Multi-agent Based simulation for Decision-Making: an application to Rungis food market

International audienceIn this paper, we present our first results obtained with a multi-agent based simulation of the fruit and vegetable Rungis market. Our goal is to simulate negotiation and price formation based on observed strategies on the real market. We aim to understand negotiation and price formation mechanisms, and explain their impact on macro variables (like the difference between the official price and the average price used on the market)