...com/locate/ijproman Coordination mechanisms for construction supply chain management in the Internet environment Xiaolong Xue a,c,* , Yaowu Wang a,c , Qiping Shen b,c , Xiaoguo Yu a,d a c Department of Construction and Real Estate, School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 1243, No. 13, Fayuan Street, Harbin 150001, China b Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China National Center for Technology, Policy and Management, Science Park, Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 2, Yikuang Street, Harbin 150001, China d Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen Graduate School, HIT Campus of Shenzhen University Town, XiLi, Shenzhen 518055, China Abstract The construction industry in general is characterized with high fragmentation, low productivity, cost and time overruns, and conflicts compared with other manufacturing industries. Supply chain management as an innovative management mode provides a new solution for resolving these problems from systems perspective. Coordination is the core issue to improve construction performance in construction supply chain (CSC). In this paper, the concepts of CSC and CSC management are defined. Furthermore, the inter-organization problems that effect CSC coordination are identified. Considering the Internet fosters the integration of construction processes and provides an efficient platform for CSC coordination, this paper presents...
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...Network Structure and Inter-organizational Knowledge Sharing Capability ABSTRACT This paper examines how the structure of a supply network can affect the inter-organizational knowledge sharing capability, which is expressed by absorptive capacity and shared identity. The supply network structure is analyzed by two dimensions – formality and centrality. Propositions about the relationships between network structure and knowledge sharing capability are suggested at the end. Subject Areas: Supply chain management, Inter-organizational knowledge sharing, Absorptive capacity, Shared identity, Network structure. 1 1. INTRODUCTION Historically, individual organizations have tried to improve their own performance in an effort to gain competitive advantage. Today, the success of an individual organization depends largely on the performance of its suppliers and customers [1]. Consequently, supply chain or supply network management is one of the critical success factors in today’s marketplace [2]. As organizations increasingly connect with and rely on partners and suppliers in their supply networks, interdependencies among these organizations naturally increase. This increase, in turn, makes today’s supply networks more complex [3], and members of such complex supply networks face many sources of uncertainties – internal as well as external1. Fisher [4] argues that the strategy of the supply network – lean vs. responsive – should be aligned with the product types – functional vs...
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...in the context of a classic work on “the problem of industrialization of eastern and south-eastern Europe”. The core argument is that coordination problems, in the context of increasing returns, create the possibility of multiple equilibria. A poor country can be caught in a low-equilibrium “poverty trap”, government intervention can potentially solve the coordination problem, and “push” the economic into the better equilibrium allowing a “take-off” into sustained growth. The Big Push idea has returned to the center of development policy in the recent past. William Easterly (2006) described 2005 as the Year of the Big Push. It has done so in particular in the context of debates over Africa: the compelling normative case to transform development possibilities of Africans, has been associated with renewed emphasis on the positive case for a Big Push. This has been linked to the case for a major expansion in aid, notably in the work of the Commission for Africa and the Millennium Development Goals; Jeffrey Sachs has been a vigorous exponent of this linkage. This case concerns the analytics of the Big Push, the evidence and its applicability to a poor African country. It bridges issues of growth (from macro) and general equilibrium (from micro). There are three parts. The first outlines the analytics: it uses the prism of the Solow growth model to look at three possible cases for multiple equilibria, and focuses on the coordination problem as one account. The second looks at approaches...
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...as ‘simultaneously economic and political phenomena . . . organizational fields in which actors struggle over the construction of economic relationships, governance structures, institutional rules and norms, and discursive frames . . . GPNs thus exist within the ‘‘transnational space’’ that is constituted and structured by transnational elites, institutions, and ideologies’. In Levy’s theory, we can find out that more than a economic process of productions, GPNs is also a ‘social’ and ‘cultural’ phenomena in which the geographically differentiated political and social cultural circumstance are also shaped (Coe, Dicken and Hess, 2008). Considering the consumer electronic industry in particular, what we can see now is that numerous branded firms has evolved as the leading force, such as Apple, Microsoft and HP. Meanwhile, amount of emerging economies became to participate into this industry more and more, therefore turning GPNs into a more complex concept in current globalisation. Since then, there are increasing considerations and discussion related to governance of GPNs, trying to...
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...here that research on networks needs to be contextualized if it is to gain currency. Integrating the networks and the IMP perspectives this paper identifies three crucial areas relevant for future research in Tanzania: viz, the network-performance nexus, female versus male networks and social networks. Introduction The main purpose of this paper is to provoke research on networks in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in Tanzania. We integrate the networks, IMP and entrepreneurship literature to justify research in this area. In the entrepreneurship literature networks have been identified as one of the solutions to problems faced by SMEs, especially at the start-up stage. A research focus on this line of enquiry at the SME level in a developing country such as Tanzania is important and relevant for various reasons. First, the literature has pointed out that many problems small businesses face are related to their liabilities of smallness, newness and therefore...
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...Inter-organisational projects in French innovation clusters: The construction of collaboration Ludivine Calamela, b, Christian Defélixa, b, c, Thierry Picqd, , and Didier Retoura, b, c a Université de Grenoble, France b CERAG UMR 5820, France c IAE, France d EM LYON Business School, France Received 1 August 2010; revised 23 February 2011; accepted 10 March 2011. Available online 7 April 2011. Abstract Having received considerable attention from central government and local authorities, French innovation clusters (the so-called ‘pôles de compétitivité’) are beginning to be studied by academic researchers and evaluated by consultants. The core of their activity consists of collaborative projects, which are characterised by specific management and Human Resources practices located at the junction of different cultures and employment statuses. Almost four years after they were launched, what can we say about the dynamic of these collaborative projects? What is the reality of such collaboration when it involves multiple partnerships bringing together employees from different occupational cultures and Human Resources Management systems? The aim of this longitudinal research, which is based on the observation of two collaborative projects in one of the most largest clusters in France, is to discuss management and HR issues in such a setting. A literature review highlights the need to open up the ‘black box’ of collaboration within projects and encourages examination...
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...Approaches to Marketing Management In common parlance, marketing is the process of selling something at a shop or market place. To some it has meant the study of individual commodities and their movement in the more place; to some it has meant the study of institutions and personas who move these products or study of the economic contribution; whereas to product movements and the way eh perosnas involved move them. Thus the study of marketing has, thus, been approached in more than one ways. However, these different approaches have immensely contributed to the evolution of the modern approach and the concept of marketing. To facilitate the study, these different approaches may be broadly classified as the commodity approach, the institutional approach and the managerial approach. Besides these well recognized and established approaches, of late, the recently developed societal and systems approaches have been attracting considerable attention. A brief description of these different approaches is given below, reflectionghtie respective focus and characteristics. (A) Commodity Approach : In the commodity approach to the study of marketing, the focus of study is a specific commodity, say, wheat, rice, approach, the subject matter of discussion around the specific commodity selected for the study; nature and extent of demand, the distribution channels used and the function, such as buying , selling , financing, advertising, storage repeating such studies in case of different...
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...Methodology 6 Supply Chain 6 Supply Chain Management Features that Give You a Competitive Edge 8 Information Technology 9 Information technology and supply chain management 10 Supply Chain Technology 11 Technology Can Be the Foundation of Competitive Advantage 11 Supply Chain Technology: What’s New? 13 Resource-based view and supply chain capabilities 16 Supply Chain Capabilities 17 Hypotheses Development: IT Advancement 18 Impact of supply chain capabilities on firm performance 19 Conclusion and Recommendation 21 References 22 Letter of Transmittal May 26, 2014 Dr. Md. Akram Hossain Assistant Professor Department of management Information Systems (MIS) University of Dhaka Subject: The Impact of Information Technology on Supply Chain Capabilities and Firm Performance: A Resource-based View Dear Sir, With great pleasure we submit my assignment on “The Impact of Information Technology on Supply Chain Capabilities and Firm Performance: A Resource-based View” that you have assigned to us as an important requirement of MBA second semester class work. We have found the study to be quite interesting, beneficial & insightful. We have tried our level best to prepare an effective & creditable report. The report contains a detailed study on HRIS & a look at how it is done in the practical world. Here we have gathered information through different sources such as websites and journals. We also want to thank you for your support...
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...1.Introduction With the Internet coming into picture, e-business has now become an easy way for interaction between firms and their customers. The Internet era has added a lot of value to the supply chain by helping firms to carry out a cost effective business, transfer of information between companies, suppliers and customers. The impact of e-business on supply chain integration can be seen mainly on four key points: information integration, effective Planning, workflow coordination &new business model. A virtual enterprise is formed when various autonomous companies come together and act as a unit by tightly integrating their business processes by the means of IT & ICT. A contract is an agreement built on the fundamentals of mutual commitment for cooperation, between two or more parties that binds those parties. In a B2B, e-business contract is a formal agreement between a buyer and seller for managing negotiations and validate operations. It is signed to address the issues of fraud and working on specific terms and conditions. It should describe both parties involved, definition of specific terms used in the contract, the jurisdiction under which the contract is valid and enforced, duration of the contract and the terms and conditions for each transaction. Therefore this calls for the need of formal norms for process-oriented contracts and specifies a criteria to form basis for synergy between the private view and public view of a contract on the fundamental lines of open...
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...integration of a supply chain processes or activities became obligatory definition. Many firms have extended their chain from upstream and downstream to include other vendors, agents of vendor, and customers. These firms have successfully implemented the concept of supply chain integration with spectacular results after they recognize and manage the integration challenges of supply chain. This research is a humble scientific attempt to shed more on the challenges and the obstacles that those companies faced during their success journey stand behind finding integration in their supply chain. By reviewing the available literature about the supply chain integration challenges we didn’t find a single source able to present all these challenges that may face the organization during its implementation of supply chain integration. The main contributions for this paper are integrating all the of supply chain integration challenges in one source. These contributions will be very helpful for the organizations that establish the integration in their supply chain Index Terms— Supply chain integration, Challenges of supply chain integration. I. INTRODUCTION To succeed in the digital economy, organizations must manage the integration of business, technology, people, and processes not only within the enterprise but also across extended enterprises. Supply Chain Management (SCM) system facilitates inter-enterprise cooperation and...
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...Title: Strategy, Process, Content, Context, an international perspective Authors: Bob de wit en Ron Meyer Third edition Chapter 6,7,8 and 11 (each chapter also contains two readings) Chapter 6 Corporate level strategy Firms have a lot of growth options, while staying within the boundaries of a single business or broaden their scope even further through venturing into other lines of business and becoming multi-business corporations. Vertical integration: when a firm enters other businesses upstream or downstream within its own industry column. It can strive for backward integration by getting involved in supplier businesses or it can initiate forward integration by entering the businesses of its buyers. Horizontal integration: if the firm integrate related businesses at the same tier in the industry column. (Horizontal) diversification: if a firm expands outside of its current industry. The issue of corporate configuration: the issue of deciding on the best array of businesses and relating them to one another. Determining this can be disentangled into two main questions: 1. What business should the corporation be active in? (corporate composition. 2. How should this group of business be managed? (corporate management). Corporate composition This can be divided into: - corporate scope (how many businesses) - corporate distribution (the relative size of the activities in each business are covered) A common way of depicting...
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...represents a new way of thinking about supplier networks • Lean principles require cooperative supplier relationships while balancing cooperation and competition • Cooperation involves a spectrum of collaborative relationships & coordination mechanisms • Supplier partnerships & strategic alliances represent a key feature of lean supply chain management ESD.61J / 16.852J: Integrating the Lean Enterprise Page 2 © Deborah Nightingale, 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Theory: Lean Represents a “Hybrid” Approach to Organizing Interfirm Relationships • “Markets” (Armʼs Length): Lower production costs, higher coordination costs • • • Firm buys (all) inputs from outside specialized suppliers Inputs are highly standardized; no transaction-specific assets Prices serve as sole coordination mechanism • “Hierarchies” (Vertical Integration): Higher production costs, lower coordination costs • • Firm produces required inputs in-house (in the extreme, all inputs) Inputs are highly customized, involve high transaction costs or dedicated investments, and require close coordination • “Lean” (Hybrid): Lowest production and coordination costs; economically most efficient choice-- new model • • • Firm buys both customized & standardized inputs Customized inputs often involve dedicated investments Partnerships & strategic alliances provide collaborative advantage Dominant conventional approach: Vertical integration, armʼs...
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...Abstract This article provides an overview of the recent literature on franchising, with special attention to management control issues. Based on an analysis of franchising articles published in twenty-five high-impact journals over the period 1996–2008, the literature is divided into the following three broad streams: franchise initiation and subsequent propensity to franchise, franchise performance and control of franchising relationships. Several research gaps and avenues for future research are identified, especially towards a systematic study of management control issues in the context of franchising relationships. Key words: franchising, literature review, management control JEL-codes: D23 – L22 – L26 – M21 – M40 2 I. INTRODUCTION This article provides an overview of the recent management literature on franchising, with special attention to its management controli aspects. Franchising plays a prominent role in business life today. This form of entrepreneurship is increasingly being adopted in a variety of sectors, especially by retailing and service companies such as McDonald’s, Holiday Inn, Body Shop and Benetton. According to the Deontological European Code of Honour (2004), franchising is a system for the sale of commodities, services and/or the application of technology. It is based on a close and continuing cooperation between juridical independent and financially autonomous companies, namely the franchisor and his individual franchisees. Hereby, the franchisor...
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...Conceptually, the traditional Supply Chain process produced, handled, and distributed products with a sole focus on the organization – in a linear and simple manner. For examples, company X would do this process (Supply Chain), but would only end there without considering the end-customer. However, the Supply Chain Network gives companies the opportunity to work together to integrate the supply process within their organizations without forgetting the end-customer- in a nonlinear and more complex manner. That is, company X would work with Y and Z to not only focus on what they produce and provide, but also what the end-customer receives. As a result, Supply Chain Network enables businesses to look at the complete movement of materials and information from start to finish – giving permitting organizations to see the value in creating partnerships - without overlooking the value in working together to ensure the best possible value is provided to the end-customer. The newness in this area specifically drew me to delve into how the process works, but not just the...
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...University, Kano, Nigeria. bajakada@yahoo.com Abstract Global strategic alliance and coalition is a diffuse way of effective combination of strengths of companies aiming at entering new markets, exploring new technologies, bypassing government entry restrictions and to learn quickly from the leading firm in the partnership, all in an effort to exploit foreign investment opportunities. Strategic alliances are however, not easy to develop and support. They often fail because of technical errors made by management of member firms. To make it a success, a strong and efficient alliance agreement has to be in place to enable companies to gain in markets that would otherwise be uneconomical. Building alliances requires considerable time and energy from all parties involved with a detailed plan, expectations, limitations and scopes, and the likely benefits drivable from the project. Alliances take a number of forms and go by various labels. Alliances may be contracts, limited partnerships, general partnerships, or corporate joint ventures, or may take less formal forms, such as a referral network. The paper is aimed at exploring and educating prospective and allied businesses or firms the need and significance of across border coalition, and how to go about it. It is a literature based paper and therefore, reviews related literatures from journal articles, texts, seminar papers and some online sources for better understanding of the concept. The paper looked into issues in building...
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