Can a team have too much cohesion? The dark side to network density

The goal of most work teams is high performance. Prior studies suggest that performance within work groups is influenced by that group’s social network topology. Research has generally revealed to date that group cohesion (i.e., network density) is positively related to team performance under certain conditions. However, more recent research has indicated that this is not the full story. Recent research suggests that an inverse curvilinear relationship exists between social network measures (of which group cohesion is one) and team performance. In response to the need for understanding this relationship more fully, and leveraging the promising new insights that can be garnered with the use of social network analysis (SNA), this study employs SNA as a tool to explore the structural cohesiveness of teams of travel agents. This research extends our understanding of the relationship between intragroup social network relations and team performance by confirming an inverse curvilinear relationship exists between group cohesion and team performance. This paper leverages email communication to determine the social networks of each team, and then examines such in light of team performance. In total, an analysis of more than 7 million emails was undertaken. This study was conducted with work teams within a service organization. Each team in the study carries out the same tasks, i.e., identical task contingency, yet represents a distinct unit of analysis. The study confirms that social network topology is a valuable predictor of team performance and confirms that, like so many other social network measures, group cohesion and team performance share an inverse ‘U’ shaped relationship, not strictly a positive one as previously posited.     

零售企业平台化转型及其双边定价策略研究

运用双边市场理论方法,研究传统零售企业的平台化转型及其双边定价模式选择,发现：1）在生产成本和消费者估价均匀分布的条件下,赚差价的传统垄断零售商收取进场费并不能增加利润,转型为会员费制双边零售平台反而降低利润.2）随着供应商单位分销成本的增加,传统零售商可先选择转型为佣金制双边零售平台作为过渡;随着单位分销成本的进一步提高,零售企业可以进一步提高佣金率,并对供应商进行适当补贴,但对消费者免收会员费,转型为二部收费制平台.3）会员费制双边零售平台的倾斜性双边定价策略与产品价格及其分销成本有关,当供应商的零售价格适中时,平台应向消费者与供应商收取会员费;而当供应商零售价格较高时,平台应向供应商收取会员费并补贴消费者.此外,本文结合我国 B2C 零售平台的收费模式进行应用分析.     

高绩效工作系统对员工敬业度的影响机理研究

基于对782名服务业和制造业员工进行的调查,分析了高绩效工作系统对员工敬业度的影响及作用机制。研究表明,高绩效工作系统对员工敬业度的积极影响不是直接的,工作幸福感的核心概念——积极情绪和工作满意度在其中起完全中介作用,而消极情绪的中介作用未得到支持。研究发现,高绩效工作系统实质上是动机激励的工作环境塑造系统,由此形成了激发员工内在工作动机和积极心理体验的组织环境。此外,进一步揭示了工作幸福感是促进员工敬业的关键环节,启示组织应加强员工工作中的情感管理,塑造员工积极的心理力量,从而构建幸福组织。     

The Effects of Competitive Environment on Supply Chain Information Sharing and Performance: An Empirical Study in China

Information sharing in supply chains has become an important topic over the past decade. This study uses data from 617 Chinese manufacturing firms to investigate the relationships among competitive environments, supply chain information sharing (SCIS), and supply chain performance. The results of structural equation modeling analysis show that (i) international competition is positively related to all three types of SCIS whereas local competition is not significantly related to any of the three types, (ii) internal information sharing is positively related to external information sharing with suppliers and customers, and (iii) internal information sharing and information sharing with customers are positively related to superior supply chain performance, whereas supplier information sharing is not significantly related to performance. The findings enhance our understanding of the relationships among competitive environment, SCIS, and supply chain performance in Chinese manufacturing settings.     

Incentives in a Stage‐Gate Process

Many large organizations use a stage‐gate process to manage new product development projects. In a typical stage‐gate process project managers learn about potential ideas from research and exert effort in development while senior executives make intervening go/no‐go decisions. This decentralized decision making results in an agency problem because the idea quality in early stages is unknown to the executive and the project manager must exert unobservable development effort in later stages. In light of these challenges, how should the firm structure incentives to ensure that project managers reveal relevant information and invest the appropriate effort to create value? In this study, we develop a model of adverse selection in research and moral hazard in development with a go/no‐go decision at the intervening gate. Our results show that the principal's uncertainty regarding early‐stage idea quality—a term we refer to as idea risk—alters the effect of late‐stage development risk. The presence of idea risk can alter the incentives offered to the agent and may lead the principal to reject projects that otherwise seem favorable in terms of positive net present value. A simulation of early‐stage ideas, found through search on a complex landscape, shows that the firm can mitigate the negative effects of idea risk by encouraging breadth of search and high tolerance for failure.     

Linking Process Quality and Resource Usage: An Empirical Analysis

Motivated by an increasing adoption of evidence‐based medical guidelines in the delivery of medical care, we examine whether increased adherence to such guidelines (typically referred to as higher process quality) is associated with reduced resource usage in the course of patient treatment. In this study, we develop a sample of US hospitals and use cardiac care as our context to empirically examine our questions. To measure a patient's resource usage, we use the total length of stay, which includes any additional inpatient stay necessitated by unplanned readmissions within thirty days after initial hospitalization. We find evidence that higher process quality, and more specifically its clinical (as opposed to its administrative) dimensions, are associated with a reduction in resource usage. Moreover, the standardization of care that is achieved via the implementation of medical guidelines, makes this effect more pronounced in less focused environments: higher process quality is more beneficial when the cardiac department's patient population is distributed across a wider range of medical conditions. We explore the implications of these findings for process‐oriented pay‐for‐performance programs, which tie the reimbursement of hospitals to their adherence to evidence‐based medical guidelines.     

生物药品制造行业竞争战略影响企业绩效的时滞效应研究——基于VAR模型的脉冲响应分析

本文利用中国医药生物制品上市公司2003年1季度-2012年1季度的季度财务数据进行了验证性因子分析,构建了差异化和低成本两个因子以反映公司的竞争战略。在此基础上,利用向量自回归(VAR)和脉冲响应的思路考察了战略制定及实施后企业的绩效表现,确定了战略绩效的滞后程度。研究发现:竞争战略影响企业绩效表现出一定的时滞效应;且差异化战略影响企业绩效的滞后期长于低成本战略;同时竞争战略影响企业绩效具有持续性,即竞争战略能够给企业带来持续的竞争优势,且差异化战略影响企业绩效的持续时间相比低成本战略也更长。最后,实证结果还发现,在医药生物制品行业,差异化战略相比低成本战略实施难度更大,风险更高,实施成功的可能性越小。     

人力资源管理系统影响企业绩效的复杂性机理——基于高新技术企业的实证研究

破解人力资源管理系统影响企业绩效的机理是战略人力资源管理研究领域的核心问题。基于164家高新技术企业的调查数据,采用层级回归模型检验了人力资源管理系统与企业绩效间的复杂性机理。结果显示,人力资源管理系统对企业绩效的正向直接效应显著,影响二者关系的外生变量是创新战略非高管价值观;人力资本在二者关系间的中介效应不显著,但以组织氛围为控制变量时中介效应有了显著提高;"组织氛围调节下的人力资本中介作用模型"很好地刻画人力资本发挥中介效应的机理。研究结果强化了我们对人力资源管理系统与企业绩效关系机理的认知,同时为高新技术企业管理者在实践中管理员工提供了有益启示。     

Evolution of Quality: First Fifty Issues of Production and Operations Management

Many contributions have been made to the field of quality since the inaugural issue of Production and Operations Management in 1992. The first issue called for more research and teaching on TQM, which resulted in two special issues dedicated to TQM. Many other articles related to quality have also been published in the first fifty issues of the journal on topics ranging from technical methods to the Baldrige Award and ISO 9000. As we review these articles, we assess their contribution and the progression of the field of quality. Although past research has advanced our understanding of quality, there still exists many research opportunities in developing more theory, using additional research methodologies, and studying emerging topics in this field.     

组织学习影响因素、学习能力与绩效关系的实证研究

回顾了国内外关于组织学习理论及组织学习与绩效关系方面的研究成果,基于中国201家企业调查数据,对采用定性方法提出的组织学习过程模型(6P-1B模型)进行了定量的实证研究.结果表明:6P-1B模型提出的7个方面的组织学习能力与组织绩效有紧密的正相关关系;各组织学习能力的机理要素与各组织学习能力之间有紧密的正相关关系;企业所感知的外界环境的变化程度不同、员工之间的目标正相关程度不同,使得企业在组织学习的机理要素方面的表现存在显著差异.这些研究结果对6P-1B模型的理论逻辑提供了一定的统计检验的支持,同时也给管理者提供了一些关于如何提高组织学习能力的方法和启示.