Search for Alternatives and Collaboration with Incumbents: Two-Sided Sourcing Behavior in Business Markets*

Sourcing strategies in business markets have been considered separately and the practice of two-sided sourcing behavior—engaging in search for alternative suppliers and collaboration with an incumbent supplier—has not been examined. To fill that gap, we first identify boundary conditions under which the poor performance of an incumbent supplier intensifies an original equipment manufacturer's (OEM) search and collaboration. Then, we examine how an OEM's two-sided sourcing behavior influences one of the critical elements of sourcing performance: the responsiveness of the incumbent supplier. Our proposed hypotheses were tested with data from a national survey of 539 OEM purchasing managers in the Japanese electronics industry. The analysis results indicate three main findings. First, two environmental conditions—pace of technological change and volume uncertainty—have contrasting influences on the link between incumbent supplier performance and an OEM's search and collaboration. While uncertainty from the upstream channel (pace of technological change) enhances an OEM's search and collaboration, uncertainty from the downstream channel (volume uncertainty) lowers an OEM's search and collaboration. Second, an OEM's dependence on its incumbent supplier has differential effects: an OEM reduces search as its dependence on incumbent supplier increases, while it enhances collaboration as its dependence on incumbent supplier increases. Third, while search alone has a negative effect on responsiveness of an incumbent supplier, engaging in two-sided sourcing behavior (i.e., combining search with collaboration) has a positive effect on responsiveness of the incumbent supplier.     

Pooling Data Across Transparently Different Groups of Key Informants: Measurement Equivalence and Survey Research*

Survey research is often deployed in the study of situational issues facing organizations and functions within organizations. One particular survey research approach can be described as follows: (1) survey questionnaires involving perceptual questions about a situational issue are administered to key informants, one key informant per unit of analysis; (2) key informants vary in a transparent manner across units of analysis such that groups of these key informants are discernible; and (3) perceptual responses, after data collection, are then pooled to create a single larger data set for subsequent statistical manipulations. In this methodological note, we draw attention to this particular survey research approach and ask the question: When is it appropriate to pool data provided by key informants with transparently different demographics across units of analysis so as to create a single larger data set for statistical manipulations? We use a simple example and data from a published study to motivate the relevance and gravity of this methodological question. Offering the concept and empirical assessment of measurement equivalence as the answer to this methodological question of data pooling, we prescribe and demonstrate, with the total quality management→customer satisfaction relationship, the procedural steps for evaluating the seven subdimensions of measurement equivalence. In conclusion, we highlight methods that should be adopted, before data collection, to minimize the risk of violating measurement equivalence. After data collection and for the instances when the empirical assessment for measurement equivalence advises against pooling of such data, we also offer suggestions for analyzing such data and presenting associated statistical results.     

住宅小区物业管理的困境与相关法规的完善建议——基于自身经验和法律实践的考察

物业管理面临许多困境,有组织成立并运作业主大会、业主委员会实践经历的人对此有更深认识。在业主、物业公司、开发商(建设单位)及政府部门的利益和权能角力中,业主方最为势弱。除了政府相关部门、街道办和居委会等应当依法依职能给予业主更多支持和帮助外,更为重要的是,从法律设计上要大幅修正《物业管理条例》及相关的一系列法律法规:允许多种形式的物业管理模式存在;重新设计前期物业管理制度,要求开发商承担更多前期物业管理责任;明确业主大会和业主委员会法律地位,赋予其明确的民事主体地位;调整街道办、居民委员会等机构在物业管理中的职能。法规的修正要能让业主便于召开和运行业主大会及业主委员会,使广大业主能够更高效、便捷地实现自己物业管理自治权利和相关物权权利。     

Performance Evaluation of Enterprise Knowledge Management based on Multiple Attribute Group Decision Making

Given that the classical performance evaluation models can not deal with the group decision making problems since they simply average the index, we propose an enterprise knowledge management evaluation model based on multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM). Find the differences between Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) and meth- ods for uncertain decision making. Also, analyze the multiple attribute group decision making process and implement the al. gorithm. Finally, apply the method on performance evaluation of four enterprises and make sensitivity analysis towards the evaluation results.     

制造型企业供应商关系管理研究

对于物料成本占总成本比例很高的制造型企业来说,如何改善并维护供应商关系尤其重要。从较为松散的战术关系到更为紧密的战略关系,买卖双方共享了供应商关系改善带来的双赢利益。本文分析了目前供应商关系的分类和管理方法,并对供应商关系的发展提出了一些看法     

Ethics beyond the model: How social dynamics can interfere with ethical practice in operational research/management science

Responding to a call for more attention to be given to ethics within operational research, Marc Le Menestrel and Luk Van Wassenhove have recently outlined a perspective on the relationship between OR models and ethics that squarely ties ethical engagement to daily practice and, more specifically, to the manner in which a practitioner uses a model or other technique in a particular setting. They refer to this approach as “ethics beyond OR models”.This paper seeks to extend the debate on this topic by examining some of the difficulties of ethical action when it is defined in these terms. Specifically the paper seeks to show how the social dynamics that circumscribe much professional practice can easily override good intentions on the part of the people concerned. Ethical practice dictates that those involved in OR/MS practice should seriously contemplate their own involvement in the process of knowledge production and be fully aware of the wider ramifications of employing particular modelling techniques and other tools. However, this is not always easy since the complex social dynamics that surround an inquiry can surreptitiously undermine these intentions. In extreme cases, these processes can create an ethical trap that those involved may not be fully recognise until after the event.In exploring such a disjuncture between ethical intentionality and outcomes the paper re-examines and reflects upon a major consulting assignment which was led by the author and subsequently published through a leading journal and text.     

Bridging Practice and Theory: A Design Science Approach

Despite ambitious efforts in various fields of research over multiple decades, the goal of making academic research relevant to the practitioner remains elusive: theoretical and academic research interests do not seem to coincide with the interests of managerial practice. This challenge is more fundamental than knowledge transfer, it is one of diverging knowledge interests and means of knowledge production. In this article, we look at this fundamental challenge through the lens of design science, which is an approach aimed primarily at discovery and problem solving as opposed to accumulation of theoretical knowledge. We explore in particular the ways in which problem‐solving research and theory‐oriented academic research can complement one another. In operations management (OM) research, recognizing and building on this complementarity is especially crucial, because problem‐solving–oriented research produces the very artifacts (e.g., technologies) that empirical OM research subsequently evaluates in an attempt to build explanatory theory. It is indeed the practitioner—not the academic scientist—who engages in basic research in OM. This idiosyncrasy prompts the question: how can we enhance the cross‐fertilization between academic research and research practice to make novel theoretical insights and practical relevance complementary? This article proposes a design science approach to bridge practice to theory rather than theory to practice.     

The Use of Switching Point and Protection Levels to Improve Revenue Performance in Order‐Driven Production Systems

In a multiproduct order‐driven production system, an organization has to decide how to selectively accept orders and allocate capacity to these orders so as to maximize total profit (TP). In this article, we incorporate the novel concept of switching point in developing three capacity‐allocation with switching point heuristics (CASP_a‐c). Our analysis indicates that all three CASP heuristics outperform the first‐come‐first‐served model and Barut and Sridharan's dynamic capacity‐allocation process (DCAP) model. The best model, CASP_b, has an 8% and 6% average TP improvement over DCAP using the split lot and whole lot policies, respectively. In addition, CASP_b performs particularly well under operating conditions of tight capacity and large price differences between product classes. The introduction of a switching point, which has not been found in previous capacity‐allocation heuristics, provides for a better balance between forward and backward allocation of available capacity and plays a significant role in improving TP.     

A Profit‐Maximizing Approach to Disposition Decisions for Product Returns*

Motivated by the asset recovery process at IBM, we analyze the optimal disposition decision for product returns in electronic products industries. Returns may be either remanufactured for reselling or dismantled for spare parts. Reselling a remanufactured unit typically yields higher unit margins. However, demand is uncertain. A common policy in many firms is to rank disposition alternatives by unit margins. We propose a profit‐maximization approach that considers demand uncertainty. We develop single period and multiperiod stochastic optimization models for the disposition problem. Analyzing these models, we show that the optimal allocation balances expected marginal profits across the disposition alternatives. A detailed numerical study reveals that our approach to the disposition problem outperforms the current practice of focusing exclusively on high‐margin options, and we identify conditions under which this improvement is the highest. In addition, we show that a simple myopic heuristic in the multiperiod problem performs well.     

管理的科学方法论的基础性问题

在管理向现代发展的过程中,需要解决两个问题,一是企业的效率低下,另一个是企业内部的协调。在这两个方面,科学方法论表现出了极大的优势。管理的科学方法论就是应用知识于组织管理,以满足管理对知识决策的需要,发展生产力。管理的科学方法论既是人类品质的造化,又是群体意志的遵从,进而成为科学管理的社会属性。管理的科学方法论适应了战略管理的柔性化发展需要,这是对传统管理方法的相对严格的方向性和指导性的“反叛”。