Keeping up with growing complexity of managing global operations

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 390-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kasra Ferdows
Keyword(s):  
Operations Management ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Sensitive Data ◽  
Dynamic Complexity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Levels Of Detail ◽  
Simplifying Assumptions ◽  
Number Of Publications ◽  
Global Operations

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue that operations management (OM) scholars ought to be among the thought leaders in research into the design and management of global production networks, but too few of them currently are. It suggests possible reasons for what is holding them back and calls for ideas for removing the obstacles. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a viewpoint. Nevertheless, it reports results of an indicative survey and uses example cases to illustrate and support its arguments. Findings The survey confirms the conclusions from previous studies that the number of publications specifically in leading OM journals focusing on management of global operations is small. Relatively high levels of detail and dynamic complexity and hysteresis of variables affecting the management of global operations are identified as the major hurdles. Applying analytical modeling, a popular research methodology among OM scholars, may be of limited use as it mandates making too many simplifying assumptions. Empirical research is also difficult because it is time consuming and requires access to often sensitive data and may require longitudinal studies. These are tough problems with no clear solutions. Originality/value The paper urges OM scholars to take on the broad and strategic problems in management of global operations. That would not only change how the OM discipline is viewed, but it would also benefit the firm, the economy, and the society.

From traditional manufacturing towards virtual servi-manufacturing: Gabriel's journey

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Brian Vejrum Waehrens ◽  
Dmitrij Slepniov
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Operations Strategy ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Virtual Production ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Traditional Manufacturing ◽  
Global Operations

Subject area Operations strategy/global operations/value chain. Study level/applicability BA/Master level – the case can be applied to support operations strategy discussions related to the link between context, configuration and capabilities, and particularly to discuss internationalization strategy and global operations. Case overview The case examines how Gabriel, a Danish textile company, transformed itself from being a traditional textile manufacturer to becoming an innovative virtual servi-manufacturer. The case covers the main milestones in Gabriel's recent history, explores the main reasons for the transformation that started in the late 1990s and studies how this transformation towards becoming a virtual servi-manufacturer was dealt with. The case closes with the sections examining the role of innovation activities in the newly transformed company. Expected learning outcomes The case is expected to build an understanding of the organisational and operational implications of the journey towards the virtual production company. While the case is broad in its scope, it provides an opportunity to go into details on a number of interrelated topics: operations strategy; global production networks; communication and coordination; interdependencies; and outsourcing and offshoring. The story of Gabriel illustrates a highly successful globalization journey and its underlying dynamics. The case highlights how the operations configuration and the relationships between key parties do not stay constant over time. They rather shift and adapt to internal and external stimuli. The case explores these stimuli in retrospect and describes how the company attempts to reconcile market requirements with its operations configurations and capabilities. Supplementary materials Teaching note.

scholarly journals Crossvergence of socially (ir)responsible employment practices in supplier firms

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britta Holzberg
Keyword(s):  
Decent Work ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Employment Practices ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Conflicting Demands ◽  
Local Pressures ◽  
Global And Local

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce the notion of crossvergence from international human resource management (IHRM) as a conceptual lens for understanding and analyzing the formation of socially (ir)responsible employment practices in supplier firms in global production networks (GPNs). The crossvergence perspective can particularly contribute to understanding how the agency of suppliers is influenced by the interaction of global–local dynamics. Design/methodology/approach The paper illustrates how the formation of socially (ir)responsible employment practices can be understood as a process of crossvergence. Subsequently, it reviews and structures insights from GPN and IHRM literature to detail the process. Findings The paper underscores the complicated role of suppliers in ensuring decent work in GPNs. Suppliers face a multitude of global and local interacting, and partially conflicting, demands. They process these demands as active agents and need to develop suitable employment practices in response. Originality/value The paper supports the nascent discourse on supplier agency in forming socially responsible employment practices. It connects different streams of literature to illuminate the perspective of suppliers, introduces IHRM insights to the debate and offers conceptual guidance for analyzing interacting global and local pressures on suppliers.

Research in global operations management: some highlights and potential future trends

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 324-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krisztina Demeter
Keyword(s):  
Operations Management ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Research Networks ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Manufacturing Networks ◽  
Global Operations ◽  
Business And Management

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to shortly overview the research in international operations management (OM), to provide background to the papers published in this special section. Design/methodology/approach As a literature review, the paper investigates the past, present, and future of international OM. It is not a systematic review; the paper just highlights the most important international operational management research networks, streams and concepts in the field. Findings The paper finds that there is a time lag in the field of international OM compared to other research areas within international business and management. It provides some ideas for the future to be researched. Originality/value The paper gives a focused review on international research networks which has not been done before. It also identifies two different streams of researches in international OM: the stream investigating OM differences among geographical areas, and the stream dealing with issues of international manufacturing networks.

Manufacturing faces growth barriers in Middle East

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Technology Innovation ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Employment Opportunities ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Growth Barriers

Subject Manufacturing in the Middle East and North Africa. Significance The era when a country's manufacturing success was determined mainly by cheap wages and good infrastructure has now given way to technology, innovation and post-production support and services. However, countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are lagging in terms of their transition towards high research-intensive industries. Impacts Lack of diversification into high-tech manufacturing will inhibit the manufacturing sector as a whole. The region will struggle to develop hubs for the established global production networks of Europe, North America and Asia. Manufacturing will fail to provide sufficient employment opportunities for the youth. Developing technology-intensive manufacturing will be vital to the Gulf's preparation for a post-oil economy.

Regional and global production networks: the case of China

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 126-135
Author(s):  
K.C. Fung
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Input Output ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Trade Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine various aspects of regional and global production networks, with a special focus on China. Design/methodology/approach – The author studies four different approaches to measure production networks and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. The author presents some of the results associated with some of these measurements. Findings – The author finds that using trade data alone is simple but incomplete. Bringing in input–output tables is useful but much more data would be needed. In addition, for the case of China, electronic goods and telecommunication goods tend to have a higher foreign value added. Research limitations/implications – Data with good quality can be a problem. The authors also have difficulty getting input–output tables for many years. Practical implications – The results can guide policymakers as to which industries can create more domestic value added. The results can also lead to betting of an understanding of trade balances measured in the value added. Social implications – The results can generate further understanding among citizens of many different countries, including China, about the importance of different sectors in generating the value added. Originality/value – The value of this paper is to focus on alternative ways to measure the value added in exports from China. The paper is the first to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches and present some of these results.

Determinants of SME integration into global value chains

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandra Mouli V.V. Kotturu ◽  
Biswajit Mahanty
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Automotive Component ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Component Manufacturing

Purpose In recent years, due to intense competition, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are unable to meet performance expectations and find difficulty in fulfilling the needs of the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Consequently, the growth of the SMEs has slowed down considerably. Constrained by their infrastructural resources, SMEs’ participation in global value chains (GVCs) has the potential to bring significant benefits, such as enhancing technological learning and innovation and generating positive contributions to the development of the SMEs. The purpose of this paper is to explore competitive priorities, key factors, and causal relationships influencing SMEs to enter GVCs. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the GVC framework is adopted and qualitative feedback loop analysis is used to identify the key factors influencing the competitive factors. A questionnaire survey was carried out with the automotive component manufacturers of a transnational corporation in India. Findings The survey in the automotive component manufacturing industry reveals product quality standards as the most important priority for joining global production networks, followed by price competitiveness, timely delivery, innovativeness, manufacturing flexibility, service, and dependability. The qualitative findings reveal continuous personnel training, capacity expansion, research development, and others as key factors influencing competitiveness. Practical implications To retain SMEs’ role in economic development and to accelerate the growth of global production networks in India, thereby realizing opportunities from the emerging GVCs, support is needed for SMEs regarding the aspects identified in this study. Originality/value The study explores the dynamics of each competitive priority of SMEs in Indian automotive component manufacturing industry to enter the GVCs. No study has explored the dynamics of SMEs competitiveness to enter GVCs in the automotive manufacturing industry.

scholarly journals A reconceptualisation of social value creation as social constraint alleviation

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 340-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noemi Sinkovics ◽  
Rudolf R. Sinkovics ◽  
Samia Ferdous Hoque ◽  
Laszlo Czaban
Keyword(s):  
Value Creation ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Social Value ◽  
Social Constraints ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Constraint ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Social Value Creation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper includes two interconnected objectives. The first is to provide a reconceptualisation of social value creation as social constraint alleviation. The second is to respond to the call put forward by Giuliani and Macchi (2014) to produce synergies between bodies of literature exploring the development impact of businesses. The paper focuses on ideas from the global value chain/global production networks (GVC/GPN), business and human rights, corporate social responsibility (CSR), international business (IB) and (social) entrepreneurship literatures. Design/methodology/approach – The paper offers a reconceptualisation of social value creation by building on the synergies, complementarities and limitations of existing concepts identified through the literature review. Findings – The reconceptualisation of social value creation put forward in this paper contributes to the literature in the following way. It offers a useful and clear definition of the term “social” (Devinney, 2009), and it attends to the limitations of the constraint concept as put forward by Ted London and his collaborators (London, 2011). Furthermore, it sketches out the basic ideas of a two-system approach to allow for the differentiation between symptom treatment and root cause alleviation. Finally, it offers a refinement of Wettstein’s (2012) proposed capability-based remedial action concept. The paper furthermore proposes that there are three distinct ways in which businesses generally respond to social constraints. Originality/value – The paper illustrates how the redefined concept of social value creation can connect different bodies of literature and help make sense of existing empirical results, without engaging in definitional debates.

Analysing and classifying knowledge management publications – a proposed classification scheme

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 1527-1554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Fteimi ◽  
Franz Lehner
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Classification Scheme ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Levels Of Detail ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Number Of Publications ◽  
Research Domains ◽  
Taxonomy Development

Purpose The growing number of publications on knowledge management (KM) has addressed heterogeneous topics that lack integration and classification. This article closes the classification gap by presenting a classification scheme, providing an integrated overview of KM publications. Design/methodology/approach The development of the classification scheme follows a multistep approach. By applying a taxonomy development method, the results of a previous content analysis of 4,290 publications were processed to integrate 3,780 keywords into a classification scheme. Findings The classification scheme consists of 13 main categories and subcategories with six levels of detail. The scheme covers not only KM-specific keywords but also keywords from related disciplines, indicating a strong interdependence with related research domains. Research limitations/implications The scheme provides a starting point for ongoing collaboration within the KM community with the aim of improving the classification results and refining the scheme to manifest the core identity. Practical implications The scheme is helpful in understanding whether KM implementation activities in organisations are aligned with overall research activities and topics covered by publications. Originality/value Developing a scheme based on a prior content analysis turns out to be a unique and innovative approach that has never before been done in the KM domain.

A Substantive Theory of Transnational Governance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Bartley
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Standards ◽  
Transnational Governance ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Special Significance ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Private Regulation ◽  
Substantive Theory ◽  
Private Authority ◽  
Differential Performance

Social scientists have theorized the rise of transnational private authority, but knowledge about its consequences remains sparse and fragmented. This chapter builds from a critique of “empty spaces” imagery in several leading paradigms to a new theory of transnational governance. Rules and assurances are increasingly flowing through global production networks, but these flows are channeled and reconfigured by domestic governance in a variety of ways. Abstracting from the case studies in this book, a series of theoretical propositions specify the likely outcomes of private regulation, the influence of domestic governance, the special significance of territory and rights, and several ways in which the content of rules shapes their implementation. As such, this theory proposes an explanation for differences across places, fields, and issues, including the differential performance of labor and environmental standards.

Transnational Standards and Empty Spaces

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Bartley
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Transnational Governance ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Global Order ◽  
Private Regulation ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Making Sense

A vast new world of transnational standards has emerged, covering issues from human rights to sustainability to food safety. This chapter develops a framework for making sense of this new global order. It is tempting to imagine that global rules can and should bypass corrupt, incapacitated, or illegitimate governments in poor and middle-income countries. This assumption must be rejected if we want to understand the consequences of global rules and the prospects for improvement. After showing how a combination of social movements, global production networks, and neoliberalism gave rise to transnational private regulation, the chapter builds the foundations for the comparative approach of this book. The book’s comparative analysis of land and labor in Indonesia and China sheds light on two key fields of transnational governance, their implications in democratic and authoritarian settings, and the problems of governing the global economy through private regulation.

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