The Design of Firms: Part 2 - Competitive Advantage

Design Issues ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 59-77
Author(s):  
Andy Dong ◽  
Maaike Kleinsmann ◽  
Dirk Snelders

Abstract One of the essential aspects of a company's design is its source of competitive advantage. Extrapolating from Raymond Loewy's famous design strategy acronym, MAYA—the Most Advanced Yet Acceptable Principle—and treating the firm as the object of design, this article explains the competitive advantage of firms from a design perspective. Our design-based recommendation for the competitive advantage of firms is to focus on shaping heterogeneity-based advantages of the firm in ways its paying customers would deem valuable. The novelty and conventionality dynamics of its industry will influence the degree of heterogeneity of the firm. Firms can shape their heterogeneity-based advantages through policies relating to organizational structure, routines, and product portfolio to name a few. Going beyond the role of a design in creating rents above and beyond what other firms can imagine, our claim focuses on the ways in which heterogeneity is a fundamental driver of its competitive advantage. If correct, the design-based view suggests that the ideal level of heterogeneity of the firm relative to current competitive conditions and evolution paths adopted by the firm and its competitors is more fundamental to firm profitability than its resources.

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aries Heru Prasetyo

This study tried to explore hidden power of knowledge management in contributing to a better competitive advantage for society-based organization. Using Indonesia micro finance organization, the test deployed four major drivers: technology infrastructure, organizational structure, culture and people. By addressing multiple linear regressions on 184 questionnaires, the study succeeded in uncovering the impact of proper KM-technology, organizational culture and people to the creation of competitive advantage, thus valid proponents for micro finance sector. However, failures to prove the role of the second drivers showed potential obstacle while preserving knowledge. Elements such as leaderships, adaptability, communication and bureaucracy might become the ideal moderator for future agenda.


Author(s):  
Flair Karaki

To build a long-term competitive advantage, manufacturing industry has witnessed a movement from product offering to a wider value customer-based solutions, which is known as “servitization”. Manufacturers can use any of the service models according to the level of service integration. For the purposes of transforming to a service driven organization, Academic literature has presented various types of enablers to facilitate this transition. The Purpose of this paper is to investigate servitization enablers by answering the following questions: 1- How does organizational cultural differ in servitized manufacturing? 2- How do digital technologies support servitization? 3- How do organizational structure and operations facilitate servitization? 4- What is the role of leadership through the process of servitization? and what is the way to manage personnel during the servitization process? 5- How do enablers interact and link?


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Brunet

This article proposes a model of individual violent radicalisation leading to acts of terrorism. After reviewing the role of group regression and the creation of group psychic apparatus, the article will examine how violent radicalisation, by the reversal of the importance of the superego and the ideal ego, serves to compensate the narcissistic identity suffering by “lone wolf” terrorists.


Author(s):  
Sérgio Gomes ◽  
Vítor Braga ◽  
Alexandra Braga

Innovation is seen as a competitive advantage that many companies use to ensure the continuity and success of your business.NP 4457:2007 is the Portuguese norm that supports management, based on a model of innovation backed up by interfaces and interaction between technical/scientific knowledge, its specific mechanisms and the overall society.Our paper aims to analyse innovation activities and the involvement of human resources in Portuguese firms certified by NP4457 and associated to the implementation of Research, Development, and Innovation (RD&I) management systems. We have collected the data through IPAC’s database, using a survey administered to all firms.Our results suggest the existence of a Human Resources (HR) involvement policy, customers and suppliers. The involvement of stakeholders with innovation activities results of its acceptance as a mechanism able to generate wealth, with benefits for both firms and the community.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Mochammad Arief Wicaksono

The ideology of state-ibuism has always been interwoven with how the New Order regime until nowadays government constructing the “ideal” role of women in the family and community through the PKK (Pembinaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga) organization. However, in Cangkring Village, Indramayu, the ideology of ibuism works not because of the massive government regulating the role of women through the PKK organization, but it is possible because of the structure of the kampung community itself. Through involved observations and in-depth interviews about a kindergarten in the village, a group of housewives who dedicated themselves to teaching in kindergarten were met without getting paid high. From these socio-cultural phenomenons, this paper will describe descriptively and analytically that housewives in the Cangkring village are willing to become kindergarten teachers because of their moral burden as part of the warga kampung and also from community pressure from people who want their children to be able to read and write.


Author(s):  
Francis L. F Lee ◽  
Joseph M Chan

Chapter 1 introduces the background of the Umbrella Movement, a protest movement that took hold in Hong Kong in 2014, and outlines the theoretical principles underlying the analysis of the role of media and communication in the occupation campaign. It explicates how the Umbrella Movement is similar to but also different from the ideal-typical networked social movement and crowd-enabled connective action. It explains why the Umbrella Movement should be seen as a case in which the logic of connective action intervenes into a planned collective action. It also introduces the notion of conditioned contingencies and the conceptualization of an integrated media system.


Author(s):  
Ali Safari ◽  
Arash Adelpanah ◽  
Razieh Soleimani ◽  
Parisa Heidari Aqagoli ◽  
Rosa Eidizadeh ◽  
...  

Purpose This study aims at investigating the effect of psychological empowerment on job burnout and competitive advantage with the mediating role of organizational commitment and creativity. Design/methodology/approach The statistical population included all the managers and staffs of Tooka Company in Iran, and for data analysis, 120 completed questionnaires were used. Data analysis was carried out by SPSS 18 and Amos 20 software and structural equation modeling method. To test the mediating relationships, bootstrap method was used. Findings The findings showed that psychological empowerment has a significant direct effect on job burnout and competitive advantage. Also, psychological empowerment has a significant indirect effect on job burnout through the mediating role of organizational commitment. In addition, psychological empowerment has a significant indirect effect on competitive advantage through the mediating role of organizational creativity. Originality/value This study is among the first to investigate the relationship between psychological empowerment, job burnout, competitive advantage, organizational commitment and creativity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Kunisch ◽  
Markus Menz ◽  
David Collis

Abstract The corporate headquarters (CHQ) of the multi-business enterprise, which emerged as the dominant organizational form for the conduct of business in the twentieth century, has attracted considerable scholarly attention. As the business environment undergoes a fundamental transition in the twenty-first century, we believe that understanding the evolving role of the CHQ from an organization design perspective will offer unique insights into the nature of business activity in the future. The purpose of this article, in keeping with the theme of the Journal of Organization Design Special Collection, is thus to invigorate research into the CHQ. We begin by explicating four canonical questions related to the design of the CHQ. We then survey fundamental changes in the business environment occurring in the twenty-first century, and discuss their potential implications for CHQ design. When suitable here we also refer to the contributions published in our Special Collection. Finally, we put forward recommendations for advancements and new directions for future research to foster a deeper and broader understanding of the topic. We believe that we are on the cusp of a change in the CHQ as radical as that which saw its initial emergence in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. Exactly what form that change will take remains for practitioners and researchers to inform.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 929
Author(s):  
Hanadi Sawalha ◽  
Rambod Abiri ◽  
Ruzana Sanusi ◽  
Noor Azmi Shaharuddin ◽  
Aida Atiqah Mohd Noor ◽  
...  

Nanotechnology is a promising tool that has opened the doors of improvement to the quality of human’s lives through its potential in numerous technological aspects. Green chemistry of nanoscale materials (1–100 nm) is as an effective and sustainable strategy to manufacture homogeneous nanoparticles (NPs) with unique properties, thus making the synthesis of green NPs, especially metal nanoparticles (MNPs), the scientist’s core theme. Researchers have tested different organisms to manufacture MNPs and the results of experiments confirmed that plants tend to be the ideal candidate amongst all entities and are suitable to synthesize a wide variety of MNPs. Natural and cultivated Eucalyptus forests are among woody plants used for landscape beautification and as forest products. The present review has been written to reflect the efficacious role of Eucalyptus in the synthesis of MNPs. To better understand this, the route of extracting MNPs from plants, in general, and Eucalyptus, in particular, are discussed. Furthermore, the crucial factors influencing the process of MNP synthesis from Eucalyptus as well as their characterization and recent applications are highlighted. Information gathered in this review is useful to build a basis for new prospective research ideas on how to exploit this woody species in the production of MNPs. Nevertheless, there is a necessity to feed the scientific field with further investigations on wider applications of Eucalyptus-derived MNPs.


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