Adegoke Oke

Servant Leadership, Procedural Justice Climate, Service Climate, Employee Attitudes, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Cross-Level Investigation

This study tests the influence of servant leadership on 2 group climates, employee attitudes, and organizational citizenship behavior. Results from a sample of 815 employees and 123 immediate supervisors revealed that commitment to the supervisor, self-efficacy, procedural justice climate, and service climate partially mediated the relationship between servant leadership and organizational citizenship behavior. Cross-level interaction results revealed that procedural justice climate and positive service climate amplified the influence of commitment to the supervisor on organizational citizenship behavior. Implications of these results for theory and practice and directions for future research are discussed.

Innovation types and innovation management practices in service companies

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the different types of innovation that are predominant in companies in the UK services sector, the degree of innovativeness, the practices associated with the pursuit of innovation and their relationship with company performance.Design/methodology/approach – The empirical phase of the study was conducted using a two‐stage process initiated by interviews and completed with mail surveys. Interviews were held with six senior executives of leading service companies in the UK. 214 senior managers of UK service companies were surveyed. The response rate was 47 per cent. Relevant statistical analytical techniques including regressions were used to analyse the data.Findings – Product innovations are emphasized more in telecommunications and financial sectors than in transport and retail sectors while service innovations are emphasized more in retail and transport sectors. Radical and incremental innovations were found to be related to innovation performance. R...

Innovation types and performance in growing UK SMEs

Purpose – The objective of this study is to explore the types of innovation that are predominant in UK SMEs, whether they are predominantly radical or incremental, and to investigate the impact of these innovations on performance.Design/methodology/approach – A web‐based survey instrument was used to administer survey questionnaires to a sample of UK SMEs in manufacturing, engineering, electronics, information technology and telecommunications industries. The response rate was 13.8 percent. Relevant statistical analytical techniques including regression for analysis was then used.Findings – It is found that the SMEs tend to focus more on incremental than radical innovations and that this focus is related to growth in sales turnover.Practical implications – It is not such a bad idea for SMEs, particularly those operating in high technological industries, to focus on incremental innovations as these are actually related positively to sales turnover growth.Originality/value – An investigation of the types of...

A framework for analysing manufacturing flexibility

PurposeThe issue of manufacturing flexibility has been widely discussed in the literature. One major area of focus has been the development of taxonomies for flexibility. This paper aims to review the contributions in this area and to propose a new classification and a framework for analysing flexibility in manufacturing companies.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a case study methodology approach. The framework proposed is used to analyse the implementation of flexibility in four UK manufacturing plants in four major industrial sectors: electronics, process, household and general goods and food.FindingsFrom the empirical analysis, various enablers of flexibility are identified. These are classified into three broad sources of flexibility namely fundamental enablers, indirect enablers and generic enablers as well as flexibility avoidance strategies referred to as flexibility evaders.Practical implicationsThe implication is that a mix of flexibility solutions rather than a single solution may be the most appropriate way for delivering flexibility in an organisation. However, the drivers of the need for flexibility have to be correctly identified in order to determine the best solutions for delivering system flexibility.Originality/valueThe development of a refined framework for analysing manufacturing flexibility as well as the identification of various enablers of strategic flexibility are the major contributions of this paper.

Innovation Strategy, Human Resource Policy, and Firms' Revenue Growth: The Roles of Environmental Uncertainty and Innovation Performance*

This study investigates the interactions of innovation strategy execution and innovation-focused human resource (HR) policy adoption on innovation performance and revenue growth. In addition, we investigate the moderating role of environmental uncertainty on the effects of innovation strategy execution and innovation-focused HR policy on innovation performance. Results show that the interaction of innovation strategy execution and innovation-focused HR policy is positively related to innovation performance. Results also show that environmental uncertainty positively moderates the innovation strategy execution–innovation performance relationship. Finally, innovation performance mediates the interaction of innovation strategy execution and environmental uncertainty on firms’ revenue growth. Implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.

Criteria for sourcing from developing countries

Purpose – Increasingly, sourcing decisions are routinely including contract manufacturers and suppliers in developing countries. While many studies have researched and identified the criteria for selecting suppliers in general terms, there has been a dearth of studies on the criteria for choosing amongst suppliers in developing countries including suppliers in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the criteria for choosing amongst suppliers in different developing countries.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology consists of a series of case studies involving six firms some of which are sourcing from developing countries and some that are based in developing countries and supply lead firms in developed countries.Findings – Cost, physical and cultural proximity, political factors and reliability are found to be the primary criteria for sourcing decisions that include suppliers in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. Further, the paper identifies why these criteria a...

Barriers to innovation management in service companies

This paper reports the result of a survey of service companies in the UK carried out to investigate how innovation is understood in service companies and to identify the potential barriers to innovation management in these companies. The research identifies a number of factors that could potentially inhibit innovation performance in service companies. The paper also investigates the effects of these factors on innovation performance and some interesting results are obtained. For instance, the difficulty in getting top management support as a barrier to innovation management is found to have a significant negative relationship with perceived innovation performance. In other words companies that did not perceive this factor as problematic to innovation management reported a superior innovation performance compared with companies that found this factor to be very problematic.

Drivers of volume flexibility requirements in manufacturing plants

This paper presents the results of a major survey and case study of UK manufacturing plants in six major industrial sectors: electronics, process, engineering (capital), engineering (consumer), household goods and food. The paper explores the conditions under which volume flexibility is required by manufacturing plants. The major driver of volume flexibility requirements in manufacturing plants was found to be demand variability regardless of differences in sector, product and other plant characteristics. Other major drivers of volume flexibility were demand uncertainty, short product life‐cycle, short product shelf life, supply chain complexity and action of competitors. The applicability of most of these drivers is independent of the industrial sector. Drivers may be generic or may be dependent on the contextual or sectoral characteristics specific to a plant. The requirement for volume flexibility is, therefore, dictated by the specific conditions which a plant is faced with, and the degree of volume flexibility required varies widely.

Supply chain processes: Linking supply logistics integration, supply performance, lean processes and competitive performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the value chain processes that represent the “black box” between supply logistics integration and competitive operational performance in firms. To realize this objective, the authors develop a research model which comprises a series of linkages from supply logistics integration to operational outcomes using Porter’s concept of value chain and the relational view of resource-based theory as theoretical lenses. Design/methodology/approach – The data set for testing the hypothesized relationships in this study was drawn from 232 Australian manufacturing firms. Findings – The findings show that there is no significant direct relationship between supply logistics integration and competitive operational performance; rather, the relationship is fully mediated by inbound supply performance and internal lean production processes. Further, lean production processes have a positive effect on inbound supply performance. Research limitations/implications – The study shows the importance of managing both internal (production processes) and external processes (logistics and supply chain) of firms’ operations in an integrated manner in which supply logistics integration act through key internal processes to impact competitive performance which the end customers actually experience. Originality/value – This is the first study which uncovers what happens “in between” the incoming materials and the end outputs delivered by firms into the market. This “in between black box” is important in improving our understanding of how inbound supply activities are translated into outbound competitive performance outcomes.

The antecedents and consequences of product and process innovation strategy implementation in Australian manufacturing firms

Manufacturing firms employ different strategies to improve the performance of their products. In this study, we investigate the roles of environmental dynamism and competitive intensity as antecedents of product and process innovation strategy implementation. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of these initiatives on product innovation performance and product quality performance in manufacturing firms. Based on an analysis of a sample of 207 firms in Australia, the results reveal that environmental dynamism positively relates to both product and process innovation strategy implementation while competitive intensity positively relates to only process innovation strategy implementation. Moreover, product innovation strategy implementation positively relates to product innovation performance while process innovation strategy implementation positively affects product quality performance. Both product innovation performance and product quality performance are found to positively affect business performance. The theoretical and practical implications of the study in the context of Australian manufacturing are discussed.