James Baldwin

Servitization: revisiting the state-of-the-art and research priorities

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consolidate the servitization knowledge base from an organizational change perspective, identifying developed, developing and undeveloped topics to provide a platform that directs future research. Design/methodology/approach: This paper addresses three objectives: it comprehensively examines organizational change management literature for selection of a theoretical framework; it classifies extant studies within the framework through a systemic literature review; and it analyses 232 selected papers and proposes a research agenda. Findings: Analysis suggests increasing global awareness of the importance of services to manufacturers. However, some topics, especially related to servitization transformation, remain undeveloped. Research limitations/implications: Although the authors tried to include all publications relevant to servitization, some might not have been captured. Evaluation and interpretation relied on the research team and subsequent research workshops. Practical implications: One of the most significant challenges for practitioners of servitization is how to transform a manufacturing organization to exploit the opportunity. This paper consolidates literature regarding servitization, identifying progress concerning key research topics and contributing a platform for future research. The goal is to inform research to result eventually in a roadmap for practitioners seeking to servitize. Originality/value: Although extant reviews of servitization identify themes that are examined well, they struggle to identify unanswered questions. This paper addresses this gap by focusing on servitization as a process of organizational change.

A cladistic classification of commercial aerospace supply chain evolution

Purpose – This paper aims to address the advantage of considering an evolutionary classification scheme for commercial aerospace supply chains. It is an industry wide approach. By going beyond the performance of the single firm and considering the whole supply chain for a product a better understanding of present states and performances of the firms within the chain can be achieved.Design/methodology/approach – The approach is presented as evolutionary steps by introduction of key supply chain characters. These steps are brought together by applying cladistics to classify the evolutionary relationships between supply chain forms.Findings – Key character states define the change of supply chain forms in the evolutionary adaptation to market realities and to proactive responses to increased competition.Originality/value – The potential benefits of this approach include a benchmark of best practice, a strategic tool for policy development, and the creation of future scenarios.

Aerospace Supply Chains as Evolutionary Networks of Activities: Innovation Via Risk-Sharing Partnerships

In the aerospace industry competitive advantage is searched through product innovation. This paper sets out to explore the effects that relationship development in the commercial aerospace supply chains have on innovation and competitive advantage. A perspective of supply chains as complex activity networks is used for data analysis based on in-depth interviews in a global setting. Applying these concepts of supply chains as the interaction of multiple work activities assists in comprehending the forces of change. The processes of change are characterized by expansive learning processes of creating instruments for initializing, developing and sustaining these relationships. These processes take place in a terrain of complex power exercises. The long-term effects are totally dependent on nurturing the relationships. The findings may be useful to practitioners in understanding how implementation of successful supply chain changes may come about. It promotes risk-sharing partnerships as instruments for innovation. The paper provides evidence of changing relationships in commercial aerospace supply chains.

Industrial Resilience and Decline: A Co-Evolutionary Framework

This book applies ideas and methods from the complexity perspective to key concerns in the social sciences, exploring co-evolutionary processes that have not yet been addressed in the technical or popular literature on complexity. Authorities in a variety of fields – including evolutionary economics, innovation and regeneration studies, urban modelling and history – re-evaluate their disciplines within this framework. The book explores the complex dynamic processes that give rise to socio-economic change over space and time, with reference to empirical cases including the emergence of knowledge-intensive industries and decline of mature regions, the operation of innovative networks and the evolution of localities and cities. Sustainability is a persistent theme and the practicability of intervention is examined in the light of these perspectives.

Simulating the Cladistic Evolution of Manufacturing

Summary A common belief within manufacturing is ‘the only constant is change’. Manufacturing cladistics was first developed in the early 1990s not only as a means of classibling manufacturing organisations but also, and perhaps more importantly, as a tool to both help deal with change, and use as a guide for organisational re-engineering. However, this approach has one major limitation — it is only a description of the past; the future is not represented. Uncertainty in decision-making and unknown barriers are thought to be major inhibitors behind the introduction of important innovations in technical, organisational and social domains. This paper reports on the results of a study that interprets two complimentary, but currently unrelated, areas of research, manufacturing cladistics and evolutionary systems methodology. This new framework would enable the exploration of evolutionary processes involved in the interactions of technologies and practices, facilitating decision-making as well as the exploration of new organisational structures.

Communicative interaction as an instrument for integration and coordination in an aerospace supply chain

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore the effects of communicative interaction on integration and coordination of a commercial aerospace supply chain.Design/methodology/approach – A perspective of supply chains as complex activity networks is used for data analysis based on in‐depth interviews in a global setting. Themes for interviews were identified through literature research.Findings – The paper finds that integration through risk‐sharing partnerships is chosen for co‐developing expertise and innovative capacity. Practices of integration and coordination through communicative interaction are emerging while they are producing innovative solutions and competitive advantage. The multi‐voiced interaction between partners in the supply chain is assisting in moving the product beyond what the airframe manufacturer could have created alone.Originality/value – The paper provides evidence of changing interactive practices in commercial aerospace supply chains. By applying concepts of supply chains as he intera...

Commercial aerospace supply chains

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolution of commercial aerospace supply chains.Design/methodology/approach – The approach is presented as evolutionary steps by introduction of key supply chain practices. These steps are brought together by applying cladistics, a classification approach from the biological sciences, to classify the evolutionary relationships between supply chain forms. This is presented in two stages.Findings – Earlier research produced a “conceptual cladogram” from secondary data that describes the evolution of aerospace supply chains. This paper expands on this through empirical validation and develops a “factual cladogram”, revealing a newly emerging supply chain form. Key practices define the change of supply chain forms in the evolutionary adaptation to market realities and to proactive responses to increased competition.Research limitations/implications – The factual cladogram as such does not necessarily prescribe world‐class performance but may serve as a pla...

An evolutionary complex systems decision‐support tool for the management of operations

Purpose – The purpose of this is to add both to the development of complex systems thinking in the subject area of operations and production management and to the limited number of applications of computational models and simulations from the science of complex systems. The latter potentially offer helpful decision‐support tools for operations and production managers.Design/methodology/approach – A mechanical engineering firm was used as a case study where a combined qualitative and quantitative methodological approach was employed to extract the required data from four senior managers. Company performance measures as well as firm technologies, practices and policies, and their relation and interaction with one another, were elicited. The data were subjected to an evolutionary complex systems (ECS) model resulting in a series of simulations.Findings – The findings highlighted the effects of the diversity in management decision making on the firms evolutionary trajectory. The CEO appeared to have the most...

The effects of communicative interactions on meaning construction in group situations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of communicative interaction on meaning construction in three focus group interviews.Design/methodology/approach – Within the framework of cultural‐historical activity theory, Bakhtins perspectives of communicative interaction was applied to three interview cases on commercial aerospace supply chains.Findings – These interactions are found to self‐organise without the control of any single actor. However, interventions by interviewees or the researcher affect the outcome when they create disturbances that go beyond the resilience of the established perspectives of the focus group community. The researchers intervention or guidance is helpful in opening up reality perspectives of the community.Research limitations/implications – Focus group interviews may be difficult to control by the researcher. The potential for gathering rich data may, however, out‐weigh that.Originality/value – The paper illustrates how focus group interviews enhance the ...

The evolution of commercial aerospace supply chains and the facilitation of innovation

The paper sets out to explore the effects relationships in commercial aerospace supply chains have on innovation and competitive advantage. A perspective of supply chains as complex activity systems is used for data analysis. Competitive advantage is searched through product innovation facilitated by risk-sharing partnerships. This is characterised by expansive learning processes of creating instruments for initialising, implementing and nurturing these relationships. These processes take place in a terrain of complex power exercises. The long-term effects are totally dependent on the success of nurturing the relationships.