Kristin Balslev Munksgaard

Exploring supply chain innovation

Supply chain management promises competitive advantages for industrial organizations. The introduction of new products and services, or entry into new markets, is likely to be more successful if accompanied by innovative supply chain designs, innovative supply chain management practices, and enabling technology. This is a widely accepted premise in business practice today. However, systematic research and knowledge about supply chain innovation (SCI) is little developed. There is a lack of common terminology, of agreement about the conceptual understanding, and of related empirical work. This paper presents an exploratory study that aims to provide a better understanding of SCI, mirroring leading edge practice, and providing a sound terminological and conceptual basis for advanced academic work in the field. The research is based on an in-depth literature review and the analysis of a set of secondary data sources: 36 SCI cases, drawn from applications for the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’ (CSCMP) Supply Chain Innovation Award. As results of the research, a new SCI definition, the construction of a descriptive model of its key elements, and discussion of implications are presented.

Chasing value offerings through green supply chain innovation

Purpose – The need for innovations to achieve economically viable and green supply chains has been illuminated in recent literature. Closed‐loop supply chains are part of green supply chain management and include traditional forward supply‐chain activities as well as additional activities of the reverse supply chain. Extant supply chain literature calls for a chain perspective in order to avoid sub‐optimization in the chain since changes at one stage can affect the performance at other stages. The purpose of the paper is to analyze how implementation of green supply chain innovations can enhance value offerings along the supply chain.Design/methodology/approach – This research is based on an explorative, single‐embedded case study of a food supply chain. The case is concerned with implementation of green supply chain innovation in terms of biogas technology. The single case comprises four actors in the food supply chain: a retailer, an industrial bakery, a mill, and a farmer. Data collection is based on s...

Complementor involvement in product development

Purpose – The involvement of lead‐users in product development has been emphasised as a rewarding method for companies in various industries to strengthen their development efforts. The argument is that these leading edge customers can generate innovative and appealing new product concepts. In some industries, however, companies may not be able to make use of lead‐users. In such situations, a complementor may be a valuable alternative. Complementors may be defined as development partners “whose outputs or functions increase the value” of the companys own innovations. The purpose of this article is to compare and contrast the advantages obtainable from the lead‐user method and complementor involvement respectively in order to determine the interchangeable value from these different approaches.Design/methodology/approach – A typical case is selected as the empirical foundation, describing a Danish food‐producing companys collaboration with a complementor.Findings – The case analysis shows that complemento...

Collaborative product development and situated knowledge contexts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for understanding how problem formulation, information search and division of work in new product development (NPD) activities is shaped by mind sets vested in organizations with diverging positions in the value chain and correspondingly situated knowledge contexts. The authors aim to focus on how this influences the marketability of new product ideas.Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data are derived from exploratory observation studies of NPD meetings and interviews of involved managers and specialists in three business dyads. The cases involve ingredient and meat suppliers, retail chains and marketing agencies located in Denmark.Findings – The authors show that the scope and organization of NPD activities indeed are shaped by the combinations of situated knowledge contexts involved. An important intervening variable however concerns the atmosphere of the relationship, involving emotions and attitudes of the actors involved from for...

Is this network for you or for me?: The pursuit of self and collective interests in a strategic network

Purpose – This paper aims to contribute by providing a more comprehensive understanding of the inter-relatedness of business goals among firms in strategic networks by exploring the following research question: How do different business goals coexist in networks? When joining a strategic network, firms are likely to pursue goals of self–interest, as well as those of collective interests. Goal formulation and joint network activities provide vital information toward investigating how firms utilize their network for the purpose of accessing, capturing and integrating the efforts of others to achieve their own goals. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical basis is a case study of a strategic network of food producers in Denmark. Twenty qualitative face-to-face interviews with strategic network member firms constitute the empirical data that are analyzed using the software Leximancer. Findings – This research combines the goal formulation and business of a single firm with the collective and joint effort...

What is in it for me?: Firms strategizing for public-private innovation innovation

Purpose Public-private innovation (PPI) is often claimed to contribute to societal welfare, to bring positive effects to the public sector and to open new markets to private firms. Engaging in public-private relationships for innovation is, however, also recognised as challenging and problematic. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the managerial and strategic challenges faced by private firms when engaging in public-private relationships for innovation. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study presents ten firms’ engagement in public-private relationships. Half of them are experienced in innovation in public-private relationship, the other half are engaging in public-private relationships for the first time. Cross-case analysis brings insight into how these different types of firms strategize for handling relationships with public partners. Findings Contrary to non-experienced firms, experienced firms deliberately build a long-term strategy for engaging in PPI in expectation of outcome from more than a single project. They not only engage in building an understanding of the public using setting, but also seek to bridge with the public developing and producing setting to a greater extent than less experienced firms. The experienced firms utilise relationships with actors in the wider public network as a device and an asset for overcoming challenges and for reaping benefits from their engagement. Originality/value The study outlines the characteristics of strategizing among the most experienced firms and their special ability to embrace the complexity of the public sector network while working simultaneously on developing innovation for specific public counterparts.

The business actor and business management

Purpose IMP literature has developed the conceptualisation of a business landscape comprised of varying combinations of more or less interdependent activities, resources and actors, the form of which are defined by the interactive processes in which they are involved. However, the conceptualisation of the interactively defined business actor presents challenges to the understanding of the nature of business and the process of management. The purpose of this paper is to discuss what it is to be a manager in the complex interactive business landscape and the capabilities needed by business managers. Design/methodology/approach Few, if any, IMP studies have systematically addressed the concept of the business actor directly and the authors do not have a well-developed framework for analysing actors from the perspectives of interaction and networks. This paper analyses the evolving semantics of the concepts of the interactive business actor within some of the literature associated with the IMP research tradition, using the software Leximancer. Findings The paper integrates the analysis into a preliminary framework for describing the characteristics of the interactive business actor. The paper concludes by using this framework to suggest some of the capabilities that are required by the interactive business actor. Originality/value The analysis points to the ways that ideas of the business actor and business acting have developed in the literature. The analysis highlights some of the ways in which the development of these concepts is incomplete and points to potentially fruitful ways in which conceptual and empirical research could proceed.

The wicked problems of supplier-driven innovation

Suppliers stand in the wake of a new diversified strategic momentum in the global production network, where innovation is growing in importance. The term “supplier-driven innovation” is coined in contrast to the current hype on user-driven innovation; this paper aims to discuss the wicked problems for suppliers to actively engage in customers’ innovations.,A qualitative case study of eight Danish suppliers.,The wicked problem of supplier-driven innovation is generated by two intertwined constraints: the ability to engage customers in the co-creation of attractive offers and the ability to include technological knowledge and capabilities residing in the upstream network of suppliers.,This research combines an industrial network approach with perspectives generated through design management literature aiming to develop an innovative space for co-creation across diverse organizational, technological and managerial domains in the global production system.,To participate in supplier-driven innovation, partners need to co-create an innovative space for joint development.,Co-creation enriches the understanding of the diversity of forms of interaction, ranging from information and knowledge exchange and mutual adaptation processes to experimentation with processes of co-creation. Through a complementary view on how suppliers co-create innovative spaces of action in the upstream spaces of technical knowledge as well as the downstream spaces of preferential needs, the research contributes insights about the characteristics of the wicked problems that suppliers need to handle in bridging and expanding these spaces for innovative actions.

Analysis of Qualitative Data: Using Automated Semantic Analysis to Understand Networks of Concepts

Qualitative research of business relationships and networks is of limited value if the analysis does not address the rich interdependencies of the processes and mechanisms involved and does not feature clear and credible methods of analysis. The purpose of this chapter is to consider approaches to analysis that provide opportunities for demonstrable, credible analysis of the qualitative nuances of business systems. The particular focus is on the use of computer-aided methods, including the Leximancer lexicographic analysis software, that, combined with more traditional methods, provide reliable and meaningful analysis of large quantities of textual information, including interview transcripts and secondary data. These processes and the findings that they can produce are demonstrated using a wide range of the authors’ own research.

Boundaries of Business Actors and Networks: Theoretical and Methodological Reflections

Abstract Boundary setting is identified as an important and highly useful factor, both in management practice and in dealing with phenomena in management research. It has significant implications for how circumstances and phenomena will be analysed and interpreted. Change – moving or change in nature – is a key factor in all attempts to strategise and economise. The authors argue that boundary setting is critical in analysing and interpreting business problems, both in the practice of management and in business research. The nature and function of boundaries vary. It can be exemplified with two archetypes of organisation – the integrated hierarchy and the connected company. In the first, the basic principle for boundary setting is buffering to protect the company from external variations. In the second type, it is bridging – connecting the company with specific changing factors. One important consequence is that when analysing and handling boundaries, both location and permeability become the central aspects to consider.