Mauro Caputo

The nature of buyer‐supplier relationships in co‐design activities: The Italian auto industry case

The nature of buyer‐supplier relationships has been closely linked to nation specific explanations and concern has been expressed in literature regarding the transferability of co‐design best practices to different firms and countries. On the other hand, many attempts to isolate best practices and to apply them on a global scale have been proposed in the literature. Contributes to the issue by analysing a controversial case study based on the Italian automotive industry. Results show that few aspects of the Japanese contextual features and American ones existed when the major Italian car maker decided to outsource component design and dramatically change its supply chain management approach. Moreover, despite the massive involvement of suppliers at a very early stage of the car maker new product development process, not all the best practices deemed to be necessary when implementing a co‐operative buyer‐supplier relationship have been applied. Argues that these results lead us to question the very nature of effective buyer‐supplier relationships as described by the dominant literature and suggests implications for practitioners and for future research.

Internal, vertical and horizontal logistics integration in Italian grocery distribution

Notes that logistics costs in the grocery sector, in Italy, are about 25,000 billion lire and that in order to reduce these costs logistics integration has to be improved between institutions of the distribution channel. Focuses on two of the main institutions of the grocery distribution channel: branded product industry and large‐scale trade. Referring to these institutions and to the logistics functions they carry out, analyses integration areas in order to identify some organizational and managerial solutions for improving interfunctional and interorganizational co‐ordination. In particular, divides these solutions into three main groups according to the level of integration they refer to: internal integration (inside each business), vertical integration (between businesses located at different stages of the channel) and horizontal integration (between different businesses located on the same level of the channel). Internal and horizontal integration are the prerequisites for achieving vertical integration and consequently for achieving synergies between the institutions involved.

Supplier involvement in automotive component design: outsourcing strategies and supply chain management

In this paper, the analysis is drawn on the motivations, modalities and consequences of supplier involvement in automotive component design. Outsourcing decisions affect the set of core competencies of buyer and supplier and, given certain circumstances, induce a migration of competencies from OEMs to suppliers. An in-depth exploratory multiple case study on a major European car maker and two of its suppliers revealed that this migration of competencies should not threaten the leadership of car makers within the supply chain if it is associated with: (1) a strong competence of the car maker as system integrator and (2) a new way of conceiving supply chain management.

Uncertainty, flexibility and buffers in the management of the firm operating system

Abstract The role that buffers can assume in the management of uncertain situations that can occur in industrial firms is demonstrated. An outline is provided of the various types of buffers with regard to different types of uncertainty faced and to the characteristics of the production system. Although the prevalent scholarly trend is to evaluate buffers as factors which uselessly increase the complexity of the firms operating systems, this work tries to analyse the contributions they offer to the management process. Buffers are considered as alternative and complementary factors to technological flexibility. Technological flexibility is often considered the only competitive means able to face both external and internal uncertainties. The choice to use or not use buffers as a complementary resource or as an alternative to technological flexibility, depends on a comparison of the cost-benefits of the two solutions

Internet and supply chain management: adoption modalities for Italian firms

Purpose – The aim of this paper is threefold: giving a description of how much internet‐based tools are used in inter‐firm supply chain relationships in Italy; analysing the different adoption behaviours of such tools held by Italian firms; and describing the main features of the firms using the internet for supply chain (SC) management, in terms of structures, players, processes and governance.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a survey carried out by involving Italian firms having more than 50 million euros turnover: 1,458 firms were involved and 463 answered, with a 31.8 per cent response rate. Firm referents were first‐level managers from SC, distribution, procurement or the IT/IS areas. The questionnaire was designed in five sections investigating: general SC features; internet‐based tools diffusion; main effects in terms of efficacy, effectiveness and customer value; relationships governance; general information about the firm.Findings – Three adoption modalities can be pointed out:...

Configurations for logistics co‐ordination

This work presents the results of the survey “Organisational structures and logistics in the branded product history of the grocery section in Italy” developed with the aim of pointing out the organisational structures for the logistics co‐ordination of successful firms. Starting from a review of the literature on the main logistics organisation theories, this paper presents an organisational analysis of 118 industrial firms, working in Italy in the grocery sector, carried out for the main logistics activities. On the basis of this anlaysis, a classifying model of the organisational configurations presently adopted in Italy for internal integration is proposed. According to the model, six different organisational solutions have been singled out: integrated logistics, partially integrated logistics, bipartite logistics, distribution logistics, manufacturing logistics, and split logistics.

Exploring the impact of open innovation on firm performances

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between the openness of firms and their innovation and financial performances. Design/methodology/approach – In order to investigate such relationships, data on inbound and outbound open innovation (OI) processes and performances of 110 worldwide top research and development (R & D) spending bio-pharmaceutical companies are collected via the consolidated annual reports and the PATSTAT database. The time period of the analysis is 2008-2012. Findings – Regarding innovation performances, R & D productivity and revenues to patents ratio decrease with openness, whilst patents growth is not influenced by OI adoption. As to financial performances, sales growth exhibits a positive trend with openness, while operating profit and turnover decrease with OI adoption. Particularly, an inverted U-relationship with inbound and a U-shape one with outbound are observed as of operating profit. Research limitations/implications – The study adds to the knowl...

Inbound and Outbound Open Innovation: Organization and Performances

The aim of the paper is to analyse the relationships between the openness degree of companies and their 1) context features, 2) R&D organization and 3) financial performances. The openness degree is defined after a pecuniary approach, involving all the transactions in the innovation market. Hypotheses are formulated and, then, tested on a sample of 126 world top R&D spending bio-pharmaceutical companies for the period 2008-2012. Open innovation is more pervasive among small and young companies, for most of which it represents the very core business. Inbound and outbound practices have a similar diffusion in terms of number of companies adopting them, but the cumulative values of inbound flows are higher, whereas outbound flows are more relevant when compared to the total business of the firms. Inbound practices are substitutive to internal R&D activities, while outbound ones are complementary to internal development. The performances of companies have an inverted-U shape trend versus inbound practices and a fundamentally decreasing trend versus outbound ones.

Knowledge Domains, Technological Strategies and Open Innovation

This study provides a patent-based framework, investigating the relationship among the relevance of the technological domains, the exploitation vs. exploration strategies and the choice of open innovation practices. Specifically, this work presents five levels of open innovation adoption and analyses the reason why firms open up their innovation boundaries. The methodology is tested on a sample of 240 companies belonging to the bio-pharmaceutical and the technology hardware & equipment industries, by examining their patents filed in 2011. Results show that the relevance of the knowledge domain affects the choice of the innovation strategy; also, non-equity alliances are preferred in explorative activities and equity alliances in exploitative ones.

Open models for innovation: an accounting-based perspective

The paper suggests an accounting–based framework for defining open innovation adoption modalities through the analysis of annual reports. Five models are described, depending on the costs, revenues, new investments and divestments in intangibles and knowledge assets related to open innovation. The framework is applied to a sample of 271 world top research and development (RD the former mainly adopt a collaborative model for open innovation, by jointly developing research programmes with external parties, the latter prefer to incorporate other companies through the use of spin–ins. The paper contributes to the existing research by suggesting a pecuniary approach to evaluate open innovation adoption modalities. The framework can be used by companies for both monitoring their own open innovation positioning and benchmarking it with those of competitors.