Nicky E. Shaw

Traditional or contemporary? The prevalence of performance measurement system types

Purpose - The paper seeks to examine the prevalence of traditional versus contemporary (balanced) types of performance measurement system (PMS) in an emerging economy and link incidence to key organisational factors of size, age and ownership. Design/methodology/approach - Data on design and use of PMSs are collected through a questionnaire survey ( Findings - Use of contemporary PMS dominates the sample. PMS type is significantly associated with size and ownership, while age is not. Firms more likely to use contemporary PMSs are foreign-owned and large in terms of number of employees. Research limitations/implications - This survey-based research employs multivariate analysis and therefore standard limits for such statistical work apply. Results rely on hierarchical cluster analysis. Practical implications - If balanced approaches are more effective, as is argued by many, then a firm without such a style of PMS is at a competitive disadvantage given the high incidence of use. Originality/value - The paper establishes a framework for a contemporary type of PMS that integrates balanced scorecard and other balanced approaches, then collects data in an emerging economy. Links use of contemporary PMS type to key organisational factors.

Supply chain agility: the influence of industry culture on asset capabilities within capital intensive industries

Supply chain agility in capital-intensive industries is argued as strongly linked to the capabilities of the individual processing assets comprising the chain. Therefore the desired asset capabilities conducive to overall agility need to be designed in to plant and equipment. However, in addition to asset design, how the assets are used in the production process is an important factor in determining capabilities. In culturally-conservative industries the penetration of modern operations management (OM) practices is expected to be limited and this will hold back the contribution that assets can make to supply chain agility. First the paper begins by reviewing the need for agility in supply chains and links this to agile plant capabilities. Next the research context and collaboration is described, which focused upon the speciality chemicals industry and involved three UK universities and thirteen industrial partners. Experiences drawn from industrial case studies undertaken in the research initiative are used to illustrate in a practical manner the key asset capability underpinning agility, that of reconfigurability. The paper adopts a novel focus on a process industry to complement the work on agility that is more usually grounded in discrete manufacturing.

Performance measurement in organisational networks: an exploratory case study

This paper is an exploratory case study illustrating the importance of performance measures applied at the level of organisational networks. Traditional practice is limited to measuring performance independently at the level of each member of a network. This paper aims to draft basic principles of performance measurement for organisational networks and focuses on the introduction of the concept of meta-performance, i.e. network-level performance. Meta-performance is a two-dimensional construct which encapsulates (1) the concept of performance per se and (2) the concept of equity within a network. Without a fair distribution of benefits, a network does not perform effectively in its collaborative dimension and thus could fail to perform altogether. The case study illustrates the process of measuring meta-performance.

Revitalising new process development in the UK fine chemicals industry

Reports on one of the key developments made to date on a three‐year EPSRC IMI research project in the fine chemicals industry. The project, Batch Route Innovative Technology: Evaluation and Selection Techniques (BRITEST), began in late 1997 with the aim to research new methods to deliver substantial benefits associated with new product development. The project will deliver a methodology, models and a suite of decision support tools sustaining and improving the new product development process, enabling novel technical solutions to be developed more in line with, and evaluated more appropriately against, the business strategy and market characteristics. The specific deliverable presented in this paper is an action research‐derived framework that integrates the detailed processes, information requirements and decision making as a model of good practice for new product (or process) development (NPD) in the fine chemicals industry.

Enhancing Value Stream Agility:: The UK Speciality Chemical Industry

As part of a shift in chemical production occurring across the globe, the UK chemicals industry is increasingly moving from commodity to speciality production. In the UK the industrys batch production methods are little changed from previous decades and the speciality chemicals industry faces mounting challenges that argue for an increase in agility throughout the industry value stream. Individual companies and managers have responded in a variety of ways to these challenges. The Britest research project is a concerted industry response that seeks to improve the three key value streams of the industry by introducing new philosophies and methods into plant and process design. This article outlines the Britest approach to introducing agile manufacturing concepts in the speciality chemicals industry and then extends the approach to a more holistic focus on supply networks rather than concentrating on individual production units.

Organisational self-assessment and the adoption of managerial innovations

Purpose – This paper investigates managers use of self‐assessment in diagnostic routines to assist organisations embarking on major organisational change involving the adoption of a managerial innovation.Design/methodology/approach – The illustrative case focuses on the comparative adoption of two assessment tools set within a methodology developed via action research to improve the performance of new process development in the specialty chemical industry.Findings – Features of the case context, such as prior commitment to the methodology, contribute to explaining managerial preferences for the non‐financial diagnostic tool over the financial one.Practical implications – For practitioners the case illustrates how prior commitment can obscure rational considerations when faced with planning and implementing major change, particularly so when introducing managerial innovations. For academics the case study highlights the potential for fruitful research into the design and use of self‐assessment routines th...

The Impact of R&D-Specific Factors on the Attractiveness of SMEs as Partners vis--vis Alliance Formation in Large Emerging Economies

This study examines the impact of research and development (R&D)-specific factors in determining the likelihood of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from developed countries to be attractive partners vis-a-vis forming alliances with SMEs from large emerging economies (LEEs). This study is founded on the knowledge-accessing theory of alliance formation, which emphasises the higher efficiency gains of knowledge application as opposed to knowledge generation. We extend this theory to SMEs on the basis that smaller firms, because of their resources constraints and drive to survive, are likely to use alliances to access external knowledge bases leading to new product development (NPD) opportunities because of the low feasibility of acquiring knowledge. As a mix of complex knowledge is necessary to develop most modern products and services, SMEs are also likely to adopt a more flexible operational approach and to accept compromises to forge knowledge-accessing alliances. We illustrate this theoretical development using primary data collected from British and German biotechnology SMEs, declaring the intention prospectively to form alliances with their counterparts in Brazil. Binary logistic regression was used to identify the factors influencing the likelihood of a firm as an attractive alliance partner. Our results indicate that R&D-specific factors influence the likelihood of firms to be attractive alliance partners. In particular, firms showing an in-house innovation history focused on one or few products are more likely to be attractive alliance partners with LEE firms than those that do not. Another R&D-specific predictor that enhances the chances of alliance partner attractiveness with LEE firms is the firms focused searching and identifying capability relative to technology or equipment that demonstrates good prospects to improve the firms line of products. A third predictor refers to the firms awareness regarding non-cost obstacles for its own technological development. Implications for policy makers and practitioners are also discussed.

Entropic-related complexity for re-engineering a robust supply chain: a case study

This article uses entropic-related complexity to analyse a case study of a business process re-engineering (BPR) intervention to improve the supply chain of a large UK chemicals manufacturer. Entropic-related complexity is defined as the amount of information needed to describe the state of a system; a measure which captures the extent of uncertainty and variety within the system. To evaluate BPRs impact, complexity is calculated before and after the intervention for three elements of the supply chain: incoming supply process, production process and outgoing customer delivery process. The complexity measures are derived from the time-related performance of these three system elements. The results show that the robustness of supply chains, i.e. their ability to perform well despite disturbances, can be assessed using entropic-related complexity retrospectively (after a change has occurred), but it could also be used prospectively (if anticipated outcomes could be estimated) before embarking on BPR initiatives.

Enhancing Value Stream Agility: The Case of the UK Specialty Chemical Industry

As part of a shift in chemical production occurring across the globe, the UK chemicals industry is increasingly moving from commodity to speciality production. In the UK the industrys batch production methods are little changed from previous decades and the speciality chemicals industry faces mounting challenges that argue for an increase in agility throughout the industry value stream. Individual companies and managers have responded in a variety of ways to these challenges. The Britest research project is a concerted industry response that seeks to improve the three key value streams of the industry by introducing new philosophies and methods into plant and process design. This article outlines the Britest approach to introducing agile manufacturing concepts in the speciality chemicals industry and then extends the approach to a more holistic focus on supply networks rather than concentrating on individual production units.

Innovation-sharing across a supply network: barriers to collaboration

We explore the impact of innovation nature and contextual factors on innovation-sharing in a collaborative supply network within the utilities sector. In particular, we look at innovation-sharing between the first-tier supply partners maintaining and replacing the asset base of a utility company. Szulanskis ‘knowledge stickiness’ is used as a guiding conceptual framework. We use a mixed-method approach combining interviews, conventional survey and social network analysis survey. A key aspect of the findings is the behaviours resulting from the use of performance measurement and the partners’ motives which are influenced, amongst other things, by competition of the collaborators in other arenas. Performance measurement and innovation characteristics were identified as factors reducing the effectiveness of sharing. In addition, the programme management lifecycle emerged as a substantial influence on sharing behaviours.