Pamela Sharkey Scott

Mitigation Processes – Antecedents for Building supply chain resilience

Purpose – This study aims to combine theory and practice to develop an integrated supply chain resilience framework by investigating the inter-dependencies between the strategic literature based concept of supply chain resilience and operational practitioner based disaster management processes. Design/methodology/approach – Utilising an in-depth qualitative case of a collaborative agency, this study identifies best practices within disaster management for insights on the operationalisation of supply chain resilience. Findings – The empirical data leads to the development of an integrated supply chain resilience framework capturing the interplay of disaster management processes and capabilities required to build supply chain resilience. The critical importance of mitigation processes in building supply chain resilience is highlighted. Practical implications – The generic supply chain resilience framework represents a valuable guide for managers when directing resources and planning for building the capabil...

Le)agility in humanitarian aid (NGO) supply chains

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of agility in the context of supply chains of humanitarian aid (HA) organizations, particularly non‐government organizations (NGOs). This responds to the increasing pressure on NGOs to use their resources more strategically if they are to gain donor trust and long‐term commitment.Design/methodology/approach – A literature‐based approach that extends the commercial supply chain concept of agility to NGOs is combined with the first exploratory semi‐structured interviews of these concepts with five NGO supply chain directors.Findings – The commercial concept of agility when responding to disaster relief holds strong potential for increasing efficiency and effectiveness, but this application is restrained by the absence of supporting information technology (IT) and the relegation of supply chain management (SCM) to the “back office” by NGOs. This has potential implications for NGOs and other HA agencies.Research limitations/implications – This pape...

Developing subsidiary contribution to the MNC--Subsidiary entrepreneurship and strategy creativity

10 Article history: 11 Received 28 January 2009 12 Received in revised form 8 March 2010 13 Accepted 9 March 2010 14 Available online xxxx 5 Despite its theoretical and managerial significance, subsidiary entrepreneurship and its effects 16 on subsidiary contribution remain underexplored in the literature. We propose that subsidiary 17 entrepreneurship encourages more creative strategic responses to escalating environmental 18 change. We explore the direct and mediating effects of subsidiary entrepreneurship on 19 subsidiary contribution to the MNC, particularly subsidiary strategy creativity. We use 20 structural equation modelling to test our propositions on data generated from surveying the 21 population of Irish subsidiaries of foreign MNCs, and find strong support for our theoretical 22 predictions. The managerial implications of subsidiary entrepreneurship in generating creative 23 strategy, prompting strategic initiatives and improving performance are discussed. 24

The Two Faces of Knowledge Search: New Solutions and Capability Development

Searching for knowledge to solve non-routine problems allows middle managers not only to design new solutions but also to develop organizational capabilities. We focus on knowledge search to develop our understanding of how individuals engage with organizational knowledge in practice, how they acquire and use knowledge, and the implications for organizational knowledge development. Investigating middle managers’ knowledge search practices in response to non-routine events, we uncover four practices: isolating; overcoming knowledge distribution challenges; socializing; and mastering solution development. From these, we identify two aspects of knowledge search: not only can it produce new solutions but it can also have different effects in terms of developing organizational capabilities, either modifying existing routines or creating new ones. We argue that organizations with a knowledge use advantage, namely, an ability to mobilize accessible knowledge by organizing for knowledge circulation and a socialized search that deals with the organization’s challenges of knowledge distribution in order to master solution development – especially at mid-level – can pursue capability development. We discuss the implications of our findings for the literature on organizational knowledge and middle managers’ roles in organizational knowledge processes.

How subsidiaries are battling to survive and grow

Purpose – This paper aims to enhance the understanding of how subsidiary CEOs can move their units activities up the value chain and reduce the risk of subsidiary closure and relocation of its activities.Design/methodology/approach – The entire population of over 1,100 subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs) located in Ireland were sampled for this study, representing a diversified pool in terms of foreign ownership. Respondents were largely subsidiary CEOs. In addition, 24 subsidiary CEOs/directors from a cross section of eight subsidiaries were interviewed.Findings – CEOs/directors are taking active steps to enhance their subsidiarys role within the MNC and to move their activities up the value chain. These include positioning to extend subsidiary autonomy, building information networks, creating a climate for entrepreneurship and promoting strategy development processes.Research limitations/implications – Results from the survey are subject to the standard limitations and a larger pool of i...

Subsidiaries as Learning Engines: Understanding Middle Managers’ Search for Knowledge as Micro-foundation

Knowledge refers to know-how, expertise or best practice, and — in contrast to information such as financial or operational data — knowledge equates to a skill, a routine or to external market data of strategic value (Gupta and Govindarajan 1991, 2000), and can be tacit or codified (Polanyi, 1966). Research on MNC knowledge flows has seen a great level of academic interest that has largely been driven by the recognition that knowledge is a critical factor in creating competitive success (Grant, 1996). Especially in the MNC, the knowledge-based advantage hinges on the capacity to effectively and efficiently reuse and integrate dispersed knowledge sources (Kogut and Zander, 1992; Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). Considering that MNC activities are becoming increasingly fine-sliced, creating structurally highly complex organizations (Buckley, 2009; Buckley and Ghauri, 2004) to manage the even greater distribution of knowledge for re-use and learning may pose additional challenges.

Don’t Store it, Search for it: How Organizations can Encourage Middle Managers to Search for Distributed Knowledge

This qualitative study examined how middle managers, at the micro-level, search for distributed knowledge to resolve non-routine problems, and how the organizational context, at the macro-level, influences the knowledge search effectiveness. We find that middle managers proactively search organization wide knowledge resources, thus highlighting the significance of middle managers in integrating distributed knowledge. Further, our findings show the importance of the organization to provide supporting structures. In particular, we offer evidence that effective knowledge search does not rely on repositories but that organizational design aspects and a strategy for managing knowledge that emphasizes interaction opportunities, informality, and openness can promote the search for distributed knowledge.