Paul Hong

Knowledge sharing in integrated product development

Although product development is recognized as knowledge‐intensive work, we have limited understanding of its impact on product development performance. The mechanisms by which knowledge sharing contributes to strategic imperatives such as time to market and value to customers are also not well understood. Despite increased interest in knowledge sharing in cross‐functional teams, there have been few large‐scale empirical studies of its efficacy. This paper develops a model that explains how shared knowledge, defined in three types – shared knowledge of customers, suppliers, and internal capabilities – enhances process performance, as well as downstream strategic imperatives of time to market and value to customers. The model is tested using 205 responses on product development projects by US automotive engineers. The results show that shared knowledge of customers, suppliers, and internal capabilities positively affect product development performance, as well as indirectly affect downstream strategic imperatives via enhanced process performance.

Implementation of strategic green orientation in supply chain

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a research model that defines the inter‐relationships between strategic green orientation, integrated product development, supply chain coordination, green performance outcomes and business unit performance. This paper aims to address innovation issues by integrating strategic orientation, internal business practices, supply chain coordination, and performance outcomes measures.Design/methodology/approach – The international data of 711 firms accessed through the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS IV) are used to validate this model.Findings – A firms strategic green orientation involves past green practices, implementation of innovative environment improvement program and future commitment for environmental practices. This strategic green orientation is supported by a set of inter‐organizational innovation practices such as integrated product development practices, effective coordination of supply chain network and relevant and measurable ...

Supply chain management practices of SMEs: from a business growth perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to show that small or medium enterprises (SMEs) have significant impacts on supply chain performance. They may take the roles of suppliers, producers, distributors, and customers. In this paper large firms and SMEs are compared in terms of strategic and operational choices.Design/methodology/approach – SMEs are classified on two dimensions – chain relationship position and strategic focus. Four types of SME characteristics are discussed: efficiency, coordination, collaboration, and innovation. Also presented are the five possible growth paths of SMEs, along with theoretical and managerial implications.Findings – The theoretical contribution of this paper to the nature of SMEs and their supply chain relationships is threefold: the differences between large enterprises and SMEs have been examined in terms of key management practices; key characteristics of four types of SMEs have been identified in terms of their supply chain relationship position and strategic focu...

The role of project target clarity in an uncertain project environment

Product development is recognized as cross‐functional teamwork that has become important in the fast‐paced, globally competitive environment. Despite an extant body of knowledge on the importance of fuzzy front‐end planning and functions of goals in the management literature, the impact of uncertain project environment and goal setting mechanisms in front‐end planning is not fully understood. Product development literature presents numerous case studies or conceptual papers that emphasize the importance of upfront planning and a need for team building; however, large‐scale empirical studies are rare. This paper presents a model linking uncertain project environment, project target clarity, teamwork and its outcome measures (i.e. a products value to customer and time to market). The data were analyzed from 205 product development projects of firms from the USA and Canada. Valid and reliable instruments were developed to assess the nature and impact of inter‐relationships of these variables. Results from structural model tests indicate that uncertain project environment influences the nature of project targets which in turn affects the level of teamwork. Teamwork is an important process outcome for enhancing value to customer and time to market. Management implications are discussed as well.

Customer orientation and performance outcomes in supply chain management

Purpose – Despite an extensive body of knowledge on the importance of customer orientation in the marketing and management literature, the impact of customer orientation and interactive system infrastructure throughout enterprise networks is not fully understood. The purpose of this paper is to present a model linking customer orientation, interactive system infrastructure, value chain practices, and network performance outcomes.Design/methodology/approach – The prior literature on customer orientation and supply chains is reviewed and a framework is presented which shows the relationship between customer orientation and network performance outcomes, along with other variables.Findings – The conclusion supports the importance of customer orientation in the context of the proposed value chain framework.Research limitations/implications – The framework introduced in this paper provides a review of customer orientation in the enterprise network and a basis for further empirical validation.Practical implicati...

Integration of supply chain IT and lean practices for mass customization

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of specific supply chain information technologies (IT) for e‐commerce, e‐procurement, and enterprise resource planning (ERP), when implementing lean practices to achieve mass customization (MC) performance. The study further investigates how these technologies may be deployed differently in product and service focused contexts. “Best practices” of high performing MC firms are also explored.Design/methodology/approach – Survey method was employed to collect data from 711 firms in 23 countries. Exploratory factor analysis was employed to establish simple factor structure and construct validity. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to analyze relationships between lean practices, IT use, and MC performance in aggregated and bifurcated samples of product and service focused manufacturers. T‐tests were used to examine differences between the practices employed by high and low MC performers.Findings – Findings suggest that lean practices can reasona...

The role of heavyweight product manager in new product development

Purpose – This paper seeks to empirically investigate how a heavyweight product manager (HW) can impact the cross‐functional team and project performance (PP) through actively influencing the ways and the extent of strategic alignment (SA), shared project mission, and clarity of project targets in the early front‐end stage.Design/methodology/approach – Based on past studies on leadership role theory and goal‐setting theory for teams, this study hypothesizes that the role of the HW for SA of the project, shared project mission, and clarity of the project target are positively related. The study further hypothesizes that these roles of the HW can have a positive impact on PP measures such as product cost, time, and customer satisfaction.Findings – Primary data collected from 191 new product development (NPD) projects from the US automotive industry were analyzed using structural equation modeling techniques. All the hypotheses presented in this study regarding the role of the HW in a cross‐functional team a...

A comparative study on cultural differences and quality practices – Korea, USA, Mexico, and Taiwan

Purpose – This paper seeks to present an international comparative study on cultural differences and quality practices of four countries – Korea, USA, Mexico, and Taiwan. The paper aims to present a model, which depicts the relationships among cultures (i.e. power distance and collectivism), employee empowerment, and quality results (i.e. internal and external quality results).Design/methodology/approach – An analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a discriminant analysis were employed to test hypotheses following the research model. Using reliable and valid instruments, data from four countries were collected on employee empowerment, and internal and external quality results to test the hypotheses.Findings – The results suggest that collectivistic cultures, not power distance cultures, make a significant difference in employee empowerment, employee empowerment plays an important role in enhancing quality results in the four countries, and successful employee empowerment practices are not uniform across countrie...

Antecedents and consequences of social media utilization in college teaching: a proposed model with mixed‐methods investigation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the antecedents and consequences of social media utilization in teaching by college faculty.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on literature review, the authors observations, and qualitative and quantitative information reported by 249 full‐time and part‐time faculty members.Findings – There are four antecedent factors for social media utilization in teaching: faculty personal social media involvement and personal readiness; external pressures from peers, supervisors, students and their employment; expected benefits; and perceived risks. Two factors are important to assess the consequences of social media utilization in teaching: perceived student satisfaction and student learning outcomes.Research limitations/implications – Data were obtained from only one university. This paper includes only simple statistical analysis, although structural equation analysis is more appropriate for testing the model.Practical implications – The establis...

Corporate mission, corporate policies and business outcomes: evidence from Japan

Purpose – This study sets out to explore questions such as: “Does mission statement matter? If so, in what ways?” Using data on mission statements of 128 large Japanese firms, the paper aims to show that corporate mission has a significant impact on corporate policies that determine employment, board, and financial structures.Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides evidence that strong‐mission firms are more likely to retain incumbent employees, promote managers from within firms, and have less debt and a higher percentage of interlocking shareholdings than weak‐mission firms.Findings – The evidence supports the view that strong‐mission firms value their organizational capital and thus tend to adopt policies to preserve it. It also confirms that corporate mission and its embedded policies contribute to better corporate performance. The paper suggests that the effect of explicit corporate mission and its implementation has practical impacts in corporate policies and business outcomes.Research limi...