Sarah Jinhui Wu

Operational Capabilities: The Secret Ingredient

We develop a theoretical definition of operational capabilities, based on the strategic management and operations management literature, and differentiate this construct from the related constructs of resources and operational practices, drawing upon the resource-based view of the firm as our foundation. We illustrate the key features of operational capabilities using the illustration of a restaurant kitchen. Because the traits of operational capabilities are distinct, they create a barrier to imitation, making them a potential source of competitive advantage. However, operational capabilities are particularly challenging to measure, because they emerge gradually and are tacit, embedded, and manifested differently across firms. In solving this measurement conundrum, we draw upon similar situations experienced by Schein (2004) and Eisenhardt and Martin (2000) in operationalizing organizational culture and dynamic capabilities. A taxonomy of six emergent operational capabilities is developed: operational improvement, operational innovation, operational customization, operational cooperation, operational responsiveness, and operational reconfiguration. A set of measurement scales is developed, in order to measure each of the operational capabilities, and validated using two different datasets. This allows replication of the psychometric properties of the multi-item scales and helps to ensure the validity of the resulting measures.

Customization of quality practices: the impact of quality culture

Purpose – This study aims to investigate how firms should customize quality practices to obtain or maintain quality advantage with the development of quality culture. The paper seeks to adopt Marchs learning framework and to differentiate quality management practices into two bundles: exploitation and exploration.Design/methodology/approach – A survey dataset, including 238 manufacturing plants located in eight countries and three industries was used to test the hypotheses. The total sample was classified into two groups depending on the maturity of quality culture, and regression analysis was conducted in each of the groups for comparison.Findings – Data analysis results show that quality exploitation practices are highly related to performance outcome when quality culture has not become a prevailing organization culture. In contrast, quality exploration practices are significantly associated with operations performance after quality culture plays a critical role in organizational culture.Research limit...

Assessing the Core Resources in the Environmental Management System From the Resource Perspective and the Contingency Perspective

The purpose of this paper is twofold. The first objective is to examine the core resources that make environmental management system (EMS) a potential basis of sustainable competitive advantage from the resource-based view of the firm. The second objective is to investigate the set of core resources from the contingency perspective. Particularly, experience in implementing other manufacturing systems and the stage of EMS implementation were tested as the contingency factors. The proposed model and its related hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling on a large-scale database consisting of 1453 respondents. The results showed that it is the tacit resources within an EMS, in the form of top management teams strategic perception, cross-functional cooperation, and environmentally responsible suppliers, which help explain firmspsila operational performance. The findings provided the general principles in investment decisions of EMS. However, the results also demonstrated that the pattern of the core resources varies across firms with different experience in other manufacturing systems and at different stages of EMS implementation. As a result, there is no standard bundle of critical resources for each firm. Rather, firms need to tailor their resource investment decisions in light of these factors beyond the general principles.

An empirical investigation of the combinatorial nature of operational practices and operational capabilities: Compensatory or additive?

Purpose – Operational practices and operational capabilities are critical yet distinct elements in operations strategy. The purpose of this paper is to examine their conceptual differences and explore how they are developed in a portfolio, considering the potential for practices and capabilities to be either compensatory or additive in nature.Design/methodology/approach – The compensatory model argues that the lack of investments in certain practices or capabilities can be offset by higher level of investments in other practices or capabilities. In contrast, the additive model argues that the firm must invest in certain practices or capabilities and that trade‐offs are impossible. The authors examine evidence for these two competing models using an approach borrowed from studies of multi‐attribute consumer preference models and statistical comparisons of non‐nested models.Findings – Data for the study were collected from operations managers who were members of a large professional organization. The findin...

A Panel Analysis of the Strategic Association Between Information and Communication Technology and Public Health Delivery

Background In this exploratory research, we use panel data analysis to examine the correlation between Information and Communication Technology (ICTs) and public health delivery at the country level. Objective The goal of this exploratory research is to examine the strategic association over time between ICTs and country-level public health. Methods Using data from the World Development Indicators, we construct a panel data set of countries of five different income levels and look closely at the period from 2000 to 2008. The panel data analysis allows us to explore this dynamic relationship under the control for unobserved country-specific effects by using a fixed-effects estimation method. In particular,, we examine the association of five ICT factors with five public health indicators: adolescent fertility rate, child immunization coverage, tuberculosis case detected, life expectancy, and adult mortality rate. Results First, overall ICTs’ factors substantially improve a country’s public health delivery on the top of wealth effect. Second, among all the ICTs’ factors, accessibility is the only one that is associated with improvements in all aspects of public health delivery, while the contributions from the usage, quality, and applications are negligible. ICTs’ accessibility factor is associated with a considerable extension to life expectancy and reduced adult mortality rate. Third, all entity-specific factors are significant in each model, indicating that countries’ economic development level does influence their public health delivery. Conclusions Our results indicate that ICT accessibility has a strong association with effective delivery of public health. There are others, but the key strategic applications are eHealth and mHealth. The findings of this study will help government officials and public health policy makers to formulate strategic decisions regarding the best ICT investments and deployment. For example, the study shows that providing accessibility should be a critical focus.

The role of integrative capabilities in involving suppliers in New Product Development: a knowledge integration perspective

Early Supplier Involvement (ESI) aims to facilitate New Product Development (NPD) success and create competitive advantage for the purchasing firm. Unfortunately, empirical results are inconsistent in verifying the linkage between ESI and NPD success. To solve this paradox, this paper views ESI as a knowledge integration process and examines the role of the purchasing firms integrative capabilities in the process. Competing models are proposed and tested. The results demonstrate that NPD success depends not only on the suppliers knowledge and expertise, but also on the purchasing firms integrative capabilities to absorb knowledge and increase efficiency of knowledge integration.

Achieving Successful Business in China: Assessing the Changing Chinese Culture

This study examines the adaptation of Chinese national culture. Data were collected from companies located in seven areas in China. The responses were averaged to obtain the scores of five culture dimensions in Hofstede’s national culture framework. The findings suggest that the current Chinese national culture profile is dramatically different from the traditional wisdom in the dimensions of power distance, individualism, and masculinity. With China becoming increasingly important to the global economy, understanding the changing Chinese culture will benefit Chinese companies and the Western companies that seek to achieve successful business in China.

The Role of Information and Communication Technologies in Global Sustainability: A Review

This article discusses ways in which ICTs contribute to several aspects of global sustainability. We examine how economic development, education, energy, environment, and transportation at the country level benefit from ICTs, along with several orders of effects on global sustainability. We also examine rebound effects. The anecdotal and theoretical research suggests that the impact of ICTs is felt primarily in sustainable development. We thus identify the key challenges to be addressed in bringing about an ICTs-based sustainable world. Studying the macro impacts of ICT investments can also guide countries in setting policy and making selective investments in ICTs that will promote global sustainability.