Sofia Börjesson

Working With Concepts in the Fuzzy Front End: Exploring the Context for Innovation for Different Types of Concepts at Volvo Cars

Automotive firms are balancing the increasing needs for cost and time efficiency with the necessity of developing more innovative products to stand out on in a competitive market. The strive for efficiency has led to an increasingly structured development process with limited allowances for deviations. Previous academic work has pointed out the importance and embedded potential of the fuzzy front end, where new concepts still have the possibility to impact the new product development (NPD) process. However, most research has focused on the transfer of new technologies, while concepts based on e.g. customer or market knowledge have been more or less neglected. This paper discusses the need for alternative and contingent approaches in the front end of NPD to also consider the transfer of other types of concepts. More specifically, it addresses the need to distinguish between different types of concepts and to explore their different prerequisites in NPD. It is argued that customer- and market-based concepts experience certain difficulties due to the history and power of technology in research and development (R&D) domains in the automotive context as well as a lack of support from the existing, formal processes. In this paper, we argue that all new concepts need to be conceptualized before being introduced to the NPD process, but that does not always suffice. Concepts other than technology concepts also need a contingent package to enable an evaluation in the context of the R&D process – they need to be contextualized. This paper draws on an in-depth case study of Volvo Cars within a long-lasting collaborative research setup. It is based on an interview study with key persons in the areas of concept work and NPD, and uses an insider/outsider approach.

Developing Innovation Capabilities: A Longitudinal Study of a Project at Volvo Cars

Many large firms are struggling to alter and develop their organizational capabilities. There are several discussions in the literature on what these capabilities comprise, and that there is a need to develop them. However, less attention has been paid to how companies can develop these capabilities in practice. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to organizational capability theory by providing insights derived from an empirical study of how organizational capabilities for innovation are developed in large firms, and how these findings compare to the theory. The paper is based on a longitudinal study of Volvo Cars conducted as a long-term collaborative research project. The authors were involved in a project called Vision 2020, which extended over a period of two and a half years, the findings from which highlight several activities that enabled the changes required for the development of organizational capabilities. The need to develop ‘management capability’ in terms of both cognition and the propensity to act is especially highlighted.

Managed by the other: cultural anxieties in two Anglo-Americanized Swedish firms

This paper reports a study of how the co-workers in two major Swedish companies, Volvo Cars and AstraZeneca, respond to the cultural influences from an American and a British company, derived from an acquisition and a merger at the end of the 1990s. These responses are examined in terms of being ‘cultural anxieties’, a form of emotional coping with ambiguities regarding the future on the part of the co-workers. The paper shows that adapting to an alien culture is not a trivial matter but rather includes a series of re-evaluations of predominant values, norms and beliefs. The paper concludes that the organization culture literature needs to recognize the consequences of cultural changes, the movement from one largely taken-for-granted cultural regime to another, more heterogeneous and complex, and how co-workers cope with such experiences of uprooting enacted and agreed upon cultures.

What Kind of Activity‐based Information Does Your Purpose Require?

Activity‐based approaches, often referred to as activity‐based costing or activity‐based management, have recently gained attention as being useful tools for a better understanding of cost behaviour and cost control. Such approaches aim at providing accurate cost information in order to keep track of costs and to yield continuous improvement. Presents two case studies where activity‐based projects were run. The two firms studied represent two different objectives with the activity analysis, namely product costing and activity control. The characteristics of the activity information affect its usefulness, and in this article, activity information is subdivided into quantitative and qualitative information. Argues that it is important to have a clear objective with an activity‐based approach in order to gather the appropriate type of activity information and thereby exploit the potential improvement opportunities. Only quantitative activity information suffices for approaches aiming at costing, whereas appr...

A Panel Study of Manufacturing Strategies in Sweden

Within the framework of the Swedish Manufacturing Strategy Project a panel study of 66 manufacturing business units has been made. These 66 companies participated in a questionnairebased study performed both in 1986 and in 1989. The results showed that the companies have tended to consolidate their positions in existing markets rather than put emphasis on efforts to enter new markets. The competitive means used to support this strategic direction are in 1989 even more biased towards high quality products, reliable deliveries and aspects of flexibility. The importance of low price as a competitive means has been dramatically reduced. This strategic emphasis has even more accentuated the concern for personnel issues within manufacturing. In order to create the competitive advantage depicted, great emphasis is put on decentralisation of the organisational structure at the plant level.

Organizational climate and capabilities for innovation: a study of nine forest-based Nordic manufacturing firms

Abstract Forest-based manufacturing firms are currently under pressure to achieve higher margins and increased profits. Many firms have tried to maintain profits by cutting costs, however, the effects of this, in markets suffering from overcapacity and declining demand, are temporary. Instead, innovation is seen as being the key to firm growth and sustained profit. This article presents a study of nine large Nordic (Swedish and Norwegian) forest-based manufacturing firms, with operations ranging from pulp and paper chemicals, pulp production, packaging boards, packaging paper, and specialty paper to food processing and packaging solutions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the prerequisites for innovation at firm level in terms of firms’ organizational climate and capabilities for innovation, and how these firms could improve their innovation processes. The paper draws on data from a collaborative research project that includes these nine firms, derived from interviews and questionnaires. The results show that forest-based firms are creative and have the potential to be innovative. However, the capabilities for innovation, that is the capabilities to do things differently and to exploit ideas, differ among firms. The study highlights two capabilities that may be obvious but are critical for innovation – management willingness and awareness, and the implementation of a strategy for innovation – and that the potential exists for increased output through appropriate managerial action.

Capabilities for innovation in small firms – a study of 131 high-tech firms and their relation to performance

Organisational capabilities have been widely discussed – most often at a conceptual level and from a large firm perspective. This paper examines the operationalisation and measurement of the capabilities for innovation in small firms and also how capabilities may be related to the firm’s innovation performance. Based on a quantitative analysis of 131 small high-tech firms, this paper describes and analyses the dimensions critical for innovation with a special focus on very small high-tech firms. We propose a construct for investigation including five dimensions relating to small firm capabilities and their relation to innovation performance. We found 20 relationships between the capabilities dimensions and innovation performance, of which the performance dimension of ‘patent’ showed to be particularly correlated to capabilities. Our statistical analysis shows that two latent constructs have a positive effect on innovation performance: cooperation with universities and business planning and advice.

Investigating intentional distortions in software cost estimation - An exploratory study

Cost estimation of software projects is an important activity that continues to be a source of problems for practitioners despite improvement efforts. Most of the research on estimation has focused on methodological issues while the research focused on human factors primarily has targeted cognitive biases or perceived inhibitors. This paper focuses on the complex organizational context of estimation and investigates whether estimates may be distorted, i.e. intentionally changed for reasons beyond legitimate changes due to changing prerequisites such as requirements or scope. An exploratory study was conducted with 15 interviewees at six large companies that develop software-intensive products. The interviewees represent five stakeholder roles in estimation, with a majority being project or line managers. Document analysis was used to complement the interviews and provided additional context. The results show that both estimate increase and estimate decrease exist and that some of these changes can be explained as intentional distortions. The direction of the distortion depends on the context and the stakeholders involved. The paper underlines that it is critical to consider also human and organizational factors when addressing estimation problems and that intentional estimate distortions should be given more and direct attention.

Assessing firm capabilities for innovation.

The capability to innovate has been described as key to firms remaining competitive. Scholars and managers have tried to understand how firms renew themselves in response to changes in the environment or the strategic need to be innovative. Drawing on the literature on organisational capabilities and experience gained from working with and assessing firms’ capabilities for innovation, this paper presents a firm relevant framework for capabilities for innovation in large firms and the subsequent tool for assessing these capabilities. It contributes to the growing stream of literature on the capabilities for innovation by explaining and operationalising some key dimensions of the capabilities for innovation and by providing a tool that is actionable, i.e., easily translated into action.

Management action in developing market orientation: a report from a customer knowledge project at Volvo Cars

Market orientation is an implementation construct. The inherent paradox is that as a matter of implementation, market orientation is actually hard to implement. This article, based on a study of a change initiative at Volvo Cars, discusses management challenges embedded in developing the market orientation of an organization. It is in much a matter of changed behaviour, i.e. changed actions and practices rather than procedures and proclamations. Managers and managerial actions play an important role. The case presented highlights both the difficulties and the opportunities of managers working in task forces to develop market orientation. The article argues that actions that reflect a willingness to experiment and not only to ‘break in’, is a prerequisite if alternatives models should take on, which in turn is necessary for developing market orientation.