Subroto Roy

Innovation Generation in Supply Chain Relationships: A Conceptual Model and Research Propositions

Innovation generation has increasingly been recognized as an outcome of interaction between a firm and various outside entities. According to this view, supplier involvement and alliances are routes to innovation generation. Despite this realization, there is a dearth of research, both conceptual and empirical, focusing on innovation generation in buyer-seller relationships in supply chains. In an attempt to fill this void, this article develops a conceptual model of innovation generation in buyer-seller relationships in upstream supply chains. The authors propose that innovation generation in supply chain relationships, both incremental and radical, is a consequence of interactions between buyers and sellers. They also delineate factors internal and external to the relationship that moderate the link between interaction and innovation generation. Finally, the authors discuss managerial implications of their research and offer guidelines for future empirical research.

Knowledge redundancy in supply chains: a framework

Knowledge redundancy is a powerful concept in understanding supply chain performance including supply chain value creation and competitive advantage. This paper argues that knowledge redundancy is not about “redundancy” that might suggest a waste or duplication of knowledge. In contrast, knowledge redundancy between adjacent members of the supply chain is critical to superior supply chain performance. The paper examines the tacit and explicit nature of knowledge and knowledge redundancy in supply chains. It develops a conceptual model and a series of propositions that argue that managing knowledge redundancy in the context of supplier‐related factors, firm‐related factors, and interface‐related factors can bring positive supply chain performance outcomes.

The role of information technology adoption in the globalization of business buying behavior: a conceptual model and research propositions

Purpose – Advances in information technology (IT) and the globalization of business are both realities and opportunities of the twenty‐first century. This article aims to examine the role of information technology in the globalization of business buying behavior.Design/methodology/approach – Literature and theory are used to develop a conceptual model of adoption of information technology (IT) and globalization of business buying behavior. Firm‐level and global moderating factors are also examined.Findings – IT adoption includes IT adoption by buyer and by seller and the compatibility of both IT systems. Globalizations of buying behavior is moderated by firm‐level factors like perceived risk, digitizability and by task and global moderating factors like availability of alternative suppliers in buyer country, cultural distance and the political stability in the supplier country.Research limitations/implications – The paper provides a number of propositions that can be tested empirically, and also extension...

International long term business relationship, communities of practice and innovation: a longitudinal case study of NDDB, India and Tetra Pak, Sweden

This paper is a longitudinal study of the impact of a long-term international business relationship on innovation. It traces the market entry of the Swedish Company, Tetra Pak into India. The case focuses on major packaging material manufacturing innovations carried out by the Indian Joint Venture (JV) managed by the Indian partner. A JV relationship is found to provide a context for technical specialists to interact and develop explicit and tacit knowledge and skills. These interactions create wider communities of practice involving networks of suppliers and customers, who in turn create further knowledge and innovation.

Do Sympathy Biases Induce Charitable Giving? The Effects of Advertising Content

We randomize advertising content motivated by the psychology literature on sympathy generation and framing effects in mailings to about 185,000 prospective new donors in India. We find significant impact on the number of donors and amounts donated consistent with sympathy biases such as the “identifiable victim,” “in-group” and “reference dependence.” A monthly reframing of the ask amount increases donors and amount donated relative to daily reframing. A second field experiment targeted to past donors, finds that the effect of sympathy bias on giving is smaller in percentage terms but statistically and economically highly significant in terms of the magnitude of additional dollars raised. Methodologically, the paper complements the work of behavioral scholars by adopting an empirical researchers’ lens of measuring relative effect sizes and economic relevance of multiple behavioral theoretical constructs in the sympathy bias and charity domain within one field setting. Beyond the benefit of conceptual replications, the effect sizes provide guidance to managers on which behavioral theories are most managerially and economically relevant when developing advertising content.

OK you are now an approved supplier—but you still do not get orders

Fragmentation body for fragmentation projectiles and warheads, including an integral fragmentation shell structure made of cast metal, and the shell structure has an outer wall surface and an inner wall surface separated by a thickness of the shell, where at least one of the inner or outer surfaces includes recesses formed through part of the thickness of the shell to define a plurality of fragments which remain integrated with the shell structure until an explosive force is detonated in proximity of the shell, wherein the shell material comprises a steel alloy including carbon, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, cobalt, and the balance essentially being iron. Shell structures of the inventive fragmentation body also have a fragmentation pattern defined via recesses or grooves provided in at least one of the inner or outer wall surfaces thereof to define the size and shapes of the fragment projectiles desired. The steel alloy used is high strength, yet controllably fragmentable into desired and uniform individual projectile shapes and sizes, and in a desired overall dispersion pattern, during case break up.

It’s Time to Include Suppliers in the Product Innovation Charter (PIC)

The role of supply chain relationships in innovation is being recognized and researched increasingly in recent times. However, the focal buying firm that is trying to innovate for New Product Development (NPD) does not seem to have specific guidelines on how and when to involve suppliers in innovation. The Product Innovation Charter (PIC) is the mission statement of innovation that can offer guidelines to the managers in the buying organization about how and when to involve suppliers in innovation. The chapter explains the PIC and builds the argument that suppliers need to be explicitly mentioned. Such mention should consider the role and capability of new and existing suppliers for innovation that is radical or incremental, early stage versus later stage NPD while defending the intellectual property of the innovating focal organization. Guidelines for mentioning the supplier in the PIC are offered.