Victor Dos Santos Paulino

Organizational change in risky environments: space activities

Purpose – The adaptation perspective dominates the issue of organizational change and assumes that organizational inertia increases organizational mortality. This assumption is inadequate to analyze organizational change in risky activities. The purpose of this paper is to underline the relevance of organizational inertia when organizations face risky environments.Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual framework was built that combines the adaptation and selection perspectives from the evolutionary approach and the high‐reliability organizations literature and apply it to space activities.Findings – First, it was found that to prevent catastrophic failures, space organizations reproduce routines validated in previous successful programs, which leads to situations of organizational inertia; and second, the opposing perspectives of selection and adaptation become complementary when the author focus on the level of risk faced by organizations.Research limitations/implications – This paper focuses on spac...

Innovation And Reliability Strategies In The Defense, Space And Semiconductor Industries: A Comparative Analysis

The objective of this paper is to understand why the pace of technical change has been slower in the defense and space industries than in semiconductors. To answer this question, we adopt an inductive method that exploits historical facts and patent statistics to provide empirical data. Basing our rationale on the appropriation and structural inertia arguments, we show that the constraints imposed by reliability in the defense and space industries impedes the appropriation of supra profits from innovation and thus slows the pace of technical change. The main managerial implication of this result is that technical inertia contributes to competitive success when the reliability constraint reaches high levels.

Influence of risk on technology adoption: inertia strategy in the space industry

Purpose – The topic of the risk associated with innovation is being investigated through the influence of technological risk on technology adoption. Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses the dynamics of technology adoption in high technology products thanks to several regressions. The paper uses data gathered from a major European space integrator. Findings – The paper shows that a firm may implement a reliability-based inertia strategy under a specific context. This type of inertia strategy is rational and leads a firm to limit the adoption of new technologies and favours the reuse of proven technologies. This strategy is relevant to facing a risk of decrease in technical reliability. Research limitations/implications – While the space industry displays some similarities with other capital good industries, it remains specific compared to mass production industries. The current paper should be considered as a preliminary research that aims at structuring the notion of inertia strategy. Practica...

Taking advantage of disruptive innovation through changes in value networks: insights from the space industry

Purpose The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to provide further insights into the challenges and opportunities that arise from simultaneously being an entrant and an incumbent and, second, to help these firms effectively use supply chain management capabilities to respond to disruptive threats. Design/methodology/approach This is an “insights from industry” paper. It is based on a retrospective analysis of rich data obtained at the SIRIUS Chair in Toulouse, France, from an important cluster of aerospace firms and the authors’ accumulated experience. Findings The authors found that under conditions of disruptive change, the ability to make the final customer the focal point and to build a comprehensive understanding of the overall supply network are key in shaping and taking advantage of future opportunities. These abilities enable firms to analyze different scenarios and identify the roles they want to play, the collaborations they need to establish and the possible internal changes required. Originality/value This paper offers several new perspectives from practice. The authors analyze two types of space industry innovations: individual small satellites (or “smallsats”) and smallsat constellations. Three types of capabilities are focused on: inside-out, outside-in and spanning. Disrupt-or-be-disrupted does not fully describe the dynamics the authors observed; cooperative competition and complementarity provide a better framework for ideas on how to cope with disruptive opportunities.