Collaborative enterprise governance : sustainable management of inter-firm R&D relationships in the German car industry

This research reports on the appropriate governance, i.e. design and management, of inter-firm R&D relationships in order to achieve sustainable competitive success for the whole partnership as well as its individual members. An exploratory study in the German automotive industry using inductive Grounded Theory was conducted. This involved data collection via 28 semi-structured interviews with 16 companies in order to form a set of 35 tentative propositions that have been validated via a questionnaire survey receiving 110 responses from 52 companies. The research has resulted in the consolidation of the validated propositions into a novel concept termed Collaborative Enterprise Governance. The core of the concept is a competence based contingency framework that helps decision makers in selecting the most appropriate governance strategy (i.e. sourcing strategy) for an inter-firm R&D relationship between a buyer and its supplier. Thereby, the concept does not draw on whole company-to-company connectivity. It rather conceptualises an inter-firm relationship to be composed of autonomous cross-functional units of the individual partner companies that contribute value to a particular joint R&D project via the possession of task specific competencies. The novel concept and its elements have been evaluated in a focus group with industrial experts of the German automotive industry and revealed positive effects on the sustainable competitive success of the whole partnership and the individual partner companies. However, it also showed that current practice does not apply the right mechanisms for its implementation and hence guidelines for practitioners and decision makers involved in inter-firm R&D collaboration in the automotive industry are offered on how to facilitate the implementation and usage of the Collaborative Enterprise Governance philosophy.

The boundaries of reporting sustainable development in social housing

The Registered Social Landlord (an independent housing association in the UK) examined here was widely recognized as providing an example of good governance. The organization was using extensive internal reporting, both corporate and quasi-governmental in language, to try to accurately capture different aspects of performance. This article reveals that reporting sustainable development has boundaries to be overcome, particularly in measuring performance of environmental and community activities. © 2008 The Authors.

Institutional work at field-configuring events:shaping industry change within sustainable transitions

Adopting an institutional approach from organization studies, this paper explores the role of key actors on “purposeful governance for sustainability” (Smith, Voss et al. 2010: 444) through the case of smart metering in the UK. Institutions are enduring patterns in social life, reflected in identities, routines, rules, shared meanings and social relations, which enable, and constrain, the beliefs and behaviours of individual and collective actors within a field (Thornton and Ocasio 2008). Large-scale external initiatives designed to drive regime-level change prompt ‘institutional entrepreneurs’ to perform ‘institutional work’ – “purposive action aimed at creating, maintaining and disrupting institutions” (Lawrence and Suddaby, 2006). Organization scholars are giving increasing attention to ‘field-configuring events’ (FCEs) which provide social spaces for diverse organizational actors to come together to collectively shape socio-technical pathways (Lampel and Meyer 2008). Our starting point for this exploratory study is that FCEs can offer important insights to the dynamics, politics and governance of sustainability transitions. Methodologically, FCEs allow us to observe and “link field evolution at the macro-level with individual action at the micro-level” (Lampel and Meyer, 2008: 1025). We examine the work of actors during a series of smart metering industry forums over a three-year period (industry presentations [n= 77] and panel discussions [n= 16]). The findings reveal new insights about how institutional change unfolds, alongside technological transitions, in ways that are partial and aligned with the interests of powerful incumbents whose voices are frequently heard at FCEs. The paper offers three contributions. First, the study responds to calls for more research examining FCEs and the role they play in transforming institutional fields. Second, the emergent findings extend research on institutional work by advancing our understanding of a specific site of institutional work, namely a face-to-face inter-organizational arena. Finally, in line with the research agenda for innovation studies and sustainability transitions elaborated by Smith et al (2010), the paper illustrates how actors in a social system respond to, translate, and enact interventions designed to promote industrial transformation, ultimately shaping the sustainability transition pathway.

Surviving the global economic crisis in the automotive industry through sustainable supplier management

This chapter looks at how the current global economic crisis has impacted upon the global automotive industry from an operations and supply chain perspective. It presents an empirical and theoretical background to help long and short term planning for organisations experiencing adverse trading conditions. The empirical research study (conducted between 2004-07 primarily in Germany) revealed that organisations are able to make short term improvements to performance by reducing costs and making process and structural improvements, but in the long term the deeper rooted causes of the industry can in part only be dealt with by improving interfirm R&D collaborations based upon competencies rather than cost related issues. A new approach known as Collaborative Enterprise Governance is presented which supports the design and management of competitive sustainable enterprises; it consists of a data capture tool, a body of knowledge and a dynamic reference grid to show how many part-to-part company relationships can exist simultaneously to make up productprocess focused enterprises. Examples from the German automotive industry are given, impact upon the overall product development lifecycle and the implications for organisational strategists are discussed. © 2010 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Sustainable supplier management in the automotive industry:leading the 3rd revolution through collaboration

The omnipresent global economic crisis has had a particularly dramatic effect on the global automotive industry. It has increased the need for a 3rd revolution and the move towards mass-collaboration between all industrial players that may ultimately lead to a governance model based on partnership-focused collaborative relationships. The first two revolutions were led by the US and Japan respectively, but we propose that this time, the European automotive industry will lead the way in the 3rd revolution. This new book provides an operations and supply chain management perspective while focusing on the issue of sustainable supplier management. © 2010 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Managing enterprise resource planning and multi-organisational enterprise governance:a new contingency framework for the enterprisation of operations

This research has been undertaken to determine how successful multi-organisational enterprise strategy is reliant on the correct type of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) information systems being used. However there appears to be a dearth of research as regards strategic alignment between ERP systems development and multi-organisational enterprise governance as guidelines and frameworks to assist practitioners in making decision for multi-organisational collaboration supported by different types of ERP systems are still missing from theoretical and empirical perspectives. This calls for this research which investigates ERP systems development and emerging practices in the management of multi-organisational enterprises (i.e. parts of companies working with parts of other companies to deliver complex product-service systems) and identify how different ERP systems fit into different multi-organisational enterprise structures, in order to achieve sustainable competitive success. An empirical inductive study was conducted using the Grounded Theory-based methodological approach based on successful manufacturing and service companies in the UK and China. This involved an initial pre-study literature review, data collection via 48 semi-structured interviews with 8 companies delivering complex products and services across organisational boundaries whilst adopting ERP systems to support their collaborative business strategies – 4 cases cover printing, semiconductor manufacturing, and parcel distribution industries in the UK and 4 cases cover crane manufacturing, concrete production, and banking industries in China in order to form a set of 29 tentative propositions that have been validated via a questionnaire receiving 116 responses from 16 companies. The research has resulted in the consolidation of the validated propositions into a novel concept referred to as the ‘Dynamic Enterprise Reference Grid for ERP’ (DERG-ERP) which draws from multiple theoretical perspectives. The core of the DERG-ERP concept is a contingency management framework which indicates that different multi-organisational enterprise paradigms and the supporting ERP information systems are not the result of different strategies, but are best considered part of a strategic continuum with the same overall business purpose of multi-organisational cooperation. At different times and circumstances in a partnership lifecycle firms may prefer particular multi-organisational enterprise structures and the use of different types of ERP systems to satisfy business requirements. Thus the DERG-ERP concept helps decision makers in selecting, managing and co-developing the most appropriate multi-organistional enterprise strategy and its corresponding ERP systems by drawing on core competence, expected competitiveness, and information systems strategic capabilities as the main contingency factors. Specifically, this research suggests that traditional ERP(I) systems are associated with Vertically Integrated Enterprise (VIE); whilst ERPIIsystems can be correlated to Extended Enterprise (EE) requirements and ERPIII systems can best support the operations of Virtual Enterprise (VE). The contribution of this thesis is threefold. Firstly, this work contributes to a gap in the extant literature about the best fit between ERP system types and multi-organisational enterprise structure types; and proposes a new contingency framework – the DERG-ERP, which can be used to explain how and why enterprise managers need to change and adapt their ERP information systems in response to changing business and operational requirements. Secondly, with respect to a priori theoretical models, the new DERG-ERP has furthered multi-organisational enterprise management thinking by incorporating information system strategy, rather than purely focusing on strategy, structural, and operational aspects of enterprise design and management. Simultaneously, the DERG-ERP makes theoretical contributions to the current IS Strategy Formulation Model which does not explicitly address multi-organisational enterprise governance. Thirdly, this research clarifies and emphasises the new concept and ideas of future ERP systems (referred to as ERPIII) that are inadequately covered in the extant literature. The novel DERG-ERP concept and its elements have also been applied to 8 empirical cases to serve as a practical guide for ERP vendors, information systems management, and operations managers hoping to grow and sustain their competitive advantage with respect to effective enterprise strategy, enterprise structures, and ERP systems use; referred to in this thesis as the “enterprisation of operations”.

Understanding sustainable development

This new and expanded edition builds upon the first edition’s powerful multi-perspective approach and breath of coverage. A truly comprehensive introduction to sustainable development, it is designed specifically to allow access to the topic from a wide range of educational and professional backgrounds and to develop understanding of a diversity of approaches and traditions at different levels. This second edition includes: •a complete update of the text, with increased coverage of major topics including ecosystems; production and consumption; business; urban sustainability; governance; new media technologies; conservation; leadership; globalization and global crises; sustainability literacy and learning; •more examples from the Global South and North America, while retaining its unique coverage of first world countries; •chapter aims at the start and summaries at the end of each chapter; •glossary of key terms; •a new chapter on Conservation with a focus on behaviour change and values; •a brand new website which includes discussion of how projects are done on the ground, additional exercises and online cases, test questions and recommended readings and films. Offering boxed examples from the local to the global, Understanding Sustainable Development is the most complete guide to the subject for course leaders, undergraduates and postgraduates.