Technological capability development in China's energy service company industry

Technological capability (TC) plays a strategic role in the competitive advantage of not only individual corporate entities but also entire industries. This paper investigates the crucial factors that affect technological capability development by Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) in China. It identifies how differently sized ESCOs make progress in developing TCs. Through looking at the successes achieved by developed countries in the field of energy conservation, ESCOs are able to improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions and are deemed to provide an effective means of conserving energy in China. Existing literature indicates that limited TC levels of are one of the crucial barriers facing Chinese ESCOs. Through investigating three different sizes of Chinese ESCO - small, medium-sized and large - this paper provides a framework to present the idea that Chinese ESCOs' TC development is affected by four key internal and external capabilities: management capability, investment capability, innovation capability and linkage capability. Through comparative analysis, the paper establishes that small and medium-sized private ESCOs are mainly affected by investment and linkage capabilities. Large state-owned ESCOs are mainly affected by innovation and management capability. In addition, all three types of ESCO exhibit a strong desire to develop their technological capability, but small and medium-sized ESCOs exhibit a stronger desire to conduct research and development (R&D) than large ESCOs, whilst large ESCOs prefer to increase their technical reserves through acquisition. This paper identifies factors that affect Chinese ESCOs' TC, but it does intend to address the problem of how to reduce the negative effects of limited TC or the question of how to improve the TC development of Chinese ESCOs effectively. This paper contributes to the field of TC development in the ESCO industry.

The Possibilities of IP Networks in Strategic Partnership Development

This study focuses on the status of using the Internet in partnership development. The aim is to find out howthe parties in partnership can benefit from the available data networks (the Internet, Intranet and Extranet). The study also explains what the typical practices at the moment are and what features might be exploitable in the future. The research problem is to find out whether there are any possibilities to utilize the web more than is done at the moment. This study is a preliminary study for a more extensive study on the topic 'Information Technology in Business Relationships'.

FEMA’s Capability Development After Katrina

After Action Reports for Hurricane Isaac & Sandy concluded that WebEOC was correct choice for FEMA’s Crisis Management System: real time data easily shared between FEMA Headquarters, Regions and Incident Management Assistance Teams; cloud capability allowed use on any web connected device, laptop, tablet, iPad, smart phone; intuitive System - Offgoing personnel able to train incoming reliefs on new features or changes within minutes; widespread use of WebEOC through out country in 19 other Federal Departments and Agencies, 40 States, hundreds of cities/counties and industry provided a number of users that had prior experience using WebEOC and reduced learning curve experienced when new systems are introduced; focusing on a single shared web database reduced creation of new single purpose databases, spreadsheets and share point sites allowing best practices to be captured, refined, shared and continued

Strategic options development and analysis: the case of the brazilian railways

Judging by their success in Europe, Asia and North America, passenger and cargo railways are appreciated as the key to infrastructural development in Brazil. The issues are complex and steeped in uncertainty, as well as political and economic agendas, and a wide array of intersecting issues such as business and unionized interests, agricultural and industrial geographical spreads, as well as the emergence of alternative power sources. Not only are the issues systemic, but railway development itself always comes as a physical network structure. The situation under consideration, in other words, is systemic from both the soft and hard systems point of view, thus promising a rich context for systems studies. As an initial attempt in understanding the situation at hand, the research reported here applied the problem structuring approach known as Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA) in order to map and analyze issues facing the Brazilian railways. Strategic options for the future development of the railways were identified and analyzed, and ways forward for future research are proposed. In addition, the report serves as an initial knowledge base that can guide future systemic planning studies in the industry.

Entrepreneurial opportunities, capability development and the performance of new firms

This study aims at providing a theoretical framework encompassing the two approaches towards entrepreneurial opportunity (opportunity discovery and opportunity creation) by outlining a trajectory from firm creation to capability development, to firm performance in the short term (firm survival) and the medium/long term (growth rate). A set of empirically testable hypotheses is proposed and tested by performing qualitative analyses on interviews on a small sample of entrepreneurs and event history analysis on a large sample of firms founded in the United States in 2004.

Capability development in Chinese manufacturing:a quasi-biotic perspective of knowledge evolution

A quasi-biotic model of knowledge evolution has been applied to manufacturing technology capability development which includes product design and development and manufacturing process/workflow improvement. The concepts of “knowledge genes” and “knowledge body” are introduced to explain the evolution of technological capability. It is shown that knowledge development within the enterprise happens as a result of interactions between an enterprise’s internal knowledge and that acquired from external sources catalysed by: (a) internal mechanisms, recources and incentives, and (b) actions and policies of external agencies. A matrix specifying factors contributing to knowledge development and types of manufacturing capabilities (product design, equipment development or use, and workflow) is developed to explain technological knowledge development. The case studies of Tianjin Pipe Corporation (TPCO) and Tianjin Tianduan Press Co. are presented to illustrate the application of the matrix.

National system of innovation and technological learning:an integrated framework for understanding technological capability development in the Russian forestry sector

One of the issues in the innovation system literature is examination of technological learning strategies of laggard nations. Two distinct bodies of literature have contributed to our insight into forces driving learning and innovation, National Systems of Innovation (NSI) and technological learning literature. Although both literatures yield insights on catch-up strategies of 'latecomer' nations, the explanatory powers of each literature by itself is limited. In this paper, a possible way of linking the macro- and the micro-level approaches by incorporating enterprises as active learning entities into the learning and innovation system is proposed. The proposed model has been used to develop research hypotheses and indicate research directions and is relevant for investigating the learning strategies of firms in less technologically intensive industries outside East Asia.

Improving Evaluation and Development Capability in Verification and Validation

Validation and verification operations encounter various challenges in product development process. Requirements for increasing the development cycle pace set new requests for component development process. Verification and validation usually represent the largest activities, up to 40 50 % of R&D resources utilized. This research studies validation and verification as part of case company's component development process. The target is to define framework that can be used in improvement of the validation and verification capability evaluation and development in display module development projects. Validation and verification definition and background is studied in this research. Additionally, theories such as project management, system, organisational learning and causality is studied. Framework and key findings of this research are presented. Feedback system according of the framework is defined and implemented to the case company. This research is divided to the theory and empirical parts. Theory part is conducted in literature review. Empirical part is done in case study. Constructive methode and design research methode are used in this research A framework for capability evaluation and development was defined and developed as result of this research. Key findings of this study were that double loop learning approach with validation and verification V+ model enables defining a feedback reporting solution. Additional results, some minor changes in validation and verification process were proposed. There are a few concerns expressed on the results on validity and reliability of this study. The most important one was the selected research method and the selected model itself. The final state can be normative, the researcher may set study results before the actual study and in the initial state, the researcher may describe expectations for the study. Finally reliability of this study, and validity of this work are studied.

Strategic development and physicochemical analysis of oral preparations for unstable drugs

Oral liquid formulations are ideal dosage forms for paediatric, geriatric and patient with dysphagia. Dysphagia is prominent among patients suffering from stroke, motor neurone disease, advanced Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. However oral liquid preparations are particularly difficult to formulate for hydrophobic and unstable drugs. Therefore current methods employed in solving this issue include the use of ‘specials’ or extemporaneous preparations. In order to challenge this, the government has encouraged research into the field of oral liquid formulations, with the EMEA and MHRA publishing list of drugs of interest. The current work investigates strategic formulation development and characterisation of select API’s (captopril, gliclazide, melatonin, L-arginine and lansoprazole), each with unique obstacles to overcome during solubilisation, stabilisation and when developing a palatable dosage from. By preparing a validated calibration protocol for each of the drug candidates, the oral liquid formulations were assessed for stability, according to the ICH guidelines along with thorough physiochemical characterisation. The results showed that pH and polarity of the solvent had the greatest influence on the extent of drug solubilisation, with inclusion of antioxidants and molecular steric hindrance influencing the extent of drug stability. Captopril, a hydrophilic ACE inhibitor (160 mg.mL-1), undergoes dimerisation with another captopril molecule. It was found that with the addition of EDTA and HP-β-CD, the drug molecule was stabilised and prevented from initiating a thiol induced first order free radical oxidation. The cyclodextrin provided further steric hindrance (1:1 molar ratio) resulting in complete reduction of the intensity of sulphur like smell associated with captopril. Palatability is a crucial factor in patient compliance, particularly when developing a dosage form targeted towards paediatrics. L-arginine is extremely bitter in solution (148.7 g.L-1). The addition of tartaric acid into the 100 mg.mL-1 formulation was sufficient to mask the bitterness associated with its guanidium ions. The hydrophobicity of gliclazide (55 mg.L-1) was strategically challenged using a binary system of a co-solvent and surfactant to reduce the polarity of the medium and ultimately increase the solubility of the drug. A second simpler method was developed using pH modification with L-arginine. Melatonin has two major obstacles in formulation: solubility (100 μg.mL-1) and photosensitivity, which were both overcome by lowering the dielectric constant of the medium and by reversibly binding the drug within the cyclodextrin cup (1:1 ratio). The cyclodextrin acts by preventing UV rays from reaching the drug molecule and initiated the degradation pathway. Lansoprazole is an acid labile drug that could only be delivered orally via a delivery vehicle. In oral liquid preparations this involved nanoparticulate vesicles. The extent of drug loading was found to be influenced by the type of polymer, concentration of polymer, and the molecular weight. All of the formulations achieved relatively long shelf-lives with good preservative efficacy.

Organisaation uudistumiskyvyn kehittäminen, Case: Stora Enso

Tutkielman tavoitteena oli selvittää case-organisaatio Stora Enson Anjalan paperitehtaan uudistumiskyky, toiminnan strategianmukaisuus sekä vahvuudet ja kehitettävät osa-alueetuudistumiskyvyssä. Tutkielmassa käytettiin kvantitatiivista tutkimusotetta. Aineisto kerättiin kahdella eri mittarilla: KM-Factor¿ ¿ uudistumiskyvyn mittarilla ja organisaation muutoskyvyn mittarilla. KM-Factor¿ ¿mittarin avulla kerättiin tietoa organisaation suhteiden, tiedonkulun, osaamisen ja johtamisen nyky- ja tavoitetilasta erilaisissa tietoympäristöissä. Muutoskyvyn mittarin avulla kerättiin tietoa organisaation uudistumiskyvystä kuuden sitä kuvaavan ominaisuuden, strategisen kyvykkyyden, johtajuuden, ajan hyödyntämisen, verkostoituneisuuden, tiedon johtamisen ja oppimissuuntautuneisuuden perusteella. Mittaukset suoritettiin helmikuussa 2006 ja niiden kohteena oli Stora Enson Anjalan paperitehtaan koko henkilöstö. Kahden uudistumiskyvyn mittarin tulokset analysoitiin ja niitä vertailtiin keskenään. Tällä tavalla pyrittiinmyös lisäämään tutkimuksen validiteettia. Mittaustulokset purettiin sanalliseenmuotoon ja niistä raportoitiin case-organisaatiolle. Mittausten mukaan case-organisaation uudistumiskyky oli hieman keskitasoa heikompi. Toiminnan vahvuuksia olivat yksimielisyys muutostarpeista ja tilanneherkkyys. Merkittävimmät toiminnan heikkoudet löytyivät nykyisestä toimintatavasta, joka ei ollut strategian mukainen, ja innovaatiopotentiaalista, joka oli hyvin alhainen. Kehittämisen tarpeita löytyi sekä johdon että henkilöstön suhteiden ja yhteistyön osalta. Koko organisaation tulisi lisätä yhteistyötä ulkopuolisten tahojen ja sidosryhmien kanssa. Organisaatiossa tulisi miettiä, miten strategia saataisiin selkeästi viestittyä myös johtoa alemmille tasoille. Johto painotti liikaa autoritääristä johtamista, kun taas henkilöstöltä odotettaisiin enemmän vastuunottoa toiminnastaan. Organisaatiossa tulisi saada nykyistä avoimemmin ja itsenäisemmin ilmaista omia näkemyksiään, toimia aloitteellisesti ja luoda uusia ideoita toiminnan kehittämiseksi. Innovatiivisuudesta ja parannusehdotuksista tulisi myös palkita paremmin.

Organisaation osaamisen ja uudistumiskyvyn kehittäminen strategialähtöisesti, case: Puumerkki Oy

Tutkielman tavoitteena oli selvittää organisaation osaamisen ja uudistumiskyvyn strategiset vahvuudet, heikkoudet ja kehittämiskohteet case-organisaatio Puumerkki Oy:ssä. Mittausten avulla haluttiin selvittää uuden organisaation toimivuus, organisaation osaamisen nykytila sekä toiminnan nykytilanne suhteessa strategiaan ja muihin yrityksiin. Tutkielmassa käytettiin sekä kvantitatiivista että kvalitatiivista tutkimusotetta. Olemassa olevalla mittarilla (KM-factor -organisaation uudistumiskyvyn mittari) mitattiin case-yritys, Puumerkki Oy. Mittauksia tehtiin kaksi: kesäkuussa 2003 ja tammikuussa 2004. Näin saatiin selville muutoksen ja kehityksen suunta sekä edistyminen. Mittausten kohteena olivat kaikki Puumerkki Oy:n työntekijät. Tutkimuksen luotettavuuden takaamiseksi ja tarkistamiseksi haastateltiin teemahaastatteluin lokakuussa 2003 Puumerkin henkilöstöstä kymmentä (10) satunnaisesti valittua henkilöä, ensimmäisen mittauksen (06/2003) alueellista vastausjakaumaa mukaillen. KM-factor mittausten tulosraportit analysoitiin ja purettiin sanalliseen muotoon sekä tuloksista tiivistettiin lyhyt esitys organisaation henkilöstölle raportointia varten. Haastatteluaineisto analysoitiin purkamalla haastattelut sanallisiksi teema-alueiden mukaisiin kokonaisuuksiin ja vertaamalla niitä mittauksien tuloksiin. Mittausten avulla kerättiin tietoa organisaation osaamisen, tiedonkulun, suhteiden ja johtamisen nykyisestä toiminnasta ja niiden tavoitetilasta eri tietoympäristöissä. Mittauksen mukaan Puumerkki Oy:n uudistumiskyky oli parempi kuin vertailuryhmällä ja toiminnan suunta oli oikea, strategian mukainen. Puumerkki Oy:n vahvuuksia olivat keskinäinen sitoutuminen tavoitteisiin, haasteellinen tavoitetaso, tilanneherkkyys ja yksimielisyys muutostarpeista. Mitään erityisen heikkoa aluetta ei mittauksessa löytynyt. Toiminnasta löytyi kuitenkin muutamia yleisiä kehityskohteita: liian autoritäärinen johtaminen, heikko innovaatiopotentiaali eli yrityksen jatkuva kehittämiskyky ja suuret yksikkökohtaiset (alueelliset) erot. Yrityksen kulttuurin, infrastruktuurin, viestinnän ja tietoteknisten työkalujen tulisi tukea aktiivista tiedonvaihtoa ja uuden tiedon hyödyntämistä.

Tiedon omaksumiskyky projekteissa

Julkisten organisaatioiden toimintaympäristöt muuttuvat ja monimutkaistuvat. Julkisen sektorin organisaatiot joutuvat myös omaksumaan uusia tapoja toimia yhä nopeammin. Julkiset organisaatiot tekevät kehittämistyötä paljon projektien kautta, jolloin projektijohtamisen osaamisesta on muodostumassa myös julkisen sektorin organisaatiolle tärkeä strateginen kyky. Julkisen sektorin projektijohtamiseen liittyy luonnollisesti samoja vaikuttavia ominaispiirteitä ja taustavaikuttajia, kuin julkisen sektorin johtamisessa yleensä. Kaikissa projekteissa on yksi yhteinen tekijä – tieto. Organisaation kyky omaksua tietoa on tärkeä ominaisuus, jonka kehittämiseen organisaation tulisi kiinnittää huomiota. Projekteissa erityisesti, jossa toteutetaan nopeasti usean henkilön ja organisaation osaamisesta ja tiedosta koostuvia kompleksisia ja monimutkaisia kokonaisuuksia, on omaksumiskyvyllä erityinen merkitys. Omaksumiskyky on dynaaminen prosessi, johon vaikuttaa niin yksilön kyky tunnistaa arvokasta tietoa, yhdistää ja omaksua sitä sekä organisaation kyky muuttaa omaksuttu tieto sellaiseen muotoon, että siitä on hyötyä organisaatiotasolla. Tämän tutkimuksen aiheena on tieto ja tiedon omaksuminen projekteissa. Tavoitteena on tutkia julkisen kuntaorganisaation projektijohtamisessa olevaa tietoa ja organisaatioon liittyviä tekijöitä, jotka vaikuttavat tiedon omaksumiseen projekteissa. Tutkimus toteutettiin kvalitatiivisena tutkimuksena, jonka empiirinen osuus suoritettiin tapaustutkimuksena kunnallisessa organisaatiossa. Tutkimusaineisto hankittiin haastattelemalla seitsemää organisaation projekteissa toimivaa projektipäällikköä tai projekteihin osallistunutta henkilöä. Tutkimuksen mukaan organisaation projekteissa syntyvän tiedon on useimmiten tunnistettu, mutta välttämättä sen omaksumista edellyttäviin ja tukeviin mekanismeihin ei vielä ole riittävästi kiinnitetty huomiota eikä kehitetty, joten projekteissa syntyvän tiedon hyödyntäminen ei välttämättä toteudu organisaatiotasolla. Projekteissa oleva tieto on organisaation kehittämiseen ja projektien kehittämiseen liittyvää tietoa, jota tulisi hyödyntää niin yksilö-, projekti- kuin myös organisaatiotasolla.

The future of manufacturing

Anyone who looks at the title of this special issue will agree that the intent behind the preparation of this volume was ambitious: to predict and discuss “The Future of Manufacturing”. Will manufacturing be important in the future? Even though some sceptics might say not, and put on the table some old familiar arguments, we would strongly disagree. To bring subsidies for the argument we issued the call-for-papers for this special issue of Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, fully aware of the size of the challenge in our hands. But we strongly believed that the enterprise would be worthwhile. The point of departure is the ongoing debate concerning the meaning and content of manufacturing. The easily visualised internal activity of using tangible resources to make physical products in factories is no longer a viable way to characterise manufacturing. It is now a more loosely defined concept concerning the organisation and management of open, interdependent, systems for delivering goods and services, tangible and intangible, to diverse types of markets. Interestingly, Wickham Skinner is the most cited author in this special issue of JMTM. He provides the departure point of several articles because his vision and insights have guided and inspired researchers in production and operations management from the late 1960s until today. However, the picture that we draw after looking at the contributions in this special issue is intrinsically distinct, much more dynamic, and complex. Seven articles address the following research themes: 1.new patterns of organisation, where the boundaries of firms become blurred and the role of the firm in the production system as well as that of manufacturing within the firm become contingent; 2.new approaches to strategic decision-making in markets characterised by turbulence and weak signals at the customer interface; 3.new challenges in strategic and operational decisions due to changes in the profile of the workforce; 4.new global players, especially China, modifying the manufacturing landscape; and 5.new techniques, methods and tools that are being made feasible through progress in new technological domains. Of course, many other important dimensions could be studied, but these themes are representative of current changes and future challenges. Three articles look at the first theme: organisational evolution of production and operations in firms and networks. Karlsson's and Skold's article represent one further step in their efforts to characterise “the extraprise”. In the article, they advance the construction of a new framework, based on “the network perspective” by defining the formal elements which compose it and exploring the meaning of different types of relationships. The way in which “actors, resources and activities” are conceptualised extends the existing boundaries of analytical thinking in operations management and open new avenues for research, teaching and practice. The higher level of abstraction, an intrinsic feature of the framework, is associated to the increasing degree of complexity that characterises decisions related to strategy and implementation in the manufacturing and operations area, a feature that is expected to become more and more pervasive as time proceeds. Riis, Johansen, Englyst and Sorensen have also based their article on their previous work, which in this case is on “the interactive firm”. They advance new propositions on strategic roles of manufacturing and discuss why the configuration of strategic manufacturing roles, at the level of the network, will become a key issue and how the indirect strategic roles of manufacturing will become increasingly important. Additionally, by considering that value chains will become value webs, they predict that shifts in strategic manufacturing roles will look like a sequence of moves similar to a game of chess. Then, lastly under the first theme, Fleury and Fleury develop a conceptual framework for the study of production systems in general derived from field research in the telecommunications industry, here considered a prototype of the coming information society and knowledge economy. They propose a new typology of firms which, on certain dimensions, complements the propositions found in the other two articles. Their telecoms-based framework (TbF) comprises six types of companies characterised by distinct profiles of organisational competences, which interact according to specific patterns of relationships, thus creating distinct configurations of production networks. The second theme is addressed by Kyläheiko and SandstroÍm in their article “Strategic options based framework for management of dynamic capabilities in manufacturing firms”. They propose a new approach to strategic decision-making in markets characterised by turbulence and weak signals at the customer interface. Their framework for a manufacturing firm in the digital age leads to active asset selection (strategic investments in both tangible and intangible assets) and efficient orchestrating of the global value net in “thin” intangible asset markets. The framework consists of five steps based on Porter's five-forces model, the resources-based view, complemented by means of the concepts of strategic options and related flexibility issues. Thun, GroÍssler and Miczka's contribution to the third theme brings the human dimension to the debate regarding the future of manufacturing. Their article focuses on the challenges brought to management by the ageing of workers in Germany but, in the arguments that are raised, the future challenges associated to workers and work organisation in every production system become visible and relevant. An interesting point in the approach adopted by the authors is that not only the factual problems and solutions are taken into account but the perception of the managers is brought into the picture. China cannot be absent in the discussion of the future of manufacturing. Therefore, within the fourth theme, Vaidya, Bennett and Liu provide the evidence of the gradual improvement of Chinese companies in the medium and high-tech sectors, by using the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) analysis. The Chinese evolution is shown to be based on capabilities developed through combining international technology transfer and indigenous learning. The main implication for the Western companies is the need to take account of the accelerated rhythm of capability development in China. For other developing countries China's case provides lessons of great importance. Finally, under the fifth theme, Kuehnle's article: “Post mass production paradigm (PMPP) trajectories” provides a futuristic scenario of what is already around us and might become prevalent in the future. It takes a very intensive look at a whole set of dimensions that are affecting manufacturing now, and will influence manufacturing in the future, ranging from the application of ICT to the need for social transparency. In summary, this special issue of JMTM presents a brief, but undisputable, demonstration of the possible richness of manufacturing in the future. Indeed, we could even say that manufacturing has no future if we only stick to the past perspectives. Embracing the new is not easy. The new configurations of production systems, the distributed and complementary roles to be performed by distinct types of companies in diversified networked structures, leveraged by the new emergent technologies and associated the new challenges for managing people, are all themes that are carriers of the future. The Guest Editors of this special issue on the future of manufacturing are strongly convinced that their undertaking has been worthwhile.