In the movement towards reducing the consumption of single-use plastics, such as carrier bags, there had been a reduction in the capacity to produce films in European countries. ...when garments can ...be procured, shipping them from countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam has become prohibitively expensive with the cost increasing from $2,000 per 40 foot shipping container to over $7,000 for a landed load on the West Coast of the USA. ...while production capacity may be available, logistics capacity may hinder the interconnectedness of supply chains. How can regulators play a positive role in reducing time to market while not compromising on product quality and safety? Examples abound from retail banking and insurance where digital channels have almost entirely replaced in-person interactions, to healthcare where telemedicine has been greatly sped up (Stokel-Walker, 2020) and to higher education where many online and blended programmes have been launched over the last year alone.
Design thinking has attracted considerable interest from practitioners and academics alike, as it offers a novel approach to innovation and problem‐solving. However, there appear to be substantial ...differences between promoters and critics about its essential attributes, applicability, and outcomes. To shed light on current knowledge and conceptualizations of design thinking we undertook a multiphase study. First, a systematic review of the design thinking literature enabled us to identify 10 principal attributes and 8 tools and methods. To validate and refine our findings, we then employed a card sorting exercise with professional designers. Finally, we undertook a cluster analysis to reveal structural patterns within the design thinking literature. Our research makes three principal contributions to design and innovation management theory and practice. First, in rigorously deriving 10 attributes and 8 essential tools and methods that support them from a broad and multidisciplinary assortment of articles, we bring much needed clarity and validity to a construct plagued by polysemy and thus threatened by “construct collapse.” Second, aided by the identification of perspectives of scholars writing about design thinking, we provide detailed recommendations for relevant topics warranting further study in order to advance theoretical understanding of design thinking and test its applications. Third, we identify the enduring, yet essential, questions that remain unresolved across the extant design thinking literature and that may impede its practical implementation. We also provide suggestions for the theoretic frames, which may help address them, and thus advance the ability of scholars and managers alike to benefit from design thinking’s apparent advantages.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Elevating Design in the Organization Micheli, Pietro; Perks, Helen; Beverland, Michael B.
The Journal of product innovation management,
July 2018, Volume:
35, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Following evidence of its positive contribution to innovation and company performance, many firms are seeking to elevate design to a strategic level. However, little is known as to how this can be ...achieved. This study draws on the literatures concerned with elevating organizational functions and with organizational legitimacy, and aims to unravel and detail critical practices and potential tensions influencing the elevation of design's status in firms. To do so, 53 in‐depth interviews were undertaken with key informants, representing a range of functional specialisms, in 12 companies, including large multinational companies as well as small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Findings show how six practices—top management support, leadership of the design function, generating awareness of design's role and contribution, interfunctional coordination, evaluation of design, and formalization of product and service development processes—affect the design elevation process. In contrast with previous studies on raising the status of organizational functions, this research reveals that the same practice can play both positive and negative roles, and that there are fundamental tensions, which should be reconciled if design's status is to be elevated. Drawing on the concept of organizational legitimacy, we also examine how design moves beyond being seen as pragmatically useful, to being identified as a relevant, alternative way of operating, to being regarded as essential for success. The article concludes by articulating contributions to design and innovation management theory and practice, and to the body of scholarly work seeking to understand how to elevate the status of a function.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
In order to sustain and grow brand equity, brand managers are faced with balancing the preservation of existing brand identity through consistency with the need to maintain relevance, which requires ...change and innovation. In this paper we build upon the concept of organizational ambidexterity (March
1991
), arguing that design thinking—the logics and practices associated with designers—can serve as a mechanism which promotes and enables the integration of brand consistency and relevance. Drawing on cases of innovation at firms across a range of industries, we show how design thinking can trigger brand ambidexterity across a three-stage process. We identify eight practices and examine how designers enable brand managers to address enduring consistency-relevance tensions in ways that ensure innovations renew or revitalize the brand without undermining its essence.
Inside hippocampal circuits, neuroplasticity events that individual cells may undergo during synaptic transmissions occur in the form of Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) and Long-Term Depression (LTD). ...The high density of NMDA receptors expressed on the surface of the dendritic CA1 spines confers to hippocampal CA3-CA1 synapses the ability to easily undergo NMDA-mediated LTP and LTD, which is essential for some forms of explicit learning in mammals. Providing a comprehensive kinetic model that can be used for running computer simulations of the synaptic transmission process is currently a major challenge. Here, we propose a compartmentalized kinetic model for CA3-CA1 synaptic transmission. Our major goal was to tune our model in order to predict the functional impact caused by disease associated variants of NMDA receptors related to severe cognitive impairment. Indeed, for variants Glu413Gly and Cys461Phe, our model predicts negative shifts in the glutamate affinity and changes in the kinetic behavior, consistent with experimental data. These results point to the predictive power of this multiscale viewpoint, which aims to integrate the quantitative kinetic description of large interaction networks typical of system biology approaches with a focus on the quality of a few, key, molecular interactions typical of structural biology ones.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Purpose – Scholars in the field of performance measurement tend to use the term business performance measurement (BPM) systems without explaining exactly what they mean by it. This lack of clarity ...creates confusion and comparability issues, and makes it difficult for researchers to build on one an each other's work. The purpose of this paper is to identify the key characteristics of a BPM system, by reviewing the different definitions of a BPM system that exist in the literature. This work aims to open a debate on what are the necessary and sufficient conditions of a BPM system. It is also hoped that a greater level of clarity in the performance measurement research arena will be encouraged.Design/methodology/approach – The performance measurement literature is reviewed using a systematic approach.Findings – Based on this research, a set of conditions of a BPM system has been proposed from which researchers can choose those which are necessary and sufficient conditions for their studies.Research limitations/implications – The analysis in this paper provides a structure and set of characteristics that researchers could use as a reference framework to define a BPM system for their work, and as a way to define the specific focus of their investigations. More clarity and precision around the use of the BPM systems phrase will improve the generalisability and comparability of research in this area.Originality/value – By reviewing the different definitions of a BPM system that exist in the literature this paper will hopefully stimulate a debate on the necessary and sufficient conditions of a BPM system and encourage a greater level of clarity in the performance measurement research arena.
The Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) gene is known to be affected by several genetic alterations, such as rearrangement, amplification and point mutation. The main goal of this study was to ...comprehensively analyze
amplification (
-A) and
gene copy number gain (
) in a large cohort of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients in order to evaluate the effects on mRNA and protein expression.
locus number status was evaluated in 578 NSCLC cases by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). In addition, ALK immunohistochemistry and ALK mRNA in situ hybridization were performed.
Out of 578 cases, 17 cases showed
-A. In addition, 14 cases presented
K-CNG and 72 cases presented chromosome 2 polyploidy. None of those carrying
-A and -CNG showed either ALK immunohistochemical expression or ALK mRNA expression through in situ hybridization. We observed a high frequency of extra copies of the
gene.
: Our findings demonstrated that
-A is not involved in mRNA production and consequently is not involved in protein production; these findings support the hypothesis that
-A might not play a role in the pathogenesis of NSCLC, underlining the absence of a specific clinical application.
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PurposeTraditional approaches to organizational performance management that emphasize objectivity, control and predictability are rapidly losing relevance in an environment characterized by ...increasing levels of complexity and dynamism. This paper draws on complexity theory to suggest a new paradigm for managing performance in organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on the common features of complex systems and the corresponding concept of emergence to revisit key themes in organizational performance management and propose a set of implications for research and practice.FindingsUnderstanding organizations as complex systems and performance as an emergent property of such systems leads to a set of new research questions, the adoption of alternative methods and the formulation of novel propositions. It also has various implications for both academic research and managerial practice, from moving away from the traditional notion of organizational alignment to adopting a more explicit stakeholder-based view in the design and use of measurement systems.Originality/valueThe paper highlights the great potential of complexity theory for addressing contemporary issues in the field of organizational performance management and charting the landscape for its future development.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of comprehensive performance measurement systems (PMS) – i.e. measurement systems that comprise financial and non-financial ...indicators, and which also consist of indicators related to different aspects of an organisation’s operations – in the relationship between strategy and company performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data of top managers of large European companies were collected and analysed by means of exploratory factor analyses and hierarchical regressions in order to validate the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
This research shows that different strategies lead to the use of different types of performance indicators. Also, it finds that the utilisation of a comprehensive PMS enables the implementation of both differentiation and cost-leadership strategies. Specifically, a comprehensive PMS positively mediates the effect of differentiation strategy on organisational and innovative performance, and of cost-leadership strategy on organisational performance.
Research limitations/implications
Further research could be undertaken in other contexts and consider additional factors, such as the structure, maturity and different uses of PMS, and the cost of measuring performance. Qualitative studies could examine the role of PMS in dynamic environments, as well as the evolution of PMS during strategic transitions.
Practical implications
Greater consideration should be given to the utilisation of different types of performance indicators when implementing and re-formulating strategy.
Originality/value
This study clarifies the links between strategy and performance measurement, and it is the first to identify the mediating effect of comprehensive PMS between strategy and company performance.
PurposePerformance measurement and management (PMM) systems have traditionally enabled strategy execution within and across firms. However, PMM have been criticized as overly static and deterministic ...and therefore inappropriate for emergent and dynamic contexts, such as those that characterize business ecosystems.The study aims to address the roles of organizational PMM practices in the development and implementation of business ecosystem strategies.Design/methodology/approachThe authors carried out a qualitative, longitudinal study during 2016–2020 at a Japanese multinational technology corporation attempting to create an ecosystem strategy to expand its market and diversify its offering. The authors collected interview, observation and archival data, spanning the period from framing the initial strategy to establishing the ecosystem.FindingsThe process of developing and implementing the ecosystem strategy was emergent and highly iterative, rather than planned and linear, eventually requiring key decision-makers in the company to challenge some of their deeply held assumptions. PMM practices first acted as barriers to ecosystem development by promoting an excessive focus on revenue generation. Once modified, PMM helped capture, convey and reassess the ecosystem strategy. Performance targets, indicators and strategy maps were not just data gathering and reporting mechanisms but key means to express competing perspectives.Practical implicationsWhen developing an ecosystem strategy, managers should adopt a participatory and iterative approach, reviewing the complementary effects of various PMM tools at different points in time.Originality/valueThe study is among the first to provide an in-depth account of ecosystem strategy creation and implementation and to identify the diverse roles and effects of PMM practices in dynamic and complex contexts.
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