How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

The knowledge-creating company

Effective supply chain management (SCM) has become a potentially valuable way of securing competitive advantage and improving organizational performance since competition is no longer between organizations, but among supply chains. This research conceptualizes and develops five dimensions of SCM practice (strategic supplier partnership, customer relationship, level of information sharing, quality of information sharing, and postponement) and tests the relationships between SCM practices, competitive advantage, and organizational performance. Data for the study were collected from 196 organizations and the relationships proposed in the framework were tested using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that higher levels of SCM practice can lead to enhanced competitive advantage and improved organizational performance. Also, competitive advantage can have a direct, positive impact on organizational performance.

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The impact of supply chain management practices on competitive advantage and organizational performance

Even though international marketing has been challenged because of theoretical and methodological shortcomings, very few researchers have actually attempted to analyze the weaknesses based on principles of theory evaluation. In this article, the author examines two types of models addressing the individual firm's internationalization process. A theory evaluation is performed based on the explanation and the falsification criteria. In order to improve the internationalization models, some measures are proposed.

/pdf/on-the-internationalization-process-of-firms-a-critical-rpibwc4v60.pdf

On the internationalization process of firms: a critical analysis

Purpose – In the emerging disciplines of risk management and supply chain management, resilience is a relatively undefined concept. The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated perspective on resilience through an extensive review of the literature in a number of disciplines including developmental psychology and ecosystems. In addition, the paper identifies and addresses some of the current theoretical gaps in the existing research.Design/methodology/approach – Supply chain resilience has been defined by a number of disciplines. An integrative literature review is conducted in an attempt to integrate existing perspectives. This review also serves as the basis for the development of a conceptual model.Findings – The key elements of supply chain resilience and the relationships among them, the links between risks and implications for supply chain management, and the methodologies for managing these key issues are poorly understood. Implications for future research advocate testing the proposed mod...

Understanding the concept of supply chain resilience

Evaluative conditioning refers to changes in the liking of a stimulus that are due to the fact that the stimulus has been paired with other, positive or negative stimuli. Although evaluative conditioning appears to be subjected to certain boundary conditions, significant evaluative conditioning effects have been obtained using a large variety of stimuli and procedures. Some data suggest that evaluative conditioning can occur under conditions that do not support other forms of Pavlovian conditioning, and several models have been proposed to account for these differences. In the present article, the authors summarize the available literature, draw conclusions where possible, and provide suggestions for future research.

http://www.columbia.edu/~rk566/Session4/DeHouwer_Thomas_Baeyens_01.pdf

Associative learning of likes and dislikes: a review of 25 years of research on human evaluative conditioning.

Manufacturing flexibility: defining and analyzing relationships among competence, capability, and customer satisfaction

Manufacturing technology and strategy formulation: keys to enhancing competitiveness and improving performance

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to empirically test the impact of supply‐chain management (SCM) capabilities on business performance so as to determine to what degree customer‐oriented SCM issues influence competitive position and organizational performance.Design/methodology/approach – A rigorous methodology is employed to generate a reliable and valid measurement instrument. Responses from 474 manufacturing managers are then utilized to test a causal model using LISREL®.Findings – The results indicate significant positive relationships exist among three types of SCM capabilities (outside‐in, inside‐out, and spanning) and business performance (perceived customer value, customer loyalty, market performance, and financial performance).Practical implications – The article demonstrates that strategically developing SCM capabilities such as efficient inbound and outbound transportation, warehousing, and inventory control, production support, packaging, purchasing, order processing, and information di...

The impact of supply‐chain management capabilities on business performance

Increasing global competition, accelerating technological change and expanding customer expectations are creating a turbulent environment. Flexibility is a mechanism that enables firms to cope with this increasing uncertainty because it facilitates a quick response, which is strategically important as an order-winning criterion. To meet customer needs, flexibility must be across the value chain and it should include product development, manufacturing, logistics and spanning activities. The paper applies competence and capability theory to value chain flexibility and it explores the relationships among environmental uncertainty, value chain flexibility and competitive advantage. It provides a framework for understanding these relationships and builds a theoretical foundation for developing and testing relationships among these constructs. The research should help managers identify the flexible capabilities that impact relationships with their customers and the flexible competences that support these capabi...

Value chain flexibility: A dichotomy of competence and capability

Purpose – To succeed in an uncertain environment, firms must respond to changing customer needs, and logistics flexibility is an important part of the response. This paper defines logistics flexibility, creates a framework to understand it, and shows how it relates to customer satisfaction.Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a large sample survey (n=273) from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers to develop valid and reliable instruments to measure logistics flexibility and to test the relationships among the variables using structural equation modeling.Findings – The results indicate strong, positive, and direct relationships between flexible logistics competence and capability, and between flexible logistics capability and customer satisfaction.Research limitations/implications – The dependent and independent variables were measured through a single respondent, which may introduce common‐method bias. The respondents were manufacturing executives, which provides only a single perspective.Practi...

Jeen-Su Lim

Papers

Manufacturing flexibility: defining and analyzing relationships among competence, capability, and customer satisfaction

Manufacturing technology and strategy formulation: keys to enhancing competitiveness and improving performance

The impact of supply‐chain management capabilities on business performance

Value chain flexibility: A dichotomy of competence and capability

Logistics flexibility and its impact on customer satisfaction