In recent years, both the academic and practitioner-based literatures have witnessed a spate of interest in the management of supplier relationships. In particular, the movement from transaction to relational modes of buyer–supplier interaction has been highlighted as a dramatic shift. This article reexamines the nature of management of supplier relationships from the perspective of resource interfaces. We propose a categorization of four different interfaces based on how a focal customer can access its suppliers' resources. The four different interfaces serve different purposes and have various implications for static (productivity) and dynamic (innovativity) efficiency. We conclude by highlighting the costs and benefits of establishing and maintaining different supplier interfaces. The main implication stemming from our analysis is that buying firms need a variety of supplier interfaces to pursue productivity and innovativity objectives.

Managing interfaces with suppliers

The notion of firm boundaries has received considerable attention in theories of the firm that address the problems of investment incentives and mitigation of hold-up problems. In this paper we attempt to develop a different approach to the problem of vertical firm boundaries, based on recent advances in the capabilities view of the firm. Our arguments rely on the pioneering insights of Penrose, Richardson and Loasby to elaborate a view of the boundaries determined by the interaction of the firm's direct and indirect capabilities with other actors. We develop the notion of indirect capabilities to highlight how firm boundaries respond to the distribution of capabilities in the economy as well as the modes of access to complementary and external capabilities. We conclude that the evolution of firm boundaries must be understood in the context of decisions on how the firm relates to other actors in its environment.

The Multiple Boundaries of the Firm

Abstract This article evaluates the assumption that interaction within customer–supplier relationships is always the pivotal point for innovation. The article proposes that the relevance of customer and supplier relationships depends on the nature and maturity of the technology being developed, thus exploring the potential variation in customer–supplier interactions during different phases of the innovation life cycle. The article commences with a brief introduction to the literature and then uses the findings from a survey to illustrate the premise of the article. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings and outlines the plans for the next stage of the research.

Centrality of Customer and Supplier Interaction in Innovation

Palliative care is a complex environment in which teams of healthcare professionals are constantly challenged to match the configuration of care delivery to suit the dynamics of the patient's bio-medical, social and spiritual situations as they change during the end-of-life process. In such an environment these teams need to engage in ongoing interaction between different professional disciplines, incremental improvement in care delivery, learning and radical innovation. This is aimed at combining operational effectiveness, strategic flexibility, exploitation and exploration, in a way that ensures the best possible care for the patient. This paper examines previous research on the management competences and the organisational capabilities necessary for continuous innovation, and analyses evidence emerging from a study of palliative care. Work on the relationships between innovation capacities, organisational capabilities and team-based competence is drawn together. Evidence is presented from research into the management of innovation in palliative care.

Linking team competences to organisational capacities in health care | NOVA. The University of Newcastle's Digital Repository

Summary From the postwar period until the present time, the development of project managementhas radically changed structures and processes within car manufacturing companies. But onthe reverse, we can say that project management had been changed by its implementationwithin the automotive context: from technique and tool orientation to more strategic andorganizational approaches, from highly precise contractualized relation patterns to proce-dural open learning ‘‘meta-rules.’’ The auto industry was a latecomer to project manage-ment, compared to military equipment or construction business. But these sectors are nowtrying to transform there project management tradition and adopt the project managementpractices that were developed in the late 1980s and 1990s in the auto sector. We can seevarious reasons behind such a dragging effect: the economic importance and symbolic no-toriety of the auto sector, of course, but also the importance of researches in managementscience and economics in the ﬁeld, that happened to evaluate the performances of variousproject patters and to trace the transformations round the world.This process is not yet complete, since performance limits are constantly increasing.

Project management in Automotive Industry

Introduction The Framework: An Information Paradigm Competition and Product Development in the World Auto Industry Performance of Product Development Process and Organization in Product Development Project Strategy: Managing Complexity Manufacturing Capability in Product Development Integrating Problem Solving Cycles Realizing Product Concepts in Product Design Overall Patterns of Effective Product Development The Future of Product Development in the Auto Industry General Management Implications in Product Development.

http://library.um.ac.id/free-contents/downloadpdf.php/buku/product-development-performance-strategy-organization-and-management-in-the-world-auto-industry-kim-b-clark-tahahiro-fujimoto-861.pdf

Kim B. Clark

Papers

Product development performance : strategy, organization, and management in the world auto industry / Kim B. Clark, Tahahiro Fujimoto