Roger E. Bohn

Bio: Roger E. Bohn is an academic researcher from University of California, San Diego. The author has contributed to research in topics: Spot contract & Wheeling. The author has an hindex of 21, co-authored 35 publications receiving 2375 citations. Previous affiliations of Roger E. Bohn include Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Harvard University.

Optimal pricing in electrical networks over space and time

Abstract: An electrical system is modelled with a transmission network, customers, central generators, and independent generators. The system is subject to stochastic failures and stochastic demand parameters. Optimal spot prices are derived for the system. They vary stochastically with space and time, and depend on electrical load flow patterns. The price difference between two locations or two voltage levels, and the wheeling charge between them, will change magnitude and sometimes sign over time, as a function of events throughout the network. Current spatial pricing methods are significantly different from the spot-price-based methods derived here.

Optimal Spot Pricing: Practice and Theory

Abstract: A new concept of electricity pricing referred to as "spot pricing" is presented. Spot pricing is shown to encompass and achieve more fully the objectives of load management techniques and other rate structures proposed so far. The contribution of this paper is the derivation of optimal spot prices and a discussion of and proposals on a number of implementation issues which arise when the theory of spot pricing is turned into practice. A set of rates related to optimal spot prices are proposed and their applicability is discussed in view of different customer characteristics, metering, and communication costs. The impact of spot pricing on line losses and reactive energy, the quality of supply and rationing is elaborated. Issues related to customer response, utility revenues, investments and generation deregulation are also discussed.

Optimal demand-side response to electricity spot prices for storage-type customers

Abstract: The customer response to spot prices is discussed. The factors that allow flexible customer response without service curtailments are identified. An overview of a fast, optimal, nonsimplex algorithm applicable to single storage electricity consuming processes is presented. A case study involving an air compression company demonstrates the application of the algorithm and shows the economic effects of industrial customer response to the spot pricing of electricity. >

International product transfer and production ramp-up: a case study from the data storage industry

Abstract: Many high-tech industries are shifting their focus from minimizing time-to-market to minimizing time-to-volume. This puts the tail end of product development, the production ramp-up, in a critical position. This article presents a case study of product transfer and production ramp-up in the hard disk drive industry. We provide a detailed description of the ramp-up period. By documenting detailed time-series of several operational measures, we also shed light on the various forces that allow an organization to increase its production volume. Finally, the setting allows us to study product transfer from development in the USA to an Asian production facility. We find that the physical distance is successfully overcome by several mechanisms.

Dynamic capabilities, what are they?

Abstract: This paper focuses on dynamic capabilities and, more generally, the resource-based view of the firm. We argue that dynamic capabilities are a set of specific and identifiable processes such as product development, strategic decision making, and alliancing. They are neither vague nor tautological. Although dynamic capabilities are idiosyncratic in their details and path dependent in their emergence, they have significant commonalities across firms (popularly termed ‘best practice’). This suggests that they are more homogeneous, fungible, equifinal, and substitutable than is usually assumed. In moderately dynamic markets, dynamic capabilities resemble the traditional conception of routines. They are detailed, analytic, stable processes with predictable outcomes. In contrast, in high-velocity markets, they are simple, highly experiential and fragile processes with unpredictable outcomes. Finally, well-known learning mechanisms guide the evolution of dynamic capabilities. In moderately dynamic markets, the evolutionary emphasis is on variation. In high-velocity markets, it is on selection. At the level of RBV, we conclude that traditional RBV misidentifies the locus of long-term competitive advantage in dynamic markets, overemphasizes the strategic logic of leverage, and reaches a boundary condition in high-velocity markets. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Out of the Crisis

Abstract: According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Exploring internal stickiness: Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm

Abstract: The ability to transfer best practices internally is critical to a firtn's ability to build competitive advantage through the appropriation of rents from scarce internal knowledge. Just as a firm's distinctive competencies tnight be dificult for other firms to imitate, its best prczctices could be dfficult to imitate internnlly. Yet, little systematic attention has been pcrid to such internal stickiness. The author analyzes itlterrzal stickiness of knowledge transfer crnd tests the resulting model using canonical correlation analysis of a data set consisting of 271 observations of 122 best-practice transfers in eight companies. Contrary to corzverztiorzrzl wisdom that blames primarily motivational factors, the study findings show the major barriers to internal knowledge transfer to be knowledge-related factors such as the recipient's lack oj absorptive capacity, causal anzbiguity, and an arciuous relationship between the source and the recipient. The identification and transfer of best practices cally are hindered less by confidentiality and legal is emerging as one of the most important and obstacles than external transfers, they could be widespread practical management issues of the faster and initially less complicated, all other latter half of the 1990s. Armed with meaningful, things being equal. For those reasons, in an era detailed performance data, firms that use fact- when continuous organizational learning and based management methods such as TQM, bench- relentless performance improvement are needed to marking, and process reengineering can regularly remain competitive, companies must increasingly compare the performance of their units along resort to the internal transfer of capabilitie~.~ operational dimensions. Sparse but unequivocal Yet, experience shows that transferring capaevidence suggests that such comparisons often bilities within a firm is far from easy. General reveal surprising performance differences between Motors had great difficulty in transferring manuunits, indicating a need to improve knowledge facturing practices between divisions (Kerwin and utilization within the firm (e.g., Chew, Bresnahan, Woodruff, 1992: 74) and IBM had limited suc

Review: information technology and organizational performance: an integrative model of it business value

Abstract: Despite the importance to researchers, managers, and policy makers of how information technology (IT) contributes to organizational performance, there is uncertainty and debate about what we know and don't know. A review of the literature reveals that studies examining the association between information technology and organizational performance are divergent in how they conceptualize key constructs and their interrelationships. We develop a model of IT business value based on the resource-based view of the firm that integrates the various strands of research into a single framework. We apply the integrative model to synthesize what is known about IT business value and guide future research by developing propositions and suggesting a research agenda. A principal finding is that IT is valuable, but the extent and dimensions are dependent upon internal and external factors, including complementary organizational resources of the firm and its trading partners, as well as the competitive and macro environment. Our analysis provides a blueprint to guide future research and facilitate knowledge accumulation and creation concerning the organizational performance impacts of information technology.

Something Old, Something New: A Longitudinal Study of Search Behavior and New Product Introduction

Abstract: We examine how firms search, or solve problems, to create new products. According to organizational learning research, firms position themselves in a unidimensional search space that spans a spectrum from local to distant search. Our findings in the global robotics industry suggest that firms' search efforts actually vary across two distinct dimensions: search depth, or how frequently the firm reuses its existing knowledge, and search scope, or how widely the firm explores new knowledge.