Product Champions Research Articles

Adopting automated bug assignment in practice — a longitudinal case study at Ericsson

[Context] The continuous inflow of bug reports is a considerable challenge in large development projects. Inspired by contemporary work on mining software repositories, we designed a prototype bug assignment solution based on machine learning in 2011-2016. The prototype evolved into an internal Ericsson product, TRR, in 2017-2018. TRR’s first bug assignment without human intervention happened in April 2019. [Objective] Our study evaluates the adoption of TRR within its industrial context at Ericsson, i.e., we provide lessons learned related to the productization of a research prototype within a company. Moreover, we investigate 1) how TRR performs in the field, 2) what value TRR provides to Ericsson, and 3) how TRR has influenced the ways of working. [Method] We conduct a preregistered industrial case study combining interviews with TRR stakeholders, minutes from sprint planning meetings, and bug-tracking data. The data analysis includes thematic analysis, descriptive statistics, and Bayesian causal analysis. [Results] TRR is now an incorporated part of the bug assignment process. Considering the abstraction levels of the telecommunications stack, high-level modules are more positive while low-level modules experienced some drawbacks. Most importantly, some bug reports directly reach low-level modules without first having passed through fundamental root-cause analysis steps at higher levels. On average, TRR automatically assigns 30% of the incoming bug reports with an accuracy of 75%. Auto-routed TRs are resolved around 21% faster within Ericsson, and TRR has saved highly seasoned engineers many hours of work. Indirect effects of adopting TRR include process improvements, process awareness, increased communication, and higher job satisfaction. [Conclusions] TRR has saved time at Ericsson, but the adoption of automated bug assignment was more intricate compared to similar endeavors reported from other companies. We primarily attribute the difference to the very large size of the organization and the complex products. Key facilitators in the successful adoption include a gradual introduction, product champions, and careful stakeholder analysis.

An integrated AHP-TOPSIS approach for bamboo product evaluation and selection in rural communities

This study introduces a decision support model integrating the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to select an economic tree product champion (bamboo) to benefit rural communities. An extensive literature review and expert discussions identified sixteen sub-criteria distributed across five main criteria. The study proposes four categories of bamboo products as alternatives, emphasizing community-level production capacity. The AHP determines priority weights, while TOPSIS prioritizes alternatives conducive to becoming the product champion within a community case study. The findings affirm the efficacy of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) in identifying a champion, with “Value addition potential,” “Domestic market demand,” and “International market (export) demand” identified as pivotal criteria. Bamboo culm-based products for energy-related applications emerged as the chosen product champion in a community case study in Thailand. This study offers practical implications for rural communities and potential investors in economic tree ventures, allowing the customization of decision criteria and alternatives for specific contexts. Socially, the focus on bamboo highlights diverse benefits along the entire supply chain, from upstream to downstream. The research pioneers a decision support model, providing insights into market opportunity analysis and supply chain network design based on the selected product champion.

7 Industry Leaders Share Their Insights on the Past, Present, and Future of Artificial Lift

_ In the past 25 years, the artificial lift industry has seen incredible changes, making hydrocarbon production smarter and more efficient. In this Q&A article, JPT talks with seven industry leaders from this field about its past, present, and future. This conversation showcases the technological progress such as materials, digital tools, and automation and the strategic leadership that has guided the industry to new heights. Join us as we dive into the world of artificial lift and discover the innovation and expertise shaping the future of energy. This roundtable Q&A includes the following participants: - Greg Stephenson, chief production engineer, Occidental Petroleum - Michael Romer, principal artificial lift engineer, ExxonMobil - Laura Labrador, senior production engineer, Ecopetrol, and 2023–2024 chairman of the SPE Artificial Lift and Gas Well Deliquification Technical Section - Shauna Noonan, Oxy Fellow and senior director global supply chain initiatives, Occidental Petroleum - Jose Ernesto Jaua, global product champion, SLB - Kevin Leslie, vice president artificial lift solutions, Weatherford International - Dana Meadows, global portfolio director, artificial lift systems, Baker Hughes JPT: Can you recall an experience, technical paper, or mentor that significantly influenced your early career in artificial lift? How did it shape your approach? _ Stephenson: Numerous individuals impact my early career, the most noteworthy being Herald Winkler, who was in the first class of SPE’s Legends of Artificial Lift awarded in 2014. I traveled to my first ATCE in New Orleans as a first-year petroleum engineering student. I distinctly remember walking the exhibit floor and seeing this little guy get mobbed by people asking him questions. I asked one of my fellow students, ‘Who is that guy? Tom Cruise?’ He told me, ‘No. That’s Wink.’ I then learned that Wink was one of the pioneers of gas-lift technology and wrote the first definitive book on the subject. At that moment, I realized that artificial lift might offer a viable career path for me. Eventually, I got to know him personally, first as a student and then as an artificial lift professional. One of the most impactful conversations I had with him was one in which he told me, ‘I am not a gas-lift expert. You cannot be an expert in gas lift—the field is too complex. I’m still learning things, and I’ve been doing this for over 60 years!’ That encounter taught me to be humble in approaching my craft and never assume I knew everything.

Smart bactericide based on reduced graphene oxide decorated with copper and zinc nanoparticles

Graphene oxide (GO) synthesised by modified Tour’s method was decorated with copper and zinc nanoparticles (NPs) and simultaneously reduced by sodium borohydride to obtain a nanocomposite of reduced GO with copper and zinc NPs (rGO–Cu–Zn). The nanocomposite rGO–Cu–Zn was characterised by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The rGO–Cu–Zn was tested against Xanthomonas euvesicatoria (X. euvesicatoria), which attacks tomatoes and causes bacterial spots (BSs), and compared with the commercial product Champion 50 WG. Total bacterial growth inhibition was observed for the 1% rGO–Cu–Zn, whereas Champion 50 WG at the same concentration inhibited but did not eradicate all the bacterial colonies. To evaluate the negative effect of the rGO–Cu–Zn on the molecular level, the expression of the genes associated with the action of abiotic and biotic stress factors was analysed. Gene expression in the plants treated with 10% rGO–Cu–Zn did not exhibit a noticeable increase.Graphical

Dissemination of a successful dementia care program: Lessons to facilitate spread of innovations.

Despite the effectiveness of innovations to improve the care of persons with dementia, there has been limited diffusion of these into widespread clinical practice. We aimed to identify common barriers and address them directly in the initial phase of dissemination of a successful dementia care program. Description of and early experience with a dissemination strategy of the UCLA Alzheimer's and Dementia Care Program to health care systems nationwide. We measured site-identified goals for the program and indicators of success, number of adopting sites, and participants in their programs. From January 2019 to December 2021, 80 sites expressed interest in adopting the program, 14 (18%) sites adopted it, and 10 of these sites have begun caring for patients. Another 4 sites have implemented the program as part of a randomized clinical trial. To date, over 1690 persons living with dementia and their caregivers have received Alzheimer's and Dementia Care (ADC) care at 14 adopting sites. Key lessons from the early dissemination efforts include the importance of identifying a strong product champion at the adopting site, creating a business case for adoption, training of clinical staff and adapting the model to fit local cultures and workflow, as well as recognizing the likely long length of time needed for the decision to adopt and implementation process. Despite many obstacles to dissemination, with local champions and technical assistance, successful innovations in dementia care can be implemented in diverse health systems. The ability to adopt sites to bring the program to full scale and achieve comparable outcomes to the original program remains to be determined.

Evolution of production networks and the localisation of firms: evidence from the Thai automotive industry

In this article, we compile a new data set of firms in the Thai automotive industry and discuss the localisation of both automotive parts suppliers and assemblers in Thailand. We first review the factors affecting the development and location of the Thai automotive industry and examine how Thailand came up with the strategy to promote one-ton pickup trucks as the first ‘product champion’. We argue that the government played a significant role in creating a ‘sizable’ domestic market and building the essential infrastructure, resulting in the promotion of dynamic growth and a vibrant productive capacity. Then, applying Duraton and Overman’s continuous approach, this paper examines the localisation of automotive firms. Using the spatial distribution of manufacturing establishments as a benchmark, this study finds that all categories of parts suppliers were significantly localised. Moreover, it is revealed that statistically significant localisation takes place only within 150 kilometers with respect to the bilateral distances between suppliers.

Business ethics research at the world's leading universities and business schools

AbstractThis paper explores the role of the leading universities and best‐ranked business schools in the evolution of the academic field of business ethics. An advanced bibliometric methodology is applied to publications in business ethics from the major universities of the Shanghai ARWU ranking and from the FT‐ranked business schools. The comprehensive bibliometric study encompasses multiple indicators and examines the evolution of business ethics publications over time. Business ethics research is built on two complementary interdisciplinary streams of research, philosophy, and management. The study indicates that it were not the top universities that contributed most to research advancements in the field of business ethics but second and third tier universities. This finding suggests that academic research in new subfields constitutes a niche strategy for universities and business schools to differentiate themselves. The study furthermore highlights the prominent role of the product champion or ‘idea champion’ in management research at universities. The diffusion of business ethics research illustrates the possibilities for lower ranked business schools with lower budget to excel in specialised subfields and interdisciplinary subthemes.

Electric vehicle policy in Thailand: Limitations of product champions

Thailand established herself as an automobile production and export hub, partly due to industrial policy. Targeting a particular vehicle type has successfully promoted specialisation of production and exports of pickup trucks. Past success led policymakers to continue the use of this so-called production champion policy to diversify automobile production in Thailand. Analysis of subsequent generations of product champion policy show that policy was successful in terms of promoting Thailand as a production and export location but failed to establish a dominant product champion akin to pickup trucks.

Industrial policy and automotive development: a comparative study of Thailand and Czechia

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the effectiveness of industrial policy, and the role of state capacity to implement it, by making a comparison of automotive development in Thailand and Czechia, the largest vehicle producers in Southeast Asia and Central and Eastern Europe, respectively. The development of the industry in both countries primarily relied on foreign investment, despite Czechia’s long earlier history of domestic automotive development. The countries, however, have used very different types of industrial policy. Thailand introduced a series of vertical (sector-specific) industrial policies, pursuing a proactive industrial development strategy with state intervention, continuing even under the restrictions on trade-related policy measures imposed by the WTO since 2000. In contrast, Czechia has employed mostly horizontal (non-sector-specific) industrial policies with less state intervention, influenced by the restrictions of the European Union. Although both countries achieved considerable output and export growth, Thailand has a deeper and more locally owned supply chain. Thailand’s imaginative use of de facto local content requirements in connection with its product champion policy is instructive.

From invention to innovation: the role of knowledge-intensive business services in technology commercialisation

ABSTRACT Firms often fail to shift from laboratory research to product development, and this failure is known as the Valley of Death. Although previous research has found solutions to the problem, the critical role of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in the technology commercialisation and new product development (NPD) of manufacturing firms is often neglected. On the basis of the role theory of product innovation, this study aims to establish a new and comprehensive framework to investigate the role of KIBS in NPD in manufacturing. We identify the critical roles of KIBS as mentor and director, coordinator, strategic leader and gatekeeper, sponsor, and product champion in crossing the fuzzy front end of NPD. We find that manufacturers are likely prone to transform their inventions to innovations and finally benefit from their invented products through KIBS innovative capacity and availability.

Potential normalization of an asthma mHealth intervention in community pharmacies: Applying a theory-based framework.

Effective mobile health (mHealth) interventions have been developed to support patients with their medication use, however to date few are widely used in pharmacy practice. Normalization of an intervention is essential to have a population impact, which is defined as 'the process of getting a new intervention into routine practice'. The aim of this study was to assess the normalization potential of a complex mHealth intervention for adolescents with asthma (ADolescent Adherence Patient Tool; ADAPT) in community pharmacy practice. The Normalization Process Theory (NPT), a sociological action theory, was retrospectively applied to study the normalization potential of ADAPT. NPT explains factors that promote or hinder implementation, embedding, and integration of new interventions in clinical practice. Evaluation data (structured interviews and questionnaires) of 23 pharmacists who used the ADAPT intervention were used for this study. Pharmacists understood the purpose of the ADAPT intervention and were prepared to undertake the necessary work of implementation. However changes at different levels are needed to support full normalization, such as changes in the intervention itself and changes in the pharmacist's work flow. The potential for normalization could also be enhanced by the use of product champions and appropriate reimbursement guidelines, to ensure uptake of the intervention by other pharmacists. Support from professional bodies for the use of mHealth could also promote normalization. Normalization of mHealth is a complex continuous process. The ADAPT intervention has the potential to be normalized in community pharmacy practice, but full normalization would require changes in both daily pharmacy practice and reimbursement models.

E2 日本企業におけるプロダクト・チャンピオンの探索 : 新製品開発におけるプロジェクト・マネジャーとプロダクト・チャンピオンの関係性(自由研究トラック,「産業構造転換と変革のためのプロジェクト・プログラム・マネジメント」-東日本大震災の教訓と日本復興のシナリオを探る-)

E2 日本企業におけるプロダクト・チャンピオンの探索 : 新製品開発におけるプロジェクト・マネジャーとプロダクト・チャンピオンの関係性(自由研究トラック,「産業構造転換と変革のためのプロジェクト・プログラム・マネジメント」-東日本大震災の教訓と日本復興のシナリオを探る-)

日本企業におけるプロダクト・チャンピオンの探索 : 新製品開発におけるプロジェクト・マネジャーとプロダクト・チャンピオンの関係性

日本企業におけるプロダクト・チャンピオンの探索 : 新製品開発におけるプロジェクト・マネジャーとプロダクト・チャンピオンの関係性

Product Champion for Successful Innovation- A Review of the Previous Literature and Challenge for the Future

Background: This paper aims to provide discussions on product champions that are indispensable for the implementation of innovation through reviews of previous studies, and to present the issues from previous studies and the direction of future studies. Studies on product champion (hereinafter abbreviated as PC) were pioneered by Schon in the 1960s. Although the results from many researchers have been accumulated afterwards, the analysis targets have not been unified, and various analysis results tend to be handled randomly. Methods and findings: In order to introduce new points of view on the analysis of existing PC studies, in this paper we organize previous studies, identify the issues, and propose the directions that PC studies should aim for. Conclusion: Proceeding with reviewing previous study, identification of the issues in PC field and propose of the next directions, we suggest that the progress of PC study can be accelerated and a new research overview with a more unified perspective can be established.

Emerging markets firms' catch-up strategy in new product development: cases from Chinese companies

To catch up with their counterparts in global competition, emerging market firms (EMFs) need to build their innovative capabilities for new product development (NPD). Drawing on internationalisation and knowledge management perspectives, we extend Mathews' (2006) 'linkage-leverage-learning' (LLL) framework and present an exploratory analysis of how Chinese firms as an example of EMFs overcome their resource disadvantages and exploit internationalisation opportunities in facilitating their NPD. We suggest that to enhance their NPD, Chinese firms first need to exploit external resources through linking with domestic governments and industrial clusters. Second, Chinese firms should learn from their foreign subsidiaries and hire heterogeneous R&D personnel to facilitate their NPD. Third, top management team members acting as product champions can help Chinese firms leverage their valuable resources in support of their NPD activities. This article contributes to the extant literature by identifying key drivers that facilitate the NPD of Chinese firms.

Building an innovation team

FINDING a Product Champion Volume 43 No. 1 focused on four major issues: 1) clearly articulating a statement of purpose, 2) finding executive-level support, 3) accepting input from others, and 4) knowing when to quit. Keep in mind that the focus continues on bottom-up innovation where: Innovation = Invention + Commercialization or Implementation.

Finding a product champion

In volume 42 issue No. 4; I concluded my comments regarding Mike's challenge with: as the project progresses, find a sponsor at the executive level willing to provide guidance and become the product champion among the organization's higher level managers and executives.

The New Pathways of Multiphase Flow Modeling

Multiphase Flow In the realm of enabling technologies, multiphase flow modeling has proven to be one of the most important to the oil and gas industry. Without it, nearly all subsea wells would be too costly or dangerous to develop. While working to fine-tune its offshore capabilities, developers are also busy expanding the technology’s application areas to include shale field development, hydrate remediation, and heavy oil extraction. In the 1960s, when the industry began studying how to model multiphase flow, which is the science of how liquid and gas interact inside wellbores and pipelines, little was known about the complex physics involved. Back then, an engineer’s ability to predict flow behavior was strictly limited to what could be observed at the wellhead. Over the years, the industry invented devices that could accurately calculate flow rates, velocities, and volume fractions, along with downhole temperatures and pressures. Armed with these tools, engineers and scientists had the measurements they needed to marry computational science and fluid dynamics. More than anything else, this advancement is what has allowed offshore operators to extend their reach beyond the shallow-water fields and into those thousands of feet deep. “What we have done is to make it possible for the industry to live with the complex multiphase flow problems that face them on a daily basis,” said James Brill, a multiphase flow expert who recently retired as a research professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Tulsa. “When the industry first moved offshore, they were afraid to go with multiphase flow pipelines because they did not know what was happening inside of them, or what kind of facilities they would have to have at the outlet end in order to handle the fluctuating rivals of gas and liquid.” In lieu of a complete understanding of multiphase flow, Mack Shippen, a product champion for one of Schlumberger’s top multiphase modeling programs, said early offshore explorers were forced to make conservative design decisions when building a production platform. That meant using larger than needed processing equipment and pipelines to compensate for what they did not know about the behavior of the multiphase flow. “So yes, you had a safe design but you did not have one that in today’s world would be economic,” he said, explaining that, “if it is overdesigned, then essentially money has been wasted on equipment that is more than what is necessary.” If an operator can reduce the diameter of a subsea pipeline by just 1 in. or 2 in., “the difference can be on the scale of millions of dollars in capital investment,” he said.

Supply chain of Thailand product champion: a case study of the passenger car tyre industry

The direction of Thailand logistics research is geared toward enhancing the country’s competitiveness. To achieve that, logistics research must be conducted from the perspective of the supply chain. In this paper, the supply chain of the Thailand product champion is determined. The passenger car tyre industry is found to be one of the product champions of Thailand. It has one of the highest export values, with high demand in the world market. We then analyse the flow from upstream to downstream. The proportions of rubber product flows in each area, from upstream to midstream and midstream to downstream, are exhibited. Forecasting for future productivity is also taken into account. Capacity balance in the chain is determined to be the major problem. Future locations and capacity needed for passenger car tyre production are proposed. The direction of the industry’s competitiveness is also presented in this paper.

A proposal to use iterative, small clinical trials to optimize therapeutic HIV vaccine immunogens to launch therapeutic HIV vaccine development.

The HIV cure agenda has rekindled interest in the development of a therapeutic HIV vaccine. An iterative clinical trial strategy that proved successful for the development of effective cancer chemotherapies in the 1960s may be applicable to the development of a CD8 T lymphocyte-based therapeutic HIV vaccine. However, while cancer chemotherapy development could begin with iterative clinical trials to improve the use of active drugs, the first step in therapeutic HIV vaccine design should be discovery of immunogen constructs with potential for activity and their optimization to meet the challenges of HIV-1 sequence diversity and human polymorphism in T cell antigen presentation. A strategy for doing this is discussed in this article. The proposed strategy relies on a major commitment by funding organizations to fund organized and coordinated manufacture and clinical testing of a series of first- and second-generation constructs to test basic concepts in product design. This is presented as an alternative to funding a more traditional competition among private manufacturers and product champions of individual, already designed products.