Top Management In Order Research Articles

Analysis of barriers affecting Industry 4.0 implementation: An interpretive analysis using total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) and Fuzzy MICMAC

The purpose of this study is to build a structural relationship model based on total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) and fuzzy input-based cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) for analysis and prioritization of the barriers influencing the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies. 10 crucial barriers that affect the deployment of Industry 4.0 techniques are identified in the literature. Also, the Fuzzy MICMAC approach is applied to classify the barriers. The importance of TISM over traditional interpretive structural modeling (ISM) is shown in this work. Results proved that the barriers, namely IT infrastructure, lack of cyber physical systems, and improper communication models, are identified as the most dependent barriers, and the barriers of lack of top management commitment and inadequate training are identified as the most driving barriers. This study makes it easier for decision-makers to take the necessary steps to mitigate the barriers. The bottom level of the TISM hierarchy is occupied by barriers that need more attention from top management in order to be effectively monitored and managed. This study explains the steps to execute TISM in detail, making it easy for researchers and practitioners to comprehend its principles.

A Distinct Type of Online Group for Customer Knowledge Innovation: The Virtual Product User Community

Abstract Among online communities of customers there are a number of different types of group that need to be distinguished. One interesting type are virtual product user communities, i.e. company sponsored online forums where product users share usage experience and collaboratively construct new knowledge to solve technical problems. The purpose of this paper is to show that these “virtual product user communities” are a distinct type of customer group with knowledge innovation capability. The research adopts a method combining observation and content analysis of discussion threads where technical problems are solved, complemented by thematic analysis of interviews with forum members to explore its character, especially its knowledge related attributes. The paper confirms empirically that the virtual product user community is a distinct type of virtual community and can be differentiated from other virtual communities of consumers. In addition, an enhanced classification framework, extending Porter’s (2004) classic 5Ps model, is proposed to highlight knowledge-related activities in virtual communities. Of particular interest is that the findings suggest that knowledge-related activities should be considered as an important attribute in defining and classifying virtual communities. In terms of practical implications, it is recommended that the virtual product user community should be given appropriate support from top management in order to fully exploit its knowledge innovation value. Moreover, tailored facilitation strategies to promote knowledge construction activities and community development can be developed in accordance with its unique attributes. The paper precisely distinguishes one specific type of innovative virtual community consisting of product users from other online customer communities. Moreover, it outlines a revised virtual community classification framework, which can be widely applied in analysing features of online groups. Its key attribute of knowledge-related activity redirects attention to virtual communities’ knowledge innovation capabilities.

The Discreet Charm of Coordinating by Standardization

Coordination modes are the backbone of organization science but one of them, coordination by standardization, never received the attention it deserves. Standardization is most often associated with Taylorism, sometimes with the standardization of the competencies of professionals, but it is seldom seen as one of the most nuanced, subtle and effective activities in which organization members can engage. We show that standardization is often employed by top management in order to steer organizations without falling into the pitfalls of micromanagement, and that standardization is eventually brought about by low-level members of the hierarchy who manage to influence the structure of shared resources. We illustrate our points with a series of detailed examples.

Value creation during fourth industrial revolution: Use of intellectual capital by most innovative companies of the world

This study investigates the impact that intellectual capital (IC) and value creation have on a firm's performance, in relation to the leading innovative firms in the world, at the start of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. An analysis is based on the top 100 innovative companies from different countries and sectors, as indexed by Forbes in 2016, for the period between 2011 and 2015, by using the pooled OLS regression model. The Fourth Industrial Revolution characterizes the fusion of technologies, and is blurring the boundaries between physical, digital, and biological spheres. The study reveals that capital employed efficiency and human capital efficiency have a significant positive impact on a firm's performance, whereas, the relational capital efficiency and structural capital efficiency are not related to it. Findings also suggest that relational capital efficiency is positively related to the value creation of innovative firms, while all the other mechanisms of intellectual capital and Modified Value-Added IC (MVAIC), are not associated with the value creation of innovative companies. The study advocates that innovation policies are critical, and require a rigorous review from the top management in order to meet the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, that is heavily innovation-based, and requires overwhelmingly new competencies.

Examining the relationship between soft total quality management (TQM) aspects and employees' job satisfaction in “ISO 9001” Sudanese oil companies

PurposeSoft total quality management (TQM) aspects are the facets of TQM that mainly concern with the management of human resource in a way to achieve the results of employees' job satisfaction. Based on this approach, the objective of this research is to examine the relationship between the most popular five soft TQM aspects and employees' job satisfaction in “ISO 9001” certified Sudanese oil companies.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through questionnaires from employees across a total of five Sudanese oil companies owned by the government, and adopting an ISO-9001 quality program. The total population of the study consists of 1,505 permanent employees, while the sample size was 253 employees, determined by adopting a stratified random sampling technique. The multiple regression model was adopted for data analysis.FindingsThe results showed that the construct of soft TQM aspects including “top management commitment”, “employee empowerment”, “teamwork”, “training and education” and “employee involvement” explain 74% in the variance of employees' job satisfaction. Results showed positive association between soft TQM aspects and employees' job satisfaction at the 5% significance level. It was also found that each individual variable of the five soft TQM aspects has a significant positive association with employees' job satisfaction. Meanwhile, the results indicated that the most important soft TQM aspect in explaining the variability of employees' job satisfaction was the “employee empowerment” with the highest correlation coefficient (β) of (0.189).Practical implicationsThe study recommends that in order to achieve their primary goal of employees' satisfaction, HR practitioners within organizations adopting total quality programs should align their practice in such a way to enhance soft aspects of TQM. Policy makers and top management in order to gain long-term infrastructural benefits obtained from employees' job satisfaction should show a visible support to TQM programs and allocate necessary resources to train their staff in the quality management system that enhance their empowerment and involvement. The study also recommends that since soft aspects of TQM raise their job satisfaction, employees should support and conform to quality management systems within their organizations.Originality/valueThe paper focuses on soft TQM aspects’ practical implementation. The findings make a significant contribution by using ISO-certified governmental Sudanese oil companies and tested the hypothesized model entails the impact of soft TQM implementation and employees' job satisfaction.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES AND MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES AT THE PATEK PHILIPPE COMPANY

The article shows the role of the biggest watch manufacturer, the company Patek Philippe on Swiss watch market, studies advantages of this family business and its distinguishing features in comparison with international joint stock companies. Special attention was paid to investigating competitive advantages and values of corporate culture and management principles – the foundation of the company success, which developed unique watch manufacturing startling the whole world with its complicated watch mechanisms and perfect design. Such amazing details of the company Patek Philippe were described as a century guarantee for the company products, caring for customers during the longest in history service life, setting-up a museum of watch art filled with the rarest works, the biggest library on watch manufacturing and experience, knowledge and competences accumulated during 180 years of company life. The author shows the innovation, creative atmosphere supported by the company top management in order to motivate employees to develop master pieces of watch manufacturing, to put out more complicated models of watch exceeding customers; expectations. In general, the perfectionist business-model of the company was depicted, which stirs admiration and deserves interest of business community.

Analysis of the Interaction between Dividend Policy and Firm Performance in Manufacturing Sector

The purpose of this study is to investigate internal determinant factors of dividend policy in manufacturing firms. The study considers the impact of dividend payout ratio, signalling, earnings per share and risk on firm performance. This research also tries to create a link between dividend policy and firm performance. In the same way, the research is also aimed to create a link between these factors. Such as, the current link between the dividend policy and firm performance. It will elaborate this through current and previous studies as a whole. This study used primary data from the listed manufacturing firms in order to check the effects of dividend policy on firm performance. Data was collected from the primary source. The survey questionnaire was used to collect data from top management in order to highlight the impact of dividend policy on firm performance. Multi-regression analyses were undertaken to identify attributes that influence dividend policy. The results of the study demonstrate that all the variables are significant thus they have a positive impact on firm performance. The study established the findings that dividend payout, earning per share, signalling and risk positively and significantly influence the firm’s value. Moreover, companies should consider dividend policy in order to make the financial decision more efficiently. This study tells us that decisions about dividend policy should be made by considering other variables. The study has both practical and theoretical implication for top management in order to consider the dividend policy and its impact on firm performance.

General Methods of Management the Credit Risk

This risks related to the lending activity is one of the most important risks that a financial-banking institution should manage. The improper or ineffective management of this kind of risks can have significant financial effect for the respective institution. Therefore, the top management has a very important role to ensure the credit risk management framework that comply both with the shareholders’ expectation and also fulfil the regulatory requirement imposed by the supervisory authorities. This means need to establish proper systems, norms/procedures, and qualified staff that can assure the adequate management of the specific Credit risks. In this paper we intended to present an overview of the main elements related to the administration of credit risks that the management of financial-banking institutions should take into account. We took into account the common sources of the major credit related problems, the phases of the credit risk management, the general methods used by most of the banks in the monitoring of the credit portfolio and finally we included also strategical considerations that should be contemplated by the top management in order to properly manage the credit risk and to avoid as much as possible unexpected/unwanted situations.

A strategic management framework of tangible and intangible assets

This article is aimed at supporting the management in the strategic planning of investments on critical value drivers, taking into consideration their impact on competitive advantage and the cumulative investments made on them. We describe a framework through a step-by-step procedure. No previous strategic management framework has adopted a holistic approach to the strategic analysis of value drivers. In fact, unlike many other strategic management models, our framework adopts a competitive advantage perspective considering both the wholeness of organizational value drivers and the interdependencies among the value drivers. Managers are asked to make pairwise comparisons that are synthesized through the analytic network process. The outputs of the synthesis are analyzed both qualitatively (synoptic analysis) and quantitatively (Spearman’s and Kendall’s non-parametric rank correlation coefficients). The analysis of the resulting values turns in useful strategic suggestions for the top management in order to enhance the organizational strategic coherence.

Developing an Executive Information Site Monitoring System

Progress monitoring and control is one of the most important tasks of management project. Basically, construction works produce a lot of information that were required by top managements of construction organizations to track the work progress on site. A recent issue highlighted by top managements is inefficiency in obtaining information from project site on time. Hence, the focus of this research is to establish a computerized information system that can be utilized by top management in order to evaluate the construction progress. The aim of this research is to develop a computerized project progress monitoring entitled Executive Information Site Monitoring System (EISMS). In order to develop EISMS, Classic Waterfall Model has been considered as a basis for system development. The development process started by identifying system requirements, followed by EISMS proposal, EISMS design, EISMS implementation, and ended up with system validation and verification. In conclusion, EISMS was successfully developed and implemented during construction phase which allows top management of construction organization to monitor the construction site progress more efficiently and helps them in the decision making and taking timely appropriate action.

Understanding the Process of Transitioning to Customer Value Management

Customer Value Management (CVM) has emerged as an important vehicle for customer retention in business markets. Supplier firms under increasing pressure from relentless competitive forces are seeking to retain and grow the share of business from profitable existing customers as a means of finding a way out of downward spiraling price pressures. While a lot has been written in academics about the importance of CVM, several gaps remain on understanding how a large company actually undertakes this journey. Crafting competitive value chains and focusing on steams of competition are also emerging as important agenda for supplier firms since increasingly, the end customer is no longer willing to pay for inefficiencies in the value chains. In this context, the challenge for a supplier firm in business markets is no longer restricted to getting its own operations in order, but additionally it must ensure that multiple interfaces that exist across the entire value chain all the way until the end customer are streamlined so that the value chain is free of value drains and every meaningful opportunity to create value is exploited. In this paper we present the experiences of the India-based Tata Steel, in implementing CVM across fifteen select customers. This has enabled it to successfully come out of the commodity trap that it found itself some two years ago. The company has been assessed at a score of over 650 over the last three years on the equivalent of the Malcolm Baldrige business excellence assessment, crossing 700 in the most recent year. Tata Steel is one of India's most respected companies and among the top steel manufacturers in the world (as rated by World Steel Dynamics, USA). The paper begins with an overview of existing research in the area of CVM, covering the important aspects of customer loyalty, customer relationships, trust as an antecedent for relationships, value as a cornerstone of business markets, and importance of the supplier firm focusing on the value chain. While one part of the challenge to the supplier firm is to find avenues to create and deliver unique value to its customer firms, an equally formidable challenge is to obtain equitable return for value delivered. This is where value sharing through integrative negotiations between the supplier and customer firms becomes central. We conclude that current understanding on value creation and value sharing is at a preliminary stage. This is the gap that the paper seeks to address, based on the actual experience of the company in implementing CVM. We present several lessons that may be useful to large firms seeking to embark on the CVM journey. Indeed, reorienting a large company to implement CVM is a huge challenge, as the task is akin to 'turning around an oil tanker on the high seas.' One of the key lessons learnt is that CVM is a never-ending journey that requires the long-term commitment of the top management in order to be successful. The paper presents a framework for mapping the various ideas generated in the CVM implementation process, and attempts to build a value sharing methodology based on CVM experience of the company. We conclude with several challenges that the company has to grapple with in its further progress on its CVM journey. One of the important challenges is addressing value drains and discovering new value creation avenues along all the interfaces between the various firms constituting the value chain, all the way until the end customer.

The Incentive Effects of Accounting Based Long‐Term Performance Plans

Long‐term performance contracts are awarded to top management in order to provide incentives to maximize shareholder value. We test the incentive hypothesis using 350 firms, one half of which has adopted long‐term performance plans over the period 1971–80. The analysis uses performance indicators such as earnings per share (EPS), rate of return on assets (ROA), rate of return on equity (ROE), rate of return on investment (ROI), and stock returns (ASR). In addition to using a control group of firms that did not adopt plans, the test period consists of a control period (six years prior to plan adoption) and a test period (six years following plan adoption). The results support the incentive hypothesis in that all performance indicators for the test firms improved compared to prior performance, but the performance of test firms in the period subsequent to plan adoption when compared to the control firms was not significantly different.