Improvement Trajectories in Operations and Technology Management: Concept, Process and Content Issues

This study introduces a framework for the analysis of improvement trajectories in operations and technology management. In the first part, the concept of improvement trajectories in operations is defined, grounding on the evolutionary economic issues of path dependence and dynamic capabilities. In the second part, seven dimensions of the process and content of improvement trajectories are reviewed and integrated into a research framework, and research propositions are built to ground further research on the subject. In the third part, the roles of implementation history, innovation capabilities, and strategic orientation as determinants of improvement trajectory success are discussed.

[1]  John K. McCreery,et al.  Competitive Priorities in Operations Management , 1998 .

[2]  Steven C. Wheelwright,et al.  Competing through development capability in a manufacturing-based organization , 1992 .

[3]  P ? ? ? ? ? ? ? % ? ? ? ? , 1991 .

[4]  D. Garvin.  Manufacturing Strategic Planning , 1993 .

[5]  Shaker A. Zahra,et al.  Transforming technological pioneering into competitive advantage , 1995 .

[6]  K. Euske,et al.  Leveraging Management Improvement Techniques , 1996 .

[7]  R. Hayes.  Restoring our competitive edge , 1984 .

[8]  E. James Flynn,et al.  INNOVATION HISTORY AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: A RESOURCE-BASED VIEW ANALYSIS OF MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS. , 1995 .

[9]  Ibo van de Poel,et al.  On the Role of Outsiders in Technical Development , 2000 .

[10]  David M. McCutcheon,et al.  A Leveraged Learning Network , 1998 .

[11]  Gerhard Schewe,et al.  Imitation as a strategic option for external acquisition of technology , 1996 .

[12]  D. B. Montgomery,et al.  First‐mover advantages , 1988 .

[13]  F. Caeldries.  Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution , 1994 .

[14]  D. Leonard-Barton.  CORE CAPABILITIES AND CORE RIGIDITIES: A PARADOX IN MANAGING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT , 1992 .

[15]  Jack R. Meredith,et al.  Organized manufacturing for superior market performance , 1992 .

[16]  Kingshuk K. Sinha,et al.  Predicting the trajectory of manufacturing quality with work team implementation , 2000 .

[17]  John Bessant,et al.  Learning tomanage innovation , 1996 .

[18]  George Jr. Stalk Hout.  Competing Against Time : How Time Based Competition Is Reshaping Global Markets , 2002 .

[19]  J. Bessant,et al.  High-involvement innovation through continuous improvement , 1997 .

[20]  Massimo G. Colombo,et al.  Firm size and the adoption of flexible automation , 1990 .

[21]  P. David.  Why are institutions the ‘carriers of history’?: Path dependence and the evolution of conventions, organizations and institutions , 1994 .

[22]  John Paul Macduffie,et al.  Creating Lean Suppliers: Diffusing Lean Production through the Supply Chain , 1997 .

[23]  Jeanette Knopp,et al.  Combining Different Approaches to Company Development , 1995 .

[24]  C. Gopinath,et al.  LINKING COMPETITIVE STRATEGY AND MANUFACTURING PROCESS TECHNOLOGY , 1995 .

[25]  S. Liebowitz,et al.  Path Dependence, Lock-In, and History , 1995 .

[26]  J. D. Couger.  E pluribus computum , 1986 .

[27]  Roberto Filippini,et al.  Improvement initiative paths in operations , 1996 .

[28]  Andrew P. McAfee,et al.  A path-based approach to information technology in manufacturing , 2000, Int. J. Manuf. Technol. Manag..

[29]  D. North.  Competing Technologies , Increasing Returns , and Lock-In by Historical Events , 1994 .

[30]  B. Twiss.  Managing Technological Innovation , 1974 .

[31]  David Upton,et al.  Mechanisms for Building and Sustaining Operations Improvement , 1996 .

[32]  S. Athey,et al.  Product and Process Flexibility in an Innovative Environment , 1995 .

[33]  Stephen Evans,et al.  Improving co‐development through process alignment , 2000 .

[34]  Christopher A. Voss,et al.  Trajectories of Change , 1998 .

[35]  Andrew C. Inkpen.  Creating Knowledge through Collaboration , 1996 .

[36]  Pervaiz Ahmed.  Sustaining a culture of discontinuous innovation , 1999 .

[37]  T. Hill.  Manufacturing Strategy: The Strategic Management of the Manufacturing Function , 1985 .

[38]  M. Tushman,et al.  Technological Discontinuities and Dominant Designs: A Cyclical Model of Technological Change , 1990 .

[39]  J. Ottosson,et al.  State Intervention and the Role of History - state and private actors in Swedish network industries , 2000 .

[40]  Stephen Hill,et al.  The theory of the growth of the firm , 1981 .

[41]  E. Penrose.  The theory of the growth of the firm twenty-five years after , 1960 .

[42]  R. Grant.  The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation , 1991 .

[43]  M. H. Small,et al.  Advanced manufacturing technology: Implementation policy and performance , 1997 .

[44]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[45]  J. Heineke,et al.  Business Process Reengineering: Improving in New Strategic Directions , 1994 .

[46]  Khim L. Sim,et al.  An empirical examination of successive incremental improvement techniques and investment in manufacturing technology , 2001 .

[47]  N. Foss.  The Challenge of Business Systems and the Challenge to Business Systems , 1999 .

[48]  Aleda V. Roth,et al.  Optimal Acquisition of FMS Technology Subject to Technological Progress , 1991 .

[49]  C. Voss,et al.  Differences in manufacturing strategy decisions between Japanese and Western manufacturing plants: the role of strategic time orientation , 1998 .

[50]  Chan S. Park,et al.  An economic evaluation model for advanced manufacturing systems using activity-based costing , 1988 .

[51]  Clinton O. Longenecker,et al.  The human side of manufacturing improvement , 1997 .

[52]  Andrea Bassanini.  Localized Technological Change and Path-Dependent Growth , 1997 .

[53]  W. Arthur,et al.  INCREASING RETURNS AND LOCK-IN BY HISTORICAL EVENTS , 1989 .

[54]  Kenneth K. Boyer,et al.  MANUFACTURING PROACTIVENESS AND PERFORMANCE , 1994 .

[55]  David Tranfield,et al.  The Implementation Cube for Advanced Manufacturing Systems , 1989 .

[56]  Martin Fransman,et al.  Information, Knowledge Vision and Theories of the Firm , 1994 .

[57]  P. Schoemaker,et al.  Strategic assets and organizational rent , 1993 .

[58]  Gilmore Jh,et al.  The four faces of mass customization. , 1997 .

[59]  Jens O. Riffs,et al.  A Study of Technological-Organisational Development and Market Dynamics in Denmark and Norway , 1998 .

[60]  P. David,et al.  The economics of gateway technology and network evolution: lessons from electricity supply history , 1988 .

[61]  D. Teece,et al.  The Dynamic Capabilities of Firms: an Introduction , 1994 .

[62]  George A. Akerlof.  Path dependence, its critics and the quest for 'historical economics' , 2002 .

[63]  P. David.  Clio and the Economics of QWERTY , 1985 .

[64]  Shalini Aggarwal,et al.  Emerging hard and soft technologies: current status, issues and implementation problems , 1995 .

[65]  Follow-up Strategies for Technological Growth , 1978 .

[66]  Anders Berger,et al.  Continuous improvement: design, organisation and management , 1997 .

[67]  Ravi Kathuria.  Competitive priorities and managerial performance: a taxonomy of small manufacturers , 2000 .

[68]  J. Ettlie.  Managing Technological Innovation , 2000 .

[69]  M. Lind,et al.  A Newtonian metaphor for organizational change , 1994 .

[70]  Roberto Filippini,et al.  Sequences of operational improvements: some empirical evidence , 1998 .

[71]  E. O'Connor,et al.  Gaining Advanced Manufacturing Technologies' Benefits: The Roles of Organization Design and Culture , 1992 .

[72]  Eban Goodstein,et al.  The Economic Roots of Environmental Decline: Property Rights or Path Dependence? , 1995 .

[73]  Ramchandran Jaikumar,et al.  New technologies, obsolete organizations , 1988 .