Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Modelling in Management, Volume 5, Issue 2
Welcome, this is a longer issue of JM2. We have quite a broad scope of research topics dealing with modelling processes – competitive heterogeneity, enablers of Six Sigma quality costs elements, success factors for research and development (R&D) organisations, barriers to supply chain collaboration and crop production value. A very good mix of conceptualisations and modelling approaches.
In the first article of this issue, Wayne S. DeSarbo, Qiong Wang and Simon J. Blanchard (an other authors) examine the nature of competition within an industry by proposing and examining three separate sources of competitive heterogeneity: the strategies that industry members use, the performance they obtain, and how effectively the strategies are utilized to obtain such performance results. To do so, they devise a restricted latent structure finite mixture model that can quantify the contribution of these three potential sources of heterogeneity in the formulation of latent competitive groups within an industry. They illustrate this modelling framework with respect to COMPUSTAT strategy and performance data collected for public banks in the USA. They show how traditional conceptualizations via strategic or performance groups are inadequate to fully represent the intra-industry heterogeneity.
The successful implementation of Six Sigma relies on several factors. Ashish Soti, Ravi Shankar and O.P. Kaushal studied the enablers of Six Sigma and established the relationship among these factors. First, Soti identified 11 enablers from literature survey and experts’ opinions. These factors were then validated by structured questionnaire survey. Finally, interpreting structural modelling was used to obtain structural relationship among these enablers. The findings in study provide Six Sigma researchers and practitioners critical insights.
Shuki Dror presents an innovative research methodology that enables a company to realign its quality cost elements in order to improve implementation of its quality system. The methodology combines the following methods: the house of quality costs (HOQC) method, which translates the desired improvement in failure costs (internal and external) into controllable efforts (prevention and appraisal costs) and ranks them by relative importance, the analysis of variance method, which supports selection of vital quality costs, and the enhanced control chart method, used to validate the strong causal linkage in HOQC.
The methodology applied in this work proved itself capable of effectively handling realignment of quality cost elements. The methodology emphasises adopting a systematic approach for selecting the vital controllable efforts in response to vital failure costs, as well as for detecting changes in the quality cost structure.
R&D is important process to create new knowledge for sustaining organizational as well as national competitive advantage. To tune the performance of the national R&D organizations, the R&D managers need to identify the internal as well as the external factors that may affect the performance of national R&D organizations in India. Jyoti, D.K. Banwet and S.G. Deshmukh conducted structural equation modelling analysis. Factors such as top management commitment, organization culture and human resource focus, R&D project management skills, and customer focus and market orientation were found to be the critical factors for the national R&D organizations in India in order to improve their performance.
Firms endeavour to develop value-added processes that deliver innovative,high-quality and low-cost products on time. One of the ways to realize this goal is to collaborate with supply chain partners. However, the lack of awareness about the existence of barriers hinders this realization. A. Ramesh, D.K. Banwet and R. Shankar identified and ranked the barriers of supply chain collaboration in apparel retail industry, and then established the relationships among these identified barriers. Although the model was developed from a few apparel retail organizations, the model can be generalized to other retail organizations, too. The major contribution of this study is to identify various barriers of supply chain collaboration, which would help decision makers to focus on these barriers in a hierarchical order.
Finally, Donald N. Stengel, Priscilla Chaffe-Stengel and Kathleen E. Moffitt investigate the impact of Citrus Tristeza on the commercial value of fruit produced by naval orange trees. The counted fruit are converted into a dollar value using a standardised pricing matrix and then normalised as a ratio of the tree value compared to trees in the same orchard and year that were free of virus. Statistical tests determine if trees at various stages of infection have different production value than virus-free trees.
We both hope that you will enjoy reading this myriad of research topics,methodological insights and contextual challenges.
All the best.
Luiz Moutinho, Kun Huang Huarng
