Meanings, Measures, Maps, and Models: Understanding the Mechanisms of Continuous Change

There is now considerable controversy concerning the role that incremental change plays in the process of organizational transformation. Some scholars assert that incremental change is the primary source of resistance to more radical re-orientations, while others argue that on occasion, ongoing incremental change can produce dramatic transformation. To help reconcile these competing perspectives, in this paper I report the results of an inductive study of one firm's successful attempt to improve continuously and incrementally its core manufacturing process. The principal results of this effort are: (1) to challenge the current view of the source of change in process-oriented improvement initiatives; and (2) to offer an alternative characterization of the mechanisms through which competence-enhancing, incremental change actually occurs. The theory emerging from this analysis provides one path to resolving the dilemma posed by incremental change processes that can, on occasion, produce organizational transformation, but more often limit the organization's ability to adapt to its environment.MIT Center for Innovation in Product Development under NSF Cooperative Agreement Number EEC-952914

Understanding Fire Fighting in New Product Development

Despite documented benefits, the processes described in the new product development literature often prove difficult to follow in practice. A principal source of such difficulties is the phenomenon of fire fighting the unplanned allocation of resources to fix problems discovered late in a product's development cycle. While it has been widely criticized, fire fighting is a common occurrence in many product development organizations. To understand both its existence and persistence, in this article I develop a formal model of fire fighting in a multi-project development environment. The major contributions of this analysis are to suggest that: (1) fire fighting can be a self-reinforcing phenomenon; and (2) multi-project development systems are far more susceptible to this dynamic than is currently appreciated. These insights suggest that many of the current methods for aggregate resource and product portfolio planning, while necessary, are not sufficient to prevent fire fighting and the consequent low performance.MIT Center for Innovation in Product Development under NSF Cooperative Agreement Number EEC-9529140, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company and the Ford Motor Compan

Why Firefighting Is Never Enough: Preserving High-Quality Product

In this paper, we add to insights already developed in single-project models about insufficient resource allocation and the "firefighting" and last-minute rework that often result by asking why dysfunctional resource allocation persists from project to project. We draw on data collected from a field site concerned about its new product development process and its quality of output to construct a simple model that portrays resource allocation in a multi-project development environment. The main insight of the analysis is that under-allocating resources to the early phases of a given project in a multi-project environment can create a vicious cycle of increasing error rates, overworked engineers, and declining performance in all future projects. Policy analysis begins with those that were under consideration by the organization described in our data set. Those policies turn out to offer relatively low leverage in offsetting the problem. We then test a sequence of new policies, each designed to reveal a different feature of the system's structure and conclude with a strategy that we believe can significantly offset the dysfunctional dynamics we discuss. The paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges managers may face in implementing the strategy that can prevent persistent under-allocation of resources to projects.MIT Center for Innovation in Product Development under NSF Cooperative Agreement Number EEC-952914

Capability erosion dynamics

The notion of capability is widely invoked to explain differences in organizational performance, and research shows that strategically relevant capabilities can be both built and lost. However, while capability development is widely studied, capability erosion has not been integrated into our understanding of performance heterogeneity. To understand erosion, we study two software development organizations that experienced diverging capability trajectories despite similar organizational and technological settings. Building a simulation-based theory, we identify the adaptation trap, a mechanism through which managerial learning can lead to capability erosion: well-intentioned efforts by managers to search locally for the optimal workload balance lead them to systematically overload their organization and, thereby, cause capabilities to erode. The analysis of our model informs when capability erosion is likely and strategically relevant

End-User Design

Are UML diagrams a good tool to teach middle school students how to make video games? Probably not, but what kinds end-user design aids such as mental models, scaffolding structures, examples or other kinds of objects to think we can we give to end-users in order to gradually introduce them to good programming practice

Making the Numbers? “Short Termism” and the Puzzle of Only Occasional Disaster

Recent work suggests that an excessive focus on "managing the numbers"- delivering quarterly earnings at the expense of longer-term performance-makes it difficult for firms to make the investments necessary to build competitive advantage. "Short termism" has been blamed for everything from the decline of the U.S. Automobile industry to the low penetration of techniques such as total quality management and continuous improvement. Yet a significant body of research suggests that firms that sacrifice longterm investment to manage earnings are often rewarded for doing so. This paper presents a model to help reconcile the tension between these apparently contradictory perspectives. We show that if the source of long-term advantage is modeled as a stock of capability that accumulates over time, the intensity of the firm's effort to manage short-term earnings at the expense of long-term investment can have very different consequences depending on whether the firm's capability is close to a critical "tipping threshold." When the firm operates above this threshold, aggressively managing earnings smooths revenue and cash flow with few long-term consequences. Below it, managing earnings can tip the firm into a vicious cycle of accelerating decline. Our results have important implications for understanding managerial incentives and the internal processes that create sustained advantage. Keywords: capability; short-termism; system dynamics; tipping point; resource allocatio

Making the Numbers? "Short Termism" & the Puzzle of Only Occasional Disaster

Much recent work in strategy and popular discussion suggests that an excessive focus on “managing the numbers” ―delivering quarterly earnings at the expense of longer term investments―makes it difficult for firms to make the investments necessary to build competitive advantage. “Short termism” has been blamed for everything from the decline of the US automobile industry to the low penetration of techniques such as TQM and continuous improvement. Yet a vigorous tradition in the accounting literature establishes that firms routinely sacrifice long-term investment to manage earnings and are rewarded for doing so. This paper presents a model that reconciles these apparently contradictory perspectives. We show that if the source of long-term advantage is modeled as a stock of capability that accumulates over time, a firm’s proclivity to manage short-term earnings at the expense of long-term investment can have very different consequences depending on whether the firm’s capability is close to a critical “tipping threshold”. When the firm operates above this threshold, managing earnings smoothes revenue and cash flow with few long-term consequences. Below it, managing earnings can tip the firm into a vicious cycle of accelerating decline. Our results have important implications for understanding managerial incentives and the internal processes that create sustained advantage

A new space-vector-modulation algorithm for a three-level four-leg NPC inverter

For power conversion systems interfaced to 4-wire supplies, four-leg converters have become a standard solution. A four-leg converter allows good compensation of zero-sequence harmonics and full utilization of the dc-link voltage. These are very important features when unbalanced and/or non-linear loads are connected to the system. This paper proposes a 3D-SVM algorithm and provides a comprehensive analysis of the algorithm implemented on a three-level, four-leg NPC converter. The algorithm allows a simple definition of the different switching patterns and enables balancing of the dc-link capacitor voltages using the redundancies of the converter states. A resonant controller is selected as the control strategy to validate the proposed SVM algorithm in a 6kW experimental rig

Workspaces of Mediation: How Digital Platforms Shape Practices, Spaces and Places of Creative Work

This paper investigates how online platforms co-construct spatialities of fashion design. Advancing the notion of workspaces of mediation, the article interlinks research on the geographies of creative work with debates on digital geography. It demonstrates that humans, online platforms, and spatiality are interrelated and come together in the constitution of everyday spatial encounters and experiences. Applying methods from digital ethnography, in-depth interviews, on/offline participant observations, and an analysis of Instagram accounts were conducted. The article demonstrates that Instagram has become a powerful non-human actor that reconfigures (i) practices, (ii) spaces, and (iii) places of work. With the notion of workspaces of mediation, the paper argues that spaces of work must go beyond concepts of hybrid space and beyond the geotag. Instead, mediated workspaces are constituted as a complex entanglement of online and offline socio-spatial relations and practices.Peer Reviewe