Indirect capabilities and complex performance:implications for procurement and operations strategy

Purpose – The paper argues that indirect capabilities – the ability to access other organizations’ capabilities – are an important and neglected part of firm strategy in PCP (Procuring Complex Performance) settings, and that this is especially so if these settings are treated as genuinely complex, rather than merely complicated. Elements of indirect capabilities are identified. Design/methodology – This is a theoretical paper, drawing on complexity notions and Penrose’s analysis of endogenous innovation to drive a disequilibrium-oriented discussion of the capabilities required by firms in a PCP setting. Findings – Six inter-related elements of indirect capabilities are proposed and discussed: IT infrastructure; boundary management practices; contracting; interface artefacts; valuing others’ capabilities and relating direct to indirect capabilities. These are important in PCP settings and in other operations and supply settings characterised by complexity. Originality/value – This paper reconsiders the way complexity has been treated in the PCP literature, and develops an extended discussion of the notion of indirect capabilities. It potentially provides the basis for an operations and supply strategy more attuned to the demands of shifting inter-organizational networks

Are knowledge-intensive business services really co-produced?:overcoming lack of customer participation in KIBS

Customer participation is considered necessary for the delivery of effective Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS). However, for different reasons, KIBS customers are not always able to participate actively during the delivery process and providers have to compensate for this in order to deliver effective solutions. We conducted case-based research to understand how KIBS providers do this. The three cases studied suggest that, besides customer education, providers use preventive and problem-management strategies to counterbalance limited customer participation. These three strategies are used in a complementary way and are enabled by the expertise of KIBS providers. They also contribute to the delivery of effective KIBS. The research outcomes refine the existing knowledge of customer participation in KIBS, which has so far focused mainly on the causes and consequences of it and overlooked other related issues. Our results also suggest that practitioners could use the level of customers' ability and willingness to participate as segmentation criteria and then define their strategies and allocate their resources accordingly

Coordination in service supply networks:insights from “Airport Collaborative Decision Making”

We examine the relationship between governance (alignment of interests) and coordination (alignment of actions), of mutually-dependent organisations in extended service networks. Research on governance has explored the interplay of contractual and relational mechanisms, mainly in dyads. In service operations management, interaction between provider and customer is understood as ‘co-production of value’. We examine the link between the two, and how coordination is achieved among several closelyinterdependent organisations on a single site. ‘Collaborative Decision-Making’ practices in airport operations provides the setting for the study, and we propose an initial framework to explain the role of information sharing and coordination mechanisms

Decoupling Interrupts From Virtual Machines in Smalltalk

Architecture must work. Given the trends in client-server epistemologies, statisticians dubiously note the evaluation of e-commerce. WIN, our new solution for introspective communication, is the solution to all of these problems

Manufacturing strategy, product customisation and the marketing/manufacturing interface

The manufacturing strategy literature is reviewed and it is found to centre on content and process models. However, a number of other issues are present in the literature whose relationship to the central process and content models is less clear. These include the trade-off, focus, flexibility, and generic manufacturing strategies. It is noted that the manufacturing strategy literature does not fully address product customisation. The literature relating to the interface between marketing and manufacturing is found to concentrate either on the identification of conflict areas, or on strategic reconciliation between the functions. Writers in this field do give greater emphasis to product customisation. A case-study method is adopted for the research and the design involves four firms in varying industries. The firms manufacture fork-lift trucks, microswitches, telephone switching systems and diaries, respectively. The case-studies comprise quantitative and qualitative data, and each case chapter includes case-specific analysis. The analysis of all the cases finds that customisation has a very important effect on manufacturing performance. The firms have inconsistencies within their manufacturing strategies, but these are found to rest not only on the firms' manufacturing products with different volume requirements in the same plant, but also on the fact of some of the products being custom-designed. The interface between marketing and manufacturing is found to be more complex and variable than the literature would suggest. The role that customised products play in relationships with customers also varies, although this is inconsistently recognised by the firms.Based on the case-data, a model of product customisation is proposed. This incorporates customisation, flexibility, product architecture, the manufacturing strategy trade-off and the competitive criteria

Which microbial factors really are important in Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections?

Over the last two decades, tens of millions of dollars have been invested in understanding virulence in the human pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. However, the top 'hits' obtained in a recent TnSeq analysis aimed at identifying those genes that are conditionally essential for infection did not include most of the known virulence factors identified in these earlier studies. Instead, it seems that P. aeruginosa faces metabolic challenges in vivo, and unless it can overcome these, it fails to thrive and is cleared from the host. In this review, we look at the kinds of metabolic pathways that the pathogen seems to find essential, and comment on how this knowledge might be therapeutically exploited.Work in the MW laboratory is funded by the BBSRC (grant BB/M019411/1) and the EU (Marie Curie Educational Training Network “INTEGRATE”). AC is supported by the Cambridge Trusts. EM is funded by a studentship from the MRC. SB is supported by a Hershel Smith studentship. E-FU is a clinical research fellow funded by the CF Trust (UK), Papworth Hospital NHS Trust and the Wellcome Trust. YA is supported by a scholarship from the Yosef Jameel Foundation. YB is an EPSRC-funded PhD student. Work in the laboratory of AF is supported by the Wellcome Trust. Work in the DRS laboratory is supported by the EPSRC.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Future Science Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.2217/fmb.15.10

Quantum teleportation on a photonic chip

Quantum teleportation is a fundamental concept in quantum physics which now finds important applications at the heart of quantum technology including quantum relays, quantum repeaters and linear optics quantum computing (LOQC). Photonic implementations have largely focussed on achieving long distance teleportation due to its suitability for decoherence-free communication. Teleportation also plays a vital role in the scalability of photonic quantum computing, for which large linear optical networks will likely require an integrated architecture. Here we report the first demonstration of quantum teleportation in which all key parts - entanglement preparation, Bell-state analysis and quantum state tomography - are performed on a reconfigurable integrated photonic chip. We also show that a novel element-wise characterisation method is critical to mitigate component errors, a key technique which will become increasingly important as integrated circuits reach higher complexities necessary for quantum enhanced operation.Comment: Originally submitted version - refer to online journal for accepted manuscript; Nature Photonics (2014

Multifunctional supramolecular polymer networks as next-generation consolidants for archaeological wood conservation.

The preservation of our cultural heritage is of great importance to future generations. Despite this, significant problems have arisen with the conservation of waterlogged wooden artifacts. Three major issues facing conservators are structural instability on drying, biological degradation, and chemical degradation on account of Fe(3+)-catalyzed production of sulfuric and oxalic acid in the waterlogged timbers. Currently, no conservation treatment exists that effectively addresses all three issues simultaneously. A new conservation treatment is reported here based on a supramolecular polymer network constructed from natural polymers with dynamic cross-linking formed by a combination of both host-guest complexation and a strong siderophore pendant from a polymer backbone. Consequently, the proposed consolidant has the ability to chelate and trap iron while enhancing structural stability. The incorporation of antibacterial moieties through a dynamic covalent linkage into the network provides the material with improved biological resistance. Exploiting an environmentally compatible natural material with completely reversible chemistries is a safer, greener alternative to current strategies and may extend the lifetime of many culturally relevant waterlogged artifacts around the world.This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final version is available from PNAS at http://www.pnas.org/content/111/50/17743.long