Improving operatonal performance through the adoption timing of technological and organizational innovations
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2016-11-28
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en
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This master thesis focuses on the timing of the adoption of technological and organizational innovations and its influence on operational performance. Combining both types of innovations has been proven beneficial for manufacturing firms. However, literature on how firms should time the adoption of technological and organizational innovations is scarce. Most manufacturing firms are technologically deterministic and change its organizational social systems after introducing technologies. The learning costs that arise from this inefficient strategy could have been prevented and synergistic eff ects could be achieved when both forms are adopted in tandem and synchronized. This research attempts to look into this relationship and compares the sequentia! technological deterministic approach with the synchronous approach in their effect on operational performance. Operational performance is being measured wtth three relevant indicators: lead time, scrap rate and energy consumptiott Using one-way ANOVA analyses on a survey sample of 149 firms operating in the Dutch manufacturing sector, empirica! results reveal several findings. First, most firms indeed adopt technological innovations firsî when combining technological innovations and organizational innovations. However, no empirica! evidence was found for the expectation that firms would be better off with a synchronous adoption approach. In addition, a post hoc analysis reveals that energy consumption decreased for firms that adopted organizational innovations prior to technological innovations. Tuis suggests that managers of Dutch manufacturing should leam before doing and prepare its organization prior to the adoption of technology in order to reduce energy:te,lated production costs.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen