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Data availability statement: The data is not available. Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Entrepreneurial ecosystems have been explored widely in entrepreneurship, management and social sciences literature. The Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship (KSTE) aims to uncover the effects of information on start- ups co- located in diverse locations, such as urban areas, science and technology parks, incubators, and accelerator programs. Extant research has focused on how entrepreneurs launch start- ups and develop patents over a 5– 10 years timespan from a regional perspective. However, studies into the devel-opment processes of start- ups and the creation of entrepreneurial ecosystems in physical and virtual environments in high- tech start- ups, are limited. As a result, this paper aims to identify the development processes undertaken by high- tech entrepreneurs at the individual level and evaluate the absorption and implementation of knowledge in physical and virtual clusters within entrepreneurial ecosystems. A multiple case study of 32 start- ups that have attended incubator and accelerator programs in London, United Kingdom, is presented. Semi- structured interviews were conducted with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Founders of start- ups to propose the Model of Knowledge Spillovers and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems. The themes identified during interviews highlight the mechanisms employed by start- ups to capture tacit and explicit knowledge spillovers. Theoretically, the findings of this study contribute to the KSTE by questioning the flexibility of entrepreneurs to access knowledge without the limitation of geographical proximity to sources of knowledge. Practically, our findings provide entrepreneurs with proven mechanisms required to cap-ture tacit knowledge spillovers within entrepreneurial ecosystems and use virtual platforms to obtain explicit knowledge spillovers towards product innovation.

PurposeThe article's aim is to refine prospects for theorising in public sector accounting (PSA) research in order to capture the methodological benefits promised by its multi-disciplinarity.Design/methodology/approachThe study primarily employs a bibliometric analysis of research outputs invoking New Public Management (NPM). Applying a content analysis to Hood (1991), as the most cited NPM source, bibliographic methods and citation/co-citation analysis for the period 1991 to 2018 are mobilised to identify the disciplinary evolution of the NPM knowledge base from a structural and longitudinal perspective.FindingsThe analysis exhibits disciplinary branching of NPM over time and its imprints on post-1990 PSA research. Given the discourse about origins of NPM-based accounting research, there are research domains behind the obvious that indicate disciplinary fragmentations. For instance, novelty of PSA research is found in public value accounting, continuity is evidenced by transcending contextual antecedents. Interestingly, these domains are loosely coupled. Exploring the role of disciplinary imprints designates prospects for post-NPM PSA research that acknowledges multi-disciplinarity and branching in order to deploy insularity as a building block for its inquiries.Research limitations/implicationsCriteria for assessing the limitations and credibility of an explorative inquiry are used, especially on how the proposal to develop cumulative knowledge from post-1990 PSA research can be further developed.Practical implicationsA matrix suggesting a method of ordering disciplinary references enables positioning of research inquiries within PSA research.Originality/valueBy extending common taxonomies of PSA intellectual heritages, the study proposes the ‘inquiry-heritage’ matrix as a typology that displays patterns of theorisation for positioning an inquiry within PSA disciplinary groundings.

Purpose: This paper focusses on developing further the recent conceptual frameworks of competitive dynamics and business-to-business value ecosystems considering the changing environment of Industry 4.0 and the particular perspective of servitization. Design/Methodology/Approach: This a conceptual paper that reviews and syntheses business model concepts in relation to competitive dynamics, collaborative business ecosystems and supply chain as evolving and reshaping manufacturing and services within Industry 4.0. Findings: The transformation of organizations in light of Industry 4.0 has led to a reframing of business models and practices, such as stakeholder value and supply chain relationships cooperating within a highly dynamic environment. In an attempt to consider the implications that Industry 4.0 has, particularly from the service perspective, this work attempts to distil directions for future research. Originality/Value: Previous studies on Industry 4.0 have articulated the reasoning about the benefits of Industry 4.0, with its paradigm shift to cyber-physical systems and revised business models. The intention of this paper, is to be able to further define collaboration and value ecosystems in order to show the interdependence and integration between organisations as applied to servitization within Industry 4.0. Moreover, this paper seeks to begin to articulate how research can be conducted to determine the degree to which the change and paradigm shift has become a reality.

Addressing a suspicion that the field of Operations Management (OM) draws substantially more knowledge from non-OM journals than those journals draw from OM journals in return, we studied the citations of the top 30 research journals of interest to our field. We conducted citation analyses of the three oldest OM journals over three decades in comparison to the 27 other journals representing the fields of Management, Operations Research/Management Science (OR/MS), Marketing, Practice, and Engineering. We examined both the entire 30-year period and then each decade separately. Our suspicions were confirmed—although citations from these 27 journals to these three OM journals have increased by a factor of 7 over the three decades, we in OM still cite these journals about twenty-five times more often than they cite our journals, giving an indication of the knowledge development and flows among these fields. We then describe some challenges for the field of OM in providing more research knowledge to other fields but also some opportunities that OM should be able to capitalize on, such as our historic ties to practice and our escalating research in strategic and organizational issues.

Entrepreneurship is considered of utmost importance for national economic and industrial growth. A leading theory related to economic development is the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship (KSTE), which aims to uncover the effects that economic agents have on the creation of new companies. By following the KSTE process, companies can commercialize and implement newly acquired knowledge in the market more quickly. Typically, economic growth evaluation is conducted at the country or regional level through global monitoring indexes, assessment on the generation of patents, and identification of the number of companies created. However, since knowledge is sometimes unattached to a physical document or item, it remains necessary to clarify a taxonomy and flow of knowledge spillovers at the individual level for start-ups in their first three to five years of development from the time that the company is funded. The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss possible strategies for evaluating the effects of knowledge spillovers on start-ups in high-tech sections which, in turn, will aid the decision-making process of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs).

The Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepreneurship (KSTE) explores the effects that new knowledge and proximity have on the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities and the resultant creation of start-ups. This paper aims to identify the types of knowledge spillovers that affect entrepreneurs in the early stages of start-up development. A conceptual model is proposed, using a multi-case study approach involving High-Tech start-ups that have attended accelerator and incubator programmes in Greater London, United Kingdom (UK). The research involved 32 semistructured interviews with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and co-founders of start-up companies. Our findings suggest that entrepreneurs are influenced by various forms of knowledge spillover which assist in determining the strategic decision of the company, in terms of formation, including partnerships or alliances, allocation of Research and Development (R&D) budgets, and engagement in product innovation. Further observations confirm that High-tech start-ups focus on a fast pace of constant product innovation to cover identified gaps in the market. One significant finding is that start-ups use various technological platforms to access knowledge spillovers which challenges the ideas of geographical proximity present in existing KSTE understanding.

Purpose: This paper presents a combined multi-phase supplier selection model. The process repeatedly revisits the criteria and sourcing decision as the development process continues. This enables a structured adoption of product and production system innovation from strategic suppliers, where previously the literature purely focuses on product innovation or cost reduction. Design/methodology/approach: The authors adopted an embedded researcher style, inductive, qualitative case study of an industrial supply cluster comprising a focal automotive company and its interaction with three different strategic stamping suppliers. Findings: Our contribution is the multi-phased production and product innovation process. This is an advance from traditional supplier selection and also an extension of ideas of supplier-located product development as it includes production system development, and complements the literature on working with strategic suppliers. Specifically, we explicitly articulate the previously unreported issue of whether a supplier chosen for its innovation capabilities at the start of the new product development process will also be the most appropriate supplier during the production system development phase, when an ability to work collaboratively may be the most important attribute, or in the large-scale production phase when an ability to manufacture at low unit cost may be most important. Originality/value: The paper identifies a multi-phase approach to tendering within a fixed body of strategic suppliers which seeks to identify the optimum technological and process decisions as well as the traditional supplier sourcing choice. These areas have not been combined before and generate a valuable approach for firms to adopt as well as for researchers to extend our understanding of a highly complex process.

Entrepreneurship continues to be of the utmost importance in terms of national economic and industrial development. The formation of new companies (start-ups) encourages the creation of employment which in turn boosts economic activity. This growth, however, requires constant innovation within the start-ups. It is recognized that the process of innovation development is affected by a start-up‘s ability to capture knowledge spillovers which depends upon both external and internal factors. This paper proposes a conceptual model based on knowledge spillovers and their influence on the capture of new knowledge and its transformation into economic knowledge. We introduce and discuss various definitions, debating knowledge spillover theory, to provide a model based on classifications of cognitive and geographical proximity. Further discussion is provided against the product conceptualization process for start-ups.

Project management (PM) has been discussed in the literature as a unique ontology but has yet to establish itself as a discipline in its own right. This study seeks to identify the true coverage of PM theory through a bibliometric analysis of the PM literature from 1996 to 2012. After considering the epistemology of PM, we employ the Louvain method to discover communities in the extensive co-citation network of the literature. We identify six persistent research themes: project time management, project risk management, program management, large-scale project management, project success/failure, and practitioner development. These differ from those presented in review and editorial articles in the literature. In addition, topics missing from the PM body of knowledge (BOK), such as knowledge management, project-based organization, and project portfolio management have become more popular topics in recent years and are expected to show an increasing trend of development in the future. We argue that the tension between PM epistemology and ontology has narrowed, and we show evidence of the start of a distinct discipline.

The use of bibliometrics for the analysis of technology management is on the rise in our increasingly technological societies. Many are using these tools to document or record the rise of various technologies, making it necessary to take stock of the value and application of scientometric methods and their measures.

For several years attention has been directed to the possible value for manufacturers shifting focus downstream in the value chain. As such the topic of servitization is emerging as a distinct and prominent research area. But even with this growing significance, there is only limited prior research analysing the citation patterns in service research, and none has focused on the emergence of servitization, associated terms, and its strong cross disciplinary nature. We use bibliometric analysis to uncover the literature development in service research and identify the changing dominant research themes. Specifically, we present the outputs of the co-citation networks for three periods: 1990s (early period), 2000s (middle), and 2010s (recent) and see a shift in orientation from a narrowly focused Operations Research tradition to a more managerial and strategic emphasis that places services, and specifically the emergence of servitization, at the centre stage of strategy and value creation.

In this study, we examine what is important to strategic management researchers in different countries and investigate whether or not there is a demarcation between North American-based scholars and those established elsewhere in the native English-speaking world. We advance data in support of the argument that there is a difference of approach to strategic management research between scholars and leading journals based in North America (USA and Anglophone Canada), compared with the rest of the world. We further argue that this has implications for strategic management teaching and practice. Our analysis of strategy research in the leading journals of the strategic and general management field found that – at a methodological level– North American-based scholars and journals have a quantitative, statistically-driven partiality, whereas scholars and journals based elsewhere in the English-speaking world favor qualitative, case-based research. At an epistemological level, North American research displays a managerialist inclination, concerned with improving the management of organizations. In contrast, research conducted in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK in particular exhibits asociological partiality, interested in scrutinizing organizational meaning and social interactions. The implications may be evidenced in a more critical perspective on general management development and practice in these countries, and a performance optimizing approach in North America., In this study, we examine what is important to strategic management researchers in different countries and investigate whether or not there is a demarcation between North American-based scholars and those established elsewhere in the native English-speaking world. We advance data in support of the argument that there is a difference of approach to strategic management research between scholars and leading journals based in North America (USA and Anglophone Canada), compared with the rest of the world. We further argue that this has implications for strategic management teaching and practice. Our analysis of strategy research in the leading journals of the strategic and general management field found that - at a methodological level - North American-based scholars and journals have a quantitative, statistically-driven partiality, whereas scholars and journals based elsewhere in the English-speaking world favor qualitative, case-based research. At an epistemological level, North American research displays a managerialist inclination, concerned with improving the management of organizations. In contrast, research conducted in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK in particular exhibits a sociological partiality, interested in scrutinizing organizational meaning and social interactions. The implications may be evidenced in a more critical perspective on general management development and practice in these countries, and a performance optimizing approach in North America.

The paper investigates how Information Systems (IS) has emerged as the product of interdisciplinary discourses. The research aim in this study is to better understand diversity in IS research, and the extent to which the diversity of discourse expanded and contracted from 1995 to 2011. Methodologically, we apply a combined citations/co-citations analysis based on the eight Association for Information Systems basket journals and the 22 subject-field classification framework provided by the Association of Business Schools. Our findings suggest that IS is in a state of continuous interaction and competition with other disciplines. General Management was reduced from a dominant position as a reference discipline in IS at the expense of a growing variety of other discourses including Business Strategy, Marketing, and Ethics and Governance, among others. Over time, IS as a field moved from the periphery to a central position during its discursive formation. This supports the notion of IS as a fluid discipline dynamically embracing a diverse range of adjacent reference disciplines, while keeping a degree of continuing interaction with them. Understanding where IS is currently at allows us to better understand and propose fruitful avenues for its development in both academia and practice.

This paper reports the development of an alternative framework to help firms asses the role of additive manufacturing within their technology management strategy. Despite much recent attention, there has been little work to identify and classify the ways in which additive manufacturing or 3D printing is used as a strategic weapon for competitive advantage. It is not just a way of reducing supply chain lead time as striking examples are emerging of firms employing more radical business opportunities and innovative design techniques available. We review the existing literature on the technology application, examine the classic nozzle case study to identify previously undocumented opportunities from the technology, and add a new case of a firm with a more holistic and strategic focus. We argue that a multidimensional model is required to classify the various opportunities available and current understanding needs to be widened for firms to take full advantage.

This paper defines the notion of key inventors - those whose patenting is simultaneously highly productive and also widely cited. By implication, key inventors should be the leaders in any developing new field and we investigate the validity of the notion through an exploration of two emerging technological fields: fuel cell and nanotechnology. The nature of the two groups is compared to discuss the differences between the technological groups.

Citation analysis combined with a network analysis of co-citation data from three major operations management (OM) journals is used to reveal the evolution of the intellectual structure of the OM field between 1980 and 2006. This spans the entire time since the beginning of research journals specific to the field. Employing a bibliometric citation/co-citation analysis to investigate the foundations of the discipline enables a robust, quantitative approach to uncovering the evolution of research in OM. The study finds that the intellectual structure of the field made statistically significant changes between the 1980s, the 1990s, and the 2000s and evolved from a pre-occupation with narrow, tactical topics toward more strategic, macrotopics, including new research methods and techniques. A factor analysis identifies the 12 top knowledge groups in the field and how they change over the decades. Illustrations of the structure of the co-citations representing the field are generated from a spring-embedded algorithm that is an improvement over the standard multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) approach to illustrating the knowledge groups.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the core themes of service research by analysing citations in theInternational Journal of Service Industry Management(IJSIM). It also aims to discuss changes in the discipline's sub‐fields and identifies emerging topics.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is an empirical analysis of citations and co‐citations from theIJSIM. Network and factor analysis are used to analyse and group the data. The study is unique in performing the analysis at the individual publication level, rather than following the normal aggregated author co‐citation analysis method.Research limitations/implicationsThe study examines onlyIJISM. Future study on other top journal such asJournal of Service Researchwould provide a more complete picture on service research.FindingsThe study identifies that the core ideas of service research centred on service quality and customer satisfaction. Also identified are periphery areas which may become more significant.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this article is the use of the novel network analysis technique to analyze the 15,003 citations in the 435 articles published inIJSIMbetween 1990‐2005. This is a quantitative analysis unlike previous review articles which rely largely on the observations and reflections of pioneering researchers.

We tend to use the terms engineering management (EM) and management of technology (MOT) interchangeably. This paper tries to examine what these mean through a bibliometric study of IEEE transactions on engineering management. As well as introducing bibliometric ideas, network analysis tools identify and explore central concepts covered by EMMOT and their inter-relationships. Specific results to be presented will cover different levels of analysis and so show different dimensions which can be extracted form citation data: *Co-word terms from article keywords used to identify themes *Journal title co-citation network: link MOT to other disciplines *Individual publications co-citation networks used to show concentrations of underlying themes and how they relate. Citation patterns of publication titles show that MOT appears dominant in IEEE TEM and the discipline has a bridging role in integrating ideas from several distinct areas including innovation, NPD, strategy, organisation science and management science. The analysis further suggests that MOT essentially relates to the firm rather than policy.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper to investigate the major themes of operations management by analysing citations in IJOPM. It aims to discuss changes in the discipline's sub‐fields and identifies emerging topics.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is an empirical analysis of citations and co‐citations from IJOPM. Network and factor analysis are used to analyse and group the data.FindingsThe study demonstrates that the persistent central ideas of operations management concern manufacturing strategy, with specific interests in strategy typologies, best practices, and the resource‐based view. Other central themes are performance measurement, the case study method, and process management. The plotting of subfield trajectories shows that recent studies are seeking a more subtle understanding of operations management by considering its practice in relation to strategy, context and resources. Emerging subjects within the field include supply chain management, lean management systems, theory building from quantitative data and sustainable resource limits to capability.Originality/valueThe study is unique in performing the analysis at the individual publication level rather than following the normal aggregated author co‐citation analysis (ACA) method. The potential problems with citation/co‐citation studies are discussed.

In this paper, bibliometric (co-citation analysis) and social network analysis techniques are used to investigate the intellectual pillars of the technology management literature as reported in Technovation. Network analysis tools are also used to show that the research agenda of scholars from different parts of the world differ substantially from each other, and it is argued that such differences may have exacerbated the delays experienced in developing technology management as a respected academic discipline.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the development of the electric vehicle, technological capabilities of incumbents and would‐be new entrants in the auto industry. These are discussed with reference to US regulatory moves towards zero emission standards to provide a new framework for identifying the potential success of various types of regulation and the technological capabilities they demand.Design/methodology/approachMethodologically, a two pronged approach is adopted whereby US patents are analysed to quantitatively confirm the presented case‐based evidence on responses to emission regulation. The paper also discusses the use of patents as a means of examining technological development.FindingsThe paper shows the significant need for market protection for disruptive innovation and that a limiting factor of success in regulation occurs when radical technology is demanded.Originality/valueA new framework is presented for identifying the potential success of various types of regulation by linking to the technological capabilities they demand and identifies the significant need for market protection for disruptive innovation. This implies that a limiting factor of success in regulation occurs when radical technology is demanded.

This paper explores the introduction of electric vehicles in response to Californian regulatory pressures as an example of a disruptive technology. The central thesis is that this disruption may open the automobile market to new entrants but only if they collaborate with incumbent automobile manufacturers. This appears to support Schumpeter's argument that large incumbent firms possess innovation advantages over the small entrepreneurial entrant. However, these innovatory advantages lie in the downstream complementary assets required for success in the automobile market.

For much of the past century, the automobile sector has been dominated by a handful of oligopolistic firms, protected through path dependencies and the build up of complementary assets. But that very dominance built upon years of experience and translated into the periodic release of incrementally innovative new car designs, may now be threatened by the actions of regulators in California and elsewhere, in mandating emission friendly cars. The biggest challenge in this area has been the demand for zero emission vehicles resulting from Californian regulations. Zero emission legislation mandates the use of technologies radically different from those used in the development of internal combustion engines. Such technology acts in a disruptive manner on the existing skills base of the automobile firms, negating some of the benefits of incumbency. With little or no experience of the systems needed to develop a viable electric vehicle — batteries, electric motors and controllers — the established automobile manufacturers have struggled with a strategic question: how to incorporate disruptive elements into a mature organisation. This paper explores the nature of the regulatory threat and the strategic responses generated by the automobile firms.

We are gradually exploring the limits and potential of patents as a source of information in plotting technological development and competitive insight. However, their value in predicting commercialisation and emerging technologies is an area where tools have yet to be fully developed. This paper introduces a statistically driven patent-based method that identifies the technological portfolios in industry players. The method is tested using the case of fuel cell technology development, a technology that despite a succession of failed predictions appears to be nearing commercial introduction. The close alignment between the technology portfolios of the firms developing fuel cell technology is identified as a precursor and indicator of commercialisation.

Here we explore the role of possible disruptive technologies in the US automobile sector and the reaction of established firms to that threat. More specifically, US regulators have signalled a shift towards zero emission vehicles; threatening the hegemony of the high emission car built using conventional technology. This presents an opportunity to study the effect of regulation in shaping knowledge flows, an area somewhat neglected by innovation studies especially with regard to meeting environmental concerns. To do so, we use patent citations to explore knowledge flows in the development of the electric vehicle. Our analysis suggests that the strategic responses of the US incumbent firms have displayed a sophisticated short and long-term reaction.

Patterns of ‘inventive concentration’ in green technologies are measured and analysed using patent data on fuel cells — potentially one of the most important ‘green’ technologies. Six measures are described and tested: the coefficient of variation; the Herfindhal index; the 4-firm and 8-firm concentration ratios; the Lotka coefficient; and the Gini coefficient. Initially, the analysis focuses on US firms but becomes comparative to include Japan, Germany, UK, France, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, and Israel. This allows the level of agreement among the various measures to be assessed and the nations to be ranked in terms of the concentration of their fuel cell patent production. This sector is concentrated in all 12 nations with Canada (Sweden) exhibiting high (low) levels of concentration across all measures. These are discussed in the context of recently published international ratings of national innovative capacity along with directions for future research. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

This paper reports a study into the use of US patents to analyse responses to regulatory change in the automobile industry. Confirming that patents are a rich indicator of technological development, it focuses on the development of the electric vehicle (EV) and, in particular, the identification of networks of firms developing EVs. A key finding of the study is the way that car firms have formed links with competitors and with firms and inventors outside the automobile industry, in order to develop this technology. This contradicts the normal product development methods in the automobile industry, and is attributed to the substantially different technologies required for EVs. In addition, the limitations of defining patent searches in terms of products––rather than technologies––are discussed.

Recent innovations in 3D printing technologies and processes have influenced how products are designed, built and delivered. However, there is a significant gap in our knowledge of how 3D printing ...

Established ideas on supplier selection have not moved much from the original premise of how to choose between bidders. Whilst we have added many different tools and refinements to choose between alternative suppliers, its nature has not evolved. We move the original selection process approach forward by reporting a novel practice from the car industry where the first stage is to allow bidders to propose alternative technological solutions. After identifying the deserted technological solution, all the initial bidders are again invited to become the preferred supplier. In addition, the OEM we observed through an ethnographic embedded researcher study has refined the selection process and has two selection stages one for first supply covering tool/process developed and another later for resupply of mature parts. We report the details of the process, those involved, the criteria employed and identify benefits and weaknesses of this enhanced selection process.

This paper reports a bibliometric analysis (co-citation network analysis) of 10 journals in the management of technology (MOT) field. As well as introducing various bibliometric ideas, network analysis tools identify and explore the concepts covered by the field and their inter-relationships. Specific results from different levels of analysis show the different dimensions of technology management: · Co-word terms identify themes · Journal co-citation network: linking to other disciplines · Co-citation network show concentrations of themes. The analysis shows that MOT has a bridging role in integrating ideas from several distinct disciplines. This suggests that management and strategy are central to MOT which essentially relates to the firm rather than policy. Similarly we have a dual focus on capabilities, but can see subtle differences in how we view these ideas, either through an inwards looking lens to see how organisations function, or more outward to understand context and change in landscapes.

The paper explores the inherent relationship between stand-alone products and their technological sub-systems. The development of the electric vehicle, explored in the paper, discusses preliminary issues of radical product innovation against a backdrop of mature technological evolution.

The movement of firms towards joint ventures and collaborative projects has been a feature of the 1990s. Such agreements allow a means of spreading the costs and risks associated with new product development, sharing costly manufacturing capacity and facilities, and may also provide access to new capabilities. However, there are examples when the relationship is not a success for one of the parties involved. If firms enter joint ventures from a position of weakness or without a concerted strategy, they can become reliant on their partner. This was the case with Rover and its links to Honda. Because of financial weakness Rover’s design and manufacturing capabilities were eroded as the majority of its products were replaced with Honda developed models. This case provides important lessons and warnings for other firms seeking strategic alliances, and gives researchers an insight into the complex interaction between firms involved in such a relationship.

For the past 20 years, the field of production and operations management (POM) has tried to establish itself as a discipline distinct from operations research (OR), management science (MS) and industrial engineering (IE). Sceptics argue that POM has failed to develop its own body of literature, lacks a distinct intellectual structure and that there is little appreciation of what it stands for. In this paper we use bibliometric techniques (a factor analysis of co‐citations) to investigate the intellectual pillars of the POM literature and explore whether these are distinct from those commonly associated with its rival fields. We also use simple non‐parametric techniques to show that the research agenda of European POM scholars differs substantially from that of their North American counterparts, and argue that such transatlantic differences may have exacerbated the difficulties POM has experienced in developing as a respected academic discipline.

The long-term trend of manufacturing management to adopt "best practice" has had an expressed preference for Japanese production systems as a means of generating industrial success. While commentators have noted the lack of correlation between imitation and competitive advantage, one of the reasons for this failure—namely, the very range of operating methods among Japanese producers—has not been so fully explored. This article uses evidence from the U.K. automobile industry to illustrate the disappointing impact of Japanization and best practice, and it suggests that managers should concentrate on the development of strategic competencies and the aligning of manufacturing with corporate strategy.

Regulatory moves towards reducing vehicle emissions have not proceeded with uniform success. Some regulations have been readily fulfilled, while others receive much criticism and resistance from the automotive industry. The reasons for this lie in matching the regulatory instrument with the technological capabilities of the auto industry. This paper develops a model describing the instruments used and their effectiveness in the US. In this case, low-emission vehicles which represent an incremental developmetn of established technologies are readily accepted by manufacturers and requre controlling instruments for their intorduction. However, zero-emission vehicles are outside the boundaries of traditional automotive firms, and their development has met more resistance and support for technology development has met more resistance and needs support for technology development as part of the regulations.

(1996). Manufacturing Methods: Lessons from the Japanese Motor Industry. Asia Pacific Business Review: Vol. 2, No. 3, pp. 163-166.

The joint venture between Rover and Honda, which effectively lasted from 1980 to 1994, attracted widespread attention. Rover's importance to Britain's industrial heartland and place in a major global business were recognised, and it was hoped that collaboration could invigorate the product design and production management capabilities of an ailing national flagship. Yet both Rover and Honda ultimately failed to achieve their objectives, because of the organisational structures and corporate cultures prevailing within the companies at the time of the joint venture's formation. The origins of these embedded internal constraints are to be found in their particular histories, and, because Rover carried its legacy into the joint venture, it was prevented from boosting its core competencies. A harsh irony became apparent: Rover, entirely contrary to its strategic intentions, had become reliant on its partner.

The contribution of Just-in-Time manufacturing systems to competitive success—most notably in the case of Japanese companies, and specifically Toyota—has been widely recognised, but there has been less emphasis on the nature of these systems and their diversity. Production strategies are a response to specific market circumstances and variations in organisational capability, and they will differ with each corporate context. Whilst undergoing radical restructuring, and in transforming itself from a family-run to a professionally-managed multinational, Mazda re-thought JIT into mixed-modelproduction. As a result, it developed the means to compete effectively against Toyota and Nissan, the Japanese leaders in auto-manufacture. In broadening our understanding of JIT, Mazda stands as an object-lesson in organisational renewal, revealing how a production-based strategy has enabled this company to compete in a highly competitive industry.