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Abstract:
This paper defines four basic business models based on what asset rights are sold (Creators, Distributors, Landlords and Brokers) and four variations of each based on what type of assets are involved (Financial, Physical, Intangible, and Human). Using this framework, we classified the business models of all 10,970 publicly traded firms in the US economy from 1998 through 2002. Some of these classifications were done manually, based on the firms' descriptions of sources of revenue in their financial reports; the rest were done automatically by a rule-based system using the same data. Based on this analysis, we first document important stylized facts about the distribution of business models in the U.S. economy. Then we analyze the firms' financial performance in three categories: market value, profitability, and operating efficiency. We find that no model outperforms others on all dimensions. Surprisingly, however, we find that some models do, indeed, have better financial performance than others. For instance, Physical Creators (which we call Manufacturers) and Physical Landlords have greater cash flow on assets, and Intellectual Landlords have poorer q's, than Physical Distributors (Wholesaler/Retailers). These findings are robust to a large number of robustness checks and alternative interpretations. We conclude with some hypotheses to explain our findings.

business models, performance

Abstract:
There has been a lot of research addressing the relationship between Information Technology (IT) investments and productivity. Most of the work has been based on firm-level metrics such as total IT investment. We present what we believe is one of the first attempts to create a systematic methodology to assess the impact of IT in business process performance metrics. Our approach builds on the MIT Process Handbook as a basis to both guide the analysis and capture the resulting knowledge for future use. We will present preliminary results on how to use such methodology to analyze the impact of a given IT technology, namely RFID (radio frequency identification devices), in performance metrics of a consumer packaged goods company. We are interested in looking at how IT may impact performance metrics such as productivity, cost and value. We believe our methodology can help CPG companies prioritize their investments. We show results on how the specialization features of the MIT Process Handbook can incorporate performance metrics to help assess such investments in RFID.

IT investments, IT productivity, Information Technology, MIT Process Handbook

Abstract:
This paper describes a new systematic method for exploring and evaluating alternatives of a product design process for differentiated products - those that share some elements but also have differentiating features. Based on coordination theory, the method clarifies the opportunities and risks of process alternatives. The method consists of three steps:
1) finding applicable differentiation approaches, 2) finding applicable patterns of process coordination, and 3) evaluating total costs of the process alternatives.

We categorized the differentiation approaches as a taxonomy of design processes; the taxonomy includes approaches of adding or removing differentiating elements or sorting results. We also categorize how these are limited by type of interim resource in a design process. We outline three patterns of process coordination and how this interacts with the choice of product differentiation approaches. We show how the process alternatives vary in the success rate of the coordination and how this probability affects total cost of executing a design process. It raises an awareness of the importance of managing dependencies between activities, which many process analyses don't focus on.

We also show how to calculate the success rate associated with varying the coordination cost or how to calculate coordination cost associated with a desired success rate. These calculated values indicate "break-even points" for the cost of the process.

Coordination Theory, Product Design, Process Analysis

Abstract:
Simulation modeling can be valuable in many areas of management science, but is often costly, time-consuming and difficult to do. This paper describes a new approach to simulation that has the potential to be much cheaper, faster and easier to use in many situations. In this approach, users start with a very simple generic model and then progressively replace parts of the model with more specialized "molecules" from a systematically organized library of predefined components. At each point, the system lets the user select from lists of possible substitutions, and then either automatically creates a new running model or shows the user where further manual changes are needed.

The paper describes an extensive experiment with using this approach to construct system dynamics models of supply chain processes in a large manufacturing company. The experiment included developing a comprehensive catalog of system dynamics molecules analogous to the periodic table in chemistry. The experiment also included developing an innovative "tangible user interface" with which users can create simulation models by moving actual physical objects around on a special table called a Sensetable. The paper concludes with a discussion of the benefits and limitations of this approach and how it could be used in other situations.

Simulation Modeling, Replacement, Specialization Hierarchy, Molecules, Tangible User Interface

Abstract:
We investigated how sales representatives (Salespeople) and members of a service business development department (the Service Dept.) communicated within an informal online community, particularly in relation to their use of other informal and formal communication channels. We found that while the Service Dept. developed formal communication channels in order to fulfill the information needs of Sales, some types of information were apparently more effectively provided by the online community. The result suggests that an online community may play an important role both in making visible information needs, and in providing information that can't be better provided by the formal organization.

online communities, sales

Abstract:
In this paper we analyzed an online community based on a mailing list that was created as an internal marketing tool for launching a new network service. We focused on the change in communication over time among dispersed Sales representatives and the employees in a centralized Service Department. We conducted a genre analysis based on content (what), purpose (why), timing (when), form (how) and participants (who communicates to whom) (Yates and Orlikowski, 2002). Analyzing the participants in a genre and how those participants changed over time highlighted a shift from centralized to dispersed, peer-to-peer communication in this community. We highlight implications both for genre analysis and for organizational practice.

peer-to-peer, genre analysis