DocumentCode
875701
Title
Innovation from differentiation: pollution control departments and innovation in the printed circuit industry
Author
King, Andrew
Author_Institution
Dept. of Manage. & Operations Manage., New York Univ., NY, USA
Volume
42
Issue
3
fYear
1995
fDate
8/1/1995 12:00:00 AM
Firstpage
270
Lastpage
277
Abstract
Theory predicts that managers will create specialized boundary-spanning departments to insulate a firm from changing surrounding conditions. Theory also predicts such insulating structures will inhibit adaptation. The author has found that in response to changing water-pollution regulation, top managers indeed created specialized pollution-control departments to insulate the existing process, but some of these departments acted not as insulators but as conduits for information and thereby helped both to improve the efficiency of the production process and to reduce pollution. The special role of these departments allowed unique access to and perspective on information from inside and outside the organization and gave them an incentive to use this information to improve core processes. Thus, this research suggests that pollution-control departments may belong to a class of boundary spanners that represent a special case for organizational design
Keywords
electronics industry; printed circuit manufacture; research and development management; technology transfer; water pollution control; boundary-spanning departments; information transfer; innovation; managers; organization; pollution control; printed circuit industry; production process; water-pollution regulation; Environmentally friendly manufacturing techniques; Industrial control; Innovation management; Insulation; Pollution control; Printed circuits; Production; Protection; Regulators; Technological innovation;
fLanguage
English
Journal_Title
Engineering Management, IEEE Transactions on
Publisher
ieee
ISSN
0018-9391
Type
jour
DOI
10.1109/17.403745
Filename
403745
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