Kent Wickstrøm Jensen

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to investigate the impact of digitalized manufacturing (DM) on operational performance (OP) and the mediating role of supply chain resilience (SCRES) in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on 328 complete and useable responses to a questionnaire survey conducted from November 2022 to January 2023 among Danish manufacturers. Findings: The paper reveals a positive association between companies’ adoption of DM and OP, with SCRES mediating this relationship. Additionally, the paper identifies a moderating positive effect of demand uncertainty on the DM-OP relationship, as well as a negative moderating effect of demand uncertainty on the mediating role of SCRES. Research limitations/implications: The paper relies on responses from a single representative per company, exclusively from Danish respondents. Practical implications: Companies and governments should invest in digital transitions and SCRES to enhance OP. Managers must ensure DM systems are flexible to adapt to demand fluctuations, leveraging technological capabilities for resilience. Policymakers should support flexible digital adoption while addressing supply-side challenges through resource security initiatives. Originality/value: The paper is among the first to investigate the mediating role of SCRES on the relationship between DM and OP and how demand and supply uncertainty moderate the relationships.

Empirical investigations of how the reshoring of manufacturing is affected by Industry 4.0 technologies, supply chain disruptions, and made-in effects are rare in the extant academic literature. This paper contains an empirical analysis of how these variables affect reshoring and reshoring intentions. Results from a 2022 questionnaire survey including 152 offshoring manufacturing firms show that reshoring and reshoring intentions are associated positively with investments in automation in manufacturing, and with employee made-in. Results also showed that while Covid-19 associated disruptions increased firms’ reshoring intentions equally across firm sizes, smaller and larger firms reacted quite differently towards more well-known disruption types: larger firms decreasing reshoring intentions with higher levels of uncertainty and smaller firms increasing reshoring intentions with higher levels of uncertainty. These results point to the importance of creating consciousness about the dynamics of production localization and how firm-level and situation-specific contingencies may interfere with Industry 4.0 technology-, supply chain disruption-, and made-in effects on strategic reshoring decisions.

Purpose: Previous studies investigating the effects of using social media in the innovation processes of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) yield mixed results, and the conditions for achieving innovation benefits from social media are unclear. The present study seeks to contribute to the understanding of this topic.Design/methodology/approach: With a basis in the literature on open innovation and SMEs, this study develops a model that explains the role of social media in product innovation processes where technological focus and abilities are converted into product innovations. The model is tested through a survey of 305 Danish manufacturing SMEs.Findings: Findings show that SMEs with higher technological orientation (TO) are more inclined to use social media in their product innovation processes and that social media use explains 22.4 percent of the relationship between TO and product innovation performance. On the other hand, the data did not support the assumption that SMEs with high TO achieve higher product innovation benefits than low TO SMEs for similar levels of social media use.Practical implications: The results suggest that SMEs with lower levels of TO could increase their product innovation performance through increased use of social media in their innovation processes.Originality/value: The study provides new knowledge on the role of social media in SMEs’ product innovation processes. As the level of TO increases, the use of social media in the innovation process becomes an increasingly important mechanism for deriving the full innovation potential from technological focus and abilities.

Purpose: This study examines the relationship between small-firm managers' propensity to participate in a growth-oriented training program and their subsequent program outcome in terms of strategic reorientation. From a policy perspective, this relates to the important question of what benefit would come from recruiting managers who are normally not easily recruitable for training programs.Design/methodology/approach: A control group design including pre- and post-training surveys is used to assess the effects of a large-scale management training program. Accounting for selection bias, the difference-in-difference method, together with propensity score matching, was applied to assess average program effects. The matching-smoothing method was used to assess heterogeneity in program effects associated with participation propensity.Findings: Overall, program participation associated positively with change in strategic orientations. This effect was especially pronounced for managers with either low or medium to high inclinations for program enrollment, while diminishing in the modest to medium range.Practical implications: The findings have important practical implications for selection of target groups and recruitment strategies in relation to small-firm management training programs. From the results, recruitment strategies may effectively include managers with either high or low participation propensities, rather than aiming to “fill up” with managers with moderately low participation propensity.Originality/value: Several extant studies have examined average treatment effects from small-firm training programs. Yet there has been a lack of examination of the extent to which participation propensity modifies the effect of training on outcomes. This study brings new knowledge of the direction and magnitude of such heterogeneous training effects.

Purpose: The digital transition process is an important strategic initiative for manufacturing companies to ensure continued competitiveness. The purpose is to investigate the relationship between firms' additive manufacturing (AM) readiness and product and process innovation and how this process is mediated by firms' make-or-buy decisions regarding performing AM processes internally or buying AM services from external partners.Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a questionnaire survey including full answers from 157 small- and medium-sized manufacturing companies.Findings: Results show a positive relationship between AM readiness and both product and process innovation. Results also reveal that firms with higher readiness invest more in in-house AM, which in turn promotes innovation. There was no significant association between AM readiness and the use of external AM services. Nonetheless, buying external AM services is still associated positively with innovation.Research limitations/implications: Data in the questionnaire survey are provided by single respondents from each company and are only based on Danish respondents.Practical implications: The results indicate that firms' product and process innovation benefits from higher AM readiness derive from increased investment in in-house AM rather than from increased use of external AM services. This also signifies that firms with lower levels of AM readiness buy external AM services and derive the innovation benefits hereof.Originality/value: The paper delivers new, empirically found knowledge about how small- and medium-sized manufacturing can improve innovation by both making and buying AM services.

Purpose: Additive manufacturing (AM) is one technology among the many under the umbrella of Industry 4.0 technologies. AM is developing rapidly, and extant research reveals that the technology contains possibilities for firms to develop competitive advantages, but that it also poses several challenges to overcome before such benefits can be achieved. To provide further insight into this topic, this paper aims to analyse how a business association can disseminate knowledge and experience about AM to its members.Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on 13 interviews from 11 different organisations within an embedded single-case study of a Danish non-profit business association.Findings: The paper identifies 12 motivational factors for joining the association as well as seven perceived challenges in the current setup of the association. The paper demonstrates that barriers to the use of AM can be reduced through participation in a business association.Research limitations/implications: The paper is based on a single-case study design and does not provide a foundation for statistical generalisations. The challenges identified are biased towards the companies that are members and do not represent companies that either consciously or unconsciously are not part of the association.Practical implications: Being aware of the barriers for AM is important to optimize the benefits of joining a business association. However, operating such an association with the purpose of disseminating AM knowledge involves the inherent dilemma of protecting knowledge for the individual members, and at the same time, fostering knowledge sharing.Originality/value: The paper provides novel data on how a business association can help mitigate perceived barriers to using AM.