Reengineering the way to do business: perspectives from standpoints of innovation, production and performance

The current special section of Engineering Management in Production and Services consists of five articles devoted to topics of managerial reporting, open innovations, CRM and its influence on organisational performance, reengineering of production processes and comparison between governance mechanisms, and supply chain performance. These topics are undoubtedly important for countries in economic transition as well as for well-developed economies.

Authors of the first paper Open innovation in the context of organisational strategy analyse the relationship between different types of corporate strategy and open innovation in the contexts of the age, size and the operational range of enterprises. Traditional and electronic forms of a questionnaire were used to research a sample of 100 randomly selected companies in Poland. The level of “openness” of innovation processes in an enterprise was determined according to a 3-point scale, namely, a closed innovator, a hybrid or semi-open innovator, and an open innovator. Enterprise strategies were classed into three main types — cost leadership, differentiation or diversification — used to achieve a competitive advantage. The results showed a strong correlation between open innovations, the cost leadership strategy and the differentiation strategy (negative correlation). The relationship was also observed between the age, size and the range of a company and the opening of innovative processes. As stated by the authors, the research aimed to fill the knowledge gap regarding the links between a particular type of strategy and the opening of innovation processes.

The second paper Managerial reporting by food production companies in Slovakia in 2017 claims that corporate reporting on non-financial information has been currently gaining much more interest compared to the past. Most food enterprises believe that performing responsibly and showing an interest in society and the environment will result in some profit and will benefit them as well as society. Thus, the study focused on managerial reporting of 2017 regarding the social and environmental effects of food companies in Slovakia. The research covered all of the food enterprises operating in Slovakia that compiled annual reports for 2017. In total, 142 annual reports were collected on economic activities in 26 subclasses in the sector. The results present a current and comprehensive reporting overview of this industry in Slovakia and reveal several shortcomings in executive reporting.

The next paper Reengineering of production processes and its impact on the financial situation and business performance of the company highlights the importance of well-planned and implemented processes in the improvement of the financial position of the business. The authors believe that the current body of knowledge is yet to provide business managers with an effective solution to monitor the impact made by reengineering on corporate financial results. Therefore, the contribution this paper makes is significant as it provides a practical application of reengineering based on the analysis, implementation and evaluation to assess the impact on the financial situation and performance of the business. The main findings of this study support the initial view that reengineering of production processes could most probably lead to increased performance and value to a company, specifically with regards to its financial situation.

The fourth paper CRM influence on organisational performance — the moderating role of IT reliability aims to verify the role of IT reliability as the factor potentially strengthening the CRM influence on organisational performance and conclude whether the IT reliability is indeed an important factor shaping the CRM ability to generate value for an organisation. The research was carried out based on a survey of 558 entities in Poland and 564 in Switzerland. The research clearly showed that IT reliability is a moderator of the relation between CRM time-of-use and the organisational performance. The existing IT solutions should support CRM, and with such support, this management method will positively impact organisational performance. This conclusion seems to be an important contribution to the studied field, filling the research gap concerning the mechanism of IT support for CRM.

The final paper Examining the link between the governance mechanisms and supply chain performance — an empirical study within the triadic context focuses on the importance of governance in the supply chain process. The study showed that the triadic supply chains significantly differentiate in terms of the modes of governance. In addition, findings also indicated that the triadic supply chains that follow the network governance mode consider their performance to be significantly higher in comparison to the supply chains that do not run this type of governance mechanism. It is important to highlight that the mechanism of governance is inseparable from a certain dyadic relationship established between two actors in the broader structure of supply chains. The study also showed that incorporating a clan as a social mechanism of governance together with good market environment and hierarchy results in increasing the relational benefits and overall performance for both dyads in the triadic supply chains.

The articles in this special section of Engineering Management in Production and Services provide valuable new insights into analysed topics. We believe that this issue contributes to the development of theory and provides relevant insight for scholars, policymakers and practitioners.