اثر شدت تکنولوژیکی در روابط بین طراحی شش سیگما ، کسب و کار الکترونیکی و مزیت رقابتی: مطالعه مدل قابلیت های پویا

The implementation of Six Sigma programs must take into consideration the level of technological intensity of the organization to determine the relative impact of program design factors and the applications for electronic business on sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). From a Dynamic Capabilities Model perspective, this research studies the moderating effect of technological intensity on the relationships among Six Sigma program design factors, e-business applications, and SCA for sixty-six manufacturing and service organizations. Technological intensity of a firm is defined as the level of research and development (R&D) expenditures as a percentage of corporate sales revenues. Corporations with greater technological intensity invest more heavily in Research and Development to become more competitive. Factor analysis for ten Six Sigma program design items resulted in five program design factors. High technological intensive firms are perceived as attaching a greater importance to certain design factors that are related to electronic-business practices, as compared to other design factors for low technological intensive companies. Similarly, different program design factors are associated with SCA for high-tech than for low-tech companies. Finally only high-tech companies have applications of Six Sigma to electronic-business practices that are correlated with SCA. The recent evolution of Six Sigma programs from manufacturing companies to service organizations suggests competitive opportunities exist for firms to enhance their success, especially in terms of process improvement design factors and applications to electronic-business.

As Six Sigma process improvement programs expand globally, competitive advantage depends increasingly on program design considerations such as selected Six Sigma program technical, human resource, and electronic-business (e-business) factors. Although the US productivity growth rate has set new records for the past 7 years, especially for high technology, automobiles, and services, productivity growth for foreign competition has surged farther ahead (Arndt & Aston, 2004). Corporate process improvement from Six Sigma programs represents a significant opportunity in terms of the reported gains in profitability and customer satisfaction (Dusharme, 2001). A survey of corporate CEOs and other executives in manufacturing, healthcare, other services, and education reveals that Six Sigma programs have a 48% awareness level and are used by 16% of those organizations (Weiler, 2004). The issue of how Six Sigma programs can have an impact on competitive advantage remains unaddressed. The design of a Six Sigma program requires choices among many types of Black Belt practices, such as different types of teams, reporting structures, employee selection and training, and reward and recognition systems (Harry & Schroeder, 2000 and Lucas, 2002). The application of Six Sigma practices to e-business operations can effectively enhance process improvement in many organizations. In addition, the technological intensity of the organization can affect the relative impact of the design factors on the level of competitive advantage to be achieved. The purpose of this approach is to describe how an appropriately designed Six Sigma program can command a corporate competitive advantage by taking Six Sigma technical, human resource management (HRM), and e-business factors, as well as the level of the organization's technological intensity, into consideration. The overall framework to be studied in this paper is presented in Fig. 1.

This research of the effects of technological intensity for Six Sigma program design factors and e-business factors has several important implications for corporate policy makers charged with achieving superior sustainable competitive advantage. The overall results suggest that Six Sigma programs have successfully integrated e-business practices, although differently for high-tech companies than for low-tech organizations. Secondly, greater SCA has resulted for more of the Six Sigma program design factors for high-tech corporations than for low-tech firms. Finally, high-tech companies have exploited the six types of e-business factors for SCA, whereas the low-tech organizations have not achieved SCA for any of the e-business factors. As before, these results can be explained by the historical evolution of Six Sigma in these types of organizations. The results also suggest that the weaknesses of such firms can be addressed through appropriate Six Sigma program design. For example, high technological intensive, e.g., “brick and mortar”, companies that have focused their Six Sigma efforts on SCM have the opportunity to increase their competitive advantage by designing programs and processes that address the e-business B2B and B2C processes, such as at Raytheon (Avery, 2001) and Ford (Whalen, 2002 and Witt, 2002). Likewise, low technological intensive firms that ignore SCM e-business processes in their Six Sigma program design are likely to miss the opportunity to improve their competitive advantage. Accordingly, some innovative service companies such as the Charleston Area Medical Center have recently focused on SCM projects to create a distinctive competence (Lazarus & Stamps, 2002). Finally, all firms that have reported adopting Six Sigma programs perceive a very strong relationship between sustainable competitive advantage and the use of Six Sigma for SCM, B2B, and B2C processes. These results illustrate the potential Six Sigma holds for advancing e-business practices and maximizing corporate performance in the modern Internet economy.