Andy Neely

University of Cambridge | Cam · Department of Engineering

Purpose How organisations interact with and respond to environmental pressures has been a long-term interest of organisational scholars. Still, it remains an under-theorised phenomenon from a project perspective. So far, there is limited understanding of how projects, which are composed by a constellation of organisations, “respond” to institutiona...

In this study, we reviewed aircraft accidents in order to understand how autonomy and safety has been managed in the aviation industry, with the aim of transferring our findings to autonomous cyber-physical systems (CPSs) in general. Through the qualitative analysis of 26 reports of aircraft accidents that took place from 2016 to 2022, we identifie...

On 11th March 2020, the UK government announced plans for the scaling of COVID-19 testing, and on 27th March 2020 it was announced that a new alliance of private sector and academic collaborative laboratories were being created to generate the testing capacity required. The Cambridge COVID-19 Testing Centre (CCTC) was established during April 2020...

Understanding SARS-CoV-2 transmission in higher education settings is important to limit spread between students, and into at-risk populations. In this study, we sequenced 482 SARS-CoV-2 isolates from the University of Cambridge from 5 October to 6 December 2020. We perform a detailed phylogenetic comparison with 972 isolates from the surrounding c...

Understanding SARS-CoV-2 transmission in higher education settings is important to limit spread between students, and into at-risk populations. In this study, we sequenced 482 SARS-CoV-2 isolates from the University of Cambridge from 5 October to 6 December 2020. We perform a detailed phylogenetic comparison with 972 isolates from the surrounding c...

On 11th March 2020, the UK government announced plans for the scaling of COVID-19 testing, and on 27th March 2020 it was announced that a new alliance of private sector and academic collaborative laboratories were being created to generate the testing capacity required. The Cambridge COVID-19 Testing Centre (CCTC) was established during April 2020...

Grounded theory was first introduced more than fifty years ago, but researchers are often still uncertain about how to implement it. This is not surprising, considering that even the two pioneers of this qualitative design, Glaser and Strauss, have different views about its approach, and these are just two of multiple variations found in the litera...

Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 without symptoms is well described, and may be mitigated by mass testing. Nonetheless, the optimal implementation and quantitative real-world impact of this approach remain unclear. During a period of rising SARS-CoV-2 prevalence, students at the University of Cambridge were enrolled in a voluntary programme of weekly PCR...

The most common methods of tracking customer sentiments has a big blind spot: They can’t pick up on important emotional responses. As a result, qualitative surveys, like Net Promoter Score, end up missing critically important feedback. Even if they provide a positive score, customers often reveal their true thoughts and feelings in the open-ended c...

Most of the existing research on BIM implementation and benefits realisation has departed from a technocentric perspective and instead promoted the belief that the benefits of using BIM technologies are an inevitable outcome of adoption in and of itself. Recently, scholars have acknowledged that important links between implementation practices and...

Most existing research on built environment policy has focused on the independent variable-policy formulation-and assumed that the prescriptions that follow are readily accepted by a multitude of stakeholders. Less focus has been placed on the dependent variable-the projects where those policies are applied. Studies on practical implementation of n...

Project-management scholars have acknowledged that more research should consider institutional theories in order to take into account the broader environment in which projects are situated. One existing gap in the project-management literature revolves around understanding the responses that projects develop to cope with institutional pressures fro...

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been widely seen as bringing a paradigm change to the construction industry. However, scholars have acknowledged that neither widespread BIM implementation nor the envisaged systemic changes within the sector have taken place. Despite acknowledging that the industry’s conditions and embedded contexts shape i...

Purpose Drawing on the literature on dynamic capabilities and digital transformation, this paper conceptualises and investigates the relevant antecedents of an essential capability for digital transformation – the digital transforming capability – and its effect on the competitive advantage of firms. Design/methodology/approach A framework with ind...

Understanding the uncertainty of a neural net-work's (NN) predictions is essential for many purposes. The Bayesian framework provides a principled approach to this, however applying it to NNs is challenging due to large numbers of parameters and data. Ensembling NNs provides an easily implementable, scal-able method for uncertainty quantification,...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of Blockchain on the customer order management process and operations. There is limited understanding of the use and benefits of Blockchain on supply chains, and less so at processes level. To date, there is no research on the effects of Blockchain in the customer order management proc...

In this study, we analyse digital transformation at the inter-organisational level (i.e. construction projects context) and conceptualise it as a dynamic change process that people enact. More specifically, we investigate the implementation of building information modelling (BIM) in construction projects, adopting a practice-based approach to explo...

Purpose Servitized manufacturers can leverage close relationships with external providers of product-related services to mobilize value creation and improve the responsiveness of their offerings to customer needs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the economic link between the relational embeddedness of external service providers, as aris...

Using a practice lens, we investigate the role of project team members’ actions in constructing the social order and aligning inter-organisational elements to achieve digital congruence when implementing a digital and systemic innovation in construction projects, namely Building Information Modelling (BIM). We use a theory-building qualitative rese...

Digitalization and the growth of big data promise greater customization as well as change in how manufacturing is distributed. Yet, challenges arise in applying these new approaches in consumer goods industries that often emphasize mass production and extended supply chains. We build a conceptual framework to explore whether big data combined with...

A simple, flexible approach to creating expressive priors in Gaussian process (GP) models makes new kernels from a combination of basic kernels, e.g. summing a periodic and linear kernel can capture seasonal variation with a long term trend. Despite a well-studied link between GPs and Bayesian neural networks (BNNs), the BNN analogue of this has no...

This paper seeks empirical validation of a revised conceptual framework of ‘service transition’ that re-interprets the adoption of advanced services by manufacturing firms as a progressive expansion, rather than a shift or migration, of the offering. Using cluster analysis and logistic regression, three groups of firms are identified with respect t...

Ensembles of neural networks (NNs) have long been used to estimate predictive uncertainty; a small number of NNs are trained from different initialisations and sometimes on differing versions of the dataset. The variance of the ensemble's predictions is interpreted as its epistemic uncertainty. The appeal of ensembling stems from being a collection...

Contextualized in postpurchase consumption in business-to-business settings, the authors contribute to customer experience (CX) management theory and practice in three important ways. First, by offering a novel CX conceptual framework that integrates prior CX research to better understand, manage, and improve CXs—comprised of value creation element...

The aim of this chapter is to unpack the concept of value, exploring what it means in a practical setting of engineering services (servitisation) using the service staircase. It consists of two sections. In the first section we will explore firms that are able to create value through services. The second section will create an insight into how the...

Understanding the uncertainty of a neural network's (NN) predictions is essential for many applications. The Bayesian framework provides a principled approach to this, however applying it to NNs is challenging due to the large number of parameters and data. Ensembling NNs provides a practical and scalable method for uncertainty quantification. Its...

Traditional ways of doing business have been turned upside down by a group of new companies. Uber is “the world’s largest taxi-company owns no vehicles”. Facebook is “the world’s most popular media owner creates no content”, and Airbnb is “the world’s largest accommodation provider owns no real estate”. This relatively new research phenomenon requi...

Engineering used to be driven by a community of experts who set themselves apart from others by establishing clear boundaries of their profession. Today, however, these boundaries have become increasingly permeable, due to the increasing dynamic and complexity of technical and economic change. The manufacturing sector illustrates this process very...

The transition from consuming goods to consuming services is a topic of great interest for service researchers and has been examined from various perspectives. We provide an overview of how this field of research has been approached by systematically analyzing the current state of the academic literature. We report the results of a social network a...

Deep neural networks are a powerful technique for learning complex functions from data. However, their appeal in real-world applications can be hindered by an inability to quantify the uncertainty of predictions. In this paper, the generation of prediction intervals (PI) for quantifying uncertainty in regression tasks is considered. It is axiomatic...

Drawing on empirical evidence on the differentiators of organisational digital maturity and the literature on organisational change and performance, we explore firm characteristics and identify various organisational dimensions that are determinants of a successful digital transformation. A matched-pair design is adopted in this study to examine 12...

Creating a strong customer experience is a strategic priority for organizations. Com-panies are leveraging new technologies such as mobile applications, social media plat-forms, virtual reality, drones and the Internet of Things to provide smart services and enable a seamless customer experience. The complexity of using these technologies within an...

The digital transformation of single companies and of entire service businesses is an omnipresent topic – not only in the academic discourse but also in the current public debate. The topic is often approached phenomenologically. We invited a group of well-renown scholars from different academic fields to share with us personal observations and int...

The use of ensembles of neural networks (NNs) for the quantification of predictive uncertainty is widespread. However, the current justification is intuitive rather than analytical. This work proposes one minor modification to the normal ensembling methodology, which we prove allows the ensemble to perform Bayesian inference, hence converging to th...

Firms in a variety of manufacturing sectors as well as the software industry have increasingly embraced services alongside their product portfolios in order to improve financial performance. Yet, the key question “How do service market strategy change and the accompanying business model change interact, and how does their interplay affect value cre...

Manufacturing digitalisation and the growth of big data promises to foster more responsive supply chains and to close gaps between manufacturers and consumers, leading to highly-connected manufacturing operations, mass customisation and more sustainable production. There is widespread recognition that manufacturing in broad terms is entering a new...

Digitalisation and the growth of big data promise greater customisation as well as change in how manufacturing is distributed. Yet, challenges arise in applying these new approaches in consumer goods industries that often emphasise mass production and extended supply chains. We build a conceptual framework to explore whether big data combined with...

Purpose: this paper proposes an innovative buyer-supplier performance measurement system (called Relationship Regulator – RelReg), aimed at stimulating collaboration on mutual performance. The RelReg is described all throughout the phases of its lifecycle: first, design features and visual representation of the new measurement framework are reporte...

Many manufacturers are servitizing, but the effects of this on manufacturing firms' financial performance remains unclear. Through a systematic literature review, this paper highlights what is known regarding the contingent factors that may affect the relationship between servitization and performance. The findings revealed that additional studies...

Living labs offer a new open innovation platform for companies to engage in co-creation. Empirical investigation about co-creation enablers in this setting is however scarce. This paper analyses factors that facilitate co-creation in living labs. The study integrates findings from a systematic literature with primary data collected with managers an...

Manufacturing digitalisation and the growth of big data promises to foster more responsive supply chains and to close gaps between manufacturers and consumers, leading to highly-connected manufacturing operations, mass customisation and more sustainable production. There is widespread recognition that manufacturing in broad terms is entering a new...

Outcome-based contracts (OBC) refer to agreements between providers and customers where providers are paid based on the outcomes they deliver to customers. OBCs have become common for manufacturing firms that are servitising, especially those firms providing advanced services focusing on availability and capability. Whilst many authors acknowledge...

Professor Andy Neely is Pro-Vice-Chancellor: Enterprise and Business Relations at the University of Cambridge, Head of the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) and Head of the Manufacturing and Management Division of Cambridge University Engineering Department. He is a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College and Founding Director of the Cambridge Service Alli...

Firms are increasingly providing services to complement their product offerings. The vast majority of studies on the service journey, also known as servitization or service transition, examine the challenges and enablers of the process of change through cases studies. Investigations that provide an in-depth longitudinal analysis of the steps involv...

Governing a city is arguably one of the most complex management tasks facing organizational leaders. Based on an analysis of Vienna, London, and Chicago, this article demonstrates that city leaders treat cities as ecosystems, structured and governed either as “extended enterprises” where inputs from specialized organizations are coordinated and int...

2016, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited. $\textbf{Purpose:}$ The purpose of this paper is to derive a taxonomy of business models used by start-up firms that rely on data as a key resource for business, namely data-driven business models (DDBMs). By providing a framework to systematically analyse DDBMs, the study provides an introduction to DDBM a...

This paper contributes to the business ecosystem literature by offering a classification model, allowing the differentiation of intercompany connections. The problem arose for the researchers that the definition of a business ecosystem lacks separation in the types of connection between companies. Business ecosystems are found to differentiate sign...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to derive a taxonomy of business models used by start-up firms that rely on data as a key resource for business, namely data-driven business models (DDBMs). By providing a framework to systematically analyse DDBMs, the study provides an introduction to DDBM as a field of study. Design/methodology/approach To de...

This paper focuses on building a framework to help solve a factual problem often described by the managerial staff of companies. The problem is based on a lack of ability to understand the complete value exchange between partners in business ecosystems (this is considering key stakeholders in an ecosystem and focusing on the direct and indirect val...

Living labs offer a new open innovation platform for companies to engage customers in co-creation and to understand user needs. However, empirical investigation about co-creation enablers in living labs is scarce. To fill this gap, this paper analyses factors that facilitate co-creation in living labs. The study integrates findings derived from exi...

Increased competition, extended product life-cycles and the large number of suppliers and partners involved in services are only some of the challenges that product manufacturers moving into service provision are facing. The increased complexity of service networks can impact safety and increase risks, especially for manufacturers operating in safe...

This discussion paper aims to set out the key challenges and opportunities emerging from distributed manufacturing (DM). We begin by describing the concept, available definitions and consider its evolution where recent production technology developments (such as additive and continuous production process technologies), digitization together with in...

By evaluating secondary data from 74 bankrupt manufacturers and 199 matched non-bankrupt competitors, this study investigates the relationship of manufacturers' service offerings to their survival. While showing that the number of services offered is not significantly associated with bankruptcy likelihood, the results suggest that greater numbers o...

This paper addresses the operations challenges of effectively managing professional services on a global scale. The specific context for the study is professional engineering services and particularly those that are delivered globally - global engineering services (GES). Estimates suggest that the market for GES was around US$930 billion in 2012, r...

Nettavisen is a Norwegian online start-up that experienced a boost after the financial crisis of 2009. Since then, the firm has been able to increase its market share and profitability through the use of highly disruptive business models, allowing the relatively small staff to outcompete powerhouse legacy-publishing companies and new media players...

This paper addresses the operations challenges of effectively managing professional services on a global scale. The specific context for the study is professional engineering services and particularly those that are delivered globally - global engineering services (GES). Estimates suggest that the market for GES was around US$930 billion in 2012, r...

UK research and technology organizations (RTOs) compete globally by offering engineering, technology and innovation services. Although associated historically with specific industries, UK RTOs have expanded into nontraditional markets and sectors. This article profiles 15 UK RTOs and we suggest that UK RTOs have unique technology and innovation cap...

In this paper, we explore the reasons for Japan’s early success in the EV industry and the challenges it faces in sustaining its growth in the future. In-depth semi-structured interviews with major players in the Japanese EV ecosystem provide substantial data to draw lessons for EV business model innovation. Current barriers to the EV market are al...

In this case study the authors present the current strategy of news online start-up – Nettavisen – to survive and compete against large incumbent publishing firms and new media players, such as Facebook and Google, in a rapidly growing market for online news. Nettavisen is moving towards a data-driven business model (DDBM). In particular, the firm...

Traditional animal production techniques are usually labour intensive and driven by very slim margins. These margins are subject to variables such as meat and milk prices, growth rates of animals, governmental policy changes and seasonal changes in cereal and crop prices, coupled with the volatile risk of infectious disease resulting in livestock l...

We investigate through-life accountability in product–service systems, based on the analysis of the official investigation reports of 17 commercial aircraft accidents. Our analysis suggests that agency theory has the potential to address issues of confusing accountabilities between the stakeholders if mechanisms are in place to align the interests...

Purpose – In an effort to further explain why manufacturing firms that move towards service provision often do not achieve the financial benefits they would expect, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of service additions on the risks affecting the firm. Design/methodology/approach – Using data drawn from a sample 129 bankrupt manuf...

In this paper the authors present an integrated framework that could help stimulate an organisation to become data-driven by enabling it to construct its own Data-Driven Business Model (DDBM) in coordination with the six fundamental questions for a data-driven business. There are a series of implications that may be particularly helpful to companie...

"The crippled bottom line – measuring and managing sustainability," proceeds from the seemingly clear case that triple top line strategy intended to yield triple bottom line performance and impact rarely considers that the earth is a closed system and hence has finite capacity. The intent of this contribution is to suggest and elaborate means by wh...

Why this paper might be of interest to Alliance Partners: This paper explores the characteristics of service complexity. It identifies 76 potential factors that distinguish a complex from a simple service across the dimensions of: markets & products, technologies, production processes, administration & management, ecosystem. The paper introduces fo...

This paper presents four innovative business models that are being developed in three countries to support the commercialisation of electric vehicles (EVs). Using an original business model framework and interviews with EV company founders and directors, we analyse the coexistence of competing business models (China) and partnership strategies alon...

The importance of the role of services in the new economy has already been widely accepted. Many industrial firms are increasingly competing on the basis of value delivered by shifting their market share from delivering pure-products to delivering product-services (Wise and Baumgartner 1999; Neely, 2008). This is linked to the view that industrial...

Organizing activities to deliver services for which the city is responsible is a complex, daunting task given the scale of such services, the plurality of stakeholders involved in production and reception, and the multiple, often conflicting, objectives that city leaders must address. Governing the city is primarily a management problem – one that...

Recent empirical findings concerning the performance effects of service business model innovation (servitization) and its interplay with product innovation are mixed. Using the lenses of the demand-based view on value creation and complementarity, the performance impact of two key service business models is examined: the product-oriented model and...