Tercera etapa: los vaivenes de años cincuenta

The aim of this research project is to develop delivery competitiveness of public textile industry sector through the effective use of CFTs in the Iraqi context. This research will be carried out in four main stages (literature review, Framework and propositions development, Case studies, and Theory development) in order to develop a theory through answering the research questions in the field (See Appendix 1). According to the research aim, this study addresses the following issues:

1.4.1 Research Aim

This study aims to examine how product delivery performance of Iraqi public textile manufacturing organisations can be maximised through utilising CFTs effectively to become market oriented.

15 1.4.2 Research Objectives

According to the aim of this study, research objectives consist of:

1- To investigate the need for interfacing marketing with operations.

2- To develop a theoretical framework, to be later developed as a formative guide for managers, in the Iraqi public textile industry sector. This framework will help to understand how to attain integration between marketing and operations by utilising CFTs.

3- To identify the potential problems that may occur during the implementation of CFTs in the Iraqi public textile industry sector.

4- To investigate the delivery performance of Iraqi public textile manufacturing organisations which utilize CFTs in 2014.

1.4.3 Research Questions

Empirically, as shown in Table 1.3, this project aims to achieve delivery priority in the two case study organisations. To achieve this, the present research will answer the following questions:

1- Why should marketing and operations groups work together?

2- How can the integration between marketing and operations functions be achieved by using CFTs?

3- What are the potential problems that could be associated when marketing and operations members work jointly within CFTs?

4- How can product delivery performance be maximised through adopting CFTs in Iraqi public textile manufacturing organisations?

16 Table 1.3 Research aim, objectives, and questions

Research aim Research objectives Research questions

To examine how product delivery performance can be

maximised in the Iraqi

public textile industry sector through utilising CFTs.

RO1: To investigate the need for interfacing marketing with operations.

RQ1: Why should marketing and operations groups work together?

RO2: To develop a theoretical framework, to be later developed as a formative guide for managers, in the Iraqi public textile industry sector. This framework will help to understand how to attain integration between marketing and operations by utilising CFTs.

RQ2: How can the integration between marketing and operations functions be achieved by using CFTs?

RO3: To identify the potential problems that may occur during the implementation of CFTs in the Iraqi public textile industry sector.

RQ3: What are the potential problems that could be associated when marketing and operations members work jointly within CFTs?

RO4: To investigate the delivery performance of Iraqi public textile manufacturing organisations which utilize CFTs in 2014.

RQ4: How can product delivery performance be maximised through adopting CFTs in Iraqi public textile manufacturing organisations?

17 1.4.4 Motivation for Research

Many years ago the researcher was a manager in one of the case study organisations. It can be argued that this company has sufficient capabilities but managing and exploiting these capabilities is inefficient. The main reasons for this are as follows. First is the problematic relationship between marketing and operations departments. Second, there are a number of weaknesses in planning and implementing marketing and operations strategies which cause a waste of production resources and time because of the bottlenecks, rework, and delays in the production line. As a result, this can strongly impact negatively the product delivery performance of this organisation. Therefore, the researcher believes that there is an opportunity to tackle these problems by the present project. In addition, this study will be helpful for many companies in the Iraqi public industry sector, particularly the textile industry which needs to compete against time due to their large number of sequential processes which are time-consuming. Furthermore, due to the increased importance of marketing and operations integration in developing time-based performance of manufacturing organisations (Hausman et al., 2002; Paiva, 2010; Tang, 2010), a great need has been generated for examining how to improve customer service in delivery through adopting CFTs which are used by case study organisations. However, in this regard, the relevant literature lacks any empirical research on marketing and operations integration (Gattiker, 2007; Sharma, 2013). These needs motivated the researcher to conduct this study as an attempt to narrow the expected theoretical and empirical gaps.

1.4.5 Expected Contribution of the Study

There are a number of contributions which are achieved through adopting this study as follows:

18 1.4.5.1 Expected Theoretical Contributions

The extensive literature of the marketing and operations interface lacks empirical studies on marketing and operations integration (Gattiker, 2007; Sharma, 2013). As mentioned by Marques et al. (2014), there is a gap in knowledge of marketing and operations interface, in particular the method for removing the functional boundaries between these two areas (Felekoglu et al., 2013; Song et al., 2010). Furthermore, Paiva (2010) observed that there is a need for investigating the potential problems that may occur when marketing and operations groups work jointly for better integration as an attempt to overcome these obstacles such as conflict (Parker, 2003), lack of empowerment (Holland et al., 2000), and lack of communication (Nguyen & Rukavishnikova, 2013).

Consequently, the researcher has developed a comprehensive framework to conceptualise the rationale of the integration between marketing and operations functions in relation to the needs, methods, development, and achievement under the umbrella of market orientation. This framework can be a foundation for research to examine the strategic imperative of the convergence between marketing and operations in manufacturing organisations, and also to investigate how to achieve and develop this interface by using CFTs in the Iraqi public textile industry sector. In addition, through the achievement phase of the framework, the researcher investigates how the integration between marketing and operations areas significantly contributes to the delivery priority as an appropriate competitive priority for the two case study organisations. As a result of this, many elements such as the areas and mechanisms for the joint work have been involved in this investigation for greater knowledge regarding marketing and operations interface. More precisely, this research contributes to the knowledge of the integration by building a richer understanding of the relationship and interactions between these two groups, and it shows how the collaborative actions of marketing and operations personnel enable them to create superior value for customers. Despite the importance of CFI to implement market orientation (Beverland & Lindgreen, 2007; Taleghani et al., 2013), there is a dearth of research on this implementation (Beverland & Lindgreen, 2007), particularly in public local organisations (Cano et al., 2004; Rodrigues & Carlos, 2012) in developing countries (Attia, 2013). Due to the necessity of the consistency between the selection of functions for the integration and the competitive priority (O’Leary- Kelly & Flores, 2002), this research attempts to adopt a market orientation philosophy in a public industry sector in the Iraqi context through utilising CFTs. This is because CFTs

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represent a superior method to achieve marketing and operations integration, through the collaboration and information sharing for delivery priority as great value for customers. In this respect, there is a significant relationship between this integration and delivery priority, which means the ability of firm to compete against time in the market (O’Leary-Kelly & Flores, 2002). Therefore, this study shows that the market orientation can be implemented in the two case study organisations based on the fit between the organisational structure (Cross- Function Integration), competitive position (delivery priority), and strategy (time-based strategy) (Lenz, 1980; Miller, 1988; Venkatraman, 1989). In addition, these three elements: cross-functional integration, information sharing, and delivery priority, as a responsiveness to market demand represent the main components of market orientation (Martin & Grbac, 2003).

1.4.5.2 Expected Practical Contributions

Due to the fierce competition in today's Iraqi market and the great need to develop the competitive performance of public industry sector in Iraq, this research provided fresh and rich insights for the managers into the marketing and operations relationship and how it can be managed for competitive advantages when using CFTs. As a result of the importance of time as a competitive weapon (Lin et al., 2012) and its sensitiveness in the sequential production system of textile industry (Slack et al., 2013), this study shows how delivery capabilities of the two case study organisations can be developed by using CFTs. This is because time savings relates strongly to the marketing and operations integration (O'Leary- Kelly and Flores, 2002), that can be attained when these two groups work jointly within CFTs (Brettel et al., 2011). According to the present study, the focus of these organisations will be on how to use and employ their resources and efforts towards improving marketing and operations capabilities in order to meet market demand quickly and develop greater market orientation. Furthermore, due to the common gap between marketing and operations functions (Piercy, 2007; 2010), this study can be a helpful guideline for managers to deal with the interactions among marketing and operations groups more effectively, in order to bridge this gap in three essential areas: new product development, planning, and dependability of delivery. In addition, this research shows how the two case study organisations can benefit from the full value of the diverse experience and resources of CFTs

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through the effective management of their interactions leading to integrated marketing and operations strategies.

In addition, this project empirically investigates delivery performance of the two case study organisations through observing their factories and sales centres in the real context of CFTs applications. Consequently, the findings of these observations reflect to what extent these CFTs can meet market demand by developing time-based capabilities of marketing and operations functions. Therefore, this study will help these organisations to deal with the weaknesses of CFTs applications in both their plants and sales centres in order to manage their efforts and resources more efficiently and adequately towards improving customer service in delivery through more effective applications of these teams. This research is the first empirical study in Iraq by which in depth-investigation is conducted in the Iraqi public industry sector in order to develop their delivery performance through adopting such a framework as posited in the study. In addition, this research contributes to improving the public industry sector, as one of the important economic activities in Iraq, through conducting studies in the context of CFTs for cross-functional integration.