Event Details

Professor Jens Roehrich will present a seminar to the Management Science Department

Abstract: To address growing geographical disparities in healthcare access and quality, connected health platforms (CHPs) have emerged as potential solutions. However, the rapid scaling up of CHPs presents significant challenges, particularly in managing tensions across the many levels typically involved. Our study examines the digital scaling process of a CHP through the lens of paradox theory, focusing on nested tensions, their directionality, and their management in resource-constrained environments. We conducted a 13-year, in-depth, longitudinal case study of a large-scale CHP encompassing over 300 hospitals in China. Our findings reveal three distinct yet interconnected phases of digital scaling: (i) digital foundation building; (ii) system integration and governance; and (ii) continuous improvement and innovation. We demonstrate that while each phase experiences a different type of nested tension, a single type prevails across multiple organizational levels within each phase, challenging prior studies’ expectations of such tensions as being level-specific. Furthermore, we uncover multidirectional patterns of tension propagation – top-down; middle-out; and bottom-up – that depart from the predominant top-down focus within the extant literature. Finally, we identify some of the successful phase-specific ‘both-and’ management strategies employed by rural hospitals to handle these nested tensions, even in the face of significant resource constraints. We position a process model of the scaling process, and provide guidance to organizations operating in resource-constrained environments on the management of tensions across a complex digital scaling process.

Bio: Professor Jens Roehrich is a Chair in Supply Chain Innovation at the School of Management, University of Bath, UK. He is also a Visiting Professor at Bayes Business School (UK), Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI; Italy) and Trinity College Dublin (TCD; Ireland). He is the incoming Editor-in-Chief (EiC) for the International Journal of Operations & Production Management (IJOPM), an ABS4-ranked empirical operations and supply chain management journal.

Jens grew up in Germany and is an engineer by first degree. He moved to the UK in 2004 and obtained his MSc and PhD degrees from the School of Management, University of Bath. Subsequently, he was a researcher at Imperial College Business School, Imperial College London, UK, before re-joining the University of Bath in 2011. Between 2017 and 2022, Jens was the Director of the HPC Supply Chain Innovation Lab, an exciting partnership between the University of Bath and the EDF, one of the largest electric utility companies in the world. The partnership advanced practice, policy and science concerning the management of complex supply chains and large projects.

Individual and collaborative research activities have emphasised a research focus on long-term inter-organisational relationship management across public and private organisations. Within this agenda, significant strands of research explore: (i) the interplay of contractual and relational governance mechanisms; (ii) procuring and managing complex capital projects such as public-private partnerships and megaprojects; (iii) how to deal with the dark side of relationships such as conflicts, coordination failure and trust breaches; and (iv) sustainable supply chain management. His award-winning research is multidisciplinary, drawing theoretical inspiration and methodological support from operations, supply chain and project management, strategy, innovation management, healthcare management and public management. Jens has used a variety of methods (with a particular focus on (longitudinal) case studies and experiments) and data sources (e.g. rich interviews, observations, site visits and workshops, experimental data, secondary and contract data).

The interdisciplinary nature of his research has resulted in publications in not only core operations, supply chain and project management journals, but also publications in leading general management, industrial marketing, policy/public management and healthcare management outlets. His research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Management Studies, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, British Journal of Management, Social Science & Medicine, Public Management Review, and California Management Review, among others.

Jens has acted as a visiting researcher and lecturer at leading institutions such as The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, W.P. Carey Business School at Arizona State University and at numerous UK universities. He has carried out award-winning research, consultancy, executive education and competence development activities with a wide range of public and private sector organisations such as EDF, Environment Agency, GKN, NHS and Maersk. He has also won prizes for his reviewing and Associate Editor activities, and he currently acts an Associate Editor for the Journal of Operations Management. His insights have been profiled in, for instance, Forbes, The Times – Raconteur, APM’s Project Magazine, CIPS’s Supply Management, The Conversation and South West Business Insider.