Global sourcing strategy and sustainable competitive advantage

Global sourcing strategy has been one of the most hotly debated management trends in the last 20 years. In its early years, global sourcing was examined mostly from “in-house” development and procurement perspectives; and in the last several years, research focus has shifted to “outsourcing” activities. Along with this shift from internal to external focus on global sourcing, many researchers and business practitioners have applied a core competency argument to justify increased levels of outsourcing activities on a global basis. Although the beneficial aspects of outsourcing are assumed in most cases, no consensus exists in reality as to the effect of outsourcing. Furthermore, the increased instability of the exchange rate environment in the last several years has also led to increased difficulties in managing globally scattered operations that were once fashionable in the 1980s-90s under the rubric of global strategy. In this article, the authors explore potential limitations and negative consequences of outsourcing strategy on a global scale.     

The effectiveness of interest-rate futures contracts for hedging Japanese bonds of different credit quality and duration

This study investigates the effectiveness of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE)-traded Japanese 10-year JGB futures contract to hedge portfolios of Japanese bonds of differing maturity and credit quality. The bond portfolios examined are Government, AAA-, and AA-rated Eurobonds with maturities of 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 20 years. Consistent with the recent literature, the study employs univariate methods for calculating hedge ratios based on levels, first differences, and percentage change of each series. Out-of-sample forecasting is used to determine the effectiveness of the calculated hedge ratios for each of the bond portfolios and to determine which approach to calculating hedge ratios is the most effective. The results show that this particular futures contract does provide a good hedge, particularly for those bond terms closest to the 10-year term of the contract. There is some evidence, although not strong, that JGBs are better hedged than AAA and AA bonds. Investors should take some caution when using this futures contract to hedge bond portfolios of different maturities and credit ratings.     

How supply chain architecture and product architecture impact firm performance: An empirical examination

In order to enhance performance, manufacturing firms are building various capabilities and utilizing supply chain networks that are geographically dispersed around the globe. This study examines how decisions related to supply chain architecture and product architecture influence organizational competitiveness. Building on the co-specialization perspective, we evaluate the performance implications of product modularity and supply chain agility. While, product modularity constitutes a product configuration related to sourcing and assembling of products, supply chain agility is a supply chain configuration related to velocity (sensing, comprehending, and responding) and visibility (supplier network, internal operations, and external environment). Both the product and supply chain architectural decisions can impact performance, individually and in conjunction with each other. We empirically test the hypothesized relationships using data collected from 103 manufacturing firms. Results show that supply chain agility and product modularity directly enhance responsiveness and enable organizations to reduce cost. Furthermore, supply chain agility partially mediates the relationship between product modularity and both responsiveness and cost reduction. We elaborate on the key contributions of this study for both research and practice, discuss limitations, and also offer various avenues for further research.     

基于教师专业发展的教师团队关键绩效指标体系研究

大学教师的专业发展影响学校的核心竞争力，也影响着培养学生的整体素质。目前比较有效的专业发展是大学教师的专业团队建设。如果能把团队建设和教师专业发展有效结合，不但会促进青年教师的快速成长，也会对学校的未来规划发展起到至关重要的作用。随着团队建设如火如荼的开展，对建设的成果考核是不容忽视的课题，需要考虑在考核时纳入专业发展的绩效考核体系。文章以关键绩效指标为依据，考虑从未来教师专业发展视角来分析团队建设的优势和不足，为后续政策制定、建设规划提供支持。研究结果设计了能够促进教师专业发展的对团队评估的关键绩效考核指标。     

China’s megaregion policy: Performance evaluation framework,empirical findings and implications for spatial polycentric governance

Megaregion has emerged as a new dimension of global urbanization. A megaregion approach based on polycentric strategy is deemed to enhance regional economic competitiveness. Numerous studies have highlighted the economic benefits, celebrated the spill-over effects, and outlined the creative potentials of contemporary megaregion policies in different nations worldwide. However, further policy instruments require the knowledge about the achievement and failure of megaregion policies that seek for spatial, economic, social, and environmental efficiency and sustainability. This paper introduces China’s megaregion policy and proposes an analytical framework for performance evaluation from four principle domains (rational urban growth, economic development, social equity, environmental protection) at three levels (internal collaboration, integral development, and overall development). Using a case of the Megaregion around Hangzhou Bay (MAHB), we find very limited success of China’s megaregion policy. In particular, the megaregion policy only accomplishes the economic goal, and fails to achieve the goals of rational urban growth, environmental protection, and social equity. A series of mechanism based regressions are established and show that the implementation duration of megaregion policy: (1) associates positively with the economic growth; (2) relates negatively to social equity and urban rational growth; and (3) has no significant relationship with improved environmental quality. Institutional fragmentation, no unified spatial planning, and inadequate legislation at megaregional level are the underlying causes of the expected performances within the policy context of governance itself. We finally propose some possible solutions and discuss the implications for spatial polycentric governance. The demonstrated methodological framework can be applicable to other megaregions around the world. This paper is thus believed to provide some new insights for land use policy.     

高管过度自信、研发投入跳跃与企业绩效——来自中国上市公司的经验证据

基于间断平衡理论和高阶梯队理论，以2007-2017年中国沪深两市902家制造企业为样本，实证分析研发投入跳跃对企业绩效的影响以及高管过度自信的调节作用。结果显示：研发投入正向跳跃和负向跳跃均有助于提升企业绩效，高管过度自信正向调节研发投入跳跃与企业绩效间的关系。引入高管过度自信这一重要高管特征作为调节变量，有助于重新认识管理者心理偏差对企业创新行为和绩效的影响，较好地弥补了研发投入跳跃对企业绩效影响机制的研究空缺，丰富了创新间断平衡理论研究。研究表明，企业应重视高管心理特征的影响并结合自身实际情况，合理选择研发投入策略以改善企业绩效。     

IT cost benchmarking: Drawing the right conclusions

The use of managerial control ratios for benchmarking IT costs is widely accepted. This installment of Accounting Matters informs CIOs about IT managerial control ratios and the assumptions underlying the use of these ratios in IT cost benchmarking. Incorrect use of these ratios and violation of the assumptions can lead to faulty inferences and costly mistakes. This article proposes a technique for benchmarking IT costs to draw the right conclusions from the data.     

Consideration of technological and environmental heterogeneity in cost efficiency analysis

In order to evaluate and compare the efficiency levels across banking industries, we adopt the meta-frontier model that can assess the technological difference among countries. Given the importance of country specific conditions, we include in our analysis the different specificities of each country to incorporate the technological as the environmental differences in the evaluation of banking efficiencies. Using data on the banking industries of several countries in the MENA region, over the period 1991–2011, the results of the efficiency scores corrected by the technological and environmental gap led us to conclude that Egyptian banks are the most efficient in terms of cost compared with banks in other countries. Egyptian banks enjoy a very favourable banking technology. Our results support the hypothesis that traditional techniques of efficiency analysis based on the efficiency scores of a specific and pooled frontier tend to mystify efficiency levels and may incorrectly identify efficient banks. This paper contributes to the efficiency literature by incorporating technological and environmental heterogeneities in the evaluation of efficiency. This helps to characterize the production process of a bank and provides common standards by which the efficiencies of banks in different countries can be compared in a meaningful way with each other.     

互联网能力与知识能力交互效应对知识创造绩效的传导机制:一个被中介的调节效应模型

整合资源基础观、知识基础观和动态能力理论，探讨互联网背景下互联网能力、知识能力两种企业内部因素交互作用对知识创造绩效的影响过程，尤其关注了具有前瞻性与反应性特征的战略柔性在这一过程中的重要作用，从而构建了一个被中介的调节效应模型。基于我国399家企业调研数据发现，互联网能力、知识能力均对战略柔性有显著正向影响；互联网能力与知识能力的交互作用通过战略柔性的中介机制促进企业知识创造绩效提升，即存在被中介的调节效应。在理论上，丰富了资源基础观和知识基础观在组织竞争优势构建方面的前因研究，在实践上，为处于互联网背景下的企业有效提升知识创造绩效提供了实践参考。     

创业情境下管理强度与创业绩效关系探讨:团队合作的中介效应

创业活动以其良好的经济与社会效益越来越受到重视,创业过程的核心是创业要素之间的动态匹配。为诠释创业理念在创业者和创业成员之间的匹配,结合创业者特质和成熟企业管理制度演化两种理论视角,提出了创业情境下管理强度的概念,并构建了其与团队合作、新创企业绩效之间的理论模型。通过107份预测试问卷和171份正式问卷进行实证分析,结果发现:创业管理强度可以被划分为独特性、统一性、共识性3个维度;创业管理强度对创业企业绩效具有显著正向影响,这种正向影响机制可以从团队合作方面得到解释,即团队合作在创业管理强度和创业企业绩效之间发挥中介作用。