The manufacturing/design interface

The paper explains why the traditional relationship between design and manufacturing needs to be changed and what it should be replaced with. Traditionally, the relationship has been sequential. At the beginning of the innovation process design goes ahead alone, manufacturing's input being largely overlooked. Only after the design has been completed does manufacturing take over responsibility, and only then may it emerge that re-design is necessary to make production feasible. The results can be high costs, late delivery and disappointing performance. The changes that have made this practice less supportable include shortened product lifecycles, Japanese competition, customers becoming increasingly quality-conscious, need to deliver exactly on time, and minimization of inventories. Fortunately, new technologies such as CAD/CAM and FMS have come along that can help to rectify these deficiencies; how far they are taken up and effectively used depends on the sharp distinction between the functions being discarded and replaced by their substantial integration. Possibilities that each enterprise could explore include ensuring continuous communication and cooperation between the functions, joint problem solving, replacement of functional management by project management, supplier involvement, elimination of the status differential between design and manufacturing, design for manufacturability, and better understanding by the design function of the realities of the business world. The author warns that integration may not be a universal cure. In particular, he suggests that the innovations closely linked with scientific advances may need some degree of functional differentiation. Changes in the competitive environment require manufacturing organizations to change their view on the relationship between manufacturing and design, and on the way the interface between these two functions has to be managed. In this paper we will first describe the traditional view. Afterwards we will describe the environmental changes that make us question the effectiveness of this view. Finally in a third part we will describe the characteristics of the new approach.     

Local exchange competition in early US network development: considerations for developing countries

This paper examines the claim that competition between the Bell system and independent telephone companies, and not AT&T's regulated monopoly, was responsible for the rapid growth in telephone penetration in the United States. A mathematical model is developed to test if competition contributed to network expansion, when alternative explanations such as diffusion and economic growth are also taken into account. The model is estimated with time series data on telephone penetration in the US from 1876 to 1982, using both Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS). The results indicate that local exchange competition is indeed a significant influence on increase in telephone penetration, even in the early stages of network development. This has clear policy implications for the current transition to competition in developing countries.     

The impact of product market competition on corporate environmental responsibility

Although the mainstream of current thinking in the business literature recognizes that firms should invest in environmental responsibility, the theory on how product market competition affects firms’ environmental responsibility remains undeveloped. Using cost-benefit analysis, we hypothesize that the relationship between product market competition (i.e., differential industry-level competition and heterogeneous firm-level market power) and corporate environmental responsibility (CER) will be curvilinear. We find support for this hypothesis through an empirical test on a panel of 792 listed manufacturing companies from 2006 to 2008 in China. The results show that (1) either too much or too little industrial competition and (2) either too much or too little firm-level market power lead to lower environmental responsibility. Our results reveal that CER is strategically chosen and related to competitive situations.     

Marketing in the emerging era of build-to-order manufacturing

Build-to-order (BTO) and lean manufacturing processes are changing the paradigms under which businesses-to-business marketers operate. For example, BTO processes allow marketers to customize products to a greater degree, creating a competitive advantage over traditional manufacturing. Business-to-business (B2B) marketers who take advantage of the operational efficiencies and effectiveness that emerge from BTO are outperforming firms that utilize traditional manufacturing processes in multiple industries, such as office furniture, personal computers, and windows. This paper examines the long-term impact of the adoption of build-to-order manufacturing strategies on the marketing function and identifies marketing strategies associated with successful BTO companies. Throughout, the paper highlights managerial implications and proposes directions for future research.     

The development of entrepreneurship in Chinese communities: An organizational symbiosis perspective

Why has the rate of entrepreneurship recently gone down in Singapore? Why is entrepreneurship in Southern China (e.g., Guangdong or Fujian provinces) relatively higher than in the rest of China? Why is corruption rampant in some Chinese business communities but virtually nonexistent in others? Although we often speak of ??Chinese entrepreneurship?? as a monolithic entity, the fact is that there are many variants of Chinese entrepreneurship and these variants continue to rapidly evolve and take on new forms. Yet mainstream management or organizational theories have been at a loss to explain these high rates of variation and evolution. To shed light on these issues, we introduce the idea of symbiosis from biology and adapt it to the development of entrepreneurship in Chinese ethnic communities. Symbiosis is the science of how different organisms coexist with each other in a self-sustaining system. Using this approach, we develop six propositions to explain what types of entrepreneurship are likely to evolve in different Chinese ethnic communities and how this process of evolution is likely to proceed. The implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

Pioneering advantages in manufacturing and service industries: empirical evidence from nine countries

Although one might expect differences between manufacturing and service firms in pioneering advantages, the extent of these differences has not yet been investigated. This is the first cross‐national study that compares such differences in nine countries/regions: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore. We develop several hypotheses concerning the perceptions of managers of manufacturing firms and service firms regarding the benefits and post‐entry risks of pioneering, and the cost and differentiation advantages accruing to the pioneering firm. We test the hypotheses with data from 2,419 firms representing all nine countries and both industrial sectors. We find that: (1) managers from all countries perceive pioneering to be associated with higher market share and/or profitability; (2) manufacturing firm managers perceive pioneering risks to be significantly more important than do service firm managers; (3) cost and differentiation advantages of pioneering are, for the most part, more significant to manufacturing than to service firm managers; (4) Western manufacturing firm managers perceive the cost advantages to be more important than Asian Pacific manufacturing firm managers. We conclude by presenting the managerial implications of our findings. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中国打造世界制造中心的路径依赖初探——兼论缓提"中国是世界制造中心"的口号

在中国制造业日益凸显其在世界市场中的重要性的今天，中国能否成为“世界制造中心”已成为各人士关注的焦点。本文分析了历史上几代“世界工厂”的成长过程及其在世界经济发展中的历史地位，总结提出了成为世界制造中心的五个假设。在此基础上，本文运用实证分析方法，结合大量的中国现实资料，检验了这五个假设，提出了中国目前不是任何意义上的世界制造中心的结论。论文最后提出了中国打造世界制造中心的基本路径，这就是抓住一条主线、从两个基础起步、处理好十大关系。     

Data portability effects on data-driven innovation of online platforms: Analyzing Spotify

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduces a new right to data portability, which allows users to move their personal data to other platforms, potentially affecting competition between rival platforms offering similar (homogeneous/substitute) products or services within the European Union. However, it is still unclear what effects this new regulation could have on competition and, consequently, on innovation in digital markets. Therefore, this paper analyzes the effect of data portability driven by competition on the data-driven innovation response of online platforms such as Spotify, Google, and Facebook.We conduct an empirical analysis of Spotify, which is an online platform facing competition within the EU, and perform a comparison between data portability to number portability of the telecommunication sector to predict the future impact of the new regulation. Finally, we compare the observations on Spotify with Facebook and Google, which are companies in winner-takes-all markets.We argue that online platforms like Spotify, which face competition within the EU, will invest in two forms of data-driven innovation due to the effect of data portability. These types are ‘exploitation-innovation,’ by improving the existing technology, and ‘exploration-innovation’ by developing new technology. In ‘exploitation-innovation,’ firms, like Spotify, will increase investments in data-driven innovation to enhance users' engagement and retention to avoid churn. In ‘exploration-innovation,’ these firms will invest in data-driven innovation to develop new algorithms to include data from customers acquired from their competitors. On the contrary, online platforms, like Facebook or Google, which do not face real competition, will not have a substantial need to invest in data-driven innovation solely due to data portability.     

Effect of agglomeration on firms’ research and development investment: a U-shaped relationship

Extant research on how agglomeration affects firms’ R&D investment reveals conflicting views. Some studies suggest that, owing to free riding arising from knowledge spillovers, agglomeration reduces firms’ R&D investment, whereas others find that it creates additional incentives for innovation through intensifying local competition, thereby increasing firms’ R&D investment. Thus, this study attempts to reconcile these two conflicting views. We propose a U-shaped relationship between agglomeration and firms’ R&D investment; that is, when the extent of agglomeration is low, knowledge spillover effects are important, while local competition is negligible. The free riding effects dominate local competition effects. Therefore, firms’ R&D investment decreases with the extent of agglomeration at a decreasing rate. By contrast, when the extent of agglomeration is high, local competition becomes the dominant force. Consequently, firms’ R&D investment increases with the extent of agglomeration at an increasing rate. Using data from 299,256 manufacturing firms in China, we find that firms’ R&D investment first decreases with the extent of agglomeration to reach a minimum, then increases as the extent of agglomeration continues to rise. These results indicate that there is a robust U-shaped relationship between agglomeration and firms’ R&D investment.     

Towards theory building in agile manufacturing strategies—Case studies of an agility taxonomy

Agility is widely accepted in the manufacturing industry as a new competitive concept. However, how to develop a manufacturing strategy based around agility is not fully understood. A numerical taxonomy of agile manufacturing strategies was developed recently by the author, based on a large scale questionnaire study of UK industry. The taxonomy suggested the existence of three basic types of agility strategies: quick, responsive, and proactive. This paper presents a case-based investigation of the practical details of the three basic types of agility strategies. Typical cases from the basic strategy types were chosen and studied to establish why companies choose each type of the strategies, what distinctive agility drivers they are faced with and why, and whether and what typical action programs are used to implement the strategies. A cross-case analysis found that the choice of agility strategies is related to the nature of markets and competition, the characteristics of products (life cycles and degrees of maturity), and market positions of individual companies.     

Pioneering Advantage in New Service Development: A Multi-Country Study of Managerial Perceptions

Pioneering advantage in manufacturing firms has received much attention in the management and marketing literature. Few research studies, however, have been conducted to investigate the pioneering advantages and disadvantages involved in new service development, especially across several geographic regions. We build a theoretical framework of pioneering advantage in service industries based on the distinguishing characteristics of services. From this framework, we develop a set of testable propositions about the importance of several types of pioneering advantage (economic, preemptive, technological, and behavioral advantages) to service managers. Specifically, we propose that all of these types of pioneering advantages are important to service managers, and that these managers perceive that pioneering results in improved firm performance. We also propose that, due to the distinguishing characteristics of services such as intangibility and heterogeneity, service managers will not perceive the risks of pioneering in a service industry to be severe. In addition, we propose that certain types of pioneering advantage will be more important to service managers in Western countries than in Asian Pacific countries due to cultural and business environmental differences. In particular, we propose that service managers from Western firms perceive preemptive advantages of pioneering to be more important than do their Asian Pacific counterparts, and service managers from Asian Pacific firms perceive behavioral advantages of pioneering to be more important than do their Western counterparts. To test our propositions empirically, we develop a set of pioneering principles from the literature. We then collect and analyze data from a sample of 982 senior managers in service industries from nine countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong,1 South Korea, and Singapore. We find evidence of several significant cross‐cultural differences consistent with our propositions. In fact, seven of the eight propositions are strongly or partially supported. The only nonsupported proposition concerned the importance of technological advantage. We find that technological advantages of pioneering are much less important to service managers than are other pioneering advantages. We conclude with strategic recommendations for managers involved in new service development and international or global competition, and provide directions for future research. We note that the insights from this study can help managers from both the West and the Asian Pacific region to better understand their global competitors who pursue a new service pioneering strategy, and can potentially help them select entry deterrence strategies more effectively.     

Commercial Office Space: Testing the Implications of Real Options Models with Competitive Interactions

We test the implications of real option pricing models with competitive interactions for commercial real estate development. The competitive nature of a local commercial real estate market relies on a Herfindahl ratio derived from individual developers' shares of total office construction in their market. All else being equal, greater competition among local developers is associated with more building starts. Other variables suggested by the real options pricing model, including the volatility of local lease rates, are also found to be statistically important. In addition, we provide evidence consistent with greater competition attenuating the extent to which increases in volatility delay commercial real estate development.     

Open Entry and Local Telephone Rates: The Economics of IntraLATA Toll Competition

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 removes state-level legal and regulatory barriers to entry that previously have proscribed facilities-based interchange carriers from entering intraLATA toll markets. Traditionally, these markets have provided excess profits that local exchange companies ostensibly have used to subsidize local telephone rates. Elimination of these entry barriers, then, raises concern that the resulting intensification of competition will force unwanted local residential rate increases. In this paper, we critically examine the local-rate-increase question both theoretically and empirically. Our analysis finds no evidence that intraLATA toll competition will adversely affect local rates.     

Competition and innovation in telecommunications: An empirical analysis of innovative telecommunications in the public interest

According to current opinion, competition in telecommunications stimulates innovation. However, there are reasons to believe that at least in some circumstances competition might lead to a decrease in product innovation. In this paper a cross-sectional statistical analysis is carried out on data for the OECD countries. A positive correlation is indeed found between competition and innovation. However, the level of economic development is an important mediating variable. The economies of emerging technologies in the local loop lead to the conclusion that especially in the mobile segment competition will stimulate innovation.     

Maximizing the adoption of fixed number portability within the EU: An empirical analysis

Number portability (NP) is considered by the European Commission as a key measure for promoting competition within the telecom sector especially regarding network access infrastructure. However, NP requires several modifications to the network architecture and to the business processes of each operator that, depending on network size, may result in a significant financial cost. This is true for fixed networks in particular. Given the requirement for such an investment, National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) desire a clear picture on what to expect, in terms of progress in access competition, when introducing fixed NP in their respective markets. The paper approaches this question by correlating several fixed telephony market indices related to access competition to the degree of success of fixed NP. Relevant analysis based on European Union member states’ data indicates that fixed NP does not significantly contribute to local loop unbundling (LLU) adoption in markets where there are other access technologies available. In these markets, access competition via these other technologies and fixed NP initially achieve similar penetration rates. Consequently, when access competition exceeds a certain threshold and given a reasonable pricing regime then fixed NP is further boosted to include broadband connections based on several broadband technologies/methodologies such as LLU and cable as well as existing narrowband access technologies (e.g. narrowband cable connections). In markets where LLU is the only alternative for access then the rate of Fixed NP adoption is directly correlated with the success of LLU. Consequently, these conclusions are considered within a high-level stepwise approach for NP implementation, which is based on the experience acquired from the respective Greek national project.     

Treat me well and I may leave you kindly: A configurational approach to a buyer's relationship exit strategy

Research shows that the choice of relationship exit strategy by the instigator of exit can have significant negative consequences for the party that is being dropped. In this study we focus on what we coin as kind exit, where the risk of harm to the supplier as a result of the buyer's relationship termination is low. In line with current research, which is suggesting that the characteristics of a buyer-supplier relationship play a critical role in the instigator's choice of exit strategy, we examine the link between the buyer's perception of its relationship with the supplier and the manner in which the buyer-supplier relationship ends. We posit that this phenomenon is causally complex and context dependent, and as such, there will be multiple types of buyer-supplier relationships that will lead to a kind exit. To uncover these types, we examine 315 terminated buyer-supplier relationships in manufacturing and service sectors in the UK, employing fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Our results show that contrary to extant literature, there is not one relationship type that leads to a kind exit; instead, we uncover four alternative equifinal configurations of relationship dimensions and two exogenous factors.     

FOB or Uniform Delivered Prices: Strategic Choice and Welfare Effects

In spatial markets firms typically use either FOB (mill) or uniform delivered (UD) pricing. What competitive factors motivate this choice and what are the welfare implications of the choice? We study these questions in a duopsony market, where farmers with unit elastic supply curves sell to processing firms. In results that differ considerably from prior work, we show that the equilibrium price policy depends upon the extent of competition in the market, with FOB pricing emerging under very competitive structures and UD pricing emerging under less competition. Mixed FOB‐UD pricing may also emerge in equilibrium. In most cases welfare is higher under UD than FOB pricing.     

Competition Policy under Laissez-Faireism: Market Power and its Treatment in Hong Kong

The paper describes the current competition policy framework in Hong Kong: how it came into existence, what business practices are prohibited, and how the enforcement system works. Recent cases in the telecommunications industry are used to illustrate the sectoral approach, a unique feature of Hong Kong's competition policy. We argue that a sectoral approach faces two fundamental drawbacks. First, due to having different ``rules of the game' for different sectors, the allocation of resources may be distorted in the long run. Second, since the relevant regulatory agencies perform dual roles both as competition policy enforcer and as traditional regulator of natural monopolies, the impartiality of their competition decisions may not be credibly conveyed to the public. We also address other specific problems associated with the sectoral approach, such as the exclusion of structural issues, narrow coverage of sectors, and the lack of public enforcement. We conclude that an overall competition law can better promote competition and economic efficiency in Hong Kong.     

Industrial Relations Climate in the Manufacturing Sector in Singapore

The objective of this study is to assess the state of workplace industrial relations climate in the manufacturing sector in Singapore. Based on a survey of 73 manufacturing companies in Singapore and subsequent intensive study of eight of them, it was found that the overall labor-management relations in the industry were good and had improved over the past few years. Union membership was reported to have increased and this was accompanied by a perceived increase in union role and influence on labor-management relations. The findings also highlighted the need to strengthen the communication processes among the three parties—workers, unionists and management.     

服务型制造项目治理的影响机理研究——基于扎根理论的探索性案例分析

随着信息化的发展和产业竞争的不断加剧,服务型制造业已经成为我国制造业转型升级的必由之路。本文将采用以扎根理论为核心的多案例研究方法,试图通过实践探索归纳出有关服务型制造项目治理影响机理的理论模型。研究得出：（1）影响服务型制造项目治理的因素主要来自于项目利益相关者和项目相关的保障因素两方面,其中项目利益相容性、信任水平和合作强度影响着服务型制造项目的关系治理;项目实施和项目合作环以及项目绩效3个因素直接影响项目保障因素;（2）针对利益相关关系和项目保障两大因素的影响,提出综合关系治理和项目环境保障协同治理的解决方案,构建服务型制造项目治理影响机理图;（3）基于服务型制造项目治理影响机理,提出了搭建公共信息平台、建立合作共赢理念、建立科学预警机制和冲突变动以及建立信用评价体系等措施。