丰田模式：走下神坛

一切并非巧合。丰田在其获得最大成功的两个市场,也同时遭遇了前所未有的信任危机。当长期罩在丰田模式上的光环瞬间褪去,人们看到的或许就是一场营销游戏。     

汇率“寒意”

现在来看,虽然人民币汇率之争暂时不会出现最终的结果,但是对于企业来说,未雨绸缪已经追在眉睫。     

Demystifying the Japanese miracle

In this English translation of a book first published in Japan in 1973 Satoshi Kamata indicts the Toyota Motor company for its inhumane treatment of temporary workers on the assembly line. Kamata is a freelance journalist who records in diary form his six months' experience and observations as a temporary worker for Toyota. For the reviewer, Stephen Wood, the importance of the book lies in its contribution to the demystification of the Japanese employment system, especially in the light of the world-wide concern with Japanese methods. Wood concurs with much of Ronald Dore's introduction to the English edition of Kamata's book but suggests that to draw conclusions about management authority and work organization from it would need more systematic evidence and a sharper set of conceptual distinctions than even those Dore works with.     

丰田危机

在底特律三大汽车巨头刚刚破茧重生，仍处于竞争劣势的大背景下，丰田汽车召回事件融进了政治因素、民众情绪等复杂因素，而快速扩张过程中对传统的背景却是根本原因。     

Relation‐specific capabilities and barriers to knowledge transfers: creating advantage through network relationships

This study examines the role of network knowledge resources in influencing firm performance. More specifically: Can a firm that uses the identical supplier network as competitors and purchases similar inputs from the same plants achieve a competitive advantage through that network? In a sample of U.S. automotive suppliers selling to both Toyota and U.S. automakers, we found that greater knowledge sharing on the part of Toyota resulted in a faster rate of learning within the suppliers' manufacturing operations devoted to Toyota. Indeed, from 1990 to 1996 suppliers reduced defects by 50 percent for Toyota vs. only 26 percent for their largest U.S. customer. The quality differences were found to persist within suppliers because the inter‐organizational routines and policies at GM, Ford, and Chrysler acted as barriers to knowledge transfers within suppliers' plants. These findings empirically demonstrate that network resources have a significant influence on firm performance. We also show that some firm resources and capabilities are relation‐specific and are not easily transferable (redeployable) to other buyers or networks. This result implies that a firm may be on its production possibility frontier for each customer but the productivity frontier will be different for each customer owing to constraints associated with the customer's network. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

膜法分离纯化葛根素的实验研究

生产周期的长短在一定程度上决定了企业产品的成败,而生产周期的缩短是一个持续改善的过程,最理想的状况是"单件流"的生产方式。依据笔者多年实施丰田式生产方式的经验,结合丰田与某供应商之间生产周期缩短的实例,详细阐述了生产周期缩短的途径和意义,以期为国内制造或服务类企业提供一种高效的生产经营模式,增强其竞争力。     

Knowledge transfer and international joint ventures: the case of NUMMI and General Motors

Using a case study of NUMMI, a joint venture between General Motors (GM) and Toyota, this research note examines alliances and knowledge transfer with a focus on the organizational processes used to transfer knowledge. The results suggest two possible explanations for the knowledge transfer outcome. The primary explanation is that the systematic implementation of knowledge transfer mechanisms can overcome the stickiness and causal ambiguity of new knowledge. A second explanation is that creating successful knowledge transfer should be viewed from a change management perspective in which trial and error learning experiences and experimentation support the transfer outcome. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

丰田，亲～

最近，美元兑日元一直在79关口附近徘徊，这件事牵动着丰田章男的神经。丰田需要汇率为80才能维持—定利润水平。稍微再升值到77意味着丰田会有10亿日元的利润被瞬间吞噬掉。虽然，美元兑日元的汇率已有走软的趋势．显然，现在离丰田章男满意的数值110还差很远。     

Taylorism, new technology and just-in-time systems in Japanese manufacturing

This article attempts to examine what is believed to be a significant overall Taylorist influence in Japanese manufacturing as well as a specific manifestation of this phenomenon, namely the unique flow requirements of the generic Toyota system (JIT). The use of unbufferred flow, it is argued, is feasible only with consistent quality, thus making non-discretionary Taylorist job design a necessary condition.     

技术创新乘数效应的运行机理探微

技术创新乘数效应是一个有待拓展的重要理论命题。考察技术创新乘数效应的内在运行机理可以发现,技术创新乘数效应是通过规模经济、范围经济、联结经济和速度经济等形态生成的,并与福特制、丰田制和温特制等组织载体相耦合。因此,中国应通过多种路径为充分发挥技术创新乘数效应创造条件。     

European Works Councils and the Crisis: Change and Resistance in Cross‐Border Employee Representation at Honda and Toyota

The article analyses the effects of the financial and economic crisis on the structures and activities of the European Works Councils (EWCs) at Honda and Toyota, which until 2007–8 were categorized as non‐efficient representation bodies. A theoretical concept is introduced to measure activation and to analyse the factors explaining change/stability. In the empirical part, the EWCs are analysed using data from expert interviews. Both EWCs have undergone different activation ‘paths’, which partly lead to a restructuring of the bodies and the implementation of new co‐ordination processes. Yet the basic logic was retained because of cultural and power related aspects.     

组织间创新性合作:基于知识边界的研究

组织间合作创新的本质是组织共同创造知识的活动，知识边界则从本质上反映着组织间关系与互动。于是，本文从知识边界的角度来研究组织间创新性合作．通过分析边界的三个维度，揭示出知识边界复杂性的显著增加诱发了机会主义行为．并降低了知识转移与创造的效率。进而，本文提出了摆脱困境的应对办法，包括建立知识的共同产权，发展共同语言，对边界人员充分授权以及管理者角色的转换。本文是“从企业到共同体”组织变革研究中的一次基础性探索．     

Perspective: The Green Innovation Value Chain: A Tool for Evaluating the Diffusion Prospects of Green Products

Although green products and technologies are heavily promoted by those worried about global climate change and sustainable development, they are frequently unsuccessful in displacing conventional “brown” products in numbers large enough to create meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and natural resource use. This paper introduces the green innovation value chain (GIVC) as a tool for analyzing the financial viability of green products using a multi‐stakeholder perspective that includes manufacturers, distribution channels, consumers, the environment, and governments as separate links in the chain. Hybrid vehicles, such as the Toyota Prius, are used as an illustrative case and are found to be financially unattractive compared with conventional vehicles across the entire GIVC.     

SPECIALIZED SUPPLIER NETWORKS AS A SOURCE OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: EVIDENCE FROM THE AUTO INDUSTRY

This study examines the relationship between interfirm asset specificity and performance in the auto industry. More specifically, I examine the extent to which differences in supplier–automaker asset specialization may explain performance differences between Japanese automakers (Nissan and Toyota) and U.S. automakers (Chrysler, Ford, General Motors). The findings indicate a positive relationship between supplier–automaker specialization and performance. In particular, the data suggest a positive relationship between interfirm human asset cospecialization and both quality and new model cycle time. Moreover, site specialization is found to be positively associated with lower inventory costs. The findings suggest that in the auto industry a tightly integrated production network characterized by proximity and a high level of human cospecialization will outperform a loosely integrated production network characterized by low levels of interfirm specialization.     

Assessing Consequences of Component Sharing across Brands in the Vertical Product Line in the Automotive Market

Component sharing may look great in the boardroom but not in the showroom. Indeed, savings on research and development and production costs could be offset by a plunge in customer brand attractiveness. The central objective of this paper is to investigate consumer and market responses toward component sharing between brands. More specifically, by combining experimental with econometric studies, this paper investigates the impact of component sharing on customer evaluation of luxury, volume, and economy brands offered in a car manufacturer's vertical product line. An experimental study in which component sharing between automotive brands was made explicit aimed to understand the impact of brand combinations and type of sourcing on the evaluations of the two brands sharing components. This experimental study shows that the evaluation of luxury brands sharing with a volume brand suffers more than when a volume brand shares components with an economy brand. This experimental study was executed for two different brand combinations including one luxury, one volume, and one economy brand: (1) Audi, Volkswagen, and Skoda; and (2) Lexus, Toyota, and Suzuki. The evaluation of an economy brand benefits more from sharing with a volume brand than a volume brand suffers from sharing with an economy brand. The magnitude of these effects depends on several factors, such as component type, the source of the component sharing, and the salience of component sharing to the consumers. One important limitation of the experiment is that component sharing is made rather salient, and no behavioral effects of component sharing are studied. Therefore, a second was executed in which market share data on brands of the Volkwagen company (i.e., Audi, Volkswagen, Seat, and Skoda) were collected, while also data on the component‐sharing practices between these brands were gathered. A market share model was estimated in which market shares of the four studied brands were explained by component‐sharing practices and some control variables (i.e., price, model changes) in an exploratory fashion. The explorative examination of market share effects confirms that luxury brands may suffer, while economy brands may benefit from component sharing. In sum, this research suggests that component sharing between brands has negative effects for the higher‐end, and positive effects for the lower‐end brand. However, it also shows that sourcing matters. This study is considered as the first study investigating the phenomenon of component sharing, and it points to multiple future research issues, such as studying this phenomenon in other markets.     

The Role of Public and Private Protection in Disruptive Innovation: The Automotive Industry and the Emergence of Low‐Emission Vehicles

In the automotive industry, the need to move toward more sustainable trajectories of innovation has received much attention. Car manufacturers have started to develop lower emission alternatives for the internal combustion engine, particularly electric, hybrid, and fuel‐cell vehicles. They face the challenge, however, of how to make a potentially disruptive, systemic, and societally embedded technology such as a low‐emission vehicle attractive to mainstream customers. While literature has suggested that companies can empower the initial stages of disruptive innovation by creating protected spaces themselves and/or by taking advantage of such spaces created by public actors, the specific role of these different types of protection levers—private and/or public—has remained unclear. This article therefore investigates to what extent and how private and public protection levers affect firm‐level strategies to increase the attractiveness of disruptive and systemic innovations to mainstream customers. This is explored empirically through a multiple case study of the emergence of low‐emission vehicles within three car manufacturers—Daimler, General Motors, and Toyota—in the context of European, Japanese, and U.S. policies. The empirical analysis is conducted on a data set consisting of more than 9000 articles from two trade magazines, a car magazine and a financial newspaper for the period of 1997–2010. As main findings, the article identifies regulation, tax incentives, and public–private partnerships as the public protection levers that impose or stimulate “new” performance metrics such as fuel economy and vehicle emissions. It also finds that resource allocation, niche occupation, and collaboration‐integration act as the main private protection levers. In addition, two protection levers emerge from the data that are rather prominent in this context: the use of regulation imposing large‐scale commercialization of low‐emission vehicles and dumping of products in the market below cost price. The article concludes with two different protection trajectories—a public protection trajectory and a private protection trajectory—which explain how car manufacturers leverage the various protection levers to deal with disruptive technology. The main implication of the two trajectories is that while the public protection trajectory stalled due to the systemic, socially embedded technological impediments of electric vehicles and fuel‐cell vehicles, the private protection trajectory picked up the remains of the public protection trajectory and has gained momentum, continuing until today.     

Measuring value creation and appropriation in firms: The VCA model

Research summary : Using a productivity technique (VCA model), we estimate the economic value created by a firm and appropriated by its stakeholders in two specific empirical contexts. In the first application, we use publicly available data from the U.S. airline industry to illustrate how the VCA model can be used with multiple stakeholder groups. In the second application, we provide estimates for three global automobile companies (GM, Toyota and Nissan), showing how the model can be reformulated using value added. In both industries we find substantial heterogeneity among firms in the creation and distribution of value. We discuss strengths and limitations of the VCA model and implications for strategic management research. Managerial summary : Firms create value not only for shareholders, but also for other stakeholders, including employees, customers and suppliers. This article applies a method to quantify the “new” economic value created by a firm over an interval of time; the method also reveals the distribution of that value among the stakeholders. The proposed method gives managers some means to assess changes in the economic value created and distributed. We find that the creation and distribution of value has varied greatly among major U.S. airlines and global automakers in recent decades. Moreover, returns to shareholders typically accounted for only a small proportion of firms' total value creation and often had little relation to broader changes in the magnitude and distribution of value. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effect of "Front-Loading" Problem-Solving on Product Development Performance

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the link between problem‐solving capabilities and product development performance. In this article, the authors apply a problem‐solving perspective to the management of product development and suggest how shifting the identification and solving of problems—a concept that they define as front‐loading—can reduce development time and cost and thus free up resources to be more innovative in the marketplace. The authors develop a framework of front‐loading problem‐solving and present related examples and case evidence from development practice. These examples include Boeing's and Chrysler's experience with the use of “digital mock‐ups” to identify interference problems that are very costly to solve if identified further downstream—sometimes as late as during or—after first full‐scale assembly. In the article, the authors propose that front‐loading can be achieved using a number of different approaches, two of which are discussed in detail: (1) project‐to‐project knowledge transfer—leverage previous projects by transferring problem and solution‐specific information to new projects; and (2) rapid problem‐solving—leverage advanced technologies and methods to increase the overall rate at which development problems are identified and solved. Methods for improving project‐to‐project knowledge transfer include the effective use of “postmortems,” which are records of post‐project learning and thus can be instrumental in carrying forward the knowledge from current and past projects. As the article suggests, rapid problem‐solving can be achieved by optimally combining new technologies (such as computer simulation) that allow for faster problem‐solving cycles with traditional technologies (such as late stage prototypes), which usually provide higher fidelity. A field study of front‐loading at Toyota Motor Corporation shows how a systematic effort to front‐load its development process has, in effect, shifted problem‐identification and problem‐solving to earlier stages of product development. They conclude the article with a discussion of other approaches to front‐load problem‐solving in product development and propose how a problem‐solving perspective can help managers to build capabilities for higher development performance.     

产权与会计关系论

产权理论的发展为会计理论的研究开辟了更广阔的视野,也使会计本质研究更加深入,我国的产权会计学在此背景下亦得到了长足发展。本文从我国现有的产权会计理论观点中总结了产权与会计的相互关系,并就在微观层面上如何运用该理论指导会计实践提供了相关意见。     

Measuring the convexity of the cost function

In this paper I argue that, as might be expected, the initial assumption made about the cost function will influence the empirical results obtained regarding the convexity. I show that this expectation is supported empirically by estimating the parameters of two quadratic cost functions. The first is that function which has been traditionally used in the literature. The second is a simplified version of the quadratic cost function where the cost of changing the level of output is dropped since the evidence in the literature suggest that this variable has no significant effect on cost. Using physical product monthly data for 24 industries we find that the conclusion reached regarding the convexity of the cost function depends on the assumption we make regarding the cost function. I further find that the simplified function is consistent with the observed behavior of production and sales while the traditional cost function is inconsistent with that behavior.