Estimating the commuting cost and commuting time property price gradients

In this paper, we estimate the property price gradients in Hong Kong. We distinguish our effort from previous studies on the subject by directly measuring the economic distance, i.e., the monetary commuting cost and commuting time, instead of merely the physical distance. Our results are generally supportive of the prediction of a negative property price gradient. In one specification, the estimated capitalization of the savings of commuting cost in property prices appears to be just right. The expected negative effect of commuting time on property values, however, can only be detected among observations with larger commuting times. Nevertheless, over the range where the effect of commuting time has the expected negative sign, the values of time implied by the estimates agree well with the results reported in the transportation economics literature.     

The commuting time paradox

We examine the conditions for the ‘commuting time paradox’ which states that the average commuting time does not vary between different periods. We develop therefore an equilibrium job search model with endogenously chosen commuting costs. Presuming wage bargaining between workers and firms, the optimally chosen maximum commuting costs jointly maximise the worker's and firm's payoffs. We demonstrate that when productivity levels increase over time, average commuting costs and average wages both increase, which affects the optimally chosen commuting time. We establish the conditions under which the paradox holds.     

An empirical investigation into supply chain vulnerability

A growing number of academicians and practitioners have put supply chain risks on their agendas, particularly triggered by a recent series of catastrophic events that have disrupted economies and supply chains around the globe. Given the increasing awareness of this important topic, the purpose of this research was to study supply chain risks in more detail and to investigate the relationship between supply chain vulnerability and supply chain risk. Responses from 760 executives from firms operating in Germany reveal that supply chain characteristics such as a firm's dependence on certain customers and suppliers, the degree of single sourcing, or reliance on global supply sources are relevant for a firm's exposure to supply chain risk. Overall, this research represents the first large-scale investigation of this important relationship and provides a finer understanding of the antecedents of supply chain vulnerability.     

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.     

Central sterile supply productivity and time study analysis

As a result of the productivity study in both areas, the following objectives can be attained: Ascertain the number of FTEs necessary for staffing requirements. Determine the efficiency level in daily production of trays and sets. Develop standards to measure the overall effectiveness in delivering service. Although this represents a quantitative analysis of the productivity within a CSS department, it is important not to forget the human element in the relationship between CSS and OR employees.     

The content of manufacturing strategy: An empirical study

While there has been an extensive literature written on manufacturing strategy since the 1960s, little empirical research has been done. This article reports on a study of manufacturing strategy in thirty-nine companies based on questionnaire responses received from manufacturing managers.The study indicates that things are not as bleak as the literature might suggest. About one-third of the companies appear to have a well-developed manufacturing strategy. In those cases where the manufacturing strategy exists it is consistent with the business strategy and internally consistent among mission, objectives, policies, and distinctive competence.The term “manufacturing strategy” is not well understood by the managers surveyed. When asked to state their manufacturing strategy, they gave statements about what manufacturing should be, what it should do, how it should do it, and why it should do it. Apparently, the terminology itself is confusing. Frameworks for stating both business strategies and the elements of manufacturing strategy need to be strengthened and some specific suggestions are given in the article for doing so.Even though two-thirds of the companies did not have well-developed manufacturing strategies, 80% of the managers felt that manufacturing had lent competitive strength to the business. This was being done through the development of a distinctive competence in manufacturing that provided competitive advantage.Manufacturing strategies seemed to follow from business strategy. This is contrary to the literature, which indicates that manufacturing strategy is missing, or, at the very least inconsistent with business strategy and marketing strategy. Perhaps a stronger relationship exists than was previously thought. This article provides some evidence for establishing this premise and also provides data on the general status of strategy in manufacturing today.     

Supply chain quality management practices and performance: An empirical study

This study proposed a conceptual framework to study the relationships among three dimensions of supply chain quality management (SCQM) – in-house quality management practices (internal QM), interaction for quality with suppliers on the upstream side of supply chain (upstream QM), and interaction for quality with customers on the downstream side of supply chain (downstream QM) – and their impact on two types of quality performance (conformance quality, and customer satisfaction). Survey data were collected from 238 plants in three industries across eight countries and structural equation modeling was used to test this framework. The results indicate a dominant role of the internal QM in SCQM which has a positive impact on the other SCQM dimensions and two types of quality performance. Downstream QM is found to mediate the relationship between internal QM and customer satisfaction, while there is a lack of direct impact of upstream QM on either type of quality performance.     

Operating decisions, supplier availability and quality: An empirical study

In the just-in-time (JIT) philosophy, purchasing strategies advocate the use of fewer sources of supply to enable a firm to improve the quality of its products. However, there is paucity of empirical evidence in support of the theory. We develop a model by integrating concepts from manufacturing, marketing, and business strategy to better understand the links between operating decisions of the firm, supplier availability, and product quality. We empirically test the hypotheses using cross-sectional PIMS data. Our analysis shows that operating decisions and environmental factors such as wider product lines, lower levels of competition, and greater frequency of product changes increase the likelihood of a firms' reduction of supplier base, which in turn raises quality levels.     

Testing unstable econometric models for stability: An empirical study

Econometric models may be tested for stability using the asymptotic distribution of the dominant characteristic root of the system as derived by Theil and Boot (1962) or by Oberhofer and Kmenta (1973). This paper points out that this distribution is known for stable models only which implies that the null hypothesis must always be stability and the power of the test is in question. A Monte Carlo study is performed to investigate the power of the test and the distribution of the test statistic for unstable and stable models in the small sample case.     

Happiness in transition: An empirical study on Eastern Europe

This paper analyzes the determinants of life satisfaction in a pooled data set of representative individual survey data from seven East European countries collected during the early phase of economic and political transformation using ordered logit models. Those core socio-demographic and economic variables relevant in the US and West European countries have a similar impact on happiness in Eastern Europe under conditions of dramatic economic, political, and social change. The individual effects of variables across countries are not statistically different from the results obtained from the pooled data set. Cross-country differences in aggregate happiness can be explained well by variations in the unemployment rates, the degree of political freedom and the human development index.     

Variations in the value of reductions in commuting time

This paper applies the theory of consumer choice to investigate the variations in the value of a marginal reduction in commuting for motorists. Two models are developed: Model I includes leisure and goods in the utility function and Model II adds commuting time to the utility function. Model I predicts that the value of a marginal reduction in commuting time increases as income or commuting time increases and decreases as commuting time saved increases. Model II does not have clear qualitative implications. The empirical tests generally support Model I.     

Foreign location decisions by US transnational firms: An empirical study

The paper aims at identifying the variables that are significant in determining the choice of host countries for manufacturing subsidiaries of US transnational firms. The approach that is taken is to relate variables that on the basis on a priori theoretical reasoning influence foreign location decisions, with (a) total market penetration by US firms and (b) the choice these firms make between exporting to their foreign markets and on site manufacturing. Location decisions are viewed as emerging from the interaction of characteristics typical to the industry of the transnational firm and factors specific to potential host countries. Particular attention is devoted to finding out whether locational choices and market shares are interdependent. The sample of observations under investigation consists of the activities of US majority-owned subsidiaries, classified in fourteen industry groupings and operating twenty countries. Sub-samples of countries are also studied. It is found that for the European countries, in particular EEC members, market penetration is dependent on local manufacturing.     

A dynamic CAPM with supply effect: Theory and empirical results

Breeden [Breeden, D. T. (1979). An intertemporal asset pricing model with stochastic consumption and investment opportunities. Journal of Financial Economics 7, 265–196] and Grinols [Grinols, E. L. (1984). Production and risk leveling in the intertemporal capital asset pricing model. The Journal of Finance 39, 5, 1571–1595] and Cox et al. [Cox, J. C., Ingersoll, J. E., Jr., & Ross, S. A. (1985). An intertemporal general equilibrium model of asset prices. Econometrica 53, 363–384] have described the importance of supply side for the capital asset pricing. Black [Black, S. W. (1976). Rational response to shocks in a dynamic model of capital asset pricing. American Economic Review 66, 767–779] derives a dynamic, multiperiod CAPM, integrating endogenous demand and supply. However, Black's theoretically elegant model has never been empirically tested for its implications in dynamic asset pricing. We first theoretically extend Black's CAPM. Then we use price, dividend per share and earnings per share to test the existence of supply effect with U.S. equity data. We find the supply effect is important in U.S. domestic stock markets. This finding holds as we break the companies listed in the S&P 500 into ten portfolios by different level of payout ratio. It also holds consistently if we use individual stock data.     

An adaptive empirical likelihood test for parametric time series regression models

We propose an adaptive empirical likelihood (EL) test for a parametric regression model against a class of alternatives for weakly dependent time series observations. The test is formulated by maximizing a standardized version of the EL statistic over a set of smoothing bandwidths. It is demonstrated that the proposed test is able to distinguish the null hypothesis from a series of local alternatives at an optimal rate.     

Price support and spreads in the IPO aftermarket: An empirical microstructure study

Using the inventory components of spreads as a measure of inventory holding-risk, we test the hypothesis of Hanley et al. [Hanley, K. W., Kumar, A., & Seguin, P. J. (1993). Price stabilization in the market for new issues. Journal of Financial Economics, 34, 177–197] that price supports reduce market makers’ inventory holding-risk in the aftermarket of initial public offerings (IPOs). We find that both spreads and their inventory components are significantly smaller in the earlier periods of the IPO aftermarket than those in the later periods. More importantly, the inventory components of spreads are significantly smaller for stocks without over-allotment options (OAOs) exercised, and for stocks with lower or negative initial returns which are more likely to have price supports. The results are consistent with the price support hypothesis.     

An empirical study on credit card loan delinquency

Following the Basel II convention, consumer credit default is commonly defined as delinquency beyond a period of 90 days. In this study, rather than considering default as a binary variable, we dissect delinquency states further to investigate default behavior in greater detail. As such, we define three states—no delinquency, delinquency and serious delinquency—and estimate the probabilities of the transitions between states using extensive panel data from Korea, covering a wide range of behavioral information. Our findings have several economic implications. First, the factors that affect delinquency risk can differ from those that affect the transition from delinquency to serious delinquency. Second, the recent increase in the number of seriously delinquent accounts can be attributed to changes in the borrower age distribution. Third, macroeconomic conditions, especially differences in gross domestic product and consumption growth, have led to the recent increase in delinquent accounts. Fourth, the debt-to-income (DTI) ratio has a profound effect on transitions between delinquency states and thus affects both recovery and delinquency. Furthermore, this result is robust to controls for demographic and macroeconomic factors.     

Organizational buying effectiveness in supply chain context: Conceptualization and empirical assessment

Early literature considers purchasing as a supportive activity in the traditional corporate value chain rather than as having an influence on customer value creation. This study builds on the concept that purchasing should provide value for the direct downstream customer in the supply chain and that this value represents the measure of its effectiveness. By employing theoretical triangulation, early organizational effectiveness literature provided a solid foundation for the development of the concept of organizational buying effectiveness (OBE). This study investigates the measurement properties and external validity of the OBE concept. The findings are based on a survey of 123 large and medium manufacturing firms in Croatia. The OBE scale exhibits sound metric properties and a satisfactory level of external validity, thereby confirming the plausibility of theoretical triangulation. Further, the theoretical and managerial implications for constituent fields, the study's limitations, and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Enhancing hospital supply chain performance: A relational view and empirical test

Improving hospital supply chain performance has become increasingly important as healthcare organizations strive to improve operational efficiency and to reduce cost. In this study, we propose a research model based on a relational view, delineating the factors that influence hospital supply chain performance: trust, knowledge exchange, IT integration between the hospital and its suppliers, and hospital–supplier integration. Testing results of the research model based on data from a sample of 117 supply chain executives from U.S. hospitals show positive direct effects: (1) from trust and from IT integration to knowledge exchange respectively; (2) from knowledge exchange and from IT integration to hospital–supplier integration respectively; and (3) from hospital–supplier integration to hospital supply chain performance. The results also show the following indirect effects: (1) the influences of knowledge exchange and IT integration on hospital supply chain performance are partially and fully mediated by hospital–supplier integration, respectively and (2) the influences of trust and IT integration on hospital–supplier integration are fully and partially mediated by knowledge exchange, respectively. In addition, the results show the following moderating effects: (1) hospital system membership moderates the relationships between IT integration and knowledge exchange and between trust and knowledge exchange; (2) hospital environmental uncertainty moderates the relationship between trust and knowledge exchange; and (3) trust moderates the relationship between knowledge exchange and hospital–supplier integration. Implications of the study findings and directions for future research are discussed.