Global competitive conditions driving the manufacturing location decision

Given today's rapidly shifting global competitive conditions—including customer location, natural disasters, currency valuation, labor and transportation costs and availability—many U.S. companies are revisiting decisions about their preferred manufacturing location(s). The purpose of this research is to understand some of the trends that affect whether U.S.-based companies bring their production back to the United States or relocate it to different geographical locations (reshore). The focus is on the key factors that affect companies’ manufacturing location decisions, the importance of these factors, and how the importance has changed over time. Because of the complexity involved in the manufacturing location decision, key risk factors inherent in the manufacturing decision are also assessed. Survey responses from 319 companies that currently manage offshore manufacturing plants are analyzed. Among other insights, this study found that 40% of these companies perceived a trend toward reshoring to the U.S. in their industries. The companies involved in this study also place an increasing importance on where their customers want them to locate, as well as how the location could help expand into new customer markets. These and further results and implications for U.S. manufacturing companies are presented herein.     

The strategic decisions and success factors of the global integration-local responsiveness of Japanese MNCs in China

This article applies Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) theories to the strategic management analysis of the global integration-local responsiveness of multinational corporations (MNCs) in China, from the perspective of company characteristics (ownership advantages and internalization advantages) and environmental dynamics (locational factors) in order to analyze the success factors influencing the sales activities of Japanese MNCs in China. Based on the analysis of a survey conducted on 230 Japanese parent companies with investments in China, the empirical research findings include: Japanese MNCs in China favor global integration strategies; the more significant the ownership advantages and internalization advantages are, the greater the global integration is; the success factors of their operations in China due to global integration are present in manufacturing know-how, procurement of parts and supplies, financial power, previous investment experience in China as well as sales networks and technologies; locational advantages mainly lie in labor cost among other things; internalization factors do not have any significant correlation with the success and performance of the subsidiary company. Translated from Zhongguo Ruankexue 中国软科学 (China Soft Science), 2005, (3): 89–98     

A MODEL FOR LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT IN A POST‐SOVIET CENTRAL ASIAN TRANSITIONAL ECONOMY

The research presented explores the logistics management of European and North American manufacturing companies operating in the unique environment of the post‐Soviet Central Asian transitional economy of Kazakhstan. Combining three alternating phases of quantitative and qualitative analysis, the research identifies the challenges logistics managers face in their efforts to distribute their companies' products into and within Kazakhstan. Then, using cross‐case analysis on a series of eleven case studies of European and North American manufacturing companies operating in Kazakhstan, the article concludes with a grounded theoretical model of logistics management for European and North American companies in Kazakhstan. The model highlights the unexpectedly divergent paths taken by companies from two different industry categories.     

Improving Distribution Service Performance Through Effective Production and Logistics Integration

Current empirical research on logistics' relationships with other departments has mostly neglected the interface with production. On the basis of data from 387 manufacturing companies, we answer a recent call for research and extend the literature by examining effective working relationships and achieved integration between the production and logistics functions regarding their performance impacts and their antecedents. With respect to the former, we take a resource‐based perspective, showing that integration achieved between the production and logistics functions drives distribution service performance by serving as a pivotal capability element in the resource–capability–value chain. Within this chain, effective working relationships constitute the underlying resources and prove to be a strong driver of achieved integration. With respect to antecedents, we employ the theory of cooperation and competition and identify positive goal interdependence to substantially improve working relationships between production and logistics. Furthermore, we find this effect to be amplified via formalized performance measurement systems.     

Postponement Strategies for Global Downstream Supply Chains: A Conceptual Framework

Postponement is a well-known organizational concept and usually relates to the deferment in time of manufacturing and/or logistics operations. In the current global competitive landscape, situations where postponement can be applied are rapidly increasing. Faced with the wide range of customs duties and free-trade agreements currently in place, companies need to (re)design their postponement strategies to customize their products appropriately, and to the proper degree, in each market. As the actual location where operations take place has a major impact on a company’s overall performance, the spatial perspective must also be taken into account when designing global postponement strategies, alongside the conventional temporal perspective. Heretofore, the academic literature does not offer any comprehensive framework on a global scale either for handling what is known as the postponement boundary problem, or for conceptualizing the related postponement strategies. Building on previous research, the aim of the present study was to investigate the postponement concept in a global environment with a downstream focus. The intended purpose is twofold: first, to review and expand previous studies on the subject and, second, to provide some guidelines for conceptualizing global postponement strategies. A structured literature review was first conducted, followed by the development of a framework that combines both the temporal and the spatial dimensions. Finally, the framework was applied to a group of 28 business cases taken from the literature, to act as a bridge between academic theories and practitioners’ current business operations.     

制造业及物流业吸收FDI对我国对外贸易的影响研究

外商直接投资(FDI)作为跨国公司经营资源的综合体,成为发达国家向发展中国家进行技术转移和扩散的重要载体。由于我国物流服务水平低,目前进入我国的制造业、商贸业的跨国公司,通常要把其物流的国际合作伙伴带入中国。随着全球产业的转移,中国成为世界制造业中心,外资物流也随着制造业的转移进入中国。本文在对FDI结构变化分析的基础上,结合我国FDI结构现状,探讨我国吸收FDI的对策。     

异质性GIC治理及其“鱼/渔”效应——基于mvQCA方法的本土制造企业实证

融入全球创新体系是本土制造企业创新战略的必由之路。突破全球价值链研究的范式局限，文章基于全球创新链新范式、从“异质性”假设和二元关系视角，揭示“技术范式、技术差距和权力地位”等不同情境下，“解构类型、分工模式和空间结构”不同的异质性全球创新链治理，对本土制造企业技术能力溢出（“鱼”效应）和创新能力溢出（“渔”效应）的显著差异。采用多值集定性比较分析（mvQCA）方法，对80个异质性全球创新链治理二元关系样本，进行组态视角复杂路径构型分析，揭示了全球创新链治理的异质性维度和所处情境特征影响“鱼/渔”效应的交互与匹配机制。研究结论对探索全球创新链研究新范式以及本土制造企业融入全球创新链的战略与策略决策具有启示意义。     

粤港澳大湾区物流业高质量发展的路径

物流高质量发展的内在特点是物流系统化程度高、技术先进、产业和产品结构合理、内生动力强。可用单位GDP的社会物流成本、单位物流成本的物流增加值、物流服务水平、技术创新能力、绿色发展等指标评价物流业发展质量。粤港澳大湾区物流业发展质量虽然在全国处于领先水平,但与美、日、欧等发达经济体的先进水平相比仍有较大差距。物流业发展质量偏低表现为物流的成本高,服务水平、生产效率和经济效益较低,资源浪费和环境污染等等,其原因在于技术创新不足,第三产业欠发达且发展不均衡,物流产业组织集聚程度相对较低,物流技术应用不足及劳动力成本上涨,物流一体化程度不高,物流组织管理技术不强,铁路物流发展滞后和海关效率低下等。提高粤港澳大湾区物流发展质量,要创建粤港澳大湾区创新生态系统,强化技术创新,深化第三产业发展,加快物流产业集聚,培养具有世界领先水平的物流龙头企业,加强物流技术推广和应用,加速物流一体化进程,用技术推动物流商业模式和经营业态创新,提升全球供应链的组织技术,深化铁路物流系统改革,加大海关改革力度,发展绿色物流。     

Global Sourcing Decision‐Making Processes: Politics,Intuition, and Procedural Rationality

Global sourcing (GS) is a firmly established phenomenon in modern business practice that requires specific expertise from different organizational functions, such as purchasing, production, logistics, and research and development to analyze and select sourcing alternatives effectively. In this context, global sourcing decision‐making (GSDM) processes pose major challenges because two dimensions of functional politics, namely goal misalignment and power imbalance across functions, appear to influence procedural rationality in a manner not understood to date. Likewise, intuition also seems to play a role for the procedural rationality of GSDM processes. To elucidate the conditions under which procedural rationality is hampered or enhanced by politics and intuition, we studied five cross‐functional GSDM processes, in front of extant strategic decision‐making literature. We derive formal propositions on how functional politics and intuition influence the procedural rationality and present contingencies for the divergent role of intuition as well as functional politics in GDSM processes. Our research contributes to existing GS literature by providing a theoretical model of important microfoundations of how GSDM processes evolve. The findings also guide managers on how to structure GSDM processes such that GS projects can be conducted in a more rational fashion.     

Transnational corporations and spatial divisions of ‘service’ expertise as a competitive strategy: the example of 3M and Boeing

Production processes are becoming increasingly more complicated as firms develop corporate strategies that are designed to increase profitability or capture market share. The focus of this article is on manufacturing companies (3M and Boeing) and on understanding the social organisation of production and the ways in which firms manipulate spatial divisions of expertise (service inputs) as well as labour (manufacturing inputs). This distinction recognises that there are important differences between production and non-production tasks. The 3M case examines the firm's global labour market by exploring the geographies of its transnational or foreign service employees. The Boeing case examines the design and manufacture of the 787 and the development by Boeing of a new complex spatial division of expertise.     

全球价值链下的地方产业集群持续竞争优势研究

文章从能力的角度对全球价值链下的地方产业集群进行了研究.文章认为异质性能力是全球价值链下地方产业集群竞争优势的基础;动态能力是全球价值链下地方产业集群持续竞争优势的来源;集群学习是全球价值链下地方产业集群持续竞争优势获得的路径.最后,文章从集群学习的视角提出了全球价值链下地方产业集群发展战略.     

The Role of Social Mechanisms in Demand and Supply Integration: An Individual Network Perspective

In many industries, including retail, increased complexity of marketing strategies needs to be met with increased efficiency in product delivery, requiring integration across demand and supply facing functions of the firm. For frontline logistics employees (FLEs) of manufacturing firms who are delivering and marketing products in retail stores daily, the ability to understand both the marketing and supply implications of their actions is essential. Despite the importance of cross‐functional integration at the retail frontline, little logistics research has explored how logistics frontline employees interact with managers and each other to integrate knowledge and information. The purpose of this research is to examine the antecedents to cross‐functional integration across demand and supply functions in multiple social networks of the FLE. Mixed methods, including social network analysis, structural equation modeling, and analysis of variance, are applied to test social capital theory hypotheses regarding the impact of relational embeddedness and social mechanisms, socialization and shared interpretation, on individual demand and supply integration across friendship, key enabler, and ideation networks of the frontline employee.     

中国制造企业的物流外包——供应链核心成员之路

中国已成为世界先进制造业基地,具备了融入到有竞争力的国际或国内供应链的能力,但是要想成为供应链的主要成员乃至核心成员,就必须从"中国制造"向"中国服务"转型。与制造直接配套相关的服务首推"物流服务",作为中国的制造企业,进行物流外包是提升自己核心竞争力、增强综合实力的非常关键的战略举措。     

跨国公司全球环保责任战略选择研究

发展中国家消费者认为,跨国公司应当采用全球标准化的社会责任战略,采取自愿责任行为,并对此积极响应;跨国公司的全球社会责任行为对消费者的公司认同和公司评价都具有直接的正向影响。对于跨国公司来说,实施标准化的全球社会责任行为能够增加发展中国家消费者的认同及对公司的良好评价,并有可能影响消费者购买的决策过程,进而转化为"货币选票"。跨国公司应从战略层面实施全球社会责任行为,构筑企业的长期竞争优势。     

A supply chain management framework for services

While services represent the largest sector of the global economy, 86.8% in the United States, most supply chain management (SCM) research is focused on product flows. Executives in manufacturing firms have benefited from frameworks created to implement SCM processes, but this is not the case for their counterparts in service companies. The two most cited SCM frameworks for services have methodological and conceptual deficiencies. Drawing upon the service-dominant logic of marketing and using an empirical research approach, we developed supply chain structure maps for nine service firms. Our findings indicate that the supply chain structure maps of service companies are comparable to those in the product-based literature, which supports the service-dominant logic. Then, we identified the six key processes that constitute a framework to manage service supply chains. The customer relationship management and the supplier relationship management processes form the critical links in the supply chain, and the other four processes are coordinated through this linkage. The SCM framework for services provides direction for executives in service firms who need to increase cross-functional integration within their firms and with other members of the supply chain. For academics, 12 avenues for future research are identified.     

Global production sharing: Exploring Australia's competitive edge

Cross‐border dispersion of production processes within vertically integrated global industries (“global production sharing”) has been an increasingly important structural feature of economic globalisation in the recent decades. This paper examines patterns and determinants of global production sharing with an emphasis on how Australian manufacturing fits into global production networks (GPNs). Though Australia is a minor player in GPNs, there is evidence that Australian manufacturing has a distinct competitive edge in specialised, skill‐intensive tasks in several industries such as aircraft, medical devices, machine tools, measuring and scientific equipment and photographic equipment. Specialisation in high‐value‐to‐weight components and final goods within GPNs, which are suitable for air transport, helps Australian manufacturing to overcome the “tyranny of distance” in world trade. Being predominantly “relationship specific,” Australian GPN exports are not significantly susceptible to real exchange rate appreciation.     

构建新发展格局下物流业与制造业深度融合发展研究

物流业与制造业深度融合发展是构建新发展格局的必然要求,近年来一些地方进行了积极实践,探索了多种深度融合发展模式。两业融合发展不仅有助于推动制造业的转型升级和创新业态模式的融合,而且有助于物流业与制造业的降本增效,提升经济社会整体效益。在构建新发展格局的背景下,应加强物流业与制造业深度融合发展的规划、加强物流业与制造业深度融合发展的要素保障、加快物流业与制造业供应链综合服务商的培育、注重制造业供应链体系全球化专业化水平的提升,不断推动物流业与制造业深度融合发展。     

东北地区两业联动的政策支撑体系研究

自2007年以来,物流业和制造业联动发展已经成为热点话题。本文通过建立计量模型来说明物流业和制造业的线性关系。虽然目前东北地区两业联动发展已经取得了一定的成绩:制造业企业改变原来的理念和模式,逐渐将制造业物流需求释放;物流企业整合资源,加大技术投入,逐步满足制造业的物流需求,两业融合日渐紧密。但是,东北地区两业联动发展中还存在政策制定与落实、协调发展等方面问题。东北地区制造业与物流业联动发展政策支撑体系的构建,有利于推动东北地区两业联动的快速、健康发展,以促进东北地区区域经济平稳发展、经济结构的转型和产业结构的升级。     

上海国际航运中心核心竞争力培育:高端服务业全球资源配置综论

本文通过综述学者对上海国际航运中心地位的分析,认为其对世界经济的影响力不足、国际标准制定能力有待提升、上海航运高端服务资源整合能力有待进一步发展;从而提出支持上海国际航运服务企业参与全球资源配置的活动;加快航运高端服务集群的发展等建议。     

现代物流框架下法律制度的构建

在经济全球化的当今世界,越来越多的企业组织想要面向国际市场开发自己的产品;与此同时,他们也需要面向全球采购以求得更有竞争力的原材料供应。由于原材料与产品流动和传输的环节繁多、涉及的领域广泛,所以完善物流法律制度的要求越来越迫切。