Productivity effects on Mexican manufacturing employment

We examine the effects of labor productivity and total factor productivity (TFP) on employment across 25 Mexican manufacturing industries from 1984 to 2000. Employing panel data methods, several interesting findings emerge. First, we observe a strong and positive impact of NAFTA on employment. Second, productivity exerts a procyclical, positive effect on employment but this effect becomes smaller after NAFTA. Third, partitions of our sample according to capital-labor intensity suggest that industries which are less capital-intensive were affected negatively on impact by NAFTA but that productivity impacted employment positively after NAFTA. In contrast, more capital-intensive industries display these results in reverse.     

Multiplant manufacturing strategies among the fortune 500

This paper identifies and examines four distinct multiplant strategies prevailing within the nation's largest manufacturing companies. These multiplant strategies govern the charters under which plants operate, thus helping to insure focused factory operations. Using detailed data drawn from over 300 plants, the paper reports on the apparent attractiveness of different strategies to different industry groups and singles out those specific plant characteristics which Fortune 500 plants attribute most often to each strategy. This information can aid in the assignment of plant charters, within company operating divisions.     

A disaster's effects on material management operations

No one should ever have to encounter a disaster of the magnitude of Avianca flight 052, Hurricane Hugo, or the San Francisco earthquake of 1989. However, we all learn about the appropriate preparation and response that is necessary for managing a disaster effectively after these events. The importance of material management functions in providing the resources for the implementation of direct patient care is often neglected, and recognition is rarely given to these heroes in a disaster situation.     

The performance effects of major workforce reductions: longitudinal evidence from North America

This paper investigates the performance effects of major job cuts.1 1 Like Wayhan and Werner (2000 Wayhan, V. and Werner, S. 2000. The Impact of Workforce Reductions on Financial Performance: A Longitudinal Perspective. Journal of Management, 26: 341–63. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), we interchangeably use the expressions ‘workforce reduction’ and ‘job cuts’ instead of the broad concept of ‘downsizing’ which is subject to multiple confusing definitions (DeWitt, 1998 DeWitt, R.L. 1998. Firm Industry and Strategy Influences on Choice of Downsizing Approach. Strategic Management Journal, 19: 59–79.  [Google Scholar]). Using data from Compustat S&P database, we examined the longitudinal impact of workforce reductions on labour productivity and operational indebtedness of 239 US and Canadian companies. Repeated measures analysis showed that firms that substantially cut jobs failed to improve their labour productivity and their operational indebtedness. Then, taken a step further, statistical analysis surprisingly revealed that firms that cut the highest proportions of their workforce had a significant deterioration of their operational indebtedness and a non-significant change of their labour productivity. These results call into question the economic legitimacy of major workforce reductions increasingly institutionalized to the detriment of the strategic approach of HRM.     

International diversification of manufacturing operations: Performance implications and moderating forces

The strategic importance of diversifying international manufacturing for firms with global operations has been extensively documented in a series of studies. There is a lack of studies, however, of the performance implications of strategically spreading manufacturing operations across the globe. In fact, most research on international manufacturing to date has generalized from findings by researchers that examine international diversification at the level of the whole value chain, rather than specifically looking at the performance impact of dispersing production operations. Building on the concept of international manufacturing diversification, we show that its relationship with financial performance is inverted U-shaped, and that this relationship is positively moderated by product diversification and co-location of manufacturing and sales activities in the same geographic market. We place the development of international manufacturing diversification processes in the context of the resource based view and transaction costs economics. Hypotheses are tested using data on 38 firms with home base in 15 countries and car and light truck production activities in 45 countries from 2002 to 2008.     

International market selection strategies of manufacturing and services firms

This paper discusses the entrepreneurial landscape in Africa and locates a new generation of African entrepreneurs and their business networks within it. Unlike others in that landscape (i.e. micro- or small-scale informal sector vendors, and traditional or multinational large-scale formal sector firms), the ‘new generation’ entrepreneurs are business globalists who organized a system of business enterprise networks consisting of national, regional, and pan-African organizations. The study analyses interview data from 57 men and women network members from 10 countries (Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe). Some defining characteristics of these entrepreneurs are interactive social and business relationships, use of modern management methods and information technology, trust among fellow members, transparent business practices, advocacy on behalf of the private sector, and commitment to increasing intra-African commerce. Their mission is to improve the climate for private sector business in Africa and to promote regional economic integration. They pursue cross-national commercial ventures, maintain official observer status at established regional economic organizations, sign memoranda of understanding with multilateral agencies, establish venture capital funds, and help to change government policies. The paper identifies characteristics of the ‘new generation’ entrepreneurs, evaluates goals and achievements of their networks, and concludes that despite limitations, these entrepreneurs and their organizations have created intra- and cross-national networks that strengthen private-sector-led economic growth in Africa.     

The international fragmentation of Austrian manufacturing: The effects of outsourcing on productivity and wages

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Austria and other small, open Western European countries have increasingly outsourced part of their production to the Eastern transition countries. This study assesses the effects of fragmentation of Austrian manufacturing on total factor productivity and mandated factor prices. Outsourcing to the East significantly improves domestic growth in total factor productivity, but possibly less in low-skill, labor-intensive industries and more in capital-intensive ones. Estimates of the mandated wage regressions suggest that in the presence of perfect factor markets wages would be lower for low-skilled workers and higher for high-skilled workers as a result of outsourcing.     

The Europeanization of manufacturing and the decentralization of bargaining: multinational management strategies in the European automobile industry

Employee turnover remains to be one of the biggest human resource problems facing the Indian international call center industry. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive study of how the attitudes of call center employees toward different aspects of their work affect their intention to leave. Our specific contribution to the literature is in understanding the heterogeneity among employees and how this affects meaningful inference in studying employees' intention to leave. To achieve this goal, we compare and contrast between traditional ordinary least squares regression models that have been used in the extant literature with latent class analysis. Latent class analysis suggests the presence of three distinct groups of employees, thus confirming the heterogeneity present in the data. The three groups can be represented as the two polar groups, one keen on staying and the other keen on leaving, and a significantly large third group of employees who are unsure. We also find that the impact of different attitudes vary between groups in terms of both economic significance (magnitude of coefficients), and statistical significance. This study throws important light on the research on turnover and has significant research and practical implications.     

The globalization of operations in Eastern and Western countries: Unpacking the relationship between national and organizational culture and its impact on manufacturing performance

Understanding national and organizational culture becomes increasingly important in the era of transnational manufacturing. As the world becomes flat and boundaries break down, manufacturers need to understand the proper role of culture in order to obtain competitive advantage. Thus, the current study conducts a multilevel investigation of the impact of eight national and organizational culture dimensions (according to GLOBE framework) on manufacturing performance. An ANOVA comparison of 189 manufacturing plants between Eastern (Japan and South Korea) and Western (Germany, United States, Finland, and Sweden) countries indicates that organizational culture inside plants differs in three dimensions (power distance, future orientation, and performance orientation). Hierarchical Linear Modeling analysis further suggests that organizational culture has more of an effect on manufacturing performance than national culture or the fit between them. In addition, Country Developmental Indexes, both Economic and Infrastructural, do not impact manufacturing performance, reinforcing our conclusion about the weak influence of the national level factors on manufacturing performance. In an era of globalization, these results have practical implications for organizations expanding across national boundaries by developing an internal organizational culture consistent with high performance manufacturing.     

The challenge of computer-integrated manufacturing

Recent years have seen major changes in the pattern of industrial production. Three forces have been particularly significant in driving industry along the road to advanced automated production; growing international competition, the example of Japan and the availability of new technology. Their combined effect is a trend towards advanced and integrated manufacturing systems.These changes require what are often radical adjustments in the philosophy of production management, away from traditional concerns with discrete operations and towards a total systems management approach.This paper examines some of the features of the challenge posed to production management by the technological changes embodied in the “factory of the future”.     

Bayesian estimation of manufacturing effects in a fuel economy model

The analysis of fuel economy data results in estimates of the technology utilization by manufacturer and vehicle line. The analysis employs a hierarchical Bayesian regression model with random components representing vehicle lines and manufacturers. The model includes predictor variables which describe vehicle features, such as type of transmission, and vehicle line specific measurements, such as compression ratio. Non-informative priors with novel modifications are used and the Bayes estimates are obtained by use of Gibbs sampling. The results show there is substantial variability among manufacturers in efficiently utilizing technology for fuel economy.     

Dynamic decision-making for reliability and maintenance analysis of manufacturing systems based on failure effects

A framework for reliability and maintenance analysis of job shop manufacturing systems is proposed in this paper. An efficient preventive maintenance (PM) policy in terms of failure effects analysis (FEA) is proposed. Subsequently, reliability evaluation and component importance measure based on FEA are performed under the PM policy. A job shop manufacturing system is applied to validate the reliability evaluation and dynamic maintenance policy. Obtained results are compared with existed methods and the effectiveness is validated. Some vague understandings for issues such as network modelling, vulnerabilities identification, the evaluation criteria of repairable systems, as well as PM policy during manufacturing system reliability analysis are elaborated. This framework can help for reliability optimisation and rational maintenance resources allocation of job shop manufacturing systems.     

Customer-capturing strategies: The way to replace existing technology characterized by network effects

Network effects are the basis of competitive advantage in digital economies. Although some researchers have indicated that technologies characterized by network effects are difficult to replace, real-world situations have not confirmed this argument. Challengers still defeat market leaders in markets with network effects. The analytical results presented here include the following: (1) a proposed new concept, resilience, can describe the resistive strength of a network to challenger customer-capturing strategies, (2) three types of networks can be identified based on their resilience values, and (3) high-resilience networks possessing technology are difficult to replace.     

The rent gradient for manufacturing

Rent gradients for manufacturing are estimated using actual rent and value figures for Cincinnati. Distance to the city center is found to be of no importance in explaining rent or value variations.     

网上银行业务发展初探

文章就网上银行的特点,我国网上银行业务发展状况、存在问题及解决措施进行了初步探讨。     

The effect of corruption on the manufacturing sector in India

This article investigates the effects of corruption on the performance of the manufacturing sector at the state level in India. We employ conviction rates of corruption-related cases as an instrument for the extent of corruption, address the underreporting problem, and examine the impact of corruption on the gross value added per worker, total factor productivity, and capital-labor ratio of three-digit manufacturing industries in each state. Our estimation results show that corruption reduces gross value added per worker and total factor productivity. Furthermore, we show that the adverse effects of corruption are more salient in industries with smaller average firm size.     

The impact of total productive maintenance practices on manufacturing performance

In this paper we investigate the relationship between Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and manufacturing performance (MP) through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). We find that TPM has a positive and significant relationship with low cost (as measured by higher inventory turns), high levels of quality (as measured by higher levels of conformance to specifications), and strong delivery performance (as measured by higher percentage of on-time deliveries and by faster speeds of delivery). We also find that the relationship between TPM and MP can be explained by both direct and indirect relationships. In particular, there is a significant and positive indirect relationship between TPM and MP through Just-In-Time (JIT) practices.     

The impact of strategic operations management decisions on community hospital performance

Over the past decade, 10% of community hospitals have closed. In this challenging time, our study presents hospital administrators with some valuable information that can help improve community hospitals’ performance. The purpose of this paper is to develop a strategic operations management model that links long-term service choices, intermediate operations decisions, and hospital performance given the structural constraints of location, size, and medical teaching status. Data collected from 151 community hospitals are used to test the model. The research identifies strategic operations management decisions in the US community hospitals, shows their causal relationships, and identifies their effects on hospital performance. Specifically, we find that intermediate infrastructural operations decisions affect a community hospital’s cost, quality, and financial performance after the structural decisions of location and size have set the stage. Our study also reveals that community hospitals have adopted new staff and demand management decisions in response to the market needs.