Business-to-business electronic market place selection

There is an increasing demand for doing business online, which calls for higher business interoperability on business-to-business (B2B) electronic market places (EMp). This drives the development of integration technologies for improving B2B electronic market (EM) functions on EMp. This paper argues that with the development of integration technologies companies will use more private, community and public EMp and select their proper type of EMp when comparing the function–cost ratios of business interoperability on different types of B2B EMp. This argument has been validated through the case studies against a method of historical event analysis. In this shift, four integration factors of standard flexibility, enterprise integration, service provision and semantic integration are constantly improving EMp functions, which lead to an overall reduction of interaction cost for business interoperation on all types of EMp. This will change business behaviour and corporate strategies of most firms, and have important implications for firms to make strategies of how to select EMp to increase business interoperability for higher competitiveness.     

The impact of supply-side electronic integration on customer service performance

Although information technologies have been expected to directly enhance firm performance in specific value chain activities (e.g., supplier performance or customer service performance), their advanced capabilities offer the promise of organizational integration and spill-over benefits. Enterprise systems provide firms with platforms for electronically integrating their supplier and demand chain activities. Spill-over benefits refer to the impacts that occur when IT investments in one organizational domain benefit performance in a different value chain side of the firm. Supply-side electronic integration (SEI) refers to the use of electronic means to integrate the exchange of information and transactions with suppliers through enterprise systems. In our research, we examine whether SEI generates spill-over effects on customer service performance, over and beyond firms’ direct investments in customer-side digitization. We also examine whether structural attributes of the firm (e.g., vertical integration, diversification, and centralization) moderate the effects of supply-side electronic integration on customer service performance. Our analysis of a secondary dataset of InformationWeek 500 firms shows that SEI helps firms realize cost-savings in their customer service performance, especially if they are less vertically integrated. In addition, SEI investments help diversified and centralized firms achieve cross-selling with their customers. We also find that SEI is more likely to help decentralized and diversified firms achieve customization in their customer service activities. These results suggest that SEI helps firms achieve twin goals in customer service: cost reduction and revenue expansion. Overall, our research reveals how supply-side electronic integration could generate benefits in customer service performance in firms.     

Application of an integrated decision support process for supplier selection

In many firms the value of purchased materials and components accounts for 50–80% of total cost of goods sold. For those firms, purchasing decisions cause enterprise wide side effects, and, therefore, should be treated as an integration matter. Supplier selection is a problem that deals with both qualitative and quantitative issues that must be measured using information that is normally spread within the enterprise. To see how this problem was addressed in a small construction company in Brazil, an integrated procurement process, which is a simplification of a more complex methodology, is presented. The case study shows the importance of simpler, yet efficient, solutions to address the decision making problems of smaller enterprises in development countries—a research and commercial niche not well developed yet.     

关于海上油气开发工程项目费用控制的研究

质量控制、进度控制、费用控制是海上油气开发工程项目建设的三大目标。而费用控制的成败关系到总承包项目是否能给企业带来盈利,是否能使项目的投资额控制在总投资目标内,文章结合海上油气工程建设实践特点,介绍适合业主方在工程项目中采用的费用控制方法和过程,以求在工程建设中能合理使用人力、物力、财力,取得较好的投资效益。     

The role of entry barriers in the development of the offshore supply sector in scotland

This paper examines the offshore oil supply sector and shows how the entry barriers experienced by new supply firms are imposed not by other supply firms but by the oil companies. This is done to ensure product quality and reliability of service rather than the more general attention to price considerations. The range of entry barriers are discussed in relation to key characteristics of the oil industry. As a spin-off this experience appears to have generated a more responsive attitude towards technological and commercial change throughout Scottish industry.     

Exploring the benefits of contact centre offshoring: a study of trends and practices for the Australian business sector

A globalised knowledge economy has seen organisations restructure their delivery of customer services to take advantage of an open and competitive labour market. Gains achieved in developed economies such as the USA and UK from offshoring of business processes to developing countries are pressuring Australian businesses to offshore. This paper explores the practices of Australian businesses with offshore contact centres and considers emerging trends in offshoring in terms of potential risks and benefits for Australian organisations with broad customer contact. Findings suggest that Australian organisations are not only cautiously adopting offshore contact centre solutions to a range of onshore challenges including recruitment and retention of local staff and comparatively high local costs, but also achieving gains beyond cost savings in quality of service and enhanced business flexibility.     

中国服务外包业现状、问题与对策：基于中国与ORN数据的比较分析

离岸服务外包产业发展的好坏在当前我国实现经济转型深化改革开放的关键阶段有重要的战略意义。但未来整个行业的发展则依赖于服务外包企业在竞争日益加剧的全球离岸服务外包市场中竞争优势的建立和强化。本研究通过交大一杜克中关全球外包联合研究中心平台,就中国服务外包企业和国际服务外包企业的竞争力、业务状况及未来发展预期和增长与创新战略意愿等进行了调查研究。对比分析发现,中国服务外包企业存在整体规模偏小、服务外包经验不足、业务标准化程度不高、成本优势不显著等问题。我们分析了问题产生的原因及后果,并从企业和政府的角度提出了有关的对策建议。     

Green technology innovation: Anatomy of exploration processes from a learning perspective

This paper examines how established firms use their core competences to diversify their business by exploring and ultimately developing green technologies. In contrast to start‐ups dedicated to a green mission, diversifying into green markets by developing new products based on existing core competences has proven to be challenging. This is because the exploration processes to find a match between green technology opportunities and internal competences is complex and new to most established firms. This paper gains insights into exploration processes for green technologies and the learning modes and outcomes linked to these processes. We examined exploration processes at the microlevel in an embedded case study of an engineering firm using a combination of the “fireworks” innovation process model and organizational learning theory. First, we found that developing green technologies involves a long‐term exploratory process without guarantee of (quick) success and likely involves many exploration failures. Second, as exploration unfolds along multiple technology trajectories, learning occurs in individual exploration paths (on‐path), when new paths are pursued (path‐initiation), and when knowledge from one path is spilled over to subsequent paths (across‐paths). Third, to increase their chances for success, firms can increase the efficiency of exploration by fostering a failure‐friendly organizational culture, deliberately experimenting, and purposefully learning from failures.     

Reengineering hospital materiel management

Reengineering involves significant change and dramatic rethinking of the business process. The expected result of these changed processes is dramatic improvement. Hospital cost pressures and technological change necessitate review or reengineering the process to enhance customer service at a lower cost. Three areas that yield significant results include reducing the cost of purchasing, implementing new technologies, and empowering teams to accomplish customer driven goals.     

Are offshore firms less conservative in financial reporting? International evidence

Using a large sample of multinational firms operating in offshore financial centers (offshore firms) from 1998 to 2014, this study investigates the financial reporting implications of economic activities involving offshore financial centers (OFCs). We find that offshore firms have a greater tendency to report less conservatively than non‐offshore firms. Moreover, we find that financial reporting is less conservative for firms operating in OFCs with more pronounced OFC attributes than for those with less pronounced OFC attributes. Finally, we also find that firms with their headquarters registered in OFCs (type I offshore firms) tend to adopt less conservative accounting practices than those with subsidiaries operating in OFCs (type II offshore firms). Our findings provide useful insights into how a multinational firm's operation in OFCs is associated with financial reporting practices.     

Offshore outsourcing of professional services: A transaction cost economics perspective

This research utilizes the framework of transaction cost economics (TCE) to develop an understanding of how firms manage the costs and risks of offshore outsourcing of professional services. This research examines the perspectives of eight organizations through interviews with 10 high-ranking supply management executives. The paper first explores the rationale for offshore outsourcing among the organizations studied. Using the tenants of TCE, this paper postulates that fixed costs of establishing the relationship dominate the variable costs of day-to-day transactions, and that organizations will not offshore outsource areas where there is high perceived degree of unmanageable risk. The paper expands on themes provided by TCE and offers some lessons learned, and guidelines for managing and controlling offshore outsourced services relationships.     

Make-or-buy decisions regarding temporary agency work – an empirical analysis of the decision process and expected effects

Although the use of temporary agency work (TAW) in firms is heavily debated in the literature, the decision processes and motives behind using or not using TAW are often neglected or only analyzed in rough categories. We address these issues using a theoretical framework for HR outsourcing decisions. Specifically, we ask what triggers the decision about usage of TAW, whether firms have internal alternatives to using TAW, and what their expectations were when they made the decision. We focus on detailed expectations about the effects and analyze how users an d non-users of TAW differ in their respective expectations. Our analyses show that TAW is not a personnel service used by the majority of firms. Besides monetary costs, quality, and flexibility effects, stakeholder and transaction cost effects are relevant for the make-or-buy decisions. Users and non-users of TAW differ significantly in their expectations about some of the effect categories.     

Open process and open-source enterprise systems

Enterprise systems have become pervasive, especially at the high end of the market where SAP and Oracle service large organisations. There is a great deal of value in enterprise systems offered to all organisations, but many small and medium businesses (SMBs) cannot afford the excessive software costs of established ERP systems. There have been a number of alternative forms of enterprise systems developed, to include open-source software. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) allows vendors to efficiently adopt new processes within their products. Organisations (and open-source ERP systems) can use SOA in customising or improving their systems. Web 2.0 helps collaborative development of knowledge which can be invaluable in identifying better business processes. The Web 2.0 era makes innovative access to enterprise systems possible for many SMBs. This paper reviews the role of SOA and Web 2.0 in making ERP systems more open, and classifies open enterprise systems on the dimension of process. We propose that organisations should conduct knowledge development for business processes through Web 2.0 prior to implementing external to enterprise systems. Once better processes are developed, they can be implemented to improve enterprise systems.     

环境规制约束下企业发展的空间布局选择

环境规制对企业的生存和发展有着巨大的影响,企业在空间布局方面应采取怎样的行为予以应对,迫切需要人们加以思考和探讨。研究认为,环境规制约束下企业发展的空间布局选择有两种:企业迁移和企业集聚。一般而言,在对污染密集企业的处罚程度存在差异、各国各地区环境规制松紧不同、所在地环境成本对企业发展形成严重制约的情况下,企业应考虑作出向环境成本较低地区迁移的选择。在可以实现资源循环利用、环境成本降低、信息传递和服务便捷、专业化劳动力与技术在特定地理区域内能被利用等情况下,一些具有内在关联的企业应考虑作出向特定区域进行一定程度的集聚,以形成生态产业园区的选择。     

企业选择第三方物流服务商的策略探讨

第三方物流服务商的专业化、信息化确实使企业的物流成本大幅的降低，但是企业如何得到好处，选择合适的物流服务商呢？文章分析了企业选择物流服务商的原因，重点提出了选择策略和建议，让企业能享受物流服务商带来的益处。     

如何利用物流提高企业竞争力

21世纪是物流的世纪。近几年来,有效的物流管理已经被认为是提高企业赢利能力和竞争绩效的关键因素。与其他竞争手段不同的是:一个企业的物流能力是其竞争对手无法在短时间内轻易或者廉价模仿的。因而,一旦企业在物流方面拥有了高效率的物流管理系统,无疑将使企业保持长久的竞争力。文中着眼于企业物流活动的全过程,说明如何在物流活动的众多关键环节上切实降低企业成本,提高企业竞争力。     

Applications integration in a hybrid cloud computing environment: modelling and platform

With the development of application services providers and cloud computing, more and more small- and medium-sized business enterprises use software services and even infrastructure services provided by professional information service companies to replace all or part of their information systems (ISs). These information service companies provide applications, such as data storage, computing processes, document sharing and even management information system services as public resources to support the business process management of their customers. However, no cloud computing service vendor can satisfy the full functional IS requirements of an enterprise. As a result, enterprises often have to simultaneously use systems distributed in different clouds and their intra enterprise ISs. Thus, this article presents a framework to integrate applications deployed in public clouds and intra ISs. A run-time platform is developed and a cross-computing environment process modelling technique is also developed to improve the feasibility of ISs under hybrid cloud computing environments.     

Discrimination,technology and unemployment

I study the interaction between discrimination and investment using a directed search model where firms decide the capital intensity of their production technologies before being matched. Discrimination makes some workers cheap to hire. As a consequence, some firms might save on capital costs adopting labour intensive technologies. This framework allows one to reconcile search models with three well-known facts regarding the labour market outcomes of minority workers: low wages, high unemployment and occupational segregation. Furthermore, the model questions the role of equal pay legislation in reducing inequality since removing this restriction, i.e., allowing firms to post type-contingent wages, eliminates the negative effects of discrimination on investment and wages.     

Multinationals' Offshore Operations,Tax Avoidance,and Firm‐Specific Information Flows: International Evidence

Using a large sample of multinational enterprises (MNEs) over the period 1999–2009, this study investigates whether and how offshore operations via offshore financial centers (OFCs) impact the extent to which firm‐specific information is incorporated into stock price, relative to common information. Our analyses show that, irrespective of whether a firm is a Type I offshore firm (directly having headquarters registered in OFCs) or a Type II offshore firm (indirectly setting up subsidiaries in OFCs), the amount of firm‐specific information flowing into stock price is lower for offshore firms than for non‐offshore firms. We also find that as offshore firms become more aggressive in their tax avoidance strategies, their stock prices impound a lower amount of firm‐specific information relative to common information. Finally, we find that a strong offshore proclivity also deters firm‐specific information flows, thereby driving up stock price synchronicity. Our results suggest that the opaque and complex nature of business and financial transactions in OFCs, coupled with their institutional characteristics, that is, weak and flexible legal enforcement, zero or extremely low taxation, and low litigation risk, provide offshore firms with not only stronger incentives but also the opportunities and means to adopt opaque disclosure policies and aggressive earnings management.     

Realizing innovation in services

This article describes a number of innovation forms that are of special relevance to firms in the service industry. Not only technological innovations but also organizational innovations have been distinguished. In the service industry organizational innovations seem to play a significant role. The literature on innovations makes little mention of new organizational arrangements in services. Based on the service management literature a scheme with three forms of organizational innovation and one form of technological innovation is developed. This scheme is illustrated and elaborated in ten case studies of firms in various service industries. The case studies shed some light on innovations in multi-unit forms, combinations of services and co-operation with customers. On a basis of the service management literature and the case studies some of the main processes supporting the (organizational) innovations are analysed.