从零开始——新建一个质量体系的路线图和工具箱

虽然各种质量体系、方法和设计工具之间的不同并不十分清楚--这是所有质量文献面临的共同问题--旦识别出这些质量方法的关键联系,就可了解各体系之间相互关联的概况.     

CONSIDERATION OF WEATHER RISK IN FORAGE MACHINERY SELECTION

This paper concerns a procedure jor measuring the major economic risks and returns involved in forage production. Conventional static production economics was modified to permit the use of decision criteria under conditions of weather risk. Twenty-six years of rainfall data were analyzed to determine the expected mean number of days available for fieldwork ivithin each of three specified seasons. These seasons correspond with three critical forage production periods: e.g., (1) land preparation and planting, (2) hay harvest, and (3) corn silage harvest and fall plouiing. A probability distribution of days available for field operations was derived, and the number of days available in any one year was randomly selected from this distribution. Given the acreage involved and the machinery system, the days required to perform nine specified field operations were calculated. If the number of days required within a specified season exceeded the number of days available, the value of the crops produced was reduced by a set of yield reducing functions for each deficient day. Overhead and use-associated machinery costs uiere calculated, and net returns over machinery costs were determined for five machinery systems at 75,150, 225, and 300 acres. Cette publication montre une façon de mesurer les plus grands risques économiques et les profits provenant de la production fourragére. On a modifyé?économie de production conventionnelle et statique afin de tenir compte des critéres de décision utilisés sous les conditions de risques climatologiques. Les chutes de pluie ont été analysées sur une période de vingt-six ans afin de determiner la moyenne des jours disponibles au travail des champs, et ce, pour chacune des trois saisons specifiées. Ces saisons correspondent aux trois périodes critiques de la production fourragere: (1) la préparation du sol et le semis, (2) la récolte du foin, et (3) la récolte du maïs à ensiler et les labours ?automne. On a calculé la distribution probable des jours disponibles pour les travaux des champs et, de cette distribution, le nombre des jours disponibles fut choisi au hasard dans une quel-conque année. Selon une superfécie et un systéme dé machinerie determineés, le nombre de jours nécessaires à?exécution de neuf operations differéntes fut calculé. Lorsque le nombre de jour requis pour ?exécution des travaux ?une saison donnee dépasse le nombre de jours disponibles, la valeur des récoltes produites est réduite par une diminution de rende-ment de plusieurs facteurs, une diminution fonction du nombre de jours manquants. Les frais géneraux et les dépenses associées à?utilisation de la machinerie furent calculés. Les profits nets sur les dépenses de machinerie ont été déterminés pour chaque systéme ?equipement avec 75, 150, 225, et 300 âcres.     

Bricolage as a Path to Innovativeness for Resource‐Constrained New Firms

Evidence suggests that both nascent and young firms (henceforth: “new firms”)—despite typically being small and resource‐constrained—are sometimes able to innovate effectively. Such firms are seldom able to invest in lengthy and expensive development processes, which suggests that they may frequently rely instead on other pathways to generate innovativeness within the firm. In this paper, we develop and test arguments that “bricolage,” defined as making do by applying combinations of the resources at hand to new problems and opportunities, provides an important pathway to achieve innovation for new resource‐constrained firms. Through bricolage, resource‐constrained firms engage in the processes of “recombination” that are core to creating innovative outcomes. Based on a large longitudinal dataset, our results suggest that variations in the degree to which firms engage in bricolage behaviors can provide a broadly applicable explanation of innovativeness under resource constraints by new firms. We find no general support for our competing hypothesis that the positive effects may level off or even turn negative at high levels of bricolage.     

Beyond the Return on Advertising: Elasticity of the Return on Advertising as a Diagnostic Metric to Maximize Profit

With increased marketing expenditures, managers need to be equipped with valid and reliable measures capable of showing links between marketing investments and a firm's profitable performance. In this paper we demonstrate that traditional return on advertising (ROA) can be a misleading metric if a firm's goal is profit maximization. Then, we introduce a new diagnostic tool: the elasticity of ROA and show how this metric can help marketing managers to choose more profitable levels of advertising. This new measure has the same virtues as other traditional measures of elasticity and provides real advantages over the conventional metrics.     

The Market Value of Reducing Cancer Risk: Hedonic Housing Prices with Changing Information

In this paper, we use housing price changes occurring after the release of a regulatory agency's environmental risk information to estimate the value people place on cancer risk reduction. Using a large original data set on the repeal sales of houses, matched with detailed data on hazardous waste cancer risk and newspaper publicity, we find that housing prices respond in a rational manner to changes in information about risk. Since the new information indicated that the sites in our sample pose relatively low cancer risk, the informational release led residents to lower their risk beliefs, resulting in an average housing price increase of $56 to $87. This price change implies a statistical value per case of cancer of $4.3 million to $8.3 million, which is similar to the estimates obtained in labor market studies of the value of a statistical life. Newspaper publicity about the local sites increased housing prices, suggesting that residents perceived the news as good.     

Shifting sands? trade unions and productivity at Rover Cars

This article examines the impact of trade unions on productivity at Rover Cars. Intra-organisational variables which influence productivity levels at Rover are also considered. It concludes that the positive approach by both management and unions to collective bargaining in the late 1980s yielded significant gains in performance. This endorses the view of the Harvard School of economists who argue that unionism can be a force for greater economic efficiency.     

Co-operative democracy and employee involvement

In this article the author assesses the difficulties facing democracy in the British Retail Co-operative Movement, with special reference to the role of employees on boards of directors.     

Developing a decision rule to predict failure: The case of savings and loan associations

The relative costs of misclassifying institutions by their financial health is an issue that concerns researchers. In this paper, a model and decision rule are developed that improve the probability of identifying those Savings and Loans that are predicted not to fail, but are actually failing. For obvious reasons, stakeholders in those institutions are very much interested in avoiding this type I error. The study also makes available evidence that the examination of Z-scores can be useful in identifying other financial institutions that may experience financial failure.