Is Japan's trade (still) different?

Does Japanese trade in manufactured goods differ from the rest-of-the world average and from the US? We use a simple industry-level gravity model and 1981–1998 data to answer this question. We construct a measure of normalized imports by dividing bilateral industry-level imports by the importer's aggregate absorption and the exporter's industry output. We find that Japan imports less than other countries, but also exports less than other countries. Relative to the US, Japanese export performance is half as strong today as it was in the mid-1980s. Bilaterally, Japan is more open to imports from the US than the US is to imports from Japan. This means that the US runs a trade surplus with Japan in normalized imports of manufactured goods. J. Japanese Int. Economies 17 (4) (2003) 507–519.     

Coordination of planning and scheduling decisions in global supply chains with dual supply modes

We address the problem of coordinating aggregate planning decisions and short-term scheduling decisions in supply chains with dual supply modes. We consider long lead time, less expensive sea shipments that are based on demand forecast, and responsive but costly air shipments that are based on revised forecast closer to the demand period. The planning problem determines the sea shipment order quantity and inventory level, while the scheduling model determines the schedule and quantity of air shipments. Results from our numerical experiments suggest that our model leads to consistent cost improvements over a wide range of operating scenarios.     

“Out of sight,out of mind”: Pantry stockpiling and brand-usage frequency

Both researchers and brand managers have suggested that price promotion induced stockpiling can increase a household's usage frequency of a product. Empirical findings, however, contradict this relationship. In reconciling this inconsistency, laboratory results reported in this paper suggest that stockpiling may have the greatest effect on a product's usage frequency when usage-related thoughts about the product are highly salient. These results also suggest that when stockpiling stimulates usage frequency, it can do so by increasing perceptions of a product's versatility. These findings have implications for the advertising versus promotion debate. They suggest that consumer promotions and advertising might play a joint and complementary role in increasing product usage: promotions by encouraging stockpiling, and advertising by building the usage-related salience needed to deplete the stockpiled inventory.The authors are grateful to the Marketing Science Institute and to the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College for their financial support of this project. They are additionally grateful to Scott Neslin, Jim Lattin, and Jeff Inman for helpful comments on earlier drafts.     

Time-driven activity-based cost analysis for outpatient anticoagulation therapy: direct costs in a primary care setting with optimal performance

Objectives: To determine how overall cost of anticoagulation therapy for warfarin compares with that of Novel Oral Anticoagulants (NOACs). Also, to demonstrate a scientific, comprehensive, and an analytical approach to estimate direct costs involved in monitoring and management of anticoagulation therapy for outpatients in an academic primary care clinic setting, post-initiation of therapy.

Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted in conjunction with observations of patient care processes between August 2014 and January 2015. The study was conducted in an academic primary care outpatient setting at Mayo Clinic’s warfarin anticoagulation clinic, Rochester, MN. The anticoagulation clinic serves patients 18?years of age or older in Warfarin therapy management, for any indication, after referral from the patient’s primary care provider. The study included anticoagulation clinic enrollment data on a population of 5,526 patients. Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) technique was applied. Detailed process flow maps which showed process steps for all the anticoagulation program components and care continuum phases were created. Staff roles associated with each of the process steps were identified and displayed on the maps. Process times and costs were captured and analyzed. The main outcome was direct cost of monitoring and management of anticoagulation therapy, post-initiation of therapy.

Results: The cost of warfarin management for patients who display unstable International Normalized Ratio (INR) is more than three times those who display stable INR over time. (Comparator to distinguish stability: Frequency of point-of-care visits needed by patients.) For complex anticoagulation patients, total cost of medication and monitoring for warfarin anticoagulation therapy is similar to that for NOACs.

Conclusion: Despite warfarin being significantly less expensive to purchase than NOACs, overall warfarin management incurs higher costs due to laboratory monitoring and provider time than NOACs. NOAC treatment, therefore, may not be more expensive than warfarin therapy management for complex anticoagulation patients.     

Beyond market orientation: When customers and suppliers disagree

The essence of market orientation is the successful management of a relationship between suppliers and customers. During the past 15 years, a body of scholarship on antecedents and consequences of market orientation has emerged. But what is the appropriate level of market orientation, and what happens when customers and suppliers disagree about the appropriate level of a supplier's market orientation? To what extent does such disagreement concerning market orientation affect the customer-supplier relationship? Do answers to these questions vary by country? The authors examine these issues using data from a survey of leading Japanese and U.S. business firms and their key customers that employed a unique matched supplier-customer sampling methodology. The authors report several interesting results.     

Teaching note: Traditional and activity based costing systems

A significant portion of the current managerial accounting literature contrasts the benefits and importance of activity based costing (ABC) systems with the more traditional cost accounting systems. This paper questions this tendency of making such a stark contrast, by placing ABC systems within a wider cost accounting framework. Initially, the framework is developed by providing an overview of the product costing, control and decision making process. Also outlined are the various costing systems in terms of their objectives, advantages and deficiencies. A schema for integrating the costing process with decision making and performance evaluation criteria is then conceptualized. The role of ABC is recognized and integrated within this framework. The link between ‘traditional’ and ABC systems is also studied via an analysis of the conventional wisdom in some of the leading texts in managerial accounting. The analysis demonstrates that there is still much ambiguity in both the contrasting and the linking of ABC with the more traditional costing systems.     

The Indian perspective of strategic HR roles and organizational learning capability

This study focuses on the empirical analysis of strategic HR roles and organizational learning capability. Line and HR firm performance is further analysed. The sample size consisted of 640 managers in India. Standardized questionnaires were used as tools for the managers' perception of the two variables and their link to data collection. Statistical results indicate that correlation coefficients were mostly significant and positive for the variables and sub-variables of strategic HR roles and organizational learning capability. Discriminant functional analysis reflected that line and HR managers differed significantly in their perception of both variables. Stepwise regression analysis indicated that both the variables of strategic HR roles and organizational learning capability predict firm performance.