MODELING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FIRM IT CAPABILITY,COLLABORATION, AND PERFORMANCE

The development and use of information technology (IT) have been thematic in recent literature. IT has been viewed as an enabler of internal and external firm collaboration, which is the foundation of supply chain management. Firm collaboration and information sharing, in turn, are expected to improve firm performance. A model of the relationship between firm IT capability, internal and external collaboration, and firm performance is proposed and tested, using empirical data. The findings show that firm IT capability directly impacts internal and external collaboration as well as firm performance. This finding has important implications for managers as they evaluate investment in information technologies.     

USING WAREHOUSE WORKFORCE FLEXIBILITY TO OFFSET FORECAST ERRORS

The impact of forecast errors on organizational cost, and the usefulness of worker flexibility measures in offsetting their negative effects were evaluated in a labor intensive warehouse environment. Unlike past studies measuring forecast error in terms of forecast standard deviation, this study also considers the impact of forecast bias, which occurs when the mean of the error distribution is non‐zero. Results indicate that forecast bias is more damaging to warehouse cost, compared to forecast standard deviation. Workforce flexibility measures, such as worker cross‐training and proportion of full and part‐time labor, provide a solid buffer against forecast standard deviation. However, they are much less effective against forecast bias. This has important managerial implications as a large portion of forecast bias is managerially introduced.     

Global equity offerings,corporate valuation,and subsequent international diversification

Researchers have long wondered why U.S. firms offer their equity in multiple global capital markets even though they have access to a deep domestic capital market. Based on a propensity score‐matching sample of IPOs for U.S. firms from 1990 to 2003, this paper offers some potential answers. We find strong evidence that issuers who choose global equity offerings experience higher valuations at the IPO stage, as measured by Tobin's q. Our evidence also shows that global equity offerings serve as a deliberate strategic tool to increase issuers' international visibility and their propensity to diversify operationally to international markets. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.