A Model of Supplier Integration into New Product Development*

In many industries, firms are looking for ways to cut concept‐to‐customer development time, to improve quality, and to reduce the cost of new products. One approach shown to be successful in Japanese organizations involves the integration of material suppliers early in the new product development cycle. This involvement may range from simple consultation with suppliers on design ideas to making suppliers fully responsible for the design of components or systems they will supply. While prior research shows the benefit of using this approach, execution remains a problem. The processes for identifying and integrating suppliers into the new product development (NPD) process in North American organizations are not understood well. This problem is compounded by the fact that design team members often are reluctant to listen to the technology and cost ideas made by suppliers in new product development efforts. We suggest a model of the key activities required for successful supplier integration into NPD projects, based on case studies with 17 Japanese and American manufacturing organizations. The model is validated using data from a survey of purchasing executives in global corporations with at least one successful and one unsuccessful supplier integration experience. The results suggest that (1) increased knowledge of a supplier is more likely to result in greater information sharing and involvement of the supplier in the product development process; (2) sharing of technology information results in higher levels of supplier involvement and improved outcomes; (3) supplier involvement on teams generally results in a higher achievement of NPD team goals; (4) in cases when technology uncertainty is present, suppliers and buyers are more likely to share information on NPD teams; and (5) the problems associated with technology uncertainty can be mitigated by greater use of technology sharing and direct supplier participation on new product development teams. A supplier's participation as a true member of a new product development team seems to result in the highest level of benefits, especially in cases when a technology is in its formative stages.     

Dynamic limit pricing a refcmulation

This paper offers a new formulation of the well known dynamic limit pricing problem developed by Darius Gaskins. Criticisms of Gaskins' model center around the lack of a game theoretic formulation and the ad hoc fringe expansion equation. In this paper, the expansion equation is based on the importance of internal finance. In the differential game, the dominant firm control price, thereby determining the available internal finance, and the maximum rate of growth, of the fringe. While the results of this study differ from those of Gaskins in a number of ways, dynamic limit pricing is found to be a feasible strategy.     

Global competitive conditions driving the manufacturing location decision

Given today's rapidly shifting global competitive conditions—including customer location, natural disasters, currency valuation, labor and transportation costs and availability—many U.S. companies are revisiting decisions about their preferred manufacturing location(s). The purpose of this research is to understand some of the trends that affect whether U.S.-based companies bring their production back to the United States or relocate it to different geographical locations (reshore). The focus is on the key factors that affect companies’ manufacturing location decisions, the importance of these factors, and how the importance has changed over time. Because of the complexity involved in the manufacturing location decision, key risk factors inherent in the manufacturing decision are also assessed. Survey responses from 319 companies that currently manage offshore manufacturing plants are analyzed. Among other insights, this study found that 40% of these companies perceived a trend toward reshoring to the U.S. in their industries. The companies involved in this study also place an increasing importance on where their customers want them to locate, as well as how the location could help expand into new customer markets. These and further results and implications for U.S. manufacturing companies are presented herein.     

Subprime mortgage funding and liquidity risk

In this article, we use actuarial methods to solve a nonlinear stochastic optimal liquidity risk management problem for subprime originators with deposit inflow rates and marketable securities allocation as controls. The main objective is to minimize liquidity risk in the form of funding and credit crunch risk in an incomplete market. In order to accomplish this, we construct a stochastic model that incorporates originator mortgage and deposit reference processes. Finally, numerical examples that illustrate the main modeling and optimization features of the article are provided.     

Performance measurement of pension strategies: a case study of Danish life cycle products

The Danish pension markets of life cycle products have expanded considerably since its introduction in the beginning of the millennium. The market is maturing and pensioners have the choice between a wide area of different products. It is therefore about time that financial insurance technology is developed to guide the performance measurement of available products. In this paper we develop a simple first version of such a method and we investigate life cycle products recommended on the web of the four biggest commercial Danish pension companies on one day in February 2007. All considered products are outperformed by trivial benchmark products with constant stock proportion over time. Our approach is the following: for each life cycle product we first find a trivial benchmark product with the same long-term risk and then we compare the long-term return of the two equivalent products. We primarily consider value at risk and tail value at risk as risk measures, but we also include a study where the fair value of an interest guarantee is used as risk measure. We consider both long-term mean returns and long-term median returns. We hope that our new method will be regarded as a first step towards a scientifically based ranking of the quality of pension products.     

Marginal tax burden

Zusammenfassung Bei der Beurteilung etwaiger leistungshemmender Wirkungen der Steuer- und Abgabensysteme muß insbesondere die Grenzabgabenbelastung analysiert werden; sie ist sowohl in Österreich als auch in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in der jüngeren Vergangenheit stark angestiegen. Mit diesem Beitrag wird versucht, die gesamte Grenzabgabenbelastung (aus direkten und indirekten Steuern sowie Sozialabgaben) für beide Länder approximativ zu bestimmen. Dabei scheint der Vergleich zwischen Österreich und Deutschland besonders interessant zu sein, da es im Steuer- und Sozialrecht einerseits weitgehende Gemeinsamkeiten in der historischen Entwicklung gibt, andererseits aber auch grundlegende Divergenzen bestehen, so beispielsweise im unterschiedlichen Gewicht von direkter und indirekter Besteuerung. Über etwaige Wirkungszusammenhänge werden abschließend einige spekulative Überlegungen angestellt.     

HMTS: Improving the quality of public service announcements through standardized pretesting

Traditionally, health message producers have relied on their own creative communication skills to reach and affect the public with health information. The Health Message Testing Service provides additional input regarding target audience response to health messages. Paired with creative PSA production, these data can more reliaby ensure audience receptivity and response. By testing messages in a pre-finished form, the producer can identify and correct potential weaknesses while corrections are still timeand-budget affordable. National Cancer Institute Porter, Novelli & Associates     

Gloomy prospects for social retirement insurance

Recently, important experts have presented two studies concerning the current situation and future prospects of social retirement insurance in the Federal Republic of Germany.¹ Now there is also an Internationally comparative study on the same subject available.² The German co-authors summarize the results of that study and add some proposals for further discussion.