Marketing in the emerging era of build-to-order manufacturing

Build-to-order (BTO) and lean manufacturing processes are changing the paradigms under which businesses-to-business marketers operate. For example, BTO processes allow marketers to customize products to a greater degree, creating a competitive advantage over traditional manufacturing. Business-to-business (B2B) marketers who take advantage of the operational efficiencies and effectiveness that emerge from BTO are outperforming firms that utilize traditional manufacturing processes in multiple industries, such as office furniture, personal computers, and windows. This paper examines the long-term impact of the adoption of build-to-order manufacturing strategies on the marketing function and identifies marketing strategies associated with successful BTO companies. Throughout, the paper highlights managerial implications and proposes directions for future research.     

Persistence and Change at the Top of the IT Sector

We use the DATAMATION index of the top 50 domestic IT companies (1975–1995) to track persistence and change at the top of the sector. The trends that we uncover are increasing instability, rejuvenation (declining average age of entrants coupled with increasing average age of quitters), democratization (diminishing revenue inequality at the top) and growing supply‐side intertwining of sub‐sectors and industries within IT due to diversification by long‐term survivors.     

港澳台商投资广东制造业的集聚效应及其对区域竞争力影响

本文根据产业集群理论,区域竞争力理论和突变理论的基本原理,采用突变级数法、弹性方法,以及回归分析方法,对港澳台商投资广东制造业的集聚程度及其整体的集群效应进行定量研究,并找出两个众多因素共同作用的系统——制造业集群系统与区域经济系统的内在数量关系。     

Global supply network embeddedness and power: An analysis of international joint venture formations

As a subset of the international business literature, cross-border equity based partnerships have drawn significant academic attention. In the context of inter-firm partnerships, the power dynamics between parties and the implications that power has on the relational dynamics between firms is an important consideration. Research that connects power with network theory has recently emerged, suggesting that the network, as a source of power, plays a significant role in inter-firm dynamics. Yet, while there has been a substantial body of work either articulating the antecedents and consequences of power, little research has paid attention to the role that power plays in international JV formations; this presents a significant gap in the international business literature. Consequently, this study investigates the role that global network structure plays in the formation of new equity based international partnerships. Secondly, it contributes to the international JV literature by developing and testing a theoretical framework that examines inter-firm power dynamics as derived from the network position of each firm in the global network. Global network prominence, brokerage and weakness are key factors utilized in the analysis. The hypotheses are tested using a global manufacturing joint venture longitudinal dataset that contains 985,689 observations from 1985 to 2003. The results of the event history analysis indicate that for the manufacturer global network prominence, brokerage and weakness play an important role in new joint venture formations. On the other hand, only global network prominence is a significant factor for the potential partner.     

The Industry Determinants of Exchange Rate Pass-Through into Canadian Producer Prices

This paper models and estimates exchange rate pass-through and its determinants in Canadian manufacturing industries. The paper predicts theoretically that the exchange rate pass-through should be between one and zero, where it is positively affected by the share of tradable inputs in production costs and the domestic firms’ market share, and negatively by the elasticity of marginal cost with respect to output. The sign for the degree of product differentiation is not theoretically clear. Results of estimation indicate that pass-through is incomplete and is mostly affected by the share of tradable inputs in production costs (positively) and the elasticity of marginal cost with respect to output (negatively).     

Assessing the Determinants of High-Growth Manufacturing Firms in Italy

Few firms grow rapidly, but their contribution to employment growth is often impressive. The main purpose of this paper is to analyse both the external and internal factors that can affect the probability of being a high-growth firm (HGF) in Italy. We found that HGFs are, on average, young firms and are present in different industries, but the role of demand is important to understanding their performance at the sectoral level. Moreover, our findings show that financial constraints and profitability are not associated with the probability of being a HGF. HGFs, on average, are characterised by high productivity, but only when growth is measured in terms of sales. The most original results of this study concern the endogenous determinants of rapid growth, which have yet to be adequately examined in the literature. First, we found that the concentration of ownership is important for HGFs that experienced rapid growth in their sales. Second, the quality of human capital is a strong point for firms experiencing rapid employment growth.     

Updating Seminal Studies of Entrepreneurial Researchers in the 60's to the 90's

ABSTRACT

As early as the 1960's various researchers of African and Nigerian small business and entrepreneurship like P. Schatz, P. Kilby, J. Harris and M. Rowe, A. Ale, W. Nafziger, J. Wilde and others have been debating. Their argument is with attempt to trace and identify the factors which continue to stunt the growth and development of small and medium enterprises (SME's) and entrepreneurship in Africa and in Nigeria. The investigations carried out by these and other researchers on this subject should be accepted as pertinent and justifiable. This is especially so, in consideration of the abundant availability of both natural and mineral resources for use as raw materials within the continent. In addition, enormous amount of funds has been expended alongside immense attention and effort by governments towards the development of small-scale industries and entrepreneurship. A number of external factors therefore, like inadequate infrastructure, scarcity of machines, spare parts and equipment, lack of information, paucity of raw material supplies and problem with government policies and officials as well as cultural factors have been identified among the most serious obstacles. Internal factors such as poor organizational planning, problems of succession, inadequate re-investment of profits, lack of capital and poor managerial skills have also been noted by other researchers as main growth barriers. This research updated earlier work done by these different groups of researchers with reference to the small plastics manufacturing sector in Nigeria to see if there have been any changes in the last 10-30 years of study. The findings revealed that there has hardly been any significant difference in terms of improvement especially of external constraints observed between the 1960's and 1990's. However, the study found a number of progressive internal improvements being applied in other small plastic manufacturing businesses. Recently, some small plastics manufacturing entrepreneurs on their own initiative have learned to create and innovate various ways of coping with constraints facing their businesses independently.     

浅圆仓智能通风系统在冬季通风中的应用分析

本文通过对浅圆仓智能通风系统在冬季通风过程中的温度变化分析,明确了不同品种、不同入粮方式和相同品种不同入粮方式对通风效果的影响,结果表明粮食的产地和入粮方式对通风效果有显著影响,且相对于传统的离心风机通风具有更好的节能减损作用。     

The international diversification-performance link in Spain: Does firm size really matter?

This study provides new insights into the link between international diversification and firm performance in a sample of large manufacturing firms and SMEs based in Spain for the 1994–2008 period. Specifically, the focus is on how the nature and shape of this relationship may vary over time with firm size. The results show the existence of a horizontal-S curve when the whole sample of firms is considered in the empirical analysis. However, major differences are found between SMEs and large firms, and even within the actual group of SMEs. Strong support is found in large firms for the existence of a horizontal-S curve. Within the group of SMEs, there are small firms with a linear and negative relationship, whereas medium-sized firms record a U-shaped form. These findings suggest that as the international diversification-performance link is size-dependent, future research should explicitly consider firm size in order to better understand the nature of this relationship.     

制造企业服务化转型价值效应研究

以2011-2015年制造业上市公司为研究对象,运用实证研究方法,检验了服务化程度对企业价值的影响,以及产业竞争程度对服务化程度与企业价值关系的调节作用。结果表明：服务化程度与企业价值之间呈倒U型关系。当服务化程度较低时,服务化转型会促进企业价值提升;服务化程度达到临界值（37%左右）后,服务化转型会降低企业价值。产业竞争程度对服务化程度与企业价值关系具有调节作用,当前产业竞争程度的提高会降低服务化转型价值效用,而潜在竞争威胁程度的提升会促进服务化转型价值效用。