Success factors for continuous supply chain process improvement: evidence from Japanese manufacturers

This study explores how firms can realise ‘continuous’ supply chain process improvement. Specifically, this study proposes the success factors of routinised activities (also called ‘repeated activities’) in the supply chain process improvement. Eight Japanese manufacturers are selected for the case studies. These firms are selected based on their supply chain process operation capabilities. From the case studies, we find that the planning of supply chain process improvement depends on the existing stage of the firm’s Supply Chain Management reform. In addition, even firms with high scores for supply chain process operation capabilities do not have supply chain performance systems. Furthermore, quite surprisingly, many Japanese manufacturers tend to improve their supply chain processes in the absence of such systems.     

Currency crisis early warning systems: Why they should be dynamic

Traditionally, financial crisis Early Warning Systems (EWSs) have relied on macroeconomic leading indicators when forecasting the occurrence of such events. This paper extends such discrete-choice EWSs by taking the persistence of the crisis phenomenon into account. The dynamic logit EWS is estimated using an exact maximum likelihood estimation method in both a country-by-country and a panel framework. The forecasting abilities of this model are then scrutinized using an evaluation methodology which was designed recently, specifically for EWSs. When used for predicting currency crises for 16 countries, this new EWS turns out to exhibit significantly better predictive abilities than the existing static one, both in- and out-of-sample, thus supporting the use of dynamic specifications for EWSs for financial crises.     

The combined impact of managerial and relational capabilities on innovation in firms

In this paper, a survey of more than 1600 firms in the five largest city regions of Norway is described in order to examine how a firm's innovative capacity is affected by three types of factors: factors related to the manager, the structure of the firm and the broader geographical location. By combining perspectives from the fields of management and economic geography in a logistic regression analysis, we find that the two key drivers of firm-level innovation in Norway are the presence of open-minded managers and evidence of collaboration with international partners. Moreover, these two factors are mutually reinforcing, as firms with open-minded managers also tend to engage more with international partners and vice versa.     

Corporate bond market interdependence: Credit spread correlation between and within U.S. and Canadian corporate bond markets

This study investigates the correlation and interdependence between and within the U.S. and Canadian corporate bond markets. The empirical framework adopted allows credit spreads to depend on common systematic risk factors derived from structural models and incorporates dynamic conditional correlations (DCC) between spreads. Results show that there is a surprisingly weak correlation between the two markets in normal times. However, during crises, there is a sudden and strong increase in the correlation between U.S. and Canadian credit spreads. The analysis of credit spread correlation within each market also shows an unusual increase in credit spread correlations between sectors and between risk classes in the U.S. during the 2007–2009 global financial crisis. This increase persists over the post-crisis period. By contrast, in Canada, credit spread correlations between sectors remain remarkably stable over time, suggesting an interdependence of credit spreads within the Canadian market.     

Optimal investment strategies in an international economy with stochastic interest rates

We investigate how investors should optimally choose to invest in a dynamically complete international market. We find closed-form solutions for the optimal investment strategy and for the wealth loss an investor suffers from not investing internationally. Theoretically, we show that the gain from international investment is due to the speculative investment only, and why it is important for an investor from a large economy to invest in a small economy. In a numerical example we compare the wealth losses investors from Denmark and the U.S. suffer due to home bias.     

企业边界变迁的产业组织演化

交易成本理论从成本角度分析企业边界形成与变迁,企业能力理论则采用比较利益的方法从收入角度分析.短期中,如果企业能力有很大的差异,交易成本降低,位于价值链中上下游的企业将趋于专业化生产;如果企业能力均匀分布,交易成本降低,对专业化生产没有影响.长期中,企业能力、交易成本、企业边界形成互动循环的演化机制,并且在竞争过程中实现自然选择,引起产业组织演化.     

网络嵌入、绿色动态能力与企业绿色创新——环境规制和管理者环境注意力的调节作用

基于动态能力理论、社会网络理论和制度理论等,探讨网络嵌入对企业绿色创新的影响,并进一步考察绿色动态能力在其中的中介作用以及环境规制、管理者环境注意力的调节作用。运用多元回归和Bootstrap方法进行实证检验,结果显示：结构嵌入和关系嵌入对企业绿色创新均具有显著影响;绿色动态能力在结构嵌入、关系嵌入与绿色创新之间起中介作用;环境规制、管理者环境注意力均正向调节绿色动态能力与绿色创新间关系。     

谈静态扭矩开发

文章从扭矩监控的角度,分析监控扭矩的工具——静态扭矩的开发,以及利用SPC原理计算静态扭矩和判断静态扭矩是否合理的方法。     

谈政工干部沟通技巧与能力提升

文章从管理就是沟通的理念入题,阐述了沟通的重要意义和沟通内容、手段的辩证关系,结合政工干部这一特殊群体和政工工作的实际,提出了政工干部掌握沟通技巧与提升沟通能力的看法。     

基于能力的企业持续成长内在机理

企业要想实现持续成长,关键在于能否找到持续成长的根本原因并把握其内在规律。本文通过"斜坡球体定律"和"企业成长的力场"分析,描述了企业持续成长的动态平衡过程;用简单的物理知识,形象地阐述了企业持续成长与企业能力之间的关系,结论是:着重分析企业持续成长中的企业能力演化,理清企业持续成长和企业能力演化的关系,才能找到企业持续成长的根本原因和规律。