The Economics of Electronics Industry: Competitive Dynamics and Industrial Organization

This entry highlights fundamental changes in the electronics industry that have transformed its competitive dynamics and industrial organization: a high and growing knowledge intensity; the rapid pace of change in technologies and markets; and extensive globalization. That explosive mixture of forces has created two inter-related puzzles. The first puzzle is that a high degree of globalization may well go hand in hand with high and increasing concentration. This runs counter to the dominant view, based on the assumption of neo-classical trade theory, that globalization will increase competition and hence will act as a powerful equalizer both among nations and among firms. Multinational corporations, after all, may not be such effective "spoilers of concentration", as claimed by Richard Caves (1982). The second related puzzle is that this industry fails to act like a stable global oligopoly, even when concentration is extremely high: a market positions are highly volatile, new entry is possible, and not even market leaders can count on a guaranteed survival.

Managing Information Flows in Supplier-Customer Relationships: Issues, Methods and Emerging Problems

IMVP, Working Pape

Marketing innovative service solutions with inter-organizational service networks: opportunities and threats

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE FOOD DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

Many changes are occurring in food retailing. Forces driving these changes include the sales gains by supercenter, membership club, and convenience stores, the growing popularity of foodservice, the expansion of private label products (and the response by branded food manufacturers), and the identification of new consumer interests and concerns. These forces encouraged food processors, distributors, and retailers to improve the efficiency of the food distribution system. The Efficient Consumer Response and Efficient Foodservice Response initiatives are designed to lower the costs to move products through the system. These developments in the food distribution system have several important implications for other food and agricultural businesses.Supercenter, Membership Club, New Products, Private Label, Supermarket, Retailing, Efficient Consumer Response, Efficient Foodservice Response, Food Spending, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization, Marketing,

Determinants of electronic data interchange adoption in international buyer -supplier communications

In spite of the increased interest in supply chain management in recent years, few studies have examined the adoption of the technologies that facilitate information flows along the supply chain. Information flows have been shown to have a positive effect on economic efficiency and supply chain partner satisfaction. The adoption and use of information technologies to communicate with suppliers can also stimulate small business growth and foster regional economic development. This dissertation develops and empirically tests a model of the determinants of the adoption of interorganizational information systems, specifically electronic data interchange (EDI), between buyers and suppliers in international supply chains. Plant level data from the Mexican maquiladora industry allows focusing specifically on international supply chains. EDI use is measured both as a binary variable, and as a set of metric dimensions. As the main determinants of EDI adoption, this study compares economic efficiency, operationalized as the perceived benefits of EDI use, and institutional factors, operationalized as external pressure to adopt EDI. In addition, hypotheses are tested on the impact of plant size, industry, and type of purchase, on EDI adoption. Multivariate statistical analysis is used to test the hypothesized relationships, and logit and tobit models are also used to assess the impact of variables on dichotomous and metric EDI use variables respectively. This study provides valuable insight into the process of technology adoption in multinational corporations and new information on the use of information technology in the maquiladora industry. The conclusions drawn from this study are useful for economic development and planning, supplier development, and the management of multinational firms and supply chains

Supply chain management practices and performance of textile and apparel firms in Malaysia

Supply Chain Management (SCM) plays a significant role in determining the success of manufacturing companies. Despite the relevance and applicability of SCM to manufacturing firms, the review of the previous research reveals that there is limited research that attempted to investigate the effect of SCM practices on the performance of manufacturing companies, particularly among the textile and apparel companies in Malaysia. As a result, there is not only lack of information but also little knowledge concerning SCM practices and its effect on the performance of textile and apparel companies in the country. This study initiates an attempt to address this limitation by examining the relationship between SCM practices and the performance of textile and apparel firms in Malaysia. By using structured questionnaire, the data for the study was collected from 100 firms operating in the textile and apparel industry. The results of the analysis of the data indicate that SCM practices such as customer relationship, strategic supplier partnership, and strategic outsourcing adopted by the textiles firms are significantly associated to their performance

Impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on trust and information sharing in South African automotive supply chains

The Internet has made a considerable impact on how business is conducted. Empowered by technology consumers are using the Internet as a tool to communicate and transact online. E-commerce (electronic commerce) presents opportunities for business to gain a competitive advantage, however it also posses certain challenges. Small and Medium Hospitality Enterprises (SMHEs) sector within the tourism industry, is one of the sectors which stands to benefit from using the Internet for business. Researchers agree that the contribution made by the tourism sector in developing economies is substantial. However, SMHEs are noted for their failure to derive optimal benefits from using the Internet for business to improve their competitiveness. This study which seeks to develop a model for use by SMHEs as a guide when making the decision to adopt technology was necessitated by the importance of SMHE’s contribution in the economy of developing countries. This model is based on the examination of existing theories and models such as; the Delone and McLean IS success model (2004), and the ITGI’s (2007) IT governance focus areas model. To elicit the desired outcomes, additional data was collected using questionnaires, interviews, and observations. The collected data was analysed and resulted in the development of a model that can be used by SMHEs in order to derive value from IT and to gain a competitive advantage

Effectiveness and Efficiency of Knowledge Transfer in Supplier Development: Key Antecedents and Buyer-Supplier Outcomes

There is strong evidence that U.S. organizations are increasingly implementing supplier development programs to help their suppliers improve quality, enhance delivery performance, reduce costs, and in turn improve their own supply chain performance. However, many of these supplier development programs are not successful. This study argues that an understanding of the knowledge transfer process should play a central role in understanding improvements in buyer-supplier performance resulting from supplier development activities. Building on the extant supplier development literature and relevant knowledge transfer literature, this study investigates key antecedents and performance outcomes of knowledge transfer in a supplier development context. Specifically, the study tests the impact of the extent of supplier development involvement, trust (competence and benevolence), shared vision and supplier\u27s learning intent on the effectiveness (comprehension and usefulness) and efficiency (speed and economy) of knowledge transfer and the influence of knowledge transfer on buyer-supplier performance. For this research, 167 U.S. manufacturing firms were used to test the hypotheses. The results show that suppliers\u27 learning intent and benevolence trust positively impact both the effectiveness and efficiency of knowledge transfer. Supplier development involvement was found to have a positive effect on knowledge transfer effectiveness while shared vision and competence trust had positive effect on knowledge transfer efficiency. The findings also show that both effectiveness and efficiency of knowledge transfer have impact on supplier delivery performance but have no direct effect on supplier cost performance. This research makes an important contribution to the literature on the antecedents of successful knowledge transfer in supplier development. First, the research highlights that supplier\u27s learning intent leads to better comprehension, better application and quicker absorption of the new knowledge that is transferred to th