Gaining and sustaining long-term advantage through information technology: The emergence of controlled production

This paper summarizes the results of several case studies comparing how U.S. and Japanese firms successfully use software and information technology to achieve long-term sustainable and competitive advantages in various industries. Each case is complete within itself, but also part of a larger study researching pairs of U.S. and Japanese firms using information technology as an integral part of their business strategies. The industries and firms examined include investment and retail banking, life insurance, food and apparel retailing (the distribution side of these two industries), semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, automobile production, and mini-mill and integrated steel making

The Role of Maintenance and Facility Management in Logistics: A Literature Review

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a literature review on the different ways of carrying out Facility Management and related topics in order to uncover that there is limited research regarding the impact of Facility Management on the logistics and operational performance of warehouses. Design/methodology/approach - Four different focus areas have been identified and for each one different methodologies and streams of research have been studied. Findings - The study underlines the importance of Facility Management for the logistics operations; therefore it supports the notion that investments aiming at preserving the status of the building and service components of warehouses are crucial. Originality/value - This paper aims to suggest to Facility Management managers that they can contribute to enhance business performance by designing effective Facility Management strategie

The impact of state-level R&D tax credits on the quantity and quality of entrepreneurship

The acceleration of start-up activity is often cited as a rationale for the R&D tax credit, a key innovation policy instrument adopted increasingly by US states over the past quarter century. While there is a strong empirical base linking the R&D tax credit to increased R&D expenditures and innovation, prior work has not provided causal evidence that this policy effects the rate of formation and growth potential of new businesses. This paper combines data from the US Startup Cartography Project with the Panel Database on Incentives and Taxes to implement a difference-in-differences estimate of the impact of the R&D tax credit on the quantity and quality-adjusted quantity of entrepreneurship. Our key finding is that the R&D tax credit is associated with a significant long-term impact on both the overall quantity and quality-adjusted quantity of entrepreneurship, with the bulk of the effect materializing more than five years after the policy is enacted. These findings stand in contrast to an analysis of the adoption of state-level investment tax credits. There, we observe no long-term impact on the quantity of entrepreneurship but a marked decline in the rate of formation of growth-oriented startups over time. Combined with other evidence regarding the efficacy of R&D tax credits in spurring innovative investment, our results shed light on the potential for this fiscal policy to also stimulate the formation of growth-oriented start-ups.Ewing Marion Kauffman FoundationPublished versio

Industrial Policy, Innovation Policy, and Japanese Competitiveness

Japan faces significant challenges in encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. Attempts to formally model past industrial policy interventions uniformly uncover little, if any, positive impact on productivity, growth, or welfare. The evidence indicates that most resource flows went to large, politically influential “backward” sectors, suggesting that political economy considerations may be central to the apparent ineffectiveness of Japanese industrial policy. Rather than traditional industrial or science and technology policy, financial and labor market reforms appear more promising. As a group, Japan’s industrial firms are competitive relative to their foreign counterparts. Japan falls behind in the heavily regulated service sector. The problems are due less to a lack of industrial policy than to an excess of regulation. Japan may have more to gain through restructuring the lagging service sector than by expending resources in pursuit of marginal gains in the industrial sector.Japan, industrial policy, innovation policy

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS OF U.S. FOOD PROCESSING PLANTS

This paper presents a model-based approach for competitive analysis of manufacturing plants in the U. S. food processing industry. As part of this approach, plant competitiveness is measured using Operational Competitiveness Ratings Analysis (OCRA) -- a new non-parametric method of computing relative inefficiency. Drivers of competitiveness are identified in terms of policies related to plant structure and infrastructure. Policies related to plant structure are those decisions that are related with "bricks and mortar" and have long term implications, such as decisions related to plant size and capacity. Policies related to plant infrastructure are decisions related to how the " bricks and mortar" are used. These policies are typically under the direct control of the operations managers and have a short-term orientation, such as decisions related to equipment, quality, inventory, workforce and confusion-engendering activities (e.g. new product introductions and product variety). The empirical analysis is based on detailed cross-sectional data on 20 processed food manufacturing plants. With respect to plant structure, the results suggest that small sized food processing plants are competitive, and both capacity underutilization and overutilization are detrimental to plant competitiveness. Among the significant results with respect to plant infrastructure, equipment maintenance, quality management programs, packaging supplies inventory, workforce training and product variety are positively associated with plant competitiveness. The results also suggest that introduction of new products disrupts plant operations, at least in the short run, and is negatively associated with plant competitiveness.Agribusiness,

Vertical Relations Between Firms and Innovation: An Empirical Investigation of German Firms

The surge in interfirm cooperative agreements can be seen as expressing a way for firms to respond to and to organize market failure, especially in technology markets. The incentives of firms to internalize activities are to avoid the disadvantages, or capitalize on the advantages, of imperfections or disequilibria in external mechanisms of resource allocations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically the occurrence and importance of different modes of vertical relations between innovating firms, suppliers and users, using data from Germany. The analysis is based on a survey conducted by the "Center for European Economic Research" (Mannheim, Germany) among 3122 firms representing 378 different lines of business, mainly in the manufacturing sector. The main results can be summarized as follows: ? 84 % of all innovating firms responded that they have had R&D cooperation agreements with either suppliers or customers or both. This percentage is even higher (99 %) if we consider only those innovating firms that have also had formal R&D departments. The phenomenon of vertical R&D cooperation is therefore widespread among German firms. ? Informal exchange of technical knowledge was perceived as the most important mode of R&D cooperation between innovating firms on one hand and customers and suppliers on the other, followed by formal methods of cooperation such as joint development teams and contractual R&D cooperation. Joint ventures and direct R&D orders to either customers or suppliers were seen as the least important modes of vertical cooperation. ? The occurrence and importance of cooperative agreements between innovating firms, users and input suppliers vary across industries. ? Results of multivariate statistical analysis (correlation, principal components and cluster analysis) suggested that the various modes of R&D cooperation between innovating firms on one hand and customers and suppliers on the other could be reduced to two subgroups: the first one includes formal modes of cooperation, the second one includes only informal exchange of technical knowledge. On this basis patterns of cooperative agreements could be established for firms operating in different industries and for firms using different product and process technologies. --

China's National Champions: The Evolution of a National Industrial Policy—Or a New Era of Economic Protectionism?

In this article we ask a series of related research questions concerning China's recent industrial policies, particularly the 10th and 11th five‐year economic policy plans. Our questions go to the nature of China's long‐term competitiveness of its national champions, and to what extent Chinese government policies are evolving to domestic protectionism that adversely affects foreign invested enterprises' (FIEs) competitive position in the Chinese economy. We thus evaluate the nature of the five‐year economic policy plans, their adverse impact on FIEs operating in China, and the rise of designated Chinese national champions (in the 11th five‐year economic policy plan) to compete with major FIEs on a global scale. However, we suggest that the role of the Chinese government's recent industrial policy, when compared to Michael Porter's “Diamond of National Competitive Advantage” recommended government policy approaches, may not augur well in the long‐term for China's national champions. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/96704/1/21535_ftp.pd

Appropriating the Returns from Industrial Research and Development

macroeconomics, industrial research and development, patent law