Operations management teaching on European MBA programmes

A comprehensive review of the literature established that several investigations have been made of operations management teaching in the USA, whereas almost nothing has been published on European teaching. Therefore, an exploratory investigation was made of operations management teaching on the MBA courses of ten leading European business schools. The results show that course content is similar across schools, but there are large variations on three dimensions: the time allocated by schools to the subject; the balance between operations strategy and tools and techniques in teaching; and the level of emphasis given to service operations. The results also indicate the emerging importance of integrating operations management with other subjects in the MBA curriculum and the key challenge facing faculty - the need to raise the perceived importance of operations management. The comparison of courses will be of interest to all operations management faculty who teach core courses and particularly those who are looking for ideas on how to re-design courses

Modelling Corporate Competitive Capabilities for SMEs in the Malaysian Manufacturing Sector: An Exploratory Study

This study empirically tests the relationship between the four factors of corporate competitive capabilities (CCC) (cost leadership, differentiation, innovative marketing and customer service) and business performance. The study specifically emphasises small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. The study’s quantitative approach is based on the responses of 135 Malaysian manufacturing SMEs responded to a postal questionnaire. Empirical results from structural equation modelling (SEM) demonstrate an insignificant relationship between CCC and business performance

A Critical Review of Empirical Research Examining SMEs Adoption from Selected Journals

International audienceThe purpose of this paper is to review the literature on empirical research examined Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) from selected journals. This has been achieved by reviewing the most examined constructs to identify the key significant factors in the literature. The selected research papers for reviewing are accessed from only high-ranking journals. The review addressed technology adoption in the context of SMEs. The paper attempts to review the studies based on technology-organisation-environment (TOE) framework to identify the relevant set of variables for technology adoption in SMEs. The most significant factors found to be relative advantage and compatibility from the technological context, top management support and size from the organizational context, and external pressure from the Environmental context. This review intended to guide future researchers to improve the predictive power of their examined models