Sustainability drivers, barriers and outcomes: Evidence from European High Performance Manufacturing Industries

Implementing sustainability practices has become a requirement to be able to operate in several markets since the legal requirements are increasing and society (as well as customers) values sustainability behaviors more. The aims of this paper are (1) to analyze the impact that drivers and barriers have on Environmental practices implemented in the high performance manufacturing industries, (2) to identify the relevant drivers and barriers for these environmental practices, and finally, (3) to study the influence that Environmental practices have on companies´ Financial Performance. To carry out our research, we shall consider a European database of companies involved in the High Performance Manufacturing project. Partial Least Squares (PLS) will be used to test our hypotheses

The effect of the use of multimedia applications on the motivation of POM students

Students are not always motivated to learn and on occasion their goal is simply to pass examinations. The POM teacher must therefore attempt to increase student motivation for the study of POM. In our opinion, ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) -based teaching tools (e.g. multimedia training applications) boost interest and strengthen the motivation to learn to the extent they are adapted to the user’s needs and demonstrate the use and practical application of POM. With a view to contrasting this hypothesis we have conducted empirical research with Business Administration students at the University of Seville (Spain). The research compares two distance learning scenarios: a self-learning multimedia application (that we have designed as teaching material) and traditional written materials. In this paper, the effects on motivation are presented along with the students’ perception of the degree to which the method adapts to their needs

Algunas consideraciones sobre el estado actual de la cuestión de la Dirección de Producción/Operaciones internacionales

La globalización económica está favoreciendo la aparición de campos de estudio que suponen variantes de las principales disciplinas empresariales y que se dedican especialmente a las cuestiones internacionales relacionadas con las mismas, tales como Marketing Internacional o Finanzas Internacionales. No obstante, parece que no en todas las áreas la globalización o intemacionalización ha despertado el mismo interés y, consecuentemente, el nivel de desarrollo de cada una de ellas resulta distinto. El presente trabajo trata de analizar someramente el estado de la cuestión de una de ellas, la Dirección de Producción / Operaciones Internacionales, recogiendo algunas evidencias acerca de su implantación en la enseñanza

Determinants of the outcomes of services outsourcing: an empirical study of transport services.

The purpose of our study is to examine whether the design and management of the interfaces and interaction processes between customer and provider in services outsourcing are determinants of the results achieved by the outsourcing company. Following the conceptual framework initiated in the study by Wynstra et al. [11], this study focuses on transport services and hypothesized relationships are tested using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) statistical technique. The primary data used was obtained from a survey in three different countries (Germany, Japan and Spain), and from manufacturing companies in the electronics, automotive and machinery sectors. Among other things, the results show that both the structural dimensions of interaction (the organization's resources that it must commit) and the process dimensions of interaction (that consider the dynamic nature of the relationships), are important for obtaining adequate performance from transport services outsourcing.Spanish National Program of Industrial Design and Production DPI 2009 11148PAIDI Excellence Projects P08-SEJ0384

Social sustainability in supply chains: the role of local practices and informal networks

Purpose – The study aims to investigate cultural aspects in supply chains, analysing the effect that local customs may have in the quality of buyer–supplier relationships. Building on the premisses of social exchange theory (SET), it concentrates on the impacts that suppliers’ use of local practices and informal networks may have in buyers’ attitudes and perceptions. The issues addressed and the empirical evidence provided represent initial, yet important steps in the fulfilment of the ‘cultural void’ within supply chain social sustainability (SCCS) literature. Design/methodology/approach – Through a role-playing experiment applied to a total sample of 468 participants, the effects of Chinese guanxi, Russian blat, South Korean yongo and Brazilian jeitinho on buyers’ satisfaction, buyers’ commitment, trust and solution severity are measured by their use to access informal networks as solutions to both common (i.e. documentation irregularities) and extraordinary (i.e. modern slavery) supply chain problems. Findings – Results show that, while the activation of informal networks may impact buyers’ perceptions, the use of some local practices by suppliers (i.e. Chinese guanxi and Brazilian jeitinho) cause greater variations in buyers’ attitudes and perceptions than others (i.e. South Korean yongo and Russian blat), with ethical offences (i.e. modern slavery) and higher levels of buyers’ dependency acting as catalysts of these processes. Originality/value – The investigation of cultural practices typical of economically peripheral countries contributes to the understanding of new facets of buyer–supplier relationships, with the investigation of non-Northwestern practices being particularly important in this regard

Our ten years of work on transparet box business simulation

Traditional business games are of the so-called black-box type (BBBS=Black box business simulator); that is to say, the internal structure which generates the results of the simulation after decision-making is not known. As a result, the player normally operates by trial and error and bases his decisions on the symptoms of the problem (the observed behaviors of the system's variables) and not on the real causes of the problem (the system's structure). Since 1988 José A.D. Machuca has insisted that the business games based on System Dynamics models should be Transparent-box business simulators (TBBSs). That means that, during the game, the user has access to the structure of the underlying model and is able to relate it to the observed behaviors. The hypothesis is that such transparency would facilitate causal reflection and favor systemic learning of business problems. In 1990, the G.I.D.E.A.O. Research Group took action on this idea and centered one of its lines of research on this matter, with three main objectives: a) Creation of TBBSs, b) Introduction of TBBSs in undergraduate and graduate Management courses as well as in executive training, c) Experimentation in controlled environments in order to test the hypothesis mentioned in the above paragraph. Now, ten years after the birth of the idea, we would like to share in this paper the results obtained during that period

Analysis of interaction fit between manufacturing strategy and technology management and its impact on performance

Purpose – Using the matching/difference perspective, the purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction fit between a set of managerial practices from manufacturing strategy (MS) and another set from technology management (TM) and the link of this fit to operational performance. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies multiple statistical methods to a database of an international sample of plants in the auto supplier sector to explore (deviation score analysis/multiple linear regression) and confirm (correlation and variance subgroup analysis) whether a matching model presents organisational disequilibrium, where states of fit are related to effectively higher performance than states of misfit. Findings – Results from regression show that there were no states of misfit between the levels of both manufacturing practice sets/areas. This means that there are no significant differences in performance that may be tested for matching interaction. However, subgroup analysis provides greater detail on why there might not be any misfits (i.e. state of fit), by illustrating that when grouping by plant type (high/world class performer, HP, and standard performer, SP), the slight lack of significant difference in the correlation between MS and TM was in favour of HP. The implementation levels of MS-TM found were not significantly different, showing for HP slightly higher levels for both practices (þ& þ ) than for SP, with slightly lower values in both cases (2 & 2). Therefore, it seems that both groups might perform equally well, due not to interaction but to the presence of a state of MS-TM fit alone. A state of fit such as this, known as selection or congruency, would be the reason for there being no significant matching interaction originally. Originality/value – Most of the interaction fit bibliography is from the accounting perspective.Therefore, the impact of the matching interaction fit between MS and TM (as well as its impact on performance) has not been well documented theoretically, and much less, empirically, in production and operations management.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia DPI 2006-05531Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia DPI 2009-11148Junta de Andalucía P08-SEJ-0384

Congruency fit: beyond performance in the auto supplier industry

The effects of manufacturing strategy (MS) and technology (T) on performance have been studied separately, but few studies have examined the relationship between MS and T practices clusters that improve effectiveness when implemented jointly, and even then they do not consider possible congruency between the two. This paper develops a congruency (selection) model to test for any interconnection between said clusters, without addressing causation or their combined effect on performance. The implicit outcome is that the plant will achieve a desirable effectiveness level. Through a wide-ranging survey of auto supplier plants, two approaches are considered: 1) grouping both clusters in pairs (canonical correlation analysis); and 2) a more general selection view version, with practices from both clusters related multidimensionally and subordinated by bivariate analysis (regression) to test for any congruent pattern. Both methods find a congruent relationship between manufacturing strategy and technology practice clusters, although the second provides greater detail.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia DPI-2006-0553

Factores académicos que favorecen el desarrollo docente de una disciplina científica: un caso práctico

En el desarrollo docente de una disciplina científica intervienen, además del interés de la propia materia, determinados factores de carácter académico. En este trabajo profundizaremos en algunos de ellos basándonos en nuestra investigación sobre dirección de operaciones en servicios (DOS). Aunque la docencia de DOS, como campo disciplinar independiente, aún está en una etapa inicial de desarrollo, el número de cursos se está incrementando y se está extendiendo por diferentes países. Analizaremos cuales son los factores de desarrollo y la forma en que favorecen la aparición de nuevos cursos. Una razón evidente es la existencia de libros de texto que puedan ser usados como manuales básicos o complementarios. La segunda es la presencia de interrelaciones entre profesores. Éstas se manifiestan en la existencia de los denominados “colegios invisibles”, así como de distintos foros académicos que permiten el intercambio de información.There are certain other factors of an academic nature that are involved in the way the teaching of a scientific discipline is rolled out apart from interest that the subject itself holds. In this study we shall go more deeply into some of these on the basis of our research into service operations management (SOM). Although the teaching of SOM, as an independent academic subject is still in its infancy, the number of courses on offer is increasing and spreading to new countries. We hope to analyse what these reasons are, and the way they have driven growth in courses. One evident reason is the existence of textbooks that can be used as basic guides or supplementary material. The second is the fact that there are cross-relationships between teachers. These can be observed in the existence of the so-called “invisible colleges”, as well as at the various academic forums where an exchange of information can take place