Determining sourcing strategies : A decision model based on activity and cost driver information.

Determing sourcing strategies for different material groups provides a major challenge to most companies. There has been little research on the choice of the optimal number of different suppliers for a given product group and the determination of their market shares. In this paper we propose a mathematical programming model using activity based costing information to determine optimal order splitting among suppliers on the basis of the different costs associated with the purchasing decision. We argue that sourcing strategies should be based on the minimisation of the total cost of ownership resulting from external purchases. The model is applied to the case of ball bearings at Cockerill Sambre S.A., a Belgian multinational company in the steel industry.Model; Sourcing; Strategy;

Control and information in a dynamic multiple agent model.

he controllability principle says that an individual should be rewarded on the basis of what he controls. This paper studies this principle from a principal agent point of view. A dynamic multiple agent model is constructed and the controllability principle is compared with the agency model's solution. It is shown that from a principal agent's point of view all results that give information about an individual's action should be used to determine his remuneration.Model;

Liquidity Constraint and the Demand for Food: Income Elasticity of Calorie in Rural Ethiopia.

E-business offers buyers and sellers a new form of communication and provides an opportunity to create new marketplaces. Theoretical studies suggest in general that the development of e-business results in higher firm performance as a result of lower search and head-to-head comparison costs. However, there are a number of recent theoretical studies, which demonstrate that the growth of e-commerce may lead to monopolistic pricing behaviour so that firms engaging in e-commerce need not perform better compared to more traditional enterprises. To date, there exists little empirical evidence on the impact of information technology on economic performance. This paper is the first that uses a large representative data set of Belgian firms to study empirically the impact of e-business on corporate performance. Our main conclusions can be summarised as follows: (1) The penetration of the Internet in Belgian firms is high, however, the use of e-business is still limited. (2) It is especially the large firms that engage in e-business and mostly in e-procurement. (3) E-business has no effect on total factor productivity in small firms, however, we find positive effects on performance of e-business in large firms.new economy, internet, firm performance, e-procurement, e-business

A mathematical programming approach for supplier selection using Activity Based Costing.

Vendor selection is an important problem in today's competitive environment . Decisions involve the selection of vendors and the determination of order quantities to be placed with the selected vendors. In this research we develop a mathematical programming model for this purpose using an Activity Based Costing approach. The system computes the total cost of ownership, thereby increasing the objectivity in the selection process and giving the opportunity for different kinds of sensitivity analysis. Moreover, it allow the analyst to objectively evaluate alternative purchasing policies due to the underlying analytic and rigorous decision model.Activity based costing; Mathematical programming; Selection;

Improving the efficiency of the purchasing process using total cost of ownership information : The case of heating electrodes at Cockerill Sambre S.A.

Improving the efficiency of the purchasing process provides important opportunities to increase a firm's profitability. In this paper we introduce a mathematical programming model that uses total cost of ownership information to simultaneously select suppliers and determine order quantities over a multi-period time horizon. The total cost of ownership quantifies all costs associated with the purchasing process and is based on the activities and cost drivers determined by an activity based costing system. Our approach is motivated by the purchasing problem of heating electrodes at Cockerill Sambre S.A. a Belgian multinational steel producer. In this case quality issues account for more than 70 % of the total cost of ownership making the quality of a supplier a critical success factor in the vendor selection process.Efficiency; Heating; Processes; Purchasing;

Management control of supplier relationships in manufacturing: a case study in the automotive industry.

This paper studies management control design of supplier relationships in manufacturing, a supply chain phase currently under-explored. Compared to supplier relations during procurement and R&D, which research found to be governed by a combination of formal and informal controls, supplier relations in manufacturing are more formal, so that they could be governed by more formal and less informal controls. To refine the management control system and influencing contingencies, we propose a theoretical framework specifically adapted for the manufacturing stage. This framework is investigated by an in depth case study of the supplier management control of a Volvo Cars production facility. We identify three types of suppliers visualizing the associations in the framework and illustrating the framework’s explicative power in (automotive) manufacturing. Furthermore, the case contradicts that supplier relations in the manufacturing phase are governed by little informal control, because the automaker highly values the role of trust building and social pressure. Most notably, a structured supplier team functions as a clan and establishes informal control among participating suppliers, which strengthens the automaker’s control on dyadic supplier relations.management control; supplier relationships; manufacturing; contingency theory; case research;

The effect of e-business on corporate performance : firm level evidence for Belgium.

E-business offers buyers and sellers a new form of communication and provides an opportunity to create new marketplaces. Theoretical studies suggest in general that the development of e-business results in higher firm performance as a result of lower search and head-to-head comparison costs. However, there are a number of recent theoretical studies, which demonstrate that the growth of e-commerce may lead to monopolistic pricing behaviour so that firms engaging in e-commerce need not perform better compared to more traditional enterprises. To date, there exists little empirical evidence on the impact of information technology on economic performance. This paper is the first that uses a large representative data set of Belgian firms to study empirically the impact of e-business on corporate performance. Our main conclusions can be summarised as follows: (1) The penetration of the Internet in Belgian firms is high, however, the use of e-business is still limited. (2) It is especially the large firms that engage in e-business and mostly in e-procurement. (3) E-business has no effect on total factor productivity in small firms, however, we find positive effects on performance of e-business in large firms.Economy; Internet; Firm performance; e-procurement; e-business;