Boer, Harry

Demeter, Krisztina

Szász, Levente

There is an impressive body of literature about best manufacturing practices. The question is whether these practices are always best, in every situation. Aimed at investigating the effects of home and host country characteristics on the “goodness” of manufacturing practices, the paper tests whether a) home and host country characteristics moderate the association between manufacturing practices and performance, and, thus, whether b) there are manufacturing practices that are universally best.Manufacturing practices and performance are measured using data collected through the fifth round of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS V). The IMSS V database includes data from 725 plants from manufacturing and assembly industries covering 21 different (host) countries. The Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum is used to operationalize country characteristics. Cluster analysis is used to develop groups of companies based on home and host country development. Exploratory factor analysis is applied to create bundles of manufacturing practices and performance measures. Then, using moderated multiple regressions (MMR) with interaction factor, and separate multiple regression analyses for each group of companies, bundles of manufacturing practices are identified that lead to best-in-class performance improvements. A range of control variables is introduced to help interpret the results.The study shows that home and host country context does affect the association between manufacturing practices and performance, and manufacturing practices that are best in one context are not necessarily best in another context.<br/

Manufacturing best practices and performance:The effects of home and host country context

http://vbn.aau.dk/files/207054543/iwspe_2014_innsbruck_sz_sz_et_al.pdf

Manufacturing best practices and performance:The effects of home and host country context

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