A strategy for third-party logistics systems: A case analysis using the blue ocean strategy

One of today's most frequently discussed topics in the business world is how to escape from the intense Red Ocean and how to create an uncontested Blue Ocean. However, because there are few practical guidelines available on this topic, we will introduce a case study of a third-party logistics (3PL) provider, CJ-Global Logistics Service (CJ-GLS), to show how it aspires to be a leader in the newly introduced 3PL industry in South Korea. CJ-GLS is a latecomer in the logistics industry, and its resources, such as the number of trucks and warehouses, are relatively small in comparison to those of established companies. But, it has achieved a distinct competitive advantage through innovative information technology (i.e., RFID—radio frequency identification), which has enabled it to create an uncontested market space, electronic logistics business. One remarkable fact about CJ-GLS is that its swift growth comes not from attracting competitors’ customers from the existing Red Ocean market but from creating a Blue Ocean market (3PL market), which previously existing incumbents ignored, and also from constructing a new business model founded on a RFID-based, ubiquitous-oriented 3PL system. Analyzed through a Four Actions Framework and characterized as Blue Ocean, this case study provides valuable information on how a company reinforces its competitive advantage from the Red Ocean while it transitions into a Blue Ocean by utilizing advanced information communication technologies.     

The Continuing Significance of Race in the Occupational Attainment of Whites and Blacks: A Segmented Labor Market Analysis*

In this article we posit that racial discrimination is not uniform across the U.S. labor market. While it is likely that patterns of racial discrimination occur in some types of jobs more than others, little empirical research has examined the effect of race across segmented labor markets. Incorporating two decades of comparable General Social Survey data, this article revisits William J. Wilson's hypothesis that the significance of race in determining labor market outcomes is declining. We examine the effect of race within two dissimilar labor segments over time, dividing the labor market into technique‐versus social‐skills‐oriented segments. Using this theoretically useful dichotomy, we examine if the net effect of race (African American and white men) on occupational prestige has declined from the 1970s to the 1990s. Our multivariate analysis shows that the net effect of race is different in each labor market. This suggests that racial discrimination against African Americans is not uniform across the entire labor market, but instead is differentiately manifested within various labor market segments. Overall, our findings partially support Wilson's thesis indicating that while the effect of race is no longer a significant indicator of occupational prestige by the 1990s in a technique‐oriented job segment, it remains a significant predictive variable within a social‐skills‐oriented job segment, even when controlling for a range of social class and structural variables.     

The humorous construction of disability: 'stand-up' comedians in the United States

We examine how stand-up [sic] comedy constructs, circulates, perpetuates and/or disrupts stereotypical images of disabled persons in the United States. We use disabled people, rather than people-first language, to remind readers that disability is an ill-defined, culturally imposed attribute. Although humor is culturally specific, we draw on works of an international cadre of humanities scholars and social scientists to ground our analyses. We conclude that disability humor constitutes an emerging, liberatory art form. Disabled and non-disabled comedians elicit thought-provoking laughter and present disability as an interesting way to live. However, disabling humor still perpetuates stereotyping and isolation.     

A measure of slope-rotatability for second order response surface experimental designs

In the design of experiments for estimating the slope of a response surface, slope-rotatability is a desirable property. In this paper, a measure is introduced that enables us to assess the degree of slope-rotatability for a given response surface design. The measure takes the value zero if and only if the design is slope-rotatable, and becomes larger as the design deviates from a slope-rotatable design. Examples of applying this measure to some response surface designs are also given.     

敦煌民间词之文人词化过程

中唐以后,除了民间广为流行的长短句外,还出现了文人亲自创作的长短句。文人的长短句到底起源于哪里?假定文人的词是受民间词的影响而产生的,那么什么原因使文人对长短句保持持续不变的关心,并给予了词的地位?民间词的内容和风格是以怎样的方式传达到文人那里?解决了这些问题可以帮助我们更好地理解民间词文人化过程中文人词的形成原因,同时可以对定论词的性质提供参照。     

How can David orchestrate resources to enhance firm performance? A dynamic approach to coping with resource constraints

Given that the possession of abundant resources does not always guarantee superior firm performance, this study proposes a dynamic approach to enhancing firm value. Building on the resource orchestration thesis, we investigate how firms facing resource constraints enhance their capabilities over time by orchestrating resources and how this resource orchestration can play a role in improving firm performance. Using the dynamic perspective, this study identifies four resource orchestration modes, which are specified based on how a given firm dynamically allocates its resources to technology (enacted by R&D activities) and marketing (enacted by advertising activities). Accordingly, we claim that firms with resource constraints can enhance their performance by escalating or altering their resources over time. To test our hypotheses, we used a sample of 4078 small and medium-sized enterprises in manufacturing industries between 1984 and 2018. We found that focus escalation for technology positively affects firm performance, captured by Tobin's q, and that focus alternation toward either technology or market is positively related to firm performance. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.     

Neutralizing marginally deviant behavior: Bingo players and superstition

Bingo is one of the most popular and most accepted forms of gambling in the United States today. Yet, despite its popularity, many bingo players are not completely comfortable with the moral rightness of their actions. This participant observation and interview study spanning a 5 year period shows how bingo players use superstitious strategies, such as feelings, hunches and psi, attitudes, and luck to neutralize their marginally deviant behaviors.     

The Applicability of Porter’s Generic Strategies in the Digital Age: Assumptions, Conjectures, and Suggestions

Because current management theories evolved in the context of brick-and-mortar firms, this paper examines three key questions raised by the advent of e-business: (1) Will the strategy types found among e-business firms resemble Porter’s (1980) generic strategies? (2) Will we find performance differences among e-business firms pursuing different types of strategies? (3) Will we find differences in the strategy-performance relationships of pure online firms (pure plays) and firms with both online and offline operations (clicks-and-bricks)? We conclude that integrated strategies that combine elements of cost leadership and differentiation will outperform cost leadership or differentiation strategies. We also argue that, regardless of business strategy type, clicks-and-bricks firms that closely integrate their on- and offline operations will enjoy performance advantages over their pure play counterparts.