A Simulation Metamodel for Response-Time Planning*

Field service management continues to be a major challenge for many service organizations as companies are required to provide more service with less resources. Especially in information intense environments, short response times for service calls are essential to avoid disruptions to a business office or production facility. Managers must regularly assess their manpower needs, and ensure that their allocation and operational decisions lead to the best service at the lowest cost. Xerox Corporation provides copiers, duplicators, and printing systems to an international market. Xerox operates a service network consisting of over 30,000 trained service personnel, each allocated to service regions by the service planning staff. Response-time planning involves many challenging problems: requirements planning at the national level, allocation planning at the district level, and operational planning at the team level. Customer service is critical and is commonly measured by response time—the time that elapses from when a service call is placed to when a service engineer begins service. This paper discusses how Xerox Corporation has used simulation models and metamodels to improve response-time planning and field service operations.     

Rewarding growth or profit?: Top management team compensation and governance in Japanese MNEs

Japanese multinational enterprises (MNEs) have been popularly characterized as pursuing competitive strategies emphasizing long-term performance, especially growth in sales and market share, rather than shorter term profit performance. Though prior research has emphasized the importance of linking compensation to organizational goals and performance, the relationship between performance and compensation of Japanese executives has received limited empirical attention. This paper provides a preliminary examination of how Japanese top management teams in the 106 largest industrial MNEs were compensated, particularly for performance on sales growth and profitability criteria, over the 1976–1993 time period. The relationships revealed between organizational performance and the bonus compensation of top management teams suggest that the emphasis of Japanese industrial MNEs regarding sales growth versus profitability may not be as simple as suggested by prior studies and popular characterizations.     

论和合管理的企业文化建设

市场经济的新发展决定了和合文化开始在企业文化建设中越来越具有重要意义。企业和合文化的内容是一个具有历史延续性而又同时具有创新性的复合系统,企业和合文化建设就是对于这一复合系统所蕴涵的企业价值观、经营理念、行为规范以及企业精神与企业形象的实现过程。     

Japanese Retailing Through the 1990s: Retailer Performance in a Decade of Slow Growth

The development of Japanese retailing through the 1990s is used to illustrate the applicability of a Europe-based growth model in a recessionary market. Through the 1990s the Japanese economy suffered low growth and periods of recession, after strong growth through the 1980s. Retail sales in the 1990s increased only slightly whilst floor-space developments begun in the 1980s and the result of retailer expansion strategies generated increased retail capacity. Large retailers pursued strategies of opening more stores in order to generate sales, but this proved disastrous and resulted in lower productivity, high levels of debt, low levels of innovation and consequential need to restructure. General merchandise and department-store retailers were slow to see the need to restructure and innovate. In contrast, three groups of retailers obtained competitive advantages from the recession, namely retailers who responded quickly to emergent market segments, foreign retailers and e-retailers. The strategic responses to recession and the reasons behind these responses are illustrated and suggestions made on how the experiences of the 1990s will affect development in the early 2000s. Implications of the retailers' behaviour are indicated for retailer strategies, the restructuring of the sector and for research on strategy and structural change.     

Technical innovation and international competitiveness in the television industry

The television industry has undergone significant changes in competitive structure internationally. In the past the industry was characterised by rapid growth as first black and white and then colour television diffused throughout developed countries. More recently, recessions and market saturation have constrained growth and competition has grown more intense. Competition has intensified further with the introduction of new television-based products, such as video recorders, dises and home information systems. All the major Japanese consumer electronics firms have invested in the US and Europe in both component manufacture and set assembly. This has threatened the established US and European manufacturers. Innovation has played a major role in international competitiveness. Innovation in products and manufacturing processes has changed the nature of competition in the industry. Japanese firms have been the most successful innovators. By applying advanced automation in assembly, testing and handling to large production volumes, the Japanese have achieved dramatically superior performance in terms both of productivity and of quality. European and US firms have only responded to the challenge belatedly.     

R&D与广告对中日家电企业技术效率影响的比较研究

基于DEA和SFA模型,本文首先分析了2001-2005年间中日两国家电上市企业的市场势力效率和盈利效率这两类技术效率;其次,在构造DEA-TOBIT和Battese&Coelli(1995)SFA这两个计量模型的基础上,进一步研究了企业R&D与广告宣传这两种市场竞争策略对这两类技术效率的当期和累计影响效果。结果显示,非参数估计DEA和参数估计SFA这两个方法在中日家电企业技术效率评价方面取得了较为一致的结果;同时,所构造的DEA-TOBIT和SFA这两个计量模型也显示了在竞争性家电制造业中,R&D对企业市场势力效率和盈利效率的累积影响效果均为积极显著,但却未能证实长期内广告宣传对这两类技术效率的积极效果。     

The principles of war applied to business

The search for excellence in business is not enough. First a company has to survive before it can become excellent. Competition in the marketplace is a form of warfare. Twenty centuries of military history have produced principles of warfare that business executives can adapt for use in today's competitive environment. The Chinese have a “Society for the Study of Ancient Management Thinking.” Japan's success after World War II, they explain “a little bitterly”, owes much to its study of ancient Chinese wisdom, particularly Sun Tzu'sThe Art of War, which the Japanese use as a treatise on market strategy. Businessmen must use all the tools available to them to survive and prosper.     

Leadership and business model innovation in late internationalizing SMEs

Drawing on the distinction between small-scale and large-scale business model innovation, and between directive and empowering leadership, we examine how CEOs in SMEs lead business model innovation during the process of internationalization. Building on eight cases of Japanese manufacturing SMEs, we develop a theoretical framework pointing to two different patterns in the articulation between CEO leadership style and business model innovation. We show that small-scale business model innovation led by directive leadership results in a timelier foreign market entry. However, in order to increase international sales, large-scale business model innovation is required. This is facilitated by an empowering leadership style of the CEO.     

日本在华跨国公司竞争地位与竞争优势研究

将国际生产折衷理论应用于跨国公司竞争优势的分析,从专属优势、区位因素、内部化优势的角度,分析日本在华跨国公司取得有利竞争地位的决定因素.基于对230家日本在华投资母公司的应答问卷分析,得出:日本在华跨国公司竞争优势主要来自于专属优势以及部分区位因素,而内部化优势与竞争优势的关系并不显著.     

Changes in Management Practice and the Post-Acquisition Performance Achieved by Direct Investors in the UK

Changes in the competitive performance of 201 UK firms acquired by foreign investors are examined. Performance improvement was found to be associated with the introduction of changes to management practice rather than with contextual factors such as acquirer nationality, size, date of acquisition, profitability of subsidiary at acquisition or sector. The changes having most impact were increased efforts to improve the market image of the acquired company, the development of new products and services, and moves towards involving and developing staff. There appears to be more than one path towards post-acquisition performance improvement, with distinctions emerging between Anglo-American, Japanese and, to a lesser extent, French approaches. The successful Anglo-American approach involves a product innovation strategy, increased decentralization and improved training. High-performing Japanese acquisitions tend to emphasize a price-competitive strategy, to increase centralization and to adopt a longer-term HRM policy. The French path towards good post-acquisition performance includes increased cost control, more open communication and decentralization. The general conclusion of the investigation is that foreign acquisition can harness the assets and competencies of UK companies to good effect, but that there is more than one way of achieving this result.     

How Does Centrality in Coopetition Networks Matter? An Empirical Investigation in the Mobile Telephone Industry

This research examines how a firm's position in a coopetitive network (formed through cooperation among firms within an industry) influences the extent of the firm's competitive aggressiveness and market performance. The authors collected data on the competitive and cooperative actions of firms in the mobile telephone industry from 2000 to 2006, using structured content analysis of news reports. The results show that the centrality of a firm in a coopetitive network contributes to the firm's competitive aggressiveness through increased volume and variety of competitive actions. Further, the more central a firm is in the network, the greater is its market performance. Firms that undertake more volume and variety of competitive actions improve their market performance. Overall, these results show that being in a central position in a coopetition network is quite advantageous for the firm.     

Dimensions of Market Attractiveness: Competitively Interactive Spatial Models*

This paper presents a normative, multidisciplinary approach for evaluating market entry strategies with concern for the effects of spatial assumptions on performance expectations. An assessment framework is linked to a series of models that show the value of adding spatial and competitive perspectives to typical baseline conceptualizations of market opportunity. Criteria for assessing market attractiveness are discussed with special concern for the problems of field service firms whose market boundaries are not limited by fixed facility locations. The problem is conceptualized as the managerial decision to locate a new brokerage office in a highly competitive regional market area. Realistic constraints are established by focusing the market entry decision through aggregate data from secondary sources that are readily available to an outsider who had not been active in the geographic markets considered. A simple model based on market potential is progressively enhanced with spatially adjusted measures of market attractiveness and competitive resistance. Empirical tests highlight the impact of alternative model formulations and choice criteria on the decision-making process.     

考虑重复购买因素的品牌竞争对新产品扩散的影响研究——基于小世界网络的仿真环境

在对品牌竞争影响要素分析的基础上,考虑重复购买在新产品扩散过程中的调节效应,构建以消费者微观采纳机制为核心的新产品扩散的阈值模型,在小世界网络仿真情境下,运用多智能仿真方法对品牌竞争与新产品扩散之间的影响关系进行分析,研究结果表明：转换成本对新产品扩散的速度和深度的影响存在一定的"条件区域",在该区域之外两者不存在显著的影响关系;进入时间与两种竞争性品牌的扩散速度存在一致的负向的影响关系,而对两种竞争性品牌的扩散深度的影响方向则相反;在此过程中,重复购买系数起着一定的调节效应,会在一定程度上放大或缩小转换成本及进入时间对新产品扩散的影响效应。通过本文的研究,不仅可以进一步丰富和完善竞争性产品创新扩散的相关理论,也可以为企业的新产品推广实践提供决策支持。     

企业竞争行为的回应预测研究

竞争回应的预测是竞争互动领域的一个核心论题。由于传统的竞争互动理论主要是以市场行为为核心的研究,而在相当大的程度上忽视了非市场行为的重要性与价值。本文以中国家电行业为研究对象,采用结构化内容分析法,试图从市场与非市场的角度全面探讨竞争回应的预测问题,以期为中国企业的管理者们在制定与实施战略,以及预测竞争对手策略与行为选择时提供一些重要的实践启示。     

The extended enterprise-a context for manufacturing

Today's manufacturing enterprises face tremendous competitive pressures. Global competition, together with market demands for customized products delivered just in time, place tremendous pressures on manufacturers. The emerging global economy is rapidly replacing local markets. The emergence of open markets, reductions in trade barriers, and improvements in transportation and communications links have led to a situation where local competition and markets operate in the context of global standards. This open infrastructure allows manufacturers to respond to these challenges by working more closely with their suppliers and customers, and by building extended enterprises across the whole value chain. Such extended enterprises present great challenges in terms of redesigning business processes to create a competitive advantage from the linkages they include. This paper describes the manufacturing philosophies currently in vogue. Any manufacturing or related business will need to use them, albeit tailored to its own circumstances, in one form or the other, to ensure its prosperity.     

AN OPEN LETTER: TQM ON THE CAMPUS*

This letter is from the chairmen of American Express, Ford, IBM, Motorola, Proctor & Gamble, and Xerox. These companies sponsor Total Quality Forum, an annual gathering to discuss total quality management.     

The impact of Japanese plants on local labour markets

Japanese direct investment is assuming an increasing importance in the U.K. economy, especially in the manufacturing sector where Japanese management and manufacturing techniques have aroused particular interest. Until recently this investment in manufacturing has been primarily restricted to plants of an assembly-based nature and Japanese companies have sought out labour markets which best satisfy the needs of this type of operation. However, early signs are appearing which suggest that new Japanese manufacturing investment is becoming increasingly sophisticated. In the light of this emergent trend, this paper uses recent research to draw attention to the labour market problems that are likely to occur as the skill requirements of Japanese employers increase. The paper then concludes by discussing strategies which individual firms should adopt to protect themselves from any consequent labour market disruption.     

On the influence of market structure in modelling the US copper industry

Many of the contemporary models used to describe the behavior of the mineral industries assume a competitive market i.e. one in which market price is equal to marginal production cost. One such recent model of the worldwide copper industry is the MIDAS-II model developed for the Bureau of Mines [3, 4]. This model is used to project production and prices up through the year 2000. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of the assumed market structure in the construction of these forecasts. If the market structure of the US copper industry is assumed to be comprised of a few large firms (an oligopoly), then forecasts based upon exactly the same data base differ significantly from the competitive market assumption.     

市场竞争优势不对等下投资决策的期权博弈分析

可获得的竞争优势对不确定性和竞争性环境下的企业的投资决策有着重要影响.在引入市场份额因子后建立了体现这种竞争优势不对等情形下的双寡头期权博弈模型,并进行了数值分析,发现领先者拥有竞争优势能激励其更早进入,而追随者拥有竞争优势而不怕其它企业抢先进入的威胁.最后分析了模型对企业的投资策略选择和产业进入壁垒等实际应用中的意义.     

公司战略定位与竞争环境适应性实证分析

WTO环境下,中国企业将与世界一流企业直接交锋。面对激烈的竞争环境,公司如何根据自身的特点,采取相应的竞争战略确定自己的战略性市场定位是急需解决的问题。论文利用我国企业调研的实际数据,对竞争战略定位与市场竞争环境的关系进行了实证分析。研究揭示公司战略的选择受竞争对手、消费者需求等市场环境因素影响;并且,战略类型的积极与否与行业市场环境的复杂性、资源的稀缺性等存在一定的相关性。