ANALYSIS OF THE LEAD TIME AND LEARNING FOR CAPACITY EXPANSIONS

Firms capable of reducing the time required to bring new products to the marketplace realize significant competitive gains. In this context, the existing literature on capacity expansion is limited because it does not consider the lead time required to construct and operationalize new capacity. Models are introduced here that capture the capacity expansion lead time as well as two types of learning. Specifically, learning may reduce the lead time or cost required to complete an expansion. Analytic and numerical results show that the optimal solution can be significantly affected by the explicit treatment of the lead time and learning.     

PLANT‐LEVEL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ORIENTATION: THE INFLUENCE OF MANAGEMENT VIEWS AND PLANT CHARACTERISTICS

As customers, the public and other stakeholders are increasingly demanding that manufacturing firms improve their approach to environmental management, some plants have moved to develop an orientation that is increasingly proactive. Synthesizing earlier research, environmental management orientation is defined here to include system analysis and planning, organizational responsibility, and management controls. The relationship between a proactive orientation and two sets of internal factors, specifically the personal views of plant managers and plant‐specific characteristics, was tested using survey data from the furniture industry. The production outlook for the plant was critical, with a favorable outlook fostering a more proactive environmental management orientation. After controlling for plant‐specific factors, personal views also were influential; an increasing emphasis on short‐term economic value was related to a more reactive plant‐level orientation. Thus senior corporate management can foster strong plant‐level environmental management through a more balanced emphasis on economic and ethical values and continued investment in a plant's long‐term viability.     

Variance Reduction in Smoothing Splines

Abstract.  We develop a variance reduction method for smoothing splines. For a given point of estimation, we define a variance-reduced spline estimate as a linear combination of classical spline estimates at three nearby points. We first develop a variance reduction method for spline estimators in univariate regression models. We then develop an analogous variance reduction method for spline estimators in clustered/longitudinal models. Simulation studies are performed which demonstrate the efficacy of our variance reduction methods in finite sample settings. Finally, a real data analysis with the motorcycle data set is performed. Here we consider variance estimation and generate 95% pointwise confidence intervals for the unknown regression function.     

Rewiring global networks at local events: congresses in the stock photo trade

Digital technologies have enabled the geographical expansion of production and the distribution of creative goods and communication. Simultaneously, the number of trade fairs and congresses has increased. This rise of temporary encounters has led to theorizations of events as marketplaces, learning sites and field‐configuring practices. This article elaborates on the metaphor of rewiring to propose and empirically demonstrate a further role of industry events for global business. Drawing on the case of the global stock photo trade, we use a unique survey to map the global network of sales partnerships as well as interviews conducted at international lead congresses to demonstrate how these events are enacted as social relays. Our findings demonstrate how temporary face‐to‐face contact facilitates long distance relationships between organizations and how it dynamically shapes the global industry network. Thus, we contribute to closing the gap between social action at the micro level, organizational linkages at the meso level and the structure of global industry networks at the macro level.     

Students' Views on the Relationship between Religion and Science: Analyses of Results from a Comparative Survey*

Deux enquêtes ont été effectuées auprès d'étudiants de deux universitiés canadiennes sur leurs perceptions des relations entre la religion, la science et le sens de la vie. Les données démontrent que, tandis que les étudiants pensent régulièrement à la signification de la vie, leurs opinions sur la religion par rapport à la science ne laissent voir que de bas niveaux de corrélation. Les étudiants ont indiqué que leur plus grande préoccupation par rapport au sens de la vie était due à leur famille et à leurs amis. Dans l'ensemble, les données suggèrent que les étudiants considèrent la religion et la science comme des entités indépendantes, mais seulement en ce qui concerne la part qu'elles occupent dans la vie des individus et dans les affaires mondiales.
Students at two distinctly different Canadian universities were surveyed about their perceptions of the relationship between religion, science, and thinking about the meaning of life. The data show that while students regularly think about the latter, their views on religion and science show only low levels of correlation with each other. Students indicated that their greatest insights into the meaning of life came from family and friends. Overall, the data suggest that students view religion and science as independent entities, both with respect to the part that these play in the life of individuals and in world affairs.     

Is a Questionnaire Necessary in a Second Mailing?

Current Research This section of POQ is reserved for brief reportsof research in progress, discussions of unresolved problems,methodological studies, and public opinion data not extensivelyanalyzed or interpreted. Succinct case histories are welcomed,as well as hypotheses and insights that may be useful to otherstudents of public opinion. Usually, material in this sectionis shorter, more informal, and more tentative than in precedingpages.