High value manufacturing: Capability,appropriation, and governance

Manufacturing competitiveness is on many policy agendas, born out of a concern for firms in high-cost economies finding themselves outcompeted by low-cost rivals. Government policy makers and manufacturing firm strategists have put their faith in what we label as high value manufacturing (HVM). We see HVM as an incipient phenomenon currently in a situation of prescience, as something that is still “in-the-making,” with manufacturing firms trying to find ways to be able to step away from having to compete on price. This paper consults relevant strategy theories with the purpose to pinpoint the issues and problems that need to be accommodated for bringing HVM into being and for creating the effects that are anticipated. We found that HVM must be seen as a distributed activity, thus realizing complex functionality for a system-of-use, while being subjected to path constitution. For HVM to function, the firms involved need to find solutions to the capability problem, the appropriation problem, and the governance problem. We suggest that further research needs to involve itself in problem-solving activity to assist in bringing HVM about while simultaneously further developing strategy theory geared toward firms that are involved in a distributed activity like HVM.     

The effects of pre-IPO corporate activity on newly-public firms' growth

We investigate firms' pre-IPO corporate activity. We find that firms involved in extraordinary – i.e., beyond momentum – amounts of acquisitions, JVs, and alliances in the year leading up to their IPOs (1) are more likely to engage in post-IPO corporate activity; and (2) enter into their first post-IPO transaction twice as fast as other firms. Our results indicate that signaling via extraordinary corporate activity can have a significant effect on entrepreneurial firms’ growth. The implications are discussed.     

Unaddressed problems and research perspectives in scheduling blood collection from donors

Many optimisation problems arise in managing the Blood Donation (BD) supply chain. Most of them have been addressed in the literature, while other problems, e.g. donation scheduling, have not been sufficiently addressed so far. However, blood collection from donors may have a disruptive impact on the entire BD supply chain if not properly managed. For example, scheduling donation appointments based on some system metrics may improve the flow of blood units through the BD supply chain and increase the quality of service perceived by donors. In this short communication, we present the donation scheduling problem and highlight the lack of work in the literature that deals with this problem. Then, we analyse the impact of an unbalanced flow of blood units on the BD system and the benefits that may derive from a suitable appointment scheduling. Finally, we propose suggestions for future research in BD collection scheduling that may improve the BD process.     

Impact of competitive conditions on supplier evaluation: a construction supply chain case study

This research proposes a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework and demonstrates the impact of competitive conditions on supplier evaluation process for construction supply chains. The paper focuses on the supply chain of a large-scale housing project in order to illustrate the role of competitive capability and suppliers’ profile and its influence on supplier evaluation based on prevailing supply/market conditions. Various scenarios are investigated to demonstrate the impact of competition on supplier evaluation. The contribution of the study lies in highlighting the impact of supply/market conditions on MCDM decisions causing supplier evaluation ‘imbalance’ and MCDM usage. It is expected that the study will be useful for project management, construction, supply chain management, sourcing professionals. The findings of the study are generalisable to projects-based situations such as petroleum refinery and ship building where bill of materials typically consists of thousands of items and a large number of suppliers are involved.     

基于消费者效用的生鲜农产品供应链生鲜度激励机制研究

生鲜供应链整体生鲜度的提升对减少浪费、提高供应链整体盈利水平及社会福利有重要意义。本文基于消费者效用理论研究了两供应商和单一零售商组成的供应链系统,构建了单周期下生鲜农产品生鲜度激励模型,模型以供应商为领导者,采用Stackelberg博弈方法求解得到了均衡状态下供应商、零售商的最优定价策略及供应商新鲜度努力选择。研究结果表明,供应商和零售商利润与消费者价格敏感系数呈反向变化,与新鲜度敏感系数呈同向变化。在价格竞争市场,供应商保鲜努力程度和利润与价格替代率呈反向变化;在生鲜度竞争市场,供应商保鲜努力程度和利润与新鲜度替代率呈同向变化。基于研究结论,厂商及政府应当联手引导消费者的消费观念,尽可能减少由于信息不对称引致的道德风险,在市场价格替代率不变甚至降低的情形下,提高生鲜度替代率,使得消费者的意愿支付价格上升,提高自身讨价还价能力,获取更多利润。     

广义ATO下基于多种团购模型的供应链协调

针对由多个供应商、单个制造商和零售商所组成的广义按订单装配式供应链,在上游多个供应商不确定的零部件（或商品）供应以及下游客户不确定的需求的环境下,首先分析基本模型中团购前后的零售商和制造商的利润变化,然后提出了团购的标准模型和协调模型,并比较三种不同的团购模型对各成员以及全局供应链绩效的影响。通过数学推导证明和仿真数据算例分析,结果表明：零售商自发的团购基本模型总是对制造商有利,而对零售商的好处是有限的;由制造商主导的团购标准模型在满足一定条件时是优于团购基本模型的,但有使得零售商甚至制造商自身受到损失的可能;而集中决策下的团购协调模型能够提升全局供应链的期望利润,实现渠道的帕累托改善,但协调的效果会受到团购客户组成结构的限制。     

两级供应链中延保服务与基础质保服务交互策略

延保服务已成为商家获取高额利润的重要手段。本文以一个制造商和一个零售商组成的两级供应链为对象,分别在单主体（制造商或零售商）和两主体同时提供延保（偏向于制造商或零售商延保）情形下,研究最优延保定价、产品定价及延保与基础质保交互的决策。结果表明：维修成本直接影响延保的提供方式。仅制造商或零售商提供延保时,延保期限对基础质保期限有明显促进或抑制作用,且制造商提供延保有利于制造商和零售商。两者同时提供延保时,延保竞争促使其价格降低,且消费者偏向于某主体时,其延保价格相对高于另一方;基础质保与延保的交互关系取决于竞争程度。当消费者偏向制造商延保时,供应链各方所获取的利润较为稳健,相对高于单一主体提供延保情形时的利润。     

考虑消费者双重偏好的低碳供应链减排策略研究

为了削弱传统零售商在渠道博弈中的垄断地位,制造商尝试建立在线渠道与零售商展开竞争。本文在考虑消费者低碳偏好的基础上,又将消费者的渠道偏好进行区分,通过不同决策模式的对比及数值算例分析,寻求低碳供应链最优的减排边界。研究表明：1分散决策时,制造商的低碳决策会受消费者渠道偏好的影响;集中决策时,制造商的低碳决策保持不变。2不同决策模式的减排边界由渠道偏好决定,渠道偏好较大时,分散决策的减排边界更高;渠道偏好较低时,集中决策的减排边界更高;渠道偏好中立时,两者的减排边界相同。3制造商可以通过升级低碳技术、实行低碳化管理等方式降低减排成本,同时通过低碳产品认证、广告宣传等方式提高消费者对低碳产品的认可程度。     

基于ACC支付模式的供应链金融模型研究

在零售商存在资金不足和顾客需求随机情况下,以报童模型为基础,针对变质品构建了供应链金融问题和ACC支付模式（提前支付Advance、现金支付Cash和信用支付Credit）相结合的零售商订货模型,即零售商与供应商、融资机构合作条件下的模型。研究表明,零售商会随着最优订货批量和最低期望成本的增加和降低趋势,进而调整订货量,从而规避供大于求的风险,最终降低总的期望成本。同时供应商可以适当调整支付比例,让零售商来分担坏账和商品变质风险。     

农产品超市经营的实证研究:近期有关文献综述

依据国内外近期的研究文献,该文对农产品超市经营领域的研究进展和研究内容进行了梳理和述评,发现虽然中国与发达国家、其他发展中国家的研究重点有一定的差异,但总体而言都存在定量研究不足等问题,这需要在下阶段的研究中予以高度重视。