The adoption of advanced quality practices and its impact on manufacturers

Presently, the manufacturing sector faces unprecedented levels of competition in both the domestic and international markets. This competition is mainly as a result of rapidly expanding international trade, gradual removal of protection, substantial reforms in labour markets and industrial relations, rapid technological changes and discerning customers. Intense global competition requires manufacturers to deliver products with higher quality in a shorter time. Simultaneously, owing to new technological innovations, the complexity of the products is increasing. In Australia, the impact of this intense competition and structural changes appear to be having negative effects on the manufacturing sector. This paper discusses the quality and reliability (Q & R) practices and associated drawbacks of Australian manufacturers and presents the findings of an investigation of the challenges Australian manufacturers are currently facing. The results reported in the paper are based on the data collected from a survey using the standard questionnaire. The study was driven by a conceptual model, which relates advanced quality practices to manufacturing performance and manufacturing difficulties.Evidence indicates that Q & R is the main competitive factor for Australian manufacturers. Design capability and on time delivery (OTD) came second. Results show that Australian manufacturers in general are facing some manufacturing difficulties. The relationship between advanced quality practices and company performance and manufacturing difficulties are explored. It is found that the companies who have more emphasis on advanced quality practices have fewer problems in manufacturing practices. Moreover, companies who have actively implemented the advanced quality practices have managed to improve the quality of the product continuously. The results validate the proposed hypothesis and lend credence to current thinking that improvement in Q & R is a vital tool for competitive advantage.

Continuous innovation in SMEs : how design innovation shapes business performance through doing more with less

Firms face the challenge to survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive global market, developing strategies to continuously innovate, often having to do more with less. Increasing awareness of the benefits of stimulating continuous innovation in small and medium enterprises has led to the development and implementation of design innovation programs, with many western countries investing in design innovation programs for better firm performance. This paper investigates how firms respond to a design innovation program and engage in continuous innovation, doing more business with a focused less diverse strategy. Early findings from a study of companies engaged in a design innovation program indicate that applying design principles to all aspects of their business has delivered better business performance and better positioning in global markets.

Train service timetabling in railway open markets by particle swarm optimisation

Railway timetabling is an important process in train service provision as it matches the transportation demand with the infrastructure capacity while customer satisfaction is also considered. It is a multi-objective optimisation problem, in which a feasible solution, rather than the optimal one, is usually taken in practice because of the time constraint. The quality of services may suffer as a result. In a railway open market, timetabling usually involves rounds of negotiations among a number of self-interested and independent stakeholders and hence additional objectives and constraints are imposed on the timetabling problem. While the requirements of all stakeholders are taken into consideration simultaneously, the computation demand is inevitably immense. Intelligent solution-searching techniques provide a possible solution. This paper attempts to employ a particle swarm optimisation (PSO) approach to devise a railway timetable in an open market. The suitability and performance of PSO are studied on a multi-agent-based railway open-market negotiation simulation platform.

Towards a model of dynamic capabilities in innovation-based competitive strategy : insights from project-oriented service firms

With the growing significance of services in most developed economies, there is an increased interest in the role of service innovation in service firm competitive strategy. Despite growing literature on service innovation, it remains fragmented reflecting the need for a model that captures key antecedents driving the service innovation-based competitive advantage process. Building on extant literature and using thirteen in-depth interviews with CEOs of project-oriented service firms, this paper presents a model of innovation-based competitive advantage. The emergent model suggests that entrepreneurial service firms pursuing innovation carefully select and use dynamic capabilities that enable them to achieve greater innovation and sustained competitive advantage. Our findings indicate that firms purposefully use create, extend and modify processes to build and nurture key dynamic capabilities. The paper presents a set of theoretical propositions to guide future research. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. Finally, directions for future research are outlined.

Competitive advantages as a foundation for social advantage: The role of social enterprise in regional development

The belief that regions play a role in determining national economic development and that advantages are found at the local and regional level has been the focus of economic geography and development studies over the last 10 years. However, this issue has historically been dominated by economic perspectives, industrial firms, and public bodies. In recent years the social economy is starting to receive greater attention in creating regional advantage as well as ameliorating regional disadvantage. The social economy includes the impact of the third sector such as social enterprises. This paper proposes that understanding the role and function of social enterprise will enable a more nuanced understanding of the socio-economic aspects of regional development. Drawing upon Oliver’s (1997) framework for sustainable competitive advantage it is argued that this established management framework provides a valuable foundation for examining the organisational resources that social enterprise need to operate effectively, as well as the socio-economic resources they produce for regional communities.

Verifiability in Markets for Credence Goods

Theory predicts that efficiency prevails on credence goods markets if customers are able to verify which quality they receive from an expert seller. In a series of experiments with endogenous prices we observe that variability fails to result in efficient provision behavior and leads to very similar results as a setting without variability. Some sellers always provide appropriate treatment even if own money maximization calls for over- or undertreatment. Overall our endogenous price-results suggests that both inequality aversion and a taste for efficiency play an important role for experts provision behavior. We contrast the implications of those two motivations theoretically and discriminate between them empirically using a �xed-price design. We then classify experimental experts according to their provision behavior.

Tax concessions for charities : competitive neutrality, the tax base and "public goods" choice

It is argued that concerns arise about the integrity and fairness of the taxation regime where charitable organizations, which avail themselves of the tax exemption status while undertaking commercial activities, compete directly with the for-profit sector. The appropriateness of the tax concessions granted to charitable organizations is considered in respect of income derived from commercial activities. It is principally argued that the traditional line of reasoning for imposing limitations on tax concessions focuses on an incorrect underlying inquiry. Traditionally, it is argued that limitations should be imposed because of unfair competition, lack of competitive neutrality, or an arbitrary decision relating to a lack of deserving. However, it is argued that a more appropriate question from which to base any limitations is one which considers the value attached to the integrity of the taxation regime as a whole, and the tax base specifically compared to the public good of charities. When the correct underlying question is asked, sound taxation policy ensues, as a less arbitrary approach may be adopted to limit the scope of tax concessions available to charitable organizations.

Reviewing the impact of the 2008/2009 global financial crisis (GFC) on international property markets and property professions

The global financial crisis that impacted on all world economies throughout 2008 and 2009. This impact has not been confined to the finance industries but has had a direct and indirect impact on the property industry worldwide from both an ownership and investment perspective. Property markets have experienced various levels of impact from this event, but universally the greatest impact has been on the traditional commercial and industrial property sectors from the investor perspective, with investment and superannuation funds reporting significant declines in the reported value of these investments. Despite the very direct impact of these declining property markets, the GFC has also had a very significant indirect impact on the various property professions and how these professions are now operating in this declining property market. Of particular interest is the comparison of the property market forecasts in late 2007 to the actual results in 2008/2009.

Corporate profit and impression management in developing markets

In this study, we examine how organisations in Fiji communicate or legitimise their profit. We base the need for understanding this phenomenon on the following premise. Organisations are part of a wider society, and in competition for scarce resources. Organisations obtain the rights to consume resources upon conception, but must continually legitimise their rights of existence and the need to access the resources. Legitimacy is the ability to continue to justify one’s authority to exist in a society. Organisations rights to resources are contractual, and have a moral obligation to act in a responsible manner and justify their outcomes, actions, and activities to external stakeholders. Such justifications would be an attempt at legitimizing their existence by some form of impression management. Impression management refers to the process by which individuals attempt to influence the impression of others (Melo et al. 2009). In corporate reporting, impression management occurs when management selects, display, and presents that information in a manner that distorts readers’ perceptions of corporate achievements (Neu 1991; Patten 2002), and is managed best through disclosures (O’Donovan 2002). In developing economies, there is significant Government protection that creates near-monopoly sectors and industries. The rendered protection permits organisations to provide essential services to the community at reasonable costs. Organisations in these sectors and industries have an ominous need to legitimise their position and actions. The bond between the organisations and the society is much stronger, making organisations devote more effort in communicating their activities. Protection permits organisations to make reasonable profits to sustain their operations. Society may not accept abnormal profits from operational efficiencies. Profit is fundamental to the society’s perception of an organisation, amplifying the need for the firm to justify a level of profit. Abnormal profit for organisations construes bad news, and organisations would make relevant disclosures to manage stakeholder impressions on profit (Patten 2002). Organisations can manage impressions by disclosing information in a particular way. That is, organisations would want to put the impression that the abnormal profit is justified and the society will obtain its benefits in future. Such form of impression management requires unambiguous disclosure of information. The readability of corporate disclosures is an important indicator of organisational abnormal profit-related legitimacy efforts in developing economies.

Creating and evaluating IT-related business value in developing markets : part 1

There is no doubt that information technology (IT) resources are important for organisations in any jurisdiction to manage their processes. Organisations consume considerable financial resources to acquire and manage their IT resources with various IT governance structures. Investment in IT, thus, is a strategic necessity. IT resources, however, do not contribute fully to business value on their own. Business value considers performance impacts of resources at various organisational levels (e.g., processes and firm levels). ITs are biased resources in that they require some form of manipulation to attain their maximum value. While we know that IT resources are important, a deeper understanding on two aspects of use of IT resources in organisations is important. First, is how to leverage the IT resources to attain its maximum value, and second, is where to evaluate IT-related business value in the organisation’s value chain. This understanding is important for organisation to sustain their operations in an ever-changing business environment. We address these issues in two parts. This paper discusses the first aspect of ways in which organisations can create and sustain their IT-related business value.

Creating and evaluating IT-related business value in developing markets - Part 2

A deeper understanding on two aspects of use of IT resources in organisations is important to ensure sustainable investment in these IT resources. The first is how to leverage the IT resources to attain its maximum value. We discussed this aspect of use of IT resources in part 1 of this series. This discussion suggested a complementary approach as a first stage of IT business value creation, and dynamic capabilities approach to secure sustainable IT-related business value from the IT resources. The second important aspect of IT business value is where to evaluate IT-related business value in the organisations value chains. This understanding is important for organisations to ensure appropriate accountability of the investment and management of IT resources. We address this issue in this second part of the two part series.

Teachers’ work in curricular markets : conditions of design and relations between the International Baccalaureate Diploma and the local curriculum

School level strategy enabled by neoliberal choice policies can produce internal curricular markets whereby branded curricula such as the International Baccalaureate are offered alongside the local government curriculum in the same school. This project investigated how such curricular markets operating in Australian schools impacted on teachers’ work. This paper reports on teachers work in three case study schools that offered both the International Baccalaureate Diploma program and the local senior schooling curriculum, then draws on an online survey of 225 teachers in 26 such schools across Australia. The analysis reveals the impact of curricular markets along two dimensions: the curriculum’s internal design; and the relational aspects of how schools manage to deliver tandem offerings within institutional constraints. Teachers working in the IBD Diploma program were shown to relish its design, despite additional demands, while teachers working in just the local curriculum reported more relational issues. The paper argues that these trends suggest that there are winners and losers emerging in the work conditions produced by curricular markets.  

Educational markets in space : gamekeeping professionals across Australian communities

This paper argues that the logic of neoliberal choice policy is typically blind to considerations of space and place, but inevitably impacts on rural and remote locations in the way that middle class professionals view the opportunities available in their local educational markets. The paper considers the value of middle class professionals’ educational capitals in regional communities and their problematic distribution, given that class fraction’s particular investment in choice strategies to ensure their children’s future. It then profiles the educational market in six communities along a transect between a major regional centre and a remote ‘outback’ town, using publicly available data from the Australian government’s ‘My School’ website. Comparison of the local markets shows how educational outcomes are distributed across the local markets and how dimensions of ‘choice’ thin out over the transect. Interview data offers insights into how professional families in these localities engage selectively with these local educational markets, or plan to transcend them. The discussion reflects on the growing importance of educational choices as a marker of place in the competition between localities to attract and retain professionals to staff vital human services in their communities.

The Moral Economy of Everyday Crime: Markets, Consumers and Citizens

Between the crimes in the suites and the crimes in the streets lies the mostly unexplored terrain within which we find crimes of ‘everyday life’. Not all of these are formally illegal, but all are generally seen as morally dubious. Most of the crimes of everyday life are committed in the contemporary marketplace, and by those who think of themselves (and are mostly considered by others) as respectable citizens. We contextualize normative orientations that are conducive to such types of behaviour using a framework that links E. P. Thompson’s (1963) concept of the ‘moral economy’ with Institutional Anomie Theory (Messner and Rosenfeld 1994, 2007). Findings from a comparative survey study in three economic change regions (England and Wales, Western and Eastern Germany) show that a syndrome of market anomie comprising distrust, fear and cynical attitudes toward law increases the willingness of respectable citizens to engage in illegal and unfair practices in the marketplace.