The role of the supply chain in developing a 'lagging' region's manufacturing industry. How important are links with suppliers and customers?

This paper investigates the use of supply chains as a source of knowledge transfer to manufacturing businesses in South Yorkshire and the effect this can have on improving economic performance. It also looks at where assistance originates from, what factors influence who gets the assistance, and what the benefits are.

Best friends and better coping: Facilitating psychological resilience through boys’ and girls’ closest friendships

This is a novel investigation of whether, and how, a single close supportive friendship may facilitate psychological resilience in socio-economically vulnerable British adolescents. A total of 409 adolescents (160 boys, 245 girls, four unknown), aged between 11 and 19 years, completed self-report measures of close friendship quality, psychological resilience, social support, and other resources. Findings revealed a significant positive association between perceived friendship quality and resilience. This relationship was facilitated through inter-related mechanisms of developing a constructive coping style (comprised of support-seeking and active coping), effort, a supportive friendship network, and reduced disengaged and externalising coping. While protective processes were encouragingly significantly present across genders, boys were more vulnerable to the deleterious effects of disengaged and externalizing coping than girls. We suggest that individual close friendships are an important potential protective mechanism accessible to most adolescents. We discuss implications of the resulting Adolescent Friendship and Resilience Model for resilience theories and integration into practice.

Do pigs form preferential associations?

This investigation examined whether pigs form long-term preferential associations or ‘friendships’ and factors that may influence the formation of these relationships. Thirty-three pigs from 16 litters were housed together from 4 weeks of age. At 10 weeks they were split into two groups of 16 and 17 pigs and each introduced into 3.05 m × 3.66 m observation pens (1st pen). At 17 weeks the two groups swapped pens (2nd pen). The lying patterns of each group were recorded over 3 weeks in both the 1st and 2nd pens. To identify dyads with preferential associations, association indices were calculated for each pair based on their lying patterns and analysed using SOCPROG1.3 and the permutation method [Whitehead, H., 1999. Programs for analysing social structure. SOCPROG 1.2, http://is.dal.cal/~whitelab/index.htm]. Dyads with high association indices for at least 2 out of 3 weeks in either pen, i.e. =0.10 (twice the mean), were classed as having preferential associations. Mantel tests were used to examine the relationship between the relative sex, weight, familiarity and relatedness of a dyad and their level of association and to examine consistency of associations between pens. The existence of preferential associations was identified in both groups, since the standard deviations for the observed half-weight association index means were significantly higher than for the randomly permuted half-weight association index means (P < 0.001). Of the 33 pigs observed, 32 formed preferential associations with one or more pigs in their group, resulting in 50 dyads. Only six dyads (12 pigs) formed preferential associations in both pens, suggesting that the remaining dyads either formed short-term associations only or were simply displaying a shared preference for the same lying location. Levels of association between pens showed no significant correlation. The relative sex, weight, familiarity and relatedness of dyad members also showed no significant correlation with their level of association. These findings suggest that unrelated pigs are capable of forming preferential associations. However, it is unclear whether such associations are widespread or important to pigs, since most dyads’ preferential associations were not consistent between pens.

Overcoming Customer Dependency - A Case Study of Small Consumer Food Producers in Northern Ireland

Dependency on a small number of customer puts intense pressure on suppliers' profit margin and, in slow growing markets, limits their ability to grow. using stragtegic benchmarking information, a group of Northern Ireland consumer food producer are shown, depsite slow market growth and higher than averge customer dependency, to have increased market share while maintaining aboe vergate proitability. examination of the business strategic and develoment activites of the consumer food firms,and comparble information for other small food prodcuers in Ireland, suggests and emphasiss on cost-reduction and new prodcut development. A comparision of the productivity and prodcut range of the consuer food firms provides evidence of the success of these strategic. This suggests that even a relatively weak market situations, charactrised by dependency on a small number of customers, can be over come by effective and appropriate business strategy.

Help or hindrance? Supplier involvement and causal ambiguity within inter-organisational NPD teams

Suppliers are increasingly involved in buyer firms’ interorganizational new product development (NPD) teams. Yet the transfer of knowledge within this context may be subject to varying degrees of causal ambiguity, potentially limiting the effect of supplier involvement on performance. We develop a theoretical model exploring the effect of supplier involvement practices on the level of causal ambiguity within interorganizational NPD teams, and the subsequent impact on competitor imitation, new product advantage, and project performance. Our model also serves as a test of the paradox that causal ambiguity both inhibits imitation by competitors, but also adversely affects organisational outcomes. Results from an empirical study of 119 R&D intensive manufacturing firms in the United Kingdom largely support these hypotheses. Results from structural equation modeling show that supplier involvement orientation and long-term commitment lower causal ambiguity within interorganizational NPD teams. In turn, this lower causal ambiguity generates a new product advantage and increases project performance for the buyer firm, but has no significant effect on competitor imitation. Instead, competitor imitation is delayed by the extent to which the firm develops a new product advantage within the market. These results shed light on the causal ambiguity paradox showing that lower causal ambiguity during interorganizational new product development increases both product and project performance, but without reducing barriers to imitation. Product development managers are encouraged to utilize supplier involvement practices to minimise ambiguity in the NPD project, and to target their supplier involvement efforts on solving causally ambiguous technological problems to sustain a competitive advantage.

The determinants of knowledge transfer within collaborative new product development projects

Purpose – This paper explores the factors which determine the degree of knowledge transfer in inter-firm new product development projects. We test a theoretical model exploring how inter-firm knowledge transfer is enabled or hindered by a buyer’s learning intent, the degree of supplier protectiveness, inter-firm knowledge ambiguity, and absorptive capacity. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 153 R&D intensive manufacturing firms in the UK automotive, aerospace, pharmaceutical, electrical, chemical, and general manufacturing industries were used to test the framework. Two-step structural equation modeling in AMOS 7.0 was used to analyse the data. Findings – Our results indicate that a buyer’s learning intent increases inter-firm knowledge transfer, but also acts as an incentive for suppliers to protect their knowledge. Such defensive measures increase the degree of inter-firm knowledge ambiguity, encouraging buyer firms to invest in absorptive capacity as a means to interpret supplier knowledge, but also increase the degree of knowledge transfer. Practical implications – Our paper illustrates the effects of focusing on acquisition, rather than accessing, supplier technological knowledge. We show that an overt learning strategy can be detrimental to knowledge transfer between buyer-supplier, as supplier’s react by restricting the flow of information. Organisations are encouraged to consider this dynamic when engaging in multi-organisational new product development projects. Originality/value – This paper examines the dynamics of knowledge transfer within inter-firm NPD projects, showing how transfer is influenced by the buyer firm’s learning intention, supplier’s response, characteristics of the relationship and knowledge to be transferred.

The Effect of Risk Sensitivity on Collaborative New Product Development in a Supply Chain

The increasing risks and costs of new product development require firms to collaborate with their supply chain partners in product management. In this paper, a supply chain model is proposed with one risk-neutral supplier and one risk-averse manufacturer. The manufacturer has an opportunity to enhance demand by developing a new product, but both the actual demand for new product and the supplier’s wholesale price are uncertain. The supplier has an incentive to share risks of new product development via an advance commitment to wholesale price for its own profit maximization. The effects of the manufacturer’s risk sensitivity on the players’ optimal strategies are analyzed and the trade-off between innovation incentives and pricing flexibility is investigated from the perspective of the supplier. The results highlight the significant role of risk sensitivity in collaborative new product development, and it is found that the manufacturer’s innovation level and retail price are always decreasing in the risk sensitivity, and the supplier prefers commitment to wholesale price only when the risk sensitivity is below a certain threshold.