Export memory: a preliminary investigation of its quality, its use, and its link to export performance

Exporting is one of the main ways in which organizations internationalize. With the more turbulent, heterogeneous, sophisticated and less familiar export environment, the organizational learning ability of the exporting organization may become its only source of sustainable competitive advantage. However, achieving a competitive level of learning is not easy. Companies must be able to find ways to improve their learning capability by enhancing the different aspects of the learning process. One of these is export memory. Building from an export information processing framework this research work particularly focuses on the quality of export memory, its determinants, its subsequent use in decision-making, and its ultimate relationship with export performance. Within export memory use, four export memory use dimensions have been discovered: instrumental, conceptual, legitimizing and manipulating. Results from the qualitative study based on the data from a mail survey with 354 responses reveal that the development of export memory quality is positively related with quality of export information acquisition, the quality of export information interpretation, export coordination, and integration of the information into the organizational system. Several company and environmental factors have also been examined in terms of their relationship with export memory use. The two factors found to be significantly related to the extent of export memory use are acquisition of export information quality and export memory quality. The results reveal that export memory quality is positively related to the extent of export memory use which in turn was found to be positively related to export performance. Furthermore, results of the study show that there is only one aspect of export memory use that significantly affects export performance – the extent of export memory use. This finding could mean that there is no particular type of export memory use favored since the choice of the type of use is situation specific. Additional results reveal that environmental turbulence and export memory overload have moderating effects on the relationship between export memory use and export performance.

The design of environmental test rigs

Product reliability and its environmental performance have become critical elements within a product's specification and design. To obtain a high level of confidence in the reliability of the design it is customary to test the design under realistic conditions in a laboratory. The objective of the work is to examine the feasibility of designing mechanical test rigs which exhibit prescribed dynamical characteristics. The design is then attached to the rig and excitation is applied to the rig, which then transmits representative vibration levels into the product. The philosophical considerations made at the outset of the project are discussed as they form the basis for the resulting design methodologies. It is attempted to directly identify the parameters of a test rig from the spatial model derived during the system identification process. It is shown to be impossible to identify a feasible test rig design using this technique. A finite dimensional optimal design methodology is developed which identifies the parameters of a discrete spring/mass system which is dynamically similar to a point coordinate on a continuous structure. This design methodology is incorporated within another procedure which derives a structure comprising a continuous element and a discrete system. This methodology is used to obtain point coordinate similarity for two planes of motion, which is validated by experimental tests. A limitation of this approach is that it is impossible to achieve multi-coordinate similarity due to an interaction of the discrete system and the continuous element at points away from the coordinate of interest. During the work the importance of the continuous element is highlighted and a design methodology is developed for continuous structures. The design methodology is based upon distributed parameter optimal design techniques and allows an initial poor design estimate to be moved in a feasible direction towards an acceptable design solution. Cumulative damage theory is used to provide a quantitative method of assessing the quality of dynamic similarity. It is shown that the combination of modal analysis techniques and cumulative damage theory provides a feasible design synthesis methodology for representative test rigs.

Environmental quality in residential areas : a social survey approach to improvement priorities

The research is concerned with the measurement of residents' evaluations of the environmental quality of residential areas. The research reflects the increased attention being given to residents' values in planning decisions affecting the residential environment. The work was undertaken in co-operation with a local authority which was in the process of revising its housing strategy, and in particular the priorities for improvement action. The study critically examines the existing evidence on environmental values and their relationship to the environment and points to a number of methodological and conceptual deficiencies. The research strategy developed on the basis of the research review was constrained by the need to keep any survey methods simple so that they could easily be repeated, when necessary, by the sponsoring authority. A basic perception model was assumed, and a social survey carried out to measure residents' responses to different environmental conditions. The data was only assumed to have ordinal properties, necessitating the extensive use of non-parametric statistics. Residents' expressions of satisfaction with the component elements of the environment (ranging from convenience to upkeep and privacy) were successfully related to 'objective' measures of the environment. However the survey evidence did not justify the use of the 'objective' variables as environmental standards. A method of using the social survey data directly as an aid to decision-making is discussed. Alternative models of the derivation of overall satisfaction with the environment are tested, and the values implied by the additive model compared with residents' preferences as measured directly in the survey. Residents' overall satisfactions with the residential environment were most closely related to their satisfactions with the "Appearance" and the "Reputation" of their areas. By contrast the most important directly measured preference was "Friendliness of area". The differences point to the need to define concepts used in social research clearly in operational terms, and to take care in the use of values 'measured' by different methods.