Has Low Productivity Constrained Competitiveness of African Firms? : Comparison of the Firm Performances with Asian Firms

It has been argued that poor productive performance is one of critical sources of stagnation of the African manufacturing sector, but firm-level empirical supports are limited. Using the inter-regional firm data of the garment industry, technical efficiency and its contribution to competitiveness measured as unit costs were compared between Kenyan and Bangladeshi firms. Our estimates indicated that there is no significant gap in the average technical efficiency of the two industries despite conservative estimation, although unit costs greatly differ between the two industries. Higher unit cost in Kenyan firms mainly stems from high labour cost, while impact of inefficiency is quite small. Productivity accounts little for the stagnation of garment industry in several African countries.

Boundariesc@pes. Landscapes of the boundary or boundaries of the landscape? The landscape scope of the boundary

Esta comunicación parte de la base de que en nuestro tiempo la idea ambigua del límite ha llegado a ser uno de los paradigmas más complejos que podemos afrontar no sólo en arquitectura sino también en la sociedad y la cultura.

Technical efficiency in the retail food industry: the influence of inventory investment, wage levels, and age of the firm

The objective of this paper is to estimate technical efficiency in retailing; and the influence of inventory investment, wage levels, and firm age on this efficiency. We use the output supermarket chains’ sales volume, calculated isolating the retailer price effect on its sales revenue. This output allows us to estimate a strictly technical concept of efficiency. The methodology is based on the estimation of a stochastic parametric function. The empirical analyses applied to panel data on a sample of 42 supermarket chains between 2000 and 2002 show that inventory investment and wage level have an impact on technical efficiency. In comparison, the effect of these factors on efficiency calculated through a monetary output (sales revenue) shows some differences that could be due to aspects related to product prices.

Boundaries of the United States and of the several states and territories,

Mode of access: Internet.

A portrait catalogue of the books published by Houghton, Mifflin and company; with a sketch of the firm, brief descriptions of the various departments, and some account of the origin and character of the literary enterprises undertaken.

"This edition consists of one thousand copies."

John Bull & co.; the great colonial branches of the firm: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa,

Mode of access: Internet.

A brief history of the firm of Taylor, Pinkham & Co., Inc. : founded by Saul Alley in 1816 /

Mode of access: Internet.

A brief topographical and statistical manual of the state of New-York [microform]: exhibiting the situation and boundaries of the several counties ... and designating the principal places and the seat of the courts ...

Mode of access: Internet.

The charter and ordinances of the city of Rockland : together with the boundaries of the several wards, regulations respecting gunpowder, list of town officers from 1848 to 1854, a catalogue of the city government from 1854 to 1885, a list of city officers under the statute, instructions to ward officers, contract with the Camden and Rockland Water Company, and an abstract of laws relating to the powers and duties of cities.

Includes indexes.

Physical distribution management; logistics problems of the firm

Mode of access: Internet.

Electronic commerce investments, the resource-based view of the firm, and firm market value

Firms have embraced electronic commerce as a means of doing business, either because they see it as a way to improve efficiency, grow market share, expand into new markets, or because they view it as essential for survival. Recent research in the United States provides some evidence that the market does value investments in electronic commerce. Following research that suggests that, in certain circumstances, the market values noninnovative investments as well as innovative investments in new products, we partition electronic commerce investment project announcements into innovative and noninnovative to determine whether there are excess returns associated with these types of announcements. Apart from our overall results being consistent with the United States findings that the market values investments in electronic commerce projects, we also find that noninnovative investments are perceived as more valuable to the firm than innovative investments. On average, the market expects innovative investments to earn a return commensurate with their risk. We conclude that innovative electronic commerce projects are most likely seen by the capital market as easily replicable, and consequently have little, if any, competitive advantage period. On the other hand, we conclude from the noninnovative investment results that these types of investments are seen as being compatible with a firm's assets-in-place, in particular, its information technology capabilities, a view consistent with the resource-based view of the firm.