Gregory Theyel and Kay H. Hofmann
This paper aims to investigate the strategic consequences of manufacturing location decisions, with a focus on understanding the link between collocating manufacturing with other…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the strategic consequences of manufacturing location decisions, with a focus on understanding the link between collocating manufacturing with other value chain activities, via reshoring or retaining and organizational agility.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses qualitative data from 115 interviews with executives from UK high value manufacturing companies to explore the recent phenomenon of reshoring and the strategic effects of manufacturing location.
Findings
The location of manufacturing is operationally and strategically important for multinational companies. The spatial dispersion of manufacturing is determined by firm-specific and external factors, both of which are subject to constant change. The analysis shows that concentrating on manufacturing in their home countries enables firms to increase organizational agility and stimulate innovation. Better integration with and more extensive collaboration between related value chain activities, such as research and development, sales and marketing, leads to higher flexibility, speed and responsiveness to customer requirements. However, under certain conditions, firms also continue to benefit from the known advantages of offshoring.
Originality/value
This research sheds light on possible strategic downsides of global value chains, characterized by dispersed activities and intermitted processes. The results provide evidence that retaining manufacturing or bringing back manufacturing operations to a company’s home country can increase organizational flexibility, speed, adaptability, innovativeness and responsiveness to customer requirements. As these capabilities are critical for long-term survival, especially in dynamic environments, firms need to review their global factory configurations and determine whether the short-term advantages of foreign locations continue to justify offshoring practices.
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Gregory Theyel and Kay H. Hofmann
The purpose of this paper is to describe the adoption of environmental management and collaboration practices by US small and medium-sized manufacturers and explore whether there…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the adoption of environmental management and collaboration practices by US small and medium-sized manufacturers and explore whether there are discernible differences in product and process innovation that can be explained by differences in their adoption.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses descriptive statistics and probit regression analysis of survey data from 295 small and medium-sized US manufacturers in seven industries.
Findings
There are significant industrial sector differences in the adoption of environmental management and collaboration practices, larger and older companies are more advanced in their adoption of these practices, and companies adopting these practices are outperforming their competitors in terms of product and process innovation.
Originality/value
This research assesses US industry sector differences among small and medium-sized manufacturers in the adoption of environmental management and collaboration practices and differences in product and process innovation linked to this adoption.
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Gregory Theyel and Kay Hofmann
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption of sustainability practices by small and medium‐sized manufacturing (SMM) firms, the ways these firms work with their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption of sustainability practices by small and medium‐sized manufacturing (SMM) firms, the ways these firms work with their stakeholders for social and environmental purposes, and the relationships between the adoption of sustainability practices, stakeholder interaction, and product and process innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses data from telephone interviews with 296 companies, a sustainability typology, and descriptive and statistical regression analysis.
Findings
The majority of the firms are adopting sustainability practices at least to some degree, stakeholders such as community advocacy groups, employees, suppliers, customers, and the local media are influencing the adoption of sustainability practices, and firms with high adoption rates of environmental practices are more successful in product and process innovation.
Practical implications
The results of this research can help firms and stakeholder groups with their joint efforts to develop sustainability strategies. Community advocacy groups, employees, suppliers, customers, and the local media are capable of motivating firms to give something back to the communities in which they conduct their business.
Originality/value
This paper contributes new understanding of the adoption of sustainability practices by SMM firms, the ways these firms work with their stakeholders for social and environmental purposes, and the relationships between the adoption of sustainability practices, stakeholder interaction, and product and process innovation.
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Gregory Theyel, Nelli Theyel and Elizabeth Garnsey
The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for helping inventors and start‐ups identify and acquire the technical, market, financial, and human resources they need if…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for helping inventors and start‐ups identify and acquire the technical, market, financial, and human resources they need if they are to create and grow new ventures that can realise market opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
The method for this paper is a case study of a non‐profit company and four of its business clients.
Findings
The paper finds that a resource assessment framework has proven effective for assisting early stage ventures when it is combined with helping them to identify business opportunities and to improve their resource position in order to exploit these opportunities.
Originality/value
This research contributes to theory and practice by highlighting the value of creative coupling of resources and opportunities for entrepreneurs and by demonstrating a novel and effective framework customized for the needs of new emerging technology ventures.
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This paper explores whether there are discernible differences in the environmental innovation and performance of US chemical firms that can be explained by differences in the…
Abstract
This paper explores whether there are discernible differences in the environmental innovation and performance of US chemical firms that can be explained by differences in the management practices and characteristics of the firms. Using data from a national survey, firm visits, and phone interviews, this research assesses the pervasiveness of the adoption of environmental management practices. It also assesses whether the adoption of these practices is related to leadership in environmental innovation and performance. This paper shows high levels of adoption of several practices for improving environmental innovation and performance. Firms are using practices such as total quality management, certification of suppliers, R&D, and the involvement of employees in innovation and training to integrate environmental management with their production systems. In addition, firms with the highest adoption levels of environmental practices have substituted cleaner materials and changed their production processes for cleaner production, and they are leaders in reducing their generation of chemical waste.
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This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Abstract
Design
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Findings
Offshoring, bringing operations back into the home nation of multinational enterprises, is becoming the prevailing mode of business, bringing an increased level of agility for the organizations.
Originality
The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.
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Afandi Agusman Aris, Haris Maupa, Mahlia Muis and Muhammad Idrus Tabba
This paper aims to examine and analyze the effects of government policy, quality of human resources and professional institutions on workforce competitiveness using welding…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine and analyze the effects of government policy, quality of human resources and professional institutions on workforce competitiveness using welding technology variable as a mediating variable.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used quantitative research by using partial least square – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the collected data.
Findings
Based on the results of the analysis, it was noted that there was a significant influence between government policy, quality of human resources and professional institutions on welding technology. The coefficients are characterized by a positive direct relationship, which means that the higher the quality of government policy and human resources professionals variables, the higher the value of the institute of welding technology.
Social implications
This study recommends that government should create policies that have benefits to competitiveness of Indonesian workforce. Implications from this study support government to use the model to determine and initiate policies in the field of welding as well as establish clear and standardized operating standards and recruitment process (government apparatus) that can accommodate the competitiveness of welding workers in Indonesia.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper is that the participatory approach was adopted in this study using PLS-SEM. In addition, this study was one of the first studies to carry out research at the BNSP office, BLK-Bandung-Jakarta, Makassar, B4T and dismiss the Ministry of Manpower and the Ministry of Industry in Jakarta, Indonesia, where there was no research in this location. Previous studies conducted research in various case studies.
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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
Organizational agility has cope to strongly impact on performance. Firms can become more agile and innovative by closely integrating production with other activities of their value chain in their home country as opposed to moving manufacturing facilities to overseas sites.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.
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Enrico Baraldi, Francesco Ciabuschi and Luciano Fratocchi
Antibiotics shortages have become an increasingly common problem in Europe because of several reasons, including the offshoring of the production of active pharmaceutical…
Abstract
Purpose
Antibiotics shortages have become an increasingly common problem in Europe because of several reasons, including the offshoring of the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients for many of these products to low production cost countries, such as China and India. The problem has deteriorated because of the Covid-19 crisis that has put most global value chains (GVCs) under great stress. This situation has boosted extensive discussions among academics, practitioners and policymakers on possible changes to the configuration of GVCs. This paper aims to focus specifically on antibiotics supply chains from the perspective of a small country (Sweden), and analyse the pros and cons of backshoring and nearshoring alternatives, as a means to reduce drug shortages.
Design/methodology/approach
This work adopts a systemic perspective to capture the implications of reshoring for the different stakeholders involved in the antibiotics field. The present meso-analysis, focusing at the industry level, is based on multiple sources of primary data collected between 2014 and 2021, including participation in policy-related projects and interviews with over 100 representatives of key stakeholders in the antibiotics field.
Findings
This paper shows how reshoring can address the problems of drug shortages and reduce availability risk in antibiotics’ GVCs. However, the authors show that no simple and best solution exists because both alternatives of reshoring, i.e. backshoring and nearshoring, entail pros and cons for different stakeholders. The authors conclude with implications for policymakers and managers.
Research limitations/implications
The analysis of pros and cons of both backshoring and nearshoring for various stakeholders offers relevant implications for research on operations and supply management, international business and economics/political science.
Originality/value
This paper looks at reshoring as a policy-driven decision and provides an innovative systemic perspective to analyse the implications for different stakeholders of two reshoring options concerning the antibiotics supply chain.
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Ankit Sharma, Suresh Kumar Jakhar, Ilias Vlachos and Satish Kumar
Over the past two decades, the hub location domain has witnessed remarkable growth, yet no prior study reviewed and synthesised problem formulation and solution methodologies to…
Abstract
Purpose
Over the past two decades, the hub location domain has witnessed remarkable growth, yet no prior study reviewed and synthesised problem formulation and solution methodologies to address real-life challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
The current study conducts a comprehensive bibliometric literature review to develop a thematic framework that describes and presents hub location problems. The work employs cluster, bibliometric, and social network analyses to delve into the essential themes.
Findings
Key themes include cooperation, coopetition, sustainability, reshoring, and dynamic demand, contributing to the complex challenges in today’s hub location problems. As the first work in this field, the study serves as a valuable single-source reference, providing scholars and industry practitioners with key insights into the evolution of hub location research, prominent research clusters, influential authors, leading countries, and crucial keywords.
Research limitations/implications
Findings have significant implications since they highlight the current state of hub location research and set the stage for future endeavours. Specifically, by identifying prominent research clusters, scholars can explore promising directions to push the boundaries of knowledge in this area.
Originality/value
This work is a valuable resource for scholars in this domain and offers practical insights for industry practitioners seeking to understand the hub location problems. Overall, the study’s holistic approach provides a solid foundation for advancing future research work in the hub location field.