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Price has traditionally been the order‐winning criterion for ready‐to‐assemble (RTA) products such as furniture, bicycles, kit models, etc. In order to be able to compete in today’s demanding RTA market, manufacturers must increasingly emphasize quality, not price, as the order‐winning criterion. On the other hand, the order winners for external customers are time‐based – speed of delivery and flexibility. In this paper, we discuss the dimensions of RTA products’ quality. In addition, we discuss changes in business processes, information flow and information technology necessary to effectively improve the competitiveness of RTA manufacturers.

As organizations strive to become more competitive in today’s challenging business environment, global supply chain management (GSCM) infused by information technology (IT) is being offered as a paradigm to achieve dramatic improvements in cost and time. This study examines the critical role played by IT to improve GSCM practices. The paper starts by classifying all the IT related articles dealing with GSCM into four research streams. Next, a practical IT framework that organizations can use for achieving a true GSCM is presented. This is followed by examples of corporations that provide IT solutions for GSCM and of corporations that have benefited from using IT in their GSCM efforts. Finally, conclusions and implications for IT‐related issues pertaining to GSCM are suggested.

Internationalization of the marketplace, global competition, and changes in the business environment have contributed to the noticeable increase in international purchasing. This study examines the similarities and differences in the international purchasing practices of US and Puerto Rico purchasing managers. Based on the responses from the “international supplier survey”, it can be concluded that significant differences do exist. The limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are also suggested.

Ready‐to‐assemble products such as exercise bicycles and furniture have successfully been marketed to customers as a low‐cost alternative to fully assembled ones. Due to the difficulty of assembling the newer and complex products that are currently in demand, recent surveys suggest that a low‐cost strategy alone is inadequate to satisfy, let alone exceed, customer expectations. Research has shown that assembly time could be reduced if parts are grouped appropriately. Providing a grouping methodology for simplifying the assembly process for customers, without hampering the low‐cost manufacturing objective, is the aim of the research. Methodology, which is easy to implement on a computer, is significant due to the practicality of the problem in a fast‐growing industry.

To succeed in today’s global marketplace, organizations are looking at streamlining their supply chain through the successful deployment of information technology. This paper, by means of a case study, discusses how a manufacturing company implemented a transportation planning and optimization system to enhance their downstream supply chain operations. The application development framework is used to analyze the implementation process. The findings of this case study will benefit companies seeking to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace through advanced physical distribution capabilities.

The QS 9000 quality system was developed in the United States in 1994 by a team consisting of representatives of General Motors, Ford, and Daimler‐Chrysler as well as the US truck manufacturers. The objective of the system is to standardize the quality system requirements and documentation developed and maintained by US auto‐motive suppliers. In this paper we review the philosophy and the structure of QS 9000 automotive quality standards and examine the relationship between ISO 9001, QS 9000 and TQM. We also analyze the costs and benefits from quality system certification and present practical experiences of selected US automotive suppliers related to the development and implementation of ISO 9001 and QS 9000 requirements.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of research and development (R&D) tax credit scheme on participating firm’s R&D expenditure in Indian manufacturing firms.

Tobit model is used to estimate the impact of R&D tax credit scheme on R&D expenditure.

The results suggest that there is a positive and significant effect of R&D tax incentive scheme on R&D. The introduction of the R&D tax credit scheme and the policy amendment are positively influencing R&D investment of the participating firms. However, industry-specific results suggest that these positive results are mainly driven by electronic and pharmaceutical industries. The study reveals that import of technology, import of raw materials, competition, profitability, age and leverage position of the firm also positively influence the R&D intensity of the firm.

The study is limited to the listed manufacturing firms in India.

The study evaluates the innovation policy to help the policymakers in designing an effective policy.

The paper provides evidence on the impact of R&D tax incentive scheme on firm innovation to explain the factors that contribute to the R&D expenditure of the participating firms. It also summarises the effectiveness of tax incentive scheme on different industry groups and firm size.

This is the most readable and rewarding book that has yet been written on library history. The second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth have seen almost the whole development of libraries from what may be called the age of the primitives to the present day, which will doubtless in its turn come to be regarded as near‐primitive. And nowhere, not even perhaps in the British Museum, has the contrast between 1845 and 1945 been more striking than in the Bodleian.

The aim of this publication is to list the catalogues of the Department of Manuscripts which are in regular use. Catalogues which have been superseded by later publications are not normally included, since whatever their historical or bibliographical interest they are no longer everyday working tools. To save space in cross‐reference, the catalogues, etc., here listed have been numbered serially in Clarendon type, thus: 31. This numeration has no other significance.

Medievalists have such reason to be grateful to the makers of manuscript catalogues in the last half century that any criticism of the products of their labours must inevitably sound ungracious. M. l'Abbé Leroquais may deny that the cataloguer, engaged on work ‘so varied and rich in surprises’, needs our pity, but he is, after all, speaking of France, where such work is sponsored by the State. The British cataloguer, frequently prompted only by his own urge, defraying often the expenses of his visits to the collections, hampered by shortness of time and lack of funds both for the work and for publication, must be revered as a pioneer. He ploughs a lone furrow, frequently self‐taught.