Increasingly, manufacturers are making radical changes in management practices and investing heavily in advanced technologies as they attempt to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Organizations seeking to implement these changes should have an internal environment that emphasizes knowledge assimilation and sharing and creates continuous learning capability, i.e., absorptive capacity. This study reviews the construct of absorptive capacity, develops a valid and reliable instrument to measure it, and examines its impact on the organization's ability to assimilate innovative manufacturing technology and management practice. To illustrate the links, this study tests the relationships among absorptive capacity, time-based manufacturing practices, and value to customer. Structural equation modeling, applied to a relatively large sample (n = 303), indicates strong, positive, and direct relationships between absorptive capacity and time-based manufacturing practices, and between time-based manufacturing practices and value to customer. The managerial implications of these empirical findings are also discussed. #

The purpose of this paper is to explore the increasingly important economic and business relationship between the People's Republic of China and the countries of Africa. Our focus is on how this partnership manifests itself in investments. The research questions are: first, how has the relationship changed over time and second, from an African perspective has this relationship been beneficial? Finally, how has the recent economic downturn affected their partnership? Our investigation shows that Chinese investment has been motivated by a desire to access critical resources (oil, bauxite, etc.). The Chinese approach was been to downplay political issues (e.g., human rights). Although recipient African nations have received investment inflows, they have come with certain drawbacks. For instance, they have negatively impacted local trade and commerce. Also, in some cases African labor has not benefited from Chinese investment.

The purpose of this research is to review the perceptions of 359 front‐line management personnel as to why their organizations fail to achieve desired results and to draw lessons for organizational practice on how to prevent failure and improve organizational performance. Managers from 30 organizations were asked to rate the impact that 25 different performance factors have on their ability to get desired results. The results of the study identified a variety of people and leadership factors as the primary causes of poor performance, while factors such as technology, finances, and government regulations ranked significantly lower in the rankings.

Presents an initial inquiry into the role of competitive environmental scanning in the internationalization process. Explores specifically the relationship between dimensions of competitive environmental scanning and measures of export market involvement and success. Finds that the results provide strong support for the contention that scanning capabilities must be developed for firms to pursue strategies that will result in a higher degree of export involvement and export success.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -This study seeks to evaluate the importance of new product development cycle time for firms that have a strategy of pursuing exporting as a means of achieving and sustaining competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach -A mail survey utilizing the key informant approach for selecting senior executives of US manufacturing firms was chosen because of the importance of executive involvement in international marketing strategy decisions.Findings -This study supports the argument that faster new product development capability must be augmented for firms striving for a higher degree of export involvement. Additionally, the importance of integrating the marketing, R&D, and engineering functions to develop competitive advantage is highlighted. Research limitations/implications -Results must be interpreted as explorative since the sample was based on US manufacturing firms. Additional research is needed to test differential effects of innovative product and modification/extension cycle time on export involvement and other indicators of performance. Practical implications -This study demonstrates the importance of the resource-based theory of competitive advantage, new product development cycle time as a determinant of export involvement, and competitive advantage for firms which pursue international opportunities. It suggests that product development capabilities are not a critical determining factor of the level of export involvement. The findings show that the ability to develop competitive products faster than competitors is a prerequisite for export involvement. Originality/value -This study suggests that the speed of new product development is a precondition for export involvement and that the new product development cycle time measures were significantly related to the perception of a firm's overall competitive position in global markets.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify relationships among buyer‐supplier trust, joint operational activities, and the degree of mass customization as well as the interactions between cultural factors (i.e. long‐term strategic alignment and autonomy) and trust in the context of supply chain management.Design/methodology/approachThe model of trust is based on joint operational activities and mass customization using theories of social capital and the resource‐based view of the firm. Also, culture‐related antecedents of trust are identified. Based on 208 responses from suppliers in the USA and China, this study uses structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses.FindingsThis study empirically supports the notion that trust positively drives manufacturer‐supplier activities in operations. It also supports the claim that joint operational activities contribute to mass customization capabilities in a significant way. Moreover, two culture‐related antecedents are found to be significantly related to trust.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample is limited to the auto industry in North America and China. As in other supply chain studies, individual respondents may have somewhat limited information about different aspects of their company's supply chain.Practical implicationsIn general, it appears that trust is important in determining mass customization capabilities regardless of culture. For practitioners, long‐term strategic alignment is more important for firms to increase trust than autonomy although both can significantly increase the level of trust between buyer and supplier.Originality/valueLong‐term strategic alignment and autonomy are identified as antecedents of trust and empirically supported.

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This study is an exploratory investigation into the role of new product development practices in the internationalisation process. Specifically, the relationship among five identified new product development practices and three export involvement stages is explored.The analysis of survey data obtained from a national sample of U.S. manufacturing firms provide support for the contention that certain new product development capabilities must exist at all stages of the internationalisation process. The results further support the argument that a subset of new product development capabilities must exist for the firm to pursue strategies that will result in a higher degree of export involvement.