The Effect of Just-in-Time Selling on Organizational Structure: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

The authors test a model of the relationships among environmental uncertainty, just-in-time (JIT) selling, and dimensions of organizational structure. The results show that uncertainty is antecedent to JIT selling and that JIT selling predicts performance control, specialization, and scheduling decentralization. JIT selling is unrelated to face-to face integration and operations decentralization.

Just-in-time selling construct: Definition and measurement

“…While the literature related to JIT is extensive, there are currently only two published papers that specifically discuss and measure the JIT-selling construct Germain et al, 1994). Germain et al (1994) measured the effect of JIT-selling on organizational structure, and incorporated JIT-selling as one of the dimensions of total-system-JIT as they investigated its effect on inventory, organizational Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Industrial Marketing Management 37 (2008) 131 -142 structure and financial performance outcomes.…”

“…Germain et al (1994) measured the effect of JIT-selling on organizational structure, and incorporated JIT-selling as one of the dimensions of total-system-JIT as they investigated its effect on inventory, organizational Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Industrial Marketing Management 37 (2008) 131 -142 structure and financial performance outcomes. A third study by assessed the effects of a similar construct, JIT-with-customers, on organizational structure and performance.…”

“…Two recent studies Germain, Droge, & Daughtery 1994) were identified as the only studies to previously attempt to measure JIT-selling. While Germain et al (1994) do provide a general description of JIT selling, neither they nor provide a formal definition of the construct. Both operationalized JIT-selling with a single, open-ended "percentage of sales made on a JIT basis" question.…”

Dealing with Market Dynamism

“…this includes changes in the composition of global customers and their preferences (Jaworski and Kohli 1993), the volatility in the global business environment (such as changes in competitor moves and product/service offerings), and changes in the production process (Germain et al 1994). the dynamics of the global market and the fast development of emerging markets make it increasingly difficult for multinational suppliers to design and implement their global account strategies worldwide (Montgomery and Yip 2000).…”

“…Specifically, the items were used to assess the mechanisms a supplier can use to integrate its global operations across different country subsidiaries to support global account customers. Market dynamism was a four-item scale adapted from Germain et al (1994) and Jaworski and Kohli (1993) to capture the key changes in the global marketplace, including production process changes, customer needs evolvement, product and service changes, and competitors' actions.…”