Manufacturing Investment Research Articles

Research on Pricing and Coordination Strategy of a Sustainable Green Supply Chain with a Capital‐Constrained Retailer

With the gradual deepening of environmental problems and the increase in consumer awareness of environmental protection, many enterprises have already begun to pay attention to green supply chain management. However, the price of green products is higher than that of nongreen products, which is an enormous challenge for many small‐ or medium‐sized enterprises. To study the pricing and coordination of green supply chains under capital constraints, a model consisting of a manufacturer and a capital‐constrained retailer is established; the manufacturer invests in green products and provides a deferred payment contract. Setting the situation without capital constraints as a benchmark, this study explores the impact of the retailer’s capital constraints on the manufacturer’s product greenness design; an interesting result shows that deferred payment can help encourage the retailer to order more products and improve the profit of the manufacturer and the efficiency of the entire supply chain as well as the product’s greenness level simultaneously. However, the profit of the retailer will be hurt by the deferred payment contract. Therefore, to guarantee the profit of the entire channel and to make the two agents obtain a win‐win outcome, a new two‐way revenue‐sharing contract is designed to coordinate the green supply chain.

What Drives Aggregate Investment?: Evidence from German Survey Data

The ifo Investment Survey asks firms in the German manufacturing sector about the importance of sales, technological factors, finance, return expectations, and macroeconomic policy for their investment activity in a given year. We show that these subjective investment determinants 1) capture economically what their labels suggest, and 2) have strong explanatory power for aggregate manufacturing investment growth fluctuations. In a second step, we use these determinants to identify aggregate demand and aggregate technology shocks and argue that the bulk of the variance of both aggregate manufacturing investment and output growth fluctuations (as much as approximately two thirds in both cases) is explained by aggregate demand shocks. Consistent with neoclassical views, however, technological factors are the most important investment determinant on average.

A study of cooperative advertising in a one-manufacturer two-retailer supply chain based on the multi-stage dynamic game theory

In this paper, the coordination of cooperative advertising decisions is analysed in a supply chain with one manufacturer and two retailers. Suppose the manufacturer invests in national advertising and one retailer invests in local advertising, the manufacturer agrees to share part of the local advertising cost with the retailer. Meanwhile, the other retailer refuses to take part in cooperative advertising. The manufacturer and retailer who put investment in cooperative advertising could choose cooperative or non-cooperative attitude, but the other retailer always chooses non-cooperative attitude. We select four decision variables including local advertising effort, two retailers' marginal profits, and price of product to discuss seven three-stage dynamic game models according to the parties' attitudes being cooperative or not. Seven game models, including one non-cooperative model, five partial cooperative models and one cooperative model, are investigated in detail based on a whole mathematical analysis. By comparing the proposed seven models, several interesting propositions are obtained and the corresponding interesting results are also acquired via these propositions.

A study of cooperative advertising in a one-manufacturer two-retailer supply chain based on the multi-stage dynamic game theory

In this paper, the coordination of cooperative advertising decisions is analysed in a supply chain with one manufacturer and two retailers. Suppose the manufacturer invests in national advertising and one retailer invests in local advertising, the manufacturer agrees to share part of the local advertising cost with the retailer. Meanwhile, the other retailer refuses to take part in cooperative advertising. The manufacturer and retailer who put investment in cooperative advertising could choose cooperative or non-cooperative attitude, but the other retailer always chooses non-cooperative attitude. We select four decision variables including local advertising effort, two retailers' marginal profits, and price of product to discuss seven three-stage dynamic game models according to the parties' attitudes being cooperative or not. Seven game models, including one non-cooperative model, five partial cooperative models and one cooperative model, are investigated in detail based on a whole mathematical analysis. By comparing the proposed seven models, several interesting propositions are obtained and the corresponding interesting results are also acquired via these propositions.

Industrial output fluctuations in developing countries: General equilibrium consequences of agricultural productivity shocks

This paper shows that a negative shock to agricultural productivity may increase food prices, and labor and capital can move away from manufacturing into agriculture to meet the subsistence requirement for food. This effect depends on income levels and openness to trade. Using annual manufacturing data and rainfall shocks as the instrument for crop yields (proxy for agricultural productivity), I find that an exogenous decline in yield decreases manufacturing output as well as employment and capital investment in manufacturing. Overall, crop yield variation can explain up to 44% of industrial output fluctuations in developing countries (rainfall shocks cause 31% of the fluctuations). Lastly, this paper shows that such perverse phenomena, in which resources move toward the sector with declining productivity, can lead to a significant reduction in aggregate productivity.

Vertical and Horizontal Spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from Malaysian Manufacturing

Given developing countries’ dependence on foreign direct investment (FDI) in manufacturing, it is important to assess the benefits that accompany FDI, given the cost of incentives that are used to attract foreign investments. We empirically analyze FDI spillover effects in Malaysia using unpublished establishment-level data, accounting for domestic firm size, the market orientation of local firms and foreign multinationals, and firm technology level and absorptive capacity. We find weak evidence of horizontal spillovers; backward and forward spillovers are negative in most cases. Because these results raise concerns about the technological capability of local firms, government policies on technology, human resource, education, and R&D should address this.

A study on the relationship between R&D investment and firm performance in manufacture of sports equipment

Purpose In recent years, competition among companies has become more and more important to maximize the competitiveness of companies by improving their productivity through technological innovation. Increasing competitiveness through technological innovation is becoming an essential requirement for survival of companies. In order for companies to innovate, it is necessary to spend R&D investment and the government is strengthening various policy supports to do this. Athletic equipment industry classified as manufacturing industry in sports industry. In this study, considering the fact that manufacturing industry occupies a large part of Korea's R&D investment, we compared R&D intensities with athletic equipment industry and other industries. We also examined whether R&D investment has affected firm performance. Methods The data used in the analysis were extracted from KIS-DATA with KSIC codes of companies classified as sports and athletic goods manufacturing industry in the 9th Korean Standard Industrial Classification of National Statistical Office. The analysis period is five years from 2011 to 2015 to look at the current status. Looking at the number of companies extracted by year, it was 42 in 2011, 45 in 2012, 46 in 2013, 48 in 2014, and 39 in 2015. Results Research showed that the intensity of R&D of athletic equipment industry was 1.22% in 2011, 1.63% in 2012, 1.51% in 2013, 1.53% in 2014 and 1.30% in 2015. This was lower than the manufacturing industry, which was a category of athletic equipment industry, and lower than that of similar small and medium sized enterprises. The correlation between R&D intensities and the sales growth rate of firms showed a positive correlation in 2011 and 2015, but the correlation is not strong. Conclusion R&D investment in athletic equipment industry was not actively taking place, and R&D investment did not have a significant effect on the performance of the company.

Updated North American deal could boost U.S. chemical exports

With talks aimed at revising the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) expected to start soon, chemical manufacturers recently offered advice to the Trump Administration for updating the 23-year-old accord with Canada and Mexico. For chemical manufacturers, capitalizing on the shale gas revolution by securing expanded access to the two largest markets for U.S. chemical exports—Canada and Mexico—is a key goal, said Greg Skelton of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), an industry trade association. In a June 28 testimony before the U.S. Commerce Department’s International Trade Commission, Skelton noted that the U.S. has a large and growing trade surplus in industrial chemicals that stands at $28.2 billion. It is “likely to grow significantly as increased production from more than $185 billion in announced new investment in domestic chemical manufacturing comes on stream,” said Skelton, ACC’s senior director of regulatory and technical affairs. An ACC report estimates that exports of chemicals

Economic and Environmental Performance of Fashion Supply Chain: The Joint Effect of Power Structure and Sustainable Investment

Fashion supply chain members now search for trade-offs between sustainable investment and the related incentives, such as savings on environmental taxes and gains in incremental demands. To evaluate the economic and environmental performance of sustainable investment from a power perspective, we develop an analytical model to study a two-echelon sustainable supply chain consisting of one retailer and one manufacturer with three different power structures. We derive the optimal solutions for various cases associated with different supply chain power structures and sustainable investors. Though it is beneficial for both the manufacturer and retailer to make sustainable investment, they often utilize high power to gain economic benefit with less sustainable investment. Interestingly, the follower with less supply chain power has more incentive to make a sustainable effort to achieve a higher profit. The optimal amount of sustainable investment in the apparel manufacturer investment case is greater than that in the retailer investment case in most scenarios.

Networking China: The Digital Transformation of the Chinese Economy

Networking China: The Digital Transformation of the Chinese Economy

Networking China: The Digital Transformation of the Chinese Economy

Networking China: The Digital Transformation of the Chinese Economy

Spheres of influence and regional policy: The case of Northern Ireland

Official response since the 1960s to Northern Ireland's regional economic problems has consistently stressed the benefits of concentrating manufacturing investment in 'good locations', where growth-centres are to be established. Consideration of the attributes of such 'good locations' from the industrial viewpoint leads to the view that they partly consist of reasonable access to a range of locationally-specific 'factors', whose geographical pattern cannot be altered by government action, other than in the long term. Around these factors 'spheres of influence' can be delimited, identifying areas with relatively high concentrations of industrial firms benefiting from access to them. Further discussion of this concept suggests how the locations of these same location factors can affect the justification for, and success of, any particular growth-centre strategy. Comments in official planning reports in Northern Ireland show that an awareness of such spatial policy constraints exists, but it is only a vague and often inconsistent awareness, reflecting an almost total lack of relevant empirical evidence on the nature of these 'spheres'. This has provided the stimulus for an on-going research project among the province's manufacturers, the nature of which is briefly outlined.

Product safety spillovers and market viability for biologic drugs.

When a pharmaceutical manufacturer experiences a safety problem, negative impacts on profitability can spread to its competitors. Reduced consumer confidence, product recalls, and litigation are limited to the responsible manufacturer only if that manufacturer can be clearly linked to the safety problem. We analyze the impact of "accountability" for safety problems on manufacturer entry decisions and investments to mitigate risk. Consistent with prior research, we find investment levels increase with accountability in a duopoly market, and that accountability can thus enhance market viability and improve consumer welfare. However, we also analyze the impact of accountability on entry of a competitor, after the originator's exclusivity has expired. Accountability promotes the development of a robust market by raising expected profits, particularly for an entrant with a relatively low likelihood of a safety problem. Yet entry need not improve consumer welfare, and may benefit the incumbent in our model. In contrast to the traditional entry deterrence mechanism, when accountability is sufficiently low, increased incumbent investment encourages entry. Our analysis has important implications for biologic drugs, insofar as pathways for entry by "biosimilars" have been established in Europe and the United States, and informs pharmacovigilance and other accountability policies for biologics.

Simulating deep CO2 emission reduction in transport in a general equilibrium framework: The GEM-E3T model

Transport sector restructuring to achieve deep GHG emission cuts has attracted much attention because transportation is important for the economy and inflexible in greenhouse gas emission reduction. The aim of this paper is to simulate transition towards low carbon transportation in the European Union until 2050 and to assess the ensuing macroeconomic and sectorial impacts. Transport restructuring is dynamically simulated using a new transport-oriented version of the computable general equilibrium model GEM-E3 which is linked with the PRIMES-TREMOVE energy and transport sectors model. The analysis draws from comparing a reference scenario projection for the EU member-states up to 2050 to alternative transport policy scenarios and sensitivities which involve deep cutting of CO2 emissions. The simulations show that transport restructuring affects the economy through multiple channels, including investment in infrastructure, the purchasing and manufacturing of new technology vehicles, the production of alternative fuels, such as biofuels and electricity. The analysis identifies positive impacts of industrial activity and other sectors stemming from these activities. However, the implied costs of freight and passenger transportation are of crucial importance for the net impact on GDP and income. Should the transport sector transformation imply high unit costs of transport services, crowding out effects in the economy can offset the benefits. This implies that the technology and productivity progress assumptions can be decisive for the sign of GDP impacts. A robust conclusion is that the transport sector decarbonisation, is likely to have only small negative impacts on the EU GDP compared to business as usual.

Gestão da Inovação para o desenvolvimento sustentável: Comportamento e Reflexões sobre a Indústria Química

Os produtos da indústria química são fornecidos para quase todos os tipos de atividades. Qualquer modificação na composição de determinadas substâncias, visando menor agressão ao ambiente, causará modificações no comportamento de quase toda a cadeia de produção da indústria, e esse resultado será percebido por meio da redução do impacto ambiental. Essa é uma das principais razões que levam as indústrias do setor a se empenharem em desenvolver atividades que visam à sustentabilidade das suas operações, sobretudo no que tange às questões sociais e ambientais. Nesse contexto o estudo buscou analisar o gerenciamento de práticas de inovação orientadas para a sustentabilidade em empresas do setor químico. Para o desenvolvimento do estudo, foram analisadas indústrias instaladas no Brasil, reconhecidas pela adoção de práticas de inovação e comprometidas com o desenvolvimento sustentável. Os dados da pesquisa foram obtidos a partir de entrevistas semiestruturadas com os principais responsáveis pela área de P&D das quatro empresas analisadas e complementados por dados secundários publicados em relatórios de sustentabilidade e websites das companhias. O modelo conceitual utilizado foi adaptado de Hansen, Grosse-Dunker e Reichwald (2009) e pressupõe que a gestão da inovação sustentável ocorre a partir da incorporação de cinco dimensões de análise: integração do critério da sustentabilidade; integração de stakeholders e usuários; ampliação do sistema de produto-serviço; marketing da sustentabilidade direcionado para a inovação sustentável e sensibilização no contexto da sustentabilidade. As análises dos dados obtidos evidenciaram que as empresas possuem investimentos em ecoeficiência no sistema produtivo, integrando os critérios da sustentabilidade no desenvolvimento dos processos e produtos agregando valor ao produto e processo. A gestão de parcerias com stakeholders para geração de tecnologia, investimentos em produtos com apelo socioecológico e a conscientização, por parte das lideranças, da importância da sustentabilidade nas operações e produtos da empresa também fazem parte dos principais resultados encontrados. Entretanto, cabe salientar que uma estratégia pouco explorada pelas empresas incide na inclusão da gestão sustentável sob a forma de ampliação do sistema de produto-serviço que poderia implicar em novos tipos de relacionamento entre stakeholders e parceiros, agregando valor ao produto.

Do Strategic Motives Affect Ownership Mode of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in Emerging African Markets? Evidence from Ghana

The objective of this study is to examine the influence of ownership, location, and internalization‐specific factors, as well as strategic motives on ownership choice of foreign subsidiaries in Ghana. The authors use a quantitative methodology in order to statistically explore the relationships between dependent and independent variables by using the logistic regression model. The analysis was based on 115 manufacturing investments made by multinational corporations (MNCs) from different countries in 1994–2013. The results indicate that contractual risk leads to the choice of whollymowned subsidiary while cultural distance and country risk lead to the choice of the joint venture. In the case of the motives, efficiency‐seeking and resource‐seeking FDIs lead to the choice of the joint venture. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Leveraging Available Resources: A Small Business Perspective on Collaboration and Commercialization

In a small company working on electrochemical technologies, access to external resources (researchers, equipment, grants) can be a deciding factor in bridging from innovative concepts to demonstration and implementation. Often small companies need to hire more generalists than specialists, since employees need to be able to cover multiple roles, but the result is a reduced ability to analyze parameters in depth. Chararacterization equipment is also often limited. In addition, electrochemical technologies often take several years to get from proof of concept to product, due to the manufacturing complexities and safety requirements of electrodes. Strategies to stretch internal resources are therefore needed for success. Proton OnSite has been highly effective in developing technology roadmaps, collaborations, and project portfolios that support our business and advance our core technologies, while providing opportunities for future growth. The company has also been successful in finding niche applications to drive product development at increasing scale, which spreads out the required investment in manufacturing. In this talk, Proton’s product evolution will be discussed, as well as external collaborations with national labs, universities, and other companies that have driven specific component advancements. Specific case studies will be discussed. Another challenge in technology development is obtaining external support, within the constantly changing landscape of favored technologies and policies. A strategy that Proton has leveraged is to look for synergistic technologies that both expand our technology portfolio and can feed elements back to our core products. Examples of technologies which complement our core business in hydrogen generation from PEM electrolysis will also be discussed.

Fixed Capital Investment in Q1 2016

In January–March 2016, fixed capital investment stood at 95.2% in real terms, including in the segment of large and medium enterprises to the tune of 98.5% against the corresponding period of the previous year. The share of own capital posted an upward trend in the structure of sources, which are financing fixed capital investments. Investments in the mining and quarrying sector went up by 7.1% and positively affected the investment movements of large enterprises in Q1 2016. Contraction of investment in manufacturing by 5.8% in Q1 2016 against the corresponding period of the previous year was accompanied by an unprecedented activity in the machine-building complex.

An analysis of manufacturing-service industry co-evolution: A spiral growth model

In recent years, investment in manufacturing has been rapidly growing again. This 2nd renaissance of manufacturing became even more evident when we consider the rapid growth of startups with new technologies, which integrate hardware and software, leading to the new manufacturing trend. Looking at the history of human civilization, we can easily sight both the changes in-and the integration of-manufacturing and service sectors, which represent the material and relational aspects of the society, respectively. While many researches on the growth of manufacturing and service industry often focus on various aspects of manufacturing and service integration including servitization of manufacturing and vice versa, there is a common belief that the spiral growth of manufacturing and service has to be preceded by the integration. Based on the previous researches, this research suggests a spiral growth model of manufacturing and service industry as a research framework on further industry development directions, and suggests future direction of further researches.

Country-level investigation of innovation investment in manufacturing: Paired fsQCA of two models

Innovation plays a critical role in economic growth. This study analyzes the association between actually implementing innovation and its antecedents, considering a country-level dataset covering innovation-active manufacturing firms in 47 countries. The relationship this article considers is between different drivers of innovation and market preparation for innovation. The study investigates this relationship through fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). The study examines the consideration of different sets of condition variables, identifies the importance of individual variables across causal recipes, and provides understanding of variations in the drivers towards market introduction of innovation between sets of countries. This study also provides an example of the effect on causal recipes in fsQCA when including/excluding a condition variable.