Mechanical Engineering Firms Research Articles

Exploring the barriers and drivers of ESG in the German Mittelstand: A qualitative analysis of mechanical and plant engineering companies

AbstractThis qualitative study investigates the adoption of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) among German Mittelstand mechanical and plant engineering firms. Through semi‐structured interviews, the research identifies key barriers to ESG implementation, including human resource challenges, conceptual ambiguity, legal complexities, standardization gaps and rapid implementation pressures. Simultaneously, it uncovers driving forces such as customer demands, talent attraction, rating agency influence, intrinsic motivation, executive commitment, and regulatory compliance. Notably, profit and loss (P&L) impact emerge as a dual force, influencing both barriers and drivers. The study proposes a best practice model featuring clear responsibilities, centralization, and ESG integration in processes. Additional recommendations include developing a business case for ESG, engaging in industry‐specific networks, and aligning with prominent rating agencies. This research offers strategic insights for sustainable business practices within the Mittelstand context. It presents implications for governments and businesses, suggesting targeted policies to mitigate barriers and reinforce drivers of ESG adoption.

Comparative Evaluation of the Drive to Defend of Employees in Mechanical Engineering Firms Between Respondents

Objective: The purpose of the study was to assess the motivation level of the employees in mechanical engineering firms in Hanoi, Vietnam, and conduct a comparative evaluation of how the employees perceived work motivation, which can contribute to improving work motivation in employee service leadership. Method: To achieve the research objectives, a systematic research design is employed, utilizing survey methods as the primary data collection tool. A sample of 190 employees from mechanical engineering firms in Hanoi was selected for participation. The survey encompasses questions designed to gather information about the drive to defend employees. This quantitative approach allows for the collection of structured data that can be statistically analyzed to uncover trends. Results: The study's results indicate that there is no difference in assessing the drive to defend of employees in mechanical engineering firms in Hanoi between different subjects in terms of gender, academic standards, job position, career seniority, and age. Conclusions: The study is grounded in the theoretical framework of human resource management. Additionally, the study incorporates concepts related to human resources within the firm sector. Based on this result, the study proposes some recommendations for mechanical engineering firms in Hanoi and employees. The value of this research lies in guiding mechanical engineering firms in Hanoi to enhance human resource management for improved performance and innovation.

Internal branding and job satisfaction: Investigating the roles of brand individuality and personality–brand fit

The internal effects of branding are a topic that is rarely investigated within a business-to-business context. This paper illustrates and validates a conceptual model that connects mechanisms of internal branding to job satisfaction. Additionally, it broadens the understanding of internal branding by investigating the impacts of brand individuality and personality brand fit in an intra-organizational context. By applying PLS-SEM on a survey of employees in mechanical engineering firms located in Germany, this paper shows that the employer's brand influences employees' job satisfaction. It confirms mechanisms that help to explain the building of brand knowledge by employees and links this knowledge to the affective evaluation of both the employment and the employer's brand. In particular, the role of brand individuality and personality–brand fit is examined in more detail. This paper shows that the design of the employer's brand can be an instrument that enables firms to achieve higher job satisfaction.

Occupation-specific recruitment: An empirical investigation on job seekers' occupational (non-)fit, employer image, and employer attractiveness.

Organizations may need to attract occupational groups they did not recruit so far to implement strategic changes (e.g., digital transformation). Against the backdrop of this practical problem, this study introduces and explores an occupation-based measure of person-organization fit: occupational fit. I investigate its relationship with employer attractiveness based on human capital theory and explore the role of employer image as a moderator in this relationship. I surveyed 153 software engineers and mechanical engineers to analyze whether their occupational fit with software engineering and mechanical engineering firms is related to employer attractiveness. I find that occupational fit is only related to a firm’s employer attractiveness among software engineers. Employer image does not moderate this relationship. A qualitative follow-up study proposes first explanations for the unexpected differences between the two occupations by indicating that occupations may differ in the logic they apply to determine fit and their degree of professionalization. The study contributes to research by highlighting the neglected role of occupation in recruitment research and exploring potential boundary conditions of recruitment for fit. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Skills and employment under automation: Active adaptation at the local level

Context: The article contributes to a discussion of how patterns of employment and qualifications are modified by the ongoing industrial transformation, called Industry 4.0. Although this transformation is said to be a global phenomenon, scholars increasingly discuss the national differences in the wake of Industry 4.0. Our article aims to intervene in this debate by analysing the industrial transformation of a small island situated at the West coast of Norway. We notably investigate the technological renewal by means of Computerised Numeric Control (CNC) and robotics in a network of mechanical firms. Approach: Nine small mechanical engineering firms are analysed by drawing on theories on business networks and clustering of firms. This allows for a discussion of how automation, employment, staff training and profitability are interconnected. The main research question is how the firms are locally embedded in a way that sheds light on the social dimension of vocational training, which is considered a form of Corporate Social Responsibility. Findings: It is informative to use the heuristic concept ‘pre-cluster agglomeration’ to characterise how the nine firms under scrutiny are interacting, while being assisted by a forward-looking industrial association and supported by an active local community. The municipality and the county to which this agglomeration belongs, provide training services and other infrastructures that support the firms when they recruit new employees and upskill their staff, - notably by setting up a CNC training centre attached to an upper secondary school. Conclusion: Our case does not support off-the-shelf narratives of robotisation implies job cuts. In the same way as previous technological transformations were not solely driven by their inherent technical opportunities, the ongoing robotisation is nuanced by the social shaping of technology. There is room for strategic choices when new technology is integrated in work organisations. The extent to which the workforce should be (re-)trained is subject to decisions and negotiations.

Incubation matters: Measuring the effect of business incubators on the innovation performance of start‐ups

This article explores the role of business incubators on the innovation performance of start‐ups; in addition, we also investigate how the incubation effect moderates other important factors driving their innovation performance. The empirical evidence comes from a sample of firms located in Northern Italy belonging to the manufacturing (mechanical engineering firms) and service sectors (knowledge‐intensive business services). The results suggest that the incubation effect is very important in shaping the innovation performance of new ventures (measured as a percentage of sales of new‐to‐market innovations). Moreover, it positively moderates the impact of (1) the internal technical capabilities and (2) the adoption of a limited portfolio of collaborations for innovation.

Understanding the Effect of Strategic Orientation on Innovativeness: Employee-Level Factors

In this study, we present a comprehensive theoretical framework of how organizational strategic orientation translates into innovativeness. In particular, we draw from social learning theory to propose that an organization’s strategic orientation provokes among its employees a perception of collective engagement, which encourages employees to donate and collect knowledge, ultimately enhancing organizational innovativeness. We empirically test this theoretical framework in a multi-level analysis of 188 executives and lower-level employees from a pool of 62 mechanical engineering firms. Our findings provide evidence for our proposed model. Specifically, we find that the extent to which organizations follow a clear and unambiguous strategic orientation is positively related to collective employee engagement, which fosters both individual knowledge collection and donation. Moreover, we find that employees’ knowledge collection but surprisingly not employees’ knowledge donation is what drives organizational innovativeness. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Governance of open innovation networks with national vs international scope

PurposeThe realisation of joint innovation outcomes in open innovation networks is closely related to an efficient utilisation of governance mechanisms, which coordinate joint processes (e.g. knowledge sharing) and eliminate undesired behaviours (e.g. opportunism). Hence, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the complex effects of multiple governance approaches on outcomes of open innovation networks with a national and an international scope.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on a large-scale survey-based study of 100 mechanical engineering firms involved in open innovation networks. Hypotheses are tested by means of PLS structural equation modelling.FindingsThe evidence shows that the three governance mechanisms: transactional governance, relational governance and institutionalised governance significantly foster innovation outcomes of open innovation networks. In national open innovation networks, only relational governance exerts positive effects, internationally transactional and institutionalised governance is necessary.Research limitations/implicationsThe study contributes to research in multiple ways. First, it shows that governance of open innovation networks is crucial for their innovation performance, thereby providing some explanations for the performance differences between certain networks. Second, the results indicate that the effects of governance mechanisms depend on the scope of the network. By showing that the effect of governance mechanisms varies under different contextual conditions the study also contributes to the ongoing debate on combined effects of governance mechanisms.Originality/valueThe paper fills important gaps in the existing research on the link between governance and performance in open innovation networks and delineates interesting areas for further research.

Communicating Competency in References: A Qualitative Analysis of the Utilization of References in Mechanical Engineering

Purpose: The authors focused on the one-way, impersonal communication from a supplier to its potential customers via the reference pages on firm websites. To date, actual reference descriptions from supplier websites have only been examined by Jalkala and Salminen (2009). Extending Jalkala and Salminen's research approach, the authors additionally concentrated on the intended effects on potential customers by interviewing firm representatives. Approach: The study drew on qualitative research and had several goals. First, the authors explained the relevance of references to suppliers and (potential) customers by referring to transaction cost theory and correspondent inference theory. Second, based on empirical data from German mechanical engineering firms, they extracted different modes of presentation and the content schemes embedded therein by performing a content analysis. In addition, semistructured interviews with firm representatives were conducted to gain insights into the assumed effects of references. Third, based on the collected data, they established research propositions that incorporate prominent features of the reference descriptions and the assumed effects on customers. Findings: Suppliers mostly presented themselves as having high technological expertise. Product-related services appeared to be primarily stated as additional benefits that are linked to technological selling arguments. Findings suggest a positive impact of references on perceived supplier's competencies, when positive relationships with customers, a high number of references, industry-specific reference descriptions, or international references are presented on the firm's website. Same counts for the presence of large and prestigious customers on reference lists as well as for the presentation of more products from the downstream stages and the emphasis on customer benefits. Finally, the authors contrasted the results of the study with those of other recent studies and examined the implications for future research. The managerial implications of this research were discussed with respect to the design of references on the Internet and to reference behavior in general.

La meccanica strumentale in Germania e Italia: due modelli a confronto

Germany and Italy are the only two developed countries to retain high levels of specialization in mechanical engineering, and both play a leadership role in the international markets. Based on the empirical evidence produced by an analysis of the financial statements of a sample of Italian and German mechanical engineering firms in the 2007-2009 period, the paper identifies the key trends shared by the two countries and highlights the main differences. In fact, compared with Italy, Germany has more large firms and a sectoral innovation system, although the analysis points out many other significant differences, in particular, the average size of the companies and their levels of profitability. While this latter probably is due to structural differences, the country effect should not be disregarded and, in the case of Italian firms, it probably depends on the reluctance of the banking system to provide adequate financial support, on the lack of a sectoral innovation system, and on longer payment terms.

Innovation and export activities in the German mechanical engineering sector: an application of testing restrictions in production analysis

Since Solow (Q J Econ 70:65–94, 1956) the economic literature has widely accepted innovation and technological progress as the central drivers of long-term economic growth. From the microeconomic perspective, this has led to the idea that the growth effects on the macroeconomic level should be reflected in greater competitiveness of the firms. Although innovation effort does not always translate into greater competitiveness, it is recognized that innovation is, in an appropriate sense, unique and differs from other inputs like labor or capital. Nonetheless, often this uniqueness is left unspecified. We analyze two arguments rendering innovation special, the first related to partly non-discretionary innovation input levels and the second to the induced increase in the firm’s competitiveness on the global market. Methodologically the analysis is based on restriction tests in non-parametric frontier models, where we use and extend tests proposed by Simar and Wilson (Commun Stat Simul Comput 30(1):159–184, 2001; J Prod Anal, forthcoming, 2010). The empirical data is taken from the German Community Innovation Survey 2007 (CIS 2007), where we focus on mechanical engineering firms. Our results are consistent with the explanation of the firms’ inability to freely choose the level of innovation inputs. However, we do not find significant evidence that increased innovation activities correspond to an increase in the ability to serve the global market.

Lead-using or lead-refusing? An examination of customer integration in mechanical engineering firms

The significance of lead users as an important source for innovating new products or services is commonly acknowledged. Conventional accounts frequently elaborate upon ways to improve lead user integration with regard to opening up new avenues for further collaboration. Against this background, this study concentrates on qualitative data from the field of mechanical engineering and suggests that companies often deliberately refuse to engage with lead users. This unanticipated finding thwarts the supremacy of an uncritical integration of lead users and indicates that the extent to which lead users are integrated depends upon the nature of the product and the particularities of the relationship between the company and the respective lead user. The article concludes with a discussion, critical reflection and suggestions for future research.

The economic consequences of ISO 9000 Certification in East and West German firms in mechanical engineering indusry

A central argument of new institutionalism is that organizational success depends not only on efficient coordination and control of productive activities, but on conforming to institutionalized expectations. There is a dearth of empirical studies which analyze the effects of the adoption of institutionalized elements. In our study, we examine the effect of ISO 9000 certification on resource inflow of German mechanical engineering firms. Our findings suggest that organizations are actually rewarded for complying with institutionalized expectations and implementing ISO 9000 standards. Our findings also show that the readiness to comply with institutionalized norms led to different economic consequences in East and West Germany. Ein Kernargument der neoinstitutionalistischen Organisationstheorie besagt, dass der Erfolg einer Organisation nicht nur von der effektiven Steuerung der Arbeitsaktivitaten abhangt, sondern auch von der Organisation institutionalisierten Erwartungen genugt. Nur wenige Studien liegen bislang vor, in denen die Auswirkungen der Ubernahme institutionalisierter Strukturelemente untersucht wurden. In der vorliegenden Arbeit analysieren wir die Auswirkungen einer ISO 9000-Zertifizierung auf den Ressourcenzufluss von Unternehmen in der deutschen Maschinenbauindustrie. Unsere Befunde zeigen, dass Organisationen, die den institutionalisierten Erwartungen entsprechen und ein Qualitatsmanagementsystem gemas der ISO 9000er Normen ubernehmen, belohnt werden. Unsere Befunde zeigen auch, dass die Bereitschaft, sich institutionalisierten Erwartungen zu fugen, unterschiedliche Auswirkungen bei ost- und westdeutschen Unternehmen hat.

Product-related Services: Operator Models in German Mechanical Engineering Firms

Product-related Services: Operator Models in German Mechanical Engineering Firms

Environmental policy and the small firm in Japan: comparisons with the Netherlands

This article explores how environmental policy arrangements influence the attitudes and behaviour of small firm owners. The findings are presented from a qualitative study exploring the influence of national governance structures on the environmental practices of restaurant and mechanical engineering firms in Japan. A comparison is made with the Dutch environmental policy context to illustrate how structural factors can crucially influence the individual responses of small firm owner-managers to environmental pressures. The political enfranchisement of Dutch small firms and their participation in ‘target group’ policy consultations appears to have been a key factor contributing to their engagement with environmental initiatives. The paper concludes by suggesting the need for a more participatory institutional structure in Japan in order to encourage the ‘greening’ of the small firm sector.

Management Training and Networking in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Three European Regions: Implications for Business Support

The authors aim to develop a better understanding of small-business owners' attitudes towards, and experiences of, management training through a study of small mechanical engineering firms and key support providers in three European regions: Stuttgart (Germany), Aarhus (Denmark), and South London (England). Important differences between the three regions in support networks are highlighted. The limited networking between small-business owners and training providers in South London is explained by a lack of embeddedness of UK small engineering firms in the institutional framework supporting business. The absence of a critical mass of engineering businesses, the limited experiences of business owners and the weak business-support network in South London are mutually reinforcing and perpetuate the isolation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from external training providers. Drawing on experience in Stuttgart and Aarhus, some policy proposals are offered which are aimed at increasing the take-up of management training by UK SMEs.

The consideration of production aspects during product design stages

Reports on research based on the results of a survey of design management in the UK mechanical engineering industry. Considers the issue of which aspects of production were considered in the design of products and when. Demonstrates that at the prototype stage production aspects became the most important. This shows that the manufacturability of the product is not considered until after it has been designed. Concludes that the effective and efficient manufacture of the product is not given sufficient attention by mechanical engineering firms. Also investigates the involvement of production personnel in the design process. Finds that production engineering was more extensively involved in the design process the closer it moved towards manufacture. Points to further research which hopes to address this lack by providing practical tools for the application of concurrent engineering.

Regional Variations in the Adoption of Computer-Numerically-Controlled Machine Tools by Small Engineering Firms: A Multivariate Analysis

In this paper those factors that influence the adoption of computer-numerically-controlled (CNC) machine tools by small mechanical engineering firms in three regions: the South East of England, Scotland, and Wales are investigated. Evidence is presented on CNC machine adoption in the three regions. A logistic regression model of the probability of CNC lathe adoption is developed and a regression model of the data of first adoption is calibrated. Welsh firms recorded lower adoption probabilities than firms based in either South East England or Scotland; and Scottish companies adopted some two years earlier than companies in the other two regions.

The Regional Extent of Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) Machine Tool Adoption and Post Adoption Success in Small British Mechanical Engineering Firms

OAKEY R. P. and O'FARRELL P. N. (1992) The regional extent of computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine tool adoption and post-adoption success in small British mechanical engineering firms, Reg. Studies 26, 163–175. Several recent papers have been concerned with the regional level and rates of computer numerically controlled (CNC) machinery diffusion. This paper, however, investigates regional variations in the depth of CNC adoption in small mechanical engineering firms, both in terms of the numbers and types of CNC machine adopted, and the post-adoption problems created by such acquisitions. This approach is based on the principle that adoption is a necessary but not sufficient requirement for the successful introduction of CNC machinery into small firms. Evidence in this paper on the role of government assistance in prompting CNC machinery adoption stimulates concluding comments on the value of regional incentives in ensuring more equitable rates of technological change throughout Britain. OAKEY R....

SMALL FIRMS: THE TRAINING PROBLEM

In an update to an article in Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 21 No. 2, 1989, the problem of training within small firms is reconsidered. The results of data collected during 1988‐1990 from a survey of small mechanical and electrical engineering firms in the Solent region reflect the firms′ attitudes towards training. The lack or low level of any kind of training is emphasised and it is concluded that persistent neglect of this area reduces firms′ abilities to compete with other larger organisations and could be severely detrimental as 1992 approaches.