Total Labor Costs Research Articles

PRODUCTION OF MEAGRE IN EARTHEN PONDS

The present study investigated the effect of rearing the meagre, Argyrosomus regius in brackish-water pond aquaculture without using supplementary feeding in the Mediterranean area near Damietta City during June, 2017 to June, 2018, Fingerlings of mean length 13.0cm and 40.0 g weight were stocked in brackish-water pond measuring 1 feddan and 1.25 m deep at a rate of 4000 fish/ feddan in a monoculture system on natural occurring prey (natural spawned tilapia) and small shrimp. Temperature varied from 21.0 – 30.8°C; pH, 7.4– 8.9; Dissolved Oxygen (DO), 4.0 – 5.0 mg /L and salinity, 16.0 – 18.8 ppt during the study. Meagre, attained average final length 40 cm/ fish and average final weight 1500g / fish at harvest with an increment of 1460.0g/ fish and a daily gain of 4.0g/ fish. Average survival rate was 80% and net production was 4640.0kg/ feddan. The results revealed that the cost of feeds accounted for the largest proportion (68.55%) of the total cost of fish production,then fingerlings (8.56%), rent (3.35%) and labor (12.60%). This is followed by cost of fixed input and variable coast (12%). This experiment demonstrated the possibility of cultivation of A. regius as well as the higher commercial value where better net return (54.48 LE /feddan) was recorded with investment return of 23.33 LE / return LE cost. The results of the study indicated meagre as a promising candidate for the brackish water pond aquaculture.

Parity funding of health care contributions in Germany: A DSGE perspective

AbstractGermany reintroduced parity funding of the statutory health insurance scheme in January 2019 by lowering the contribution rates for employees and raising those for employers, leaving the total rate constant. This reduces the tax wedge between total labour costs and net wages. After a small demand impulse on impact, followed by a small downturn in the first two years after implementation, an estimated New Keynesian DSGE model indicates small positive long-run output and employment effects. However, the reduced tax wedge leads to lower public revenues. Aggregate macroeconomic and welfare effects will depend on how the government compensates for these revenue losses.

Integrated imperfect multimission selective maintenance and repairpersons assignment problem

This paper presents a new variant of the selective maintenance problem (SMP) to jointly optimize the maintenance planning and resource allocation problems for multiple missions. The classical SMP deals with components and maintenance level selection with the aim of maximizing the system reliability given limited budget and break duration. Of the few papers dealing with the multimission SMP, none addresses the repairperson assignment problem. This work develops an SMP model for jointly optimizing maintenance and assignment decisions in a system running multiple missions. The resulting SMP addresses five joint decisions: selection of components to maintain, selection of maintenance levels performed on the selected components, identification of breaks where maintenance tasks are performed, repairpersons selection, and maintenance tasks assignment to selected repairpersons. The objective is to minimize the total maintenance and labour costs for a maintenance plan that guarantees a given reliability threshold. The fundamental constructs and the relevant parameters of this SMP are developed and discussed. Given its combinatorial complexity, a heuristic method based on the genetic algorithm is developed and implemented as a solution technique. Results from numerical experiments carried out demonstrate the validity and the benefits of the proposed approach, and show the robustness and efficiency of the developed heuristic.

Techno-Economic Impact of Diesel Fuel, Labor, and Interest Rates on Bulk-Format and Round Bale Logistics Expenses for Switchgrass

HighlightsSystem-wide sensitivity of bulk-format and round bale logistics responded to different degrees of expense inputs.Biomass size-reduction expenses for bulk-format were consistently less than round-bale chopping.Stack/reclaim operations with high-density-capacity equipment for bulk-format were the highest expenses.Clean-sheet design of stacker/reclaimer and self-compacting bulk trailer may significantly reduce expenses.Abstract. Deterministic cost analyses were conducted for a harvest, storage, preprocessing, and supply system providing 371,870 dry Mg (dMg) year-1 of milled switchgrass (SG) to a biorefinery from 21,929 ha of production fields within 72 km of the biorefinery. Varied input costs of diesel fuel, labor, and interest rate were input into a highly detailed cost analysis for bulk-format and baseline round bale logistics. These operational input factors, potentially reflecting an evolving economic climate or paradigm shift, were examined to provide insight into the cost to deliver preprocessed biomass feedstock for centralized commercial-scale conversions. Total annual costs per dry unit of SG were determined for all combinations of diesel fuel prices of $0.53 L-1, $0.92 L-1, and $1.32 L-1; total labor costs of $20.00 h-1, $28.85 h-1, and $40.00 h-1 singly and uniformly applied across all labor inputs; and three representative interest rates of 6%, 8%, and 12%. Increases in total cost most depended on increases in diesel fuel cost, followed by labor rate, and finally interest rate. Increases in fuel costs from $0.53 L-1 to $1.32 L-1 yielded a total cost increase of about $11.56 dMg-1 and $13.36 dMg-1 for bulk-format and round bale logistics, respectively, for all combinations of labor and interest rates. The overall increase in labor rate ($20.00 h-1 to $40.85 h-1) resulted in increased total costs of about $10.32 dMg-1 for bulk-format logistics and $9.94 dMg-1 for round bale logistics for all fuel and interest rates. The overall increase in interest rate (6% to 12%) resulted in increased total costs of about $6.72 dMg-1 for bulk-format logistics and $4.21 dMg-1 for round bale logistics for all fuel and labor rates. Increases in total costs for combined increases in fuel cost, labor rate, and interest rate were $28.60 dMg-1 and $27.48 dMg-1, yielding maximum total costs of $87.87 dMg-1 and $86.53 dMg-1 for bulk-format and round bale logistics, respectively. Costs were determined for existing equipment systems, including novel use of waste compaction and ejector semi-trailers. The highest potential for cost reductions may require clean-sheet equipment designs specifically tailored for SG, such as forage harvesters that direct-cut standing SG, mobilized stacker-reclaimer technology to not inhibit stack-area footprint, self-compacting ejector trailer technology, and bale grinding technology incorporating controlled mass feeding and shear failure elements. Keywords: Bales, Bioenergy, Bulk-format, Densification, Field chop, Logistics, Transportation

Внедрение метода кустового бурения на Западном Урале как начало технико-экономической революции в мировом бурении

In 1943, at the height of the Great Patriotic War, the new revolutionary drilling technique with high efficiency was used in Krasnokamsk oilfield of Molotov (Perm) Oblast for the first time in the world – the cluster turbodrilling method. The development of oil industry in Prikamye in the 1940s was associated with certain complications. The main deposits of the Krasnokasmk oilfield discovered before the war turned out to be located due to a number of reasons within the area of industrial and residential construction of the city of Krasnokamsk and under the Kama river and the Paltinskoye swamp close to the city. Conventional drilling methods could not be used for their development. The way out was to use the method of directional drilling that was little known at that moment. The development of the innovative technology in Krasnokamsk oilfield in 1942 was largely due to the involvement of the specialists of the Experimental Turbodrilling Bureau evacuated from Baku. Directional drilling which involved the deviation of the bottom hole (the ultimate lowest point of the well) from the wellhead (the initial uppermost location) by several hundred metres opened up broad opportunities for developing hard-to-recover oil deposits while significantly accelerating and ensuring cost savings of the drilling process. The directional drilling served as the basis for the development in Prikamye of an advanced technology of cluster drilling when several directional wells with different azimuths were drilled from a small well pad. In 1943–1944, cluster drilling was tested and successfully used in Krasnokamsk oilfield. The cluster drilling comprised an entire range of innovative solutions including the movement of assembled drilling rigs without dismantling power equipment. Also, it resulted in the reduction of total labour costs, scope of construction and assembly works, costs of building oilfield roads, power lines and pipelines, and transportation costs. People’s Commissariat of Oil Industry of the USSR initiated a large-scale rollout of the advanced method of cluster drilling in the largest oil-producing regions of the Soviet Union – Azerbaijan and the North Caucasus, and the area of the “second Baku” – Bashkiria, Tatary, and Kuybyshev oblast. The transition to the advanced and cost-saving technology of cluster drilling laid the foundation for the technical and economic revolution of the world drilling practices.

European imbalances and shifts of global value chains to the Central European periphery: role of institutions

This article deals with the topic of European imbalances. They are defined as large and persistent differences in the current account position of European countries, which are closely connected to the emergence of the financial crisis and the subsequent sovereign debt crisis in 2008. A build-up in current account deficits had been observed from the mid-1990s, namely in two peripheral regions of the EU. However, little attention was paid to the potential differences between the Southern and Central European peripheries of the EU. The emergence of large and persistent current account deficits in Southern Europe was accompanied by a significant shift in gains from global value chains. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the factors that co-determined the changes in the geographic structure of GVCs in Europe. These changes decreased GVC income in Southern Europe, increased it in Central Europe and contributed to the build-up of account imbalances in Southern Europe. Despite the fact that Central Europe was among the deficit regions in European imbalances, the four Central European countries substantially increased their gains from global value chains as well as GVC participation. The shift in GVC activity towards Central Europe between 1995 and 2011 was driven not only by total labour costs but also by better regulatory quality. At the same time, TNCs switching from Southern to Central Europe had to accept worse quality contract enforcement.

Multiplexing 8 colors with 12 antibodies in a single lymphoid screening tube by flow cytometry for evaluating suspected chronic lymphoproliferative disorders (CLPD)

The diagnosis of chronic lymphoproliferative disorder (CLPD) or non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) is based on the detection of the abnormal clonal lymphoid cells. The flow cytometry (FCM) immunophenotyping not only plays an essential role in the screening of CLPD but also helps in the specific identification and characterization of the expanded aberrant lymphocytes. Over decades, it has evolved from a single parameter to multi-parameter assessment by 3- to 12-color FCM. The greatest challenge is to characterize abnormal lymphoid cells by a limited immunophenotype (IPT) panel. A study was undertaken to evaluate the diagnostic usefulness of a single lymphoid screening tube (LST) FCM assays that included a multiplex of 12 antibody cocktails consisting of CD45, CD19, CD3, CD4, CD8, TCRγδ, CD5, CD20, CD56, CD38, kappa, and lambda in an 8-color labeling based on the proposed EuroFlow (EF) antibody panels with slight modifications. We have included the same set of markers and fluorochrome combinations except for CD45 V500-C, CD4 V450, and CD20 V450 instead of CD45 Pacific Orange (PacO), CD20 Pacific Blue (PacB), and CD4 PacB. A logical gating strategy was used to separate different subsets of lymphoid populations for the detection of the clonal lymphoid cells. Further, antibody cocktails were used depending upon the nature of the clonal population like B, T, or natural killer (NK) cells for definitive classification. The results were further correlated with trephine biopsy, immunohistochemistry (IHC), and molecular or cytogenetics wherever required for definitive characterization. A total of 82 consecutive samples with suspicion of CLPD or NHL were analyzed by a 3-laser 8-color flow cytometry. Out of which 73 cases were diagnosed to be CLPD, 2 cases were diagnosed as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and 7 cases had polyclonal lymphoid population. We could achieve a diagnostic sensitivity of 100% in the diagnosis of CLPD. In addition, the average number of tubes as well as antibodies was reduced by one-third in comparison to a standard protocol. The development of 8-color and 12-antibody LST by flow cytometry can provide maximum IPT information and meet economical requirements especially in developing countries by reducing the total cost of antibodies, labor, and time.

Scientific justification of power efficiency of technological process of crushing of forages

The main consumers of feed grain include industries such as livestock, pig and poultry. For the organization of proper feeding of animals and poultry, the rational use of concentrated feeds, the main component of which are grain and leguminous crops, providing about 50% of protein, is important. Currently, the share of concentrated feed in the total feed balance is more than a third. The efficiency of using feed grain without prior preparation is markedly reduced. The quality of the crushed feed in its granulometric composition exceeds the quality of the feed crushed by any hammer mill, due to the increase in the content of the easily digestible animal and bird fraction and the reduction of the dust fraction, which has a negative effect on the animal’s body. One of the main ways to prepare grain feed for feeding is grinding. During grinding, conditioning, crushing and other operations, the hard shell is destroyed, the availability of nutrients to the action of digestive juices increases, digestibility is accelerated, and more complete absorption of feed energy occurs. Grinding is the most energy-intensive and time-consuming operation, occupying more than half of the total labour costs in the preparation of animal feed. The article provides the scientific rationale for the energy efficiency of the feed grinding process.

Labor-use efficiency and New York dairy farm financial performance

PurposeDairy farms, along with livestock and specialty crop farms, face a tight labor supply and increasing labor costs. To overcome the challenging labor market, farm managers can increase labor-use efficiency through both human resource and capital investments. However, little is known about the relationship between such investments and farm profitability. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between dairy farm financial performance and labor-use efficiency, as measured by labor productivity (milk sold per worker equivalent); labor costs (hired labor cost per unit of milk sold and hired labor cost per worker); and investment in labor-saving equipment.Design/methodology/approachCluster analysis is applied to partition dairy farms into three performance categories (high/middle/low), based on farms’ rate of return on equity, asset turnover ratios and net dairy income per hundredweight of milk. Next, the annual financial rank is fitted into both random- and farm-level fixed-effects ordered logit and linear models to estimate the relationship between dairy farms’ financial performance and labor-use efficiency. This study also investigates the implications of using a single financial indicator as a measure of financial performance, which is the dominant approach in literature.FindingsThe study finds that greater labor productivity and cost efficiency (as measured by hired labor cost per unit of milk sold) are associated with better farm financial performance. No statistically significant relationship is found between farm financial performance and both hired labor cost per worker and advance milking systems (a proxy of capital investment in labor-saving technology). Future studies would benefit from better measurements of labor-saving technology. This study also demonstrates inconsistency in regression results when individual financial variables are used as a measure of financial performance. The greater labor-use efficiency on high-performing farms may be a combination of hiring more-skilled workers and managerial strategies of reducing unnecessary labor activities. The results emphasize the importance of managerial strategies that improve overall labor-use efficiency, instead of simply minimizing total labor expenses or labor cost per worker.Originality/valueThis study examines the importance of labor productivity and labor cost efficiency for dairy farm management. It also develops a novel approach which brings a more comprehensive financial performance evaluation into regression models. Furthermore, this study explicitly demonstrates the potential for inconsistent results when using individual financial variable as a measure of financial performance, which is the dominant measurement of financial performance in farm management studies.

IMPROVING THE CAPILLARY METHOD OF NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING

The history of capillary control began in the 40s of the last century for the needs of the aerospace industry. Currently, the cost of quality control in the aerospace industry is up to 12 - 18% of the cost of products. Similar amounts of expenses in the nuclear and defense industries are not lagging behind other industries. For example, for the control of welded joints of oil and gas pipelines of large diameter and considerable length, the labor costs for inspection reach 10% of the total labor costs. Capillary quality control method is based on the ability of indicator liquids (penetrants) to penetrate into the cavities of surface defects (discontinuities). Over the 70 years of its existence, the capillary method of control has not undergone fundamental changes, and its principles have remained unchanged. In international practice, the abbreviated designation of types of non-destructive testing (AWS) is adopted, and the control with the use of penetrating liquid denoted RT. This method is applicable to the detection of all types of surfacedead-end and through defects, such as cracks, delamination, leaks, in products made from any non-porous materials, including glass, ceramics, plastics and other non-metallic materials. The analysis of the capillary method of nondestructive testing of the surface of a solid body is carried out, the possibilities and ways of its improvement are indicated. The method of the capillary method of non-destructive testing of a solid surface, the physics of the method and its implementation are considered in detail. It is shown that the wetting ability and spreading are important characteristics of capillary control fluids; therefore, they must be evaluated and analyzed when developing new ones, choosing or comparing known capillary flaw detection materials. The possibility of using the Rebinder effect to improve the capillary method of non-destructive testing of a solid surface has been proved. A refined method of capillary defectoscopy is proposed by taking into account the wetting ability, density, viscosity and evaporation of a liquid, which makes it possible to make an optimal choice of liquid to ensure high efficiency of surface (capillary)control. An improved method for assessing the wetting ability of liquids is proposed, which makes it possible to evaluate the wetting ability of liquids by the size of the spreading spot of their droplets, taking into account the influence of density, viscosity and evaporation of liquids intended for capillary flaw detection (penetrants).

Optimum workforce scheduling for multiple security gates

This article presents a two-stage workforce scheduling approach for security guards at motor traffic gates. In the first stage, staffing requirements are determined based on analyzing workload variations for each gate. In the second stage, an integer programming model is formulated to assign guards to different work shifts in order to satisfy the staffing requirements of each gate. The objective is to minimize the total labour cost of two categories of security employees: non-supervising (guards), and supervising (supervisors). The new model considers multiple employee types, multiple shifts, and multiple locations, where security employees are assigned to work groups. Moreover, to maximize flexibility, each employee can be assigned to work at different gates during different shifts. Compared to the currently used schedule, the model produced an optimum work schedule that reduced the workforce size by 23% and the labour cost by 26%. Computational experiments with 40 randomly generated test problems confirmed the high savings potential of the proposed scheduling approach.

Evaluation of a Presurgical Pregnancy Testing Protocol at an Ambulatory Surgery Center

A presurgical pregnancy testing protocol is recommended to prevent the administration of surgery and anesthesia to women of childbearing years who present for surgery with an undetected pregnancy. It is important to determine the compliance, cost analysis, time required, and barriers to complete a presurgical pregnancy testing protocol. Postimplementation qualitative and quantitative evaluation of a presurgical pregnancy protocol. A review of the patient's electronic medical record, survey of the nursing staff, and an administrative interview was conducted 1 year after implementation of the presurgical pregnancy protocol. Overall presurgical pregnancy protocol compliance was 0.7%. The total labor and equipment costs were $19,033 to $30,202 per year. Nurses reported significant time- and patient-related barriers to execute the protocol. A pregnancy testing protocol is a valuable safety measure that faces barriers, which can impede compliance. Through the use of simplified protocols, educational interventions for patients and providers, protocol compliance can be increased.

Economic Analysis: Trickling Filter/Activated Sludge or Nitrifying Trickling Filter/Activated Sludge?

Abstract The performance and economic simulation and modeling are crucial for accurate and rapid designing, construction, and forecasting future economic needs of municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWWTPs). In this study, combined nitrifying trickling filter/activated sludge (NTF/AS) process was suggested for the modernization of a MWWTP and the performance and economics of MWWTPs based on the combined TF/AS process and combined NTF/AS process were analyzed and compared. In real, the performance, total project construction, total operation labor, total maintenance labor, total material, total chemical, total energy, and total amortization costs of these proposed MWWTPs were calculated and compared. Under the used design criteria and operational conditions in this study, the project construction cost of the MWWTP based on TF/AS was 15.25 % higher than that of the MWWTP based on NTF/AS. Also, MWWTP based on NTF/AS was cost effective and the material and amortization costs for both plants were higher in comparison with the operation, maintenance, energy, and chemical costs. It is necessary to note that this study is a computer simulation for a case and drawing general conclusions only on the basis of this simulation may be insufficient.

Simulation for the Performance and Economic Evaluation of Conventional Activated Sludge Process Replacing by Sequencing Batch Reactor Technology in a Petroleum Refinery Wastewater Treatment Plant

Treatment of the petroleum refinery wastewater containing complex chemicals using biological processes is usually challenging because of the inhibition and/or toxicity of these matters when they serve as microbial substrates. In addition, performance modeling and cost evaluation of processes are essential for designing, construction, and forecasting future economic requirements of the petroleum refinery wastewater treatment plants (PRWWTPs). In this study, the performance and economics of conventional activated sludge (CAS) process replacing by sequencing batch reactor (SBR) technology in a two train PRWWTP were evaluated using simulation. The final treated effluent characteristics for the PRWWTPs containing CAS + CAS and SBR + CAS processes under steady state conditions were studied and evolution of the main parameters of the final effluent during the 30 days of simulation for these plants were investigated. Finally, the total project construction, operation labor, maintenance, material, chemical, energy, and amortization costs of these plants were estimated and compared. Results demonstrated that the project construction cost of PRWWTP containing CAS + CAS processes was lower than that of PRWWTP containing SBR + CAS processes and the energy and amortization costs for both plants were higher in comparison with the operation, maintenance, material, and chemical costs. Note that this study is a computer simulation and drawing general conclusions only on the basis of computer simulation may be insufficient.

How Sticky Are the Costs? Evidence from the Shipping Industry

<p><em>Trying to understand how cost behaves seems to be an essential element of cost and management accounting. In this study, we examine whether costs increase more when operation rises than they decrease when operation falls by an equivalent amount. The shipping industry is taken as an empirical case to study these issues at hand, based on a selected sample of 123 publicly-listed shipping companies, over 2006</em><em>-</em><em>2016. The sample includes companies belonging to the three main shipping sectors, i.e. tankers, containers and dry-bulk. We applied pooled regressions, based on ordinary least squares. Each model is run for each sample and each type of cost that we have considered in our model. We have gone through several tests of cost stickiness for some types of costs and their determinants. What we have found is the presence of stickiness both for the total cost of labor and the vessel operating costs.</em><em></em></p>

Concurrent Structure and Process Optimization for Minimum Cost Metal Additive Manufacturing

Metals-additive manufacturing (MAM) is enabling unprecedented design freedom and the ability to produce significantly lighter weight parts with the same performance, offering the possibility of significant environmental and economic benefits in many different industries. However, the total production costs of MAM will need to be reduced substantially before it will be widely adopted across the manufacturing sector. Current topology optimization approaches focus on reducing total material volume as a means of reducing material costs, but they do not account for other production costs that are influenced by a part's structure such as machine time and scrap. Moreover, concurrently optimizing MAM process variables with a part's structure has the potential to further reduce production costs. This paper demonstrates an approach to use process-based cost modeling (PBCM) in MAM topology optimization to minimize total production costs, including material, labor, energy, and machine costs, using cost estimates from industrial MAM operations. The approach is demonstrated on various 3D geometries for the electron beam melting (EBM) process with Ti64 material. Concurrent optimization of the part structures and EBM process variables is compared to sequential optimization, and to optimization of the structure alone. The results indicate that, once process variables are considered concurrently, more cost effective results can be obtained with similar amount of material through a combination of (1) building high stress regions with lower power values to obtain larger yield strength and (2) increasing the power elsewhere to reduce the number of passes required, thereby reducing build time. In our case studies, concurrent optimization of the part's structure and MAM process parameters lead to up to 15% lower estimated total production costs and 21% faster build time than optimizing the part's structure alone.

Partially mechanized non-puddled rice establishment: on-farm performance and farmers’ perceptions

ABSTRACTTransplanting rice (Oryza sativa L.) seedlings into non-puddled soils with minimum soil disturbance (by mechanized strip tillage) is an opportunity to expand Conservation Agriculture (CA) adoption in rice-based cropping systems. However, the farmer acceptance and on-farm profitability of this technology has not been assessed. Here, we analysed farmer-managed non-puddled transplanting (NT) of rice seedlings in paired comparisons with rice seedlings transplanted in puddled (PT) soil. Sixty-six rainfed monsoon (aman) and 84 dry-season irrigated (boro) rice crops were established by NT and compared with paired PT crops during 2013–2015 in north and north-west Bangladesh. Non-puddled fields were prepared by firstly making 40–60-mm-wide tilled strips with a Versatile Multi-crop Planter, then by 18–24-h inundation with water to soften soils in the strip, followed by transplanting seedlings into strips. The NT crops produced similar or significantly greater grain (boro season of 2015) and straw yields than paired PT crops. The minimum soil disturbance NT did not hinder seedling transplanting of rice or increase the total labour costs for transplanting and weeding compared to PT, rather it reduced the cost of production, and increased net benefit for rice in both seasons relative to PT. Under farmer management on a range of soils and in the two main rice-growing seasons, NT performed as well or better than PT suggesting that this is a feasible option for farmers planning to adopt CA in rice-based cropping systems. Over 3 years, farmers’ perception of NT performance shifted from scepticism to mostly favourable.

DESIGNING LINE BALANCING FOR AMMUNITION BOX PRODUCTION USING HEURISTIC METHOD

PT XYZ is a State-Owned Enterprise that produces military equipment. Due to an increasing demand for such equipment every year, ammunition box sub-department asked their workers to work overtime and the total cycle time of ammunition box lid is higher than that of the ammunition box. Heuristic approaches, namely the Birnie Helgeson (RPW) and Moodie Young, are used to overcome these issues. This study aims to improve line balancing efficiency of ammunition box production. The findings showed that the Moodie Young method resulted in a 7.98% increase in line efficiency of the ammunition box lid and 21.77% increase in that of the ammunition box. In addition, the balance delay value decreased as much as the line efficiency. There are 9.09 and 152.87 decrease in the smoothing index of the ammunition box lid and the ammunition box. The Moodie Young method cut the total labor cost to 9,597,170 rupiahs.

Product innovation and firm performance in transition economies: A multi-stage estimation approach

Using Business Environment Enterprise Performance Surveys (BEEPS), this paper provides a multistage empirical analysis of product innovation and firm performance in transition economies (TEs). The Crepon-Duguet-Mairesse (CDM) model, a four-stage approach, is used to investigate the innovation-performance relationship. The multistage model allows studying the innovation activities of firms through multi-interrelated factors while controlling the issue of simultaneity and causality. The paper contributes to the research in this area by estimating the effect of innovation on performance through multistage equation modeling. It fills the gap in providing an understanding of factors that influence on product innovation - firm performance relationship in transition economies. This research is among the first to use product-only innovation to measure the impact of innovation on firms' performance. Findings indicate that product innovation has a positive impact on firm performance in transition economies, complemented by significant impact of specific control variables such as size, total labor cost, capital of the firm. Whereas age and competition from the informal sector, have a negative and significant effect on performance.

An exploratory study of factors affecting the longevity of manufacturing operations offshore

Because of changes in tax regulations and increased political pressure, firms are reconsidering their practices of shifting manufacturing operations offshore to lower wage countries. Although outsourcing has been well researched, few studies examine managerial practices that influence offshore operations. We investigate the effects of choices regarding labor, suppliers, and outsourcing that influence firm longevity in the maquiladora industry in Mexico. We argue that firms are exposed to labor frictions, supply-chain constraints, and compliance and regulatory risks that if left unresolved can lead to plant closure attributable to labor or regulatory frictions and rising costs. We consider specific actions pursued by managers at maquiladora plants to mitigate the underlying constraints and then analyze factors that affect the likelihood of continuing operations, that is, the longevity of the plants. We find a positive relation between the likelihood of longevity in operations and the following plant characteristics: hourly wages, workforce stability, skill, and the decision to outsource regulatory compliance functions. We document a negative relation between longevity and total labor cost as a percent of total costs as well as using suppliers based in Mexico. We also find that high-tech plants have higher stability, pay higher wages, and experience greater longevity than low-tech plants. Overall, we identify key managerial choices that are related to longevity in offshoring production.