Transportation Equipment Industry Research Articles

Cars Made in Europe

The transport equipment industry is nowadays amongst the most important manufacturing industries, responsible for a large share of production, exports and R&D in Central and Eastern European countries, particularly the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. This success is due to the fact that strong production linkages with Western European countries have been developed, particularly with Germany, spurred by large inflows of foreign direct investment and the arrival of large international car companies. Production processes in this industry are nowadays heavily internationally fragmented. We use the World Input-Output Database, which allows us to investigate the evolution of these production linkages across European countries and other major economies in the world in this industry. Considering the time period 1995-2011 and applying input-output indicators reveals changing patterns of domestic and international linkages, patterns of vertical specialization and direct and indirect value-added flows across countries in both the Western and Eastern European countries. By utilizing additional data we draw a more detailed picture of the evolution of these production linkages from which all countries have benefitted.

Production Networks and the Organization of the Global Manufacturing Economy

In this article, I explicate an organizational theory that links global models of networked organization to cross-national variation in manufacturing specialization. To subject the theory to empirical scrutiny, I derive cross-nationally comparable measurements of the average network position of resident firms in two industries with ideal-typical forms of network governance—garments and transportation equipment. Analytical results suggest that manufacturing specialization varies by network position in both industries, even when controlling for time-invariant country-specific organizational unobservables and conventional thinking on international specialization. Moreover, these networks matter only during the period after which the two types of governance are alleged to have become the predominant organizational logic of the two industries, and are more important for manufacturing specialization in the transport-equipment industry. The article concludes by implicating these findings in discussions of the distribution of the gains from networked forms of economic organization.

Global Production Networks and International Inequality: Making a Case for a Meso-Level Turn in Macro-Comparative Sociology

In this article, I extend recent macro-comparative empirical research on the developmental implications of global production networks. I draw from theories of commodity/value chains, global production networks and economic sociology to identify three contending theoretical perspectives for exactly how the developmental returns to network participants should be distributed-cooperation, exploitation and differential gains-and derive testable hypotheses for each. Adding to recent empirical advances for measuring the average network position of firms at the country level, I evaluate these hypotheses by way of dynamic panel regression models of hourly wage rates in the garment and transportation equipment industries. The results suggest that macro-sociological theories linking underdevelopment to the structure of the world-economy, as well as theories of the distribution of the gains from network participation, miss important variation at the industry level. Cooperation provides a poor account of the distribution of the gains from network participation. Instead, both industries appear to distribute the gains from network participation differentially across network participants. However, the extent of this inequality increases, and the garment industry transitions to exploitation, when global production networks become entrenched organizational logics. Variation in the distribution of the returns to network participation is explicable only by accounting for production-network governance as it varies across industries and over time. I conclude by highlighting the analytical utility to macro-comparative sociology of a turn toward the mesa-level of global industries.

"Human Capital, Ownership, and Performance: Evidence from China’s Transportation Equipment Industry"

Research on the importance of human capital on firm performance has largely been premised on the resource based theory. Our study examines the relationship primarily from the resource management theory by emphasizing human capital management and investment. More importantly, we argue that the relationship is differentially moderated by ownership structure due to differences in their institutional constraints. We tested our arguments using a large sample of domestic and foreign firms in China’s transportation equipment industry.

Transition of buyer-supplier relationships in Japan

Purpose – The paper aims to describe the changes in buyer-supplier relationships among Japanese companies at the early 2000s, focusing on two critical features; long-term relationships and information sharing. In particular, the paper investigates the relationship between benefits from information-sharing activities within buyer-supplier relationships and the stability of these relationships. Design/methodology/approach – The paper develops a questionnaire based on prior research related to Japanese companies and undertakes a questionnaire survey of 353 Japanese manufacturing companies (which belong to the machinery, electrical/electronics, transportation equipment, and precision industries) in 2002. Findings – Although Japanese companies have been considered to have close relationships with their partners, the paper finds only a small proportion of buyers were willing to share sensitive information with their suppliers and/or expected to continue long-term relationships with them. In addition, an examination of factors relating to buyers' performance shows that receiving benefits from inter-organizational information-sharing activities (attending suppliers' meetings, sending engineers to suppliers, and proposing cost saving ideas) could affect buyers' incentives to sustain long-term relationships with their suppliers. Originality/value – The paper provides empirical evidence of the changing nature of the buyer-supplier relationship in Japanese manufacturing companies. Specifically, the main contribution of this research is to provide empirical evidence indicating that the benefit from buyer-supplier relationships has an effect on the governance structure of these relationships.

Global models of networked organization, the positional power of nations and economic development

ABSTRACTInterdisciplinary literature on global commodity chains (GCCs)/global value chains (GVCs) and global production networks (GPNs) contends that inter-firm power differentials within globally networked forms of economic organization have implications for the developmental trajectories of nation-states. In this article, I advance these literatures in three ways. First, I bridge the two approaches by elaborating an exchange-theoretic conceptualization of inter-firm power that is latent in the two literatures. This conceptualization focuses narrowly on the determinants of inter-firm power asymmetries and is useful for explaining why actual production networks vary in terms of the relative power of buyers and producers. Second, I develop an empirical framework to advance basic research on the link between globally networked forms of economic organization and national economic development. In particular, I derive cross-nationally and temporally comparable country-level measurements of the average bargaining power of a country's resident firms using industry-specific international exchange (trade) networks. I demonstrate the validity of these indices through a historical analysis of trade networks in the transport equipment and garment industries and by analysing cross-national variations in wages in the two industries. Finally, I conclude by charting a parallel path for GCC/GVC and GPN research that implicates global models of network organization in macro-comparative analyses of economic development.

Which industry is greener? An empirical study of nine industries in OECD countries

This study analyzed the relationship between the CO2 emissions of different industries and economic growth in OECD countries from 1970 to 2005. We tested an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and found that total CO2 emissions from nine industries show an N-shaped trend instead of an inverted U or monotonic increasing trend with increasing income. The EKC hypothesis for sector-level CO2 emissions was supported in the (1) paper, pulp, and printing industry; (2) wood and wood products industry; and (3) construction industry. We also found that emissions from coal and oil increase with economic growth in the steel and construction industries. In addition, the non-metallic minerals, machinery, and transport equipment industries tend to have increased emissions from oil and electricity with economic growth. Finally, the EKC turning point and the relationship between GDP per capita and sectoral CO2 emissions differ among industries according to the fuel type used. Therefore, environmental policies for CO2 reduction must consider these differences in industrial characteristics.

Diversification Strategy and Firm Performance: Evidence from Indian Manufacturing Firms

While many scholars have examined the business group affiliation–performance relationship, very few have examined the role that industry and diversification (related versus unrelated) strategy plays in this focal relationship (Carney et al., 2011). I provide empirical evidence that the effect of diversified business groups on the performance of affiliated firms is dependent on ( a) the industry to which the firm belongs and ( b) the type of diversification strategy followed by the group. I have found that in the chemical and allied products industry, the return on total assets (ROA) of firms has a negative relationship with unrelated diversification, while it has a positive relationship in the transportation equipment industry. However, with related diversification, ROA of firms in the chemical and allied products industry has a positive relationship, while it has a negative relationship with firms in the transportation equipment industry.

Measurement of Environmentally Sensitive Productivity Growth in Korean Industries

This study measures productivity growth using the Metafrontier Malmquist-Luenberger productivity growth index (MML index) method and decomposes the index. The results are compared with those obtained from the conventional Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) productivity growth index. MML has two advantages compared with the ML index. The former is able to consider undesirable output as a by-product of production which accounts for producer group heterogeneities. As a result, it enables separation and estimation of changes in the technological gap between regional and global frontier technologies. The proposed index is employed to measure productivity growth and decompose its components in 14 Korean industrial sectors during the period between 1981 and 2007. For the purpose of detailed analysis of policy effects, the study period was divided into three decades.The results show that technology innovation can be regarded as a more important factor of productivity growth, rather than efficiency change. The chemical and Petrochemical, Machinery and Transport equipment industries are treated as global innovators in the whole period. However, the result differs according to decades. It is found that the groups with higher energy efficient technology and profitability obtain a higher productivity growth rate in comparison with their low energy efficient technology industry counterparts. Policy implications of the empirical results are discussed.

Regional Dynamics of Innovation: Investigating the Co-evolution of Patents, Research and Development (R&D), and Employment

Buerger M., Broekel T. and Coad A. Regional dynamics of innovation: investigating the co-evolution of patents, research and development (R&D), and employment, Regional Studies. This paper investigates the lead–lag relationships between the growth rates of patents, research and development (R&D), and employment for German regions over the period 1999–2005. The panel data set employed includes information on four two-digit industries. The results obtained from a vector autoregression model show that an increase in patents is associated with subsequent growth of employment in the medical and optical equipment industry as well as in the Electrics and electronics industry. With respect to the latter, the growth of patents is also associated with subsequent growth of R&D. Neither of these effects can be found for both the Chemicals and the Transport equipment industries. Buerger M., Broekel T. et Coad A. La dynamique régionale de l'innovation: examiner l'évolution simultanée des brevets, de la recherche et développement (R et D), et de l'emploi, Regional Studies. Cet article cherche à examiner le rapport avances-retards entre les taux de croissance des brevets, de la recherche et développement (R et D), et de l'emploi pour ce qui est des régions allemandes sur la période allant de 1999 à 2005. L'ensemble de données par enquête à échantillon constant employé comprend de l'information sur quatres industries à deux chiffres. Les résultats obtenus à partir d'un modèle vectoriel d'auto-régression montrent qu'une augmentation des brevets se rapporte à une augmentation ultérieure de l'emploi dans l'industrie de l'équipement médical et optique, aussi bien que dans l'industrie électrique et électronique. Quant à cette dernière, la croissance des brevets se rapporte aussi à une augmentation ultérieure de la recherche et développement. Aucun de ces effets n'est évident ni pour l'industrie chimique, ni pour l'industrie de l'équipement de transport. Croissance régionale Autorégression vectorielle Innovation Brevets Buerger M., Broekel T. und Coad A. Die regionale Dynamik der Innovation: eine Untersuchung der gemeinsamen Evolution von Patenten, Forschung und Entwicklung (F&E) und der Beschäftigungsrate, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag untersuchen wir die Lead-Lag-Beziehungen zwischen den Wachstumsraten von Patenten, Forschung und Entwicklung (F&E) und der Beschäftigungsquote für deutsche Regionen im Zeitraum von 1999 bis 2005. Zum verwendeten Satz an Paneldaten gehören Informationen über vier zweistellige Branchen. Aus den Ergebnissen eines Vektor-Autoregressionsmodells geht hervor, dass eine Zunahme der Patente sowohl in der Medizin- und Optikbranche als auch in der Elektrik- und Elektronikbranche mit einer anschließenden Zunahme der Beschäftigung einhergeht. Hinsichtlich der letzteren Branche geht eine Zunahme der Patente auch mit einer anschließenden Zunahme der F&E einher. Bei der Chemie- und der Fahrzeugbaubranche wurde keiner dieser Effekte festgestellt. Regionales Wachstum Vektorautoregression (VAR) Innovation Patente Buerger M., Broekel T. y Coad A. Dinámicas regionales de innovación: un estudio sobre la coevolución de patentes, la investigación y desarrollo (I + D), y el empleo, Regional Studies. En este artículo investigamos las relaciones de avance–retroceso entre los índices de crecimiento de las patentes, la investigación y desarrollo (I + D), y el empleo para las regiones alemanas durante el periodo de 1999 a 2005. En los grupos de datos de paneles incluimos información sobre cuatro industrias de dos dígitos. Los resultados obtenidos de un modelo de autorregresión vectorial muestran que un aumento en las patentes se relaciona con un posterior crecimiento del empleo en la industria de equipos médicos y ópticos así como en el sector de productos eléctricos y electrónicos. Con respecto a este último sector, el crecimiento de patentes también está asociado a un posterior crecimiento en I + D. Ninguno de estos efectos se observa en las industrias de química y equipo de transporte. Crecimiento regional Autorregresión vectorial (VAR) Innovación Patentes

STRUKTUR EKONOMI DAN SEKTOR UNGGULAN SEKTORAL PADA PROPINSI RIAU

This study aims to examine and analyze the structure of the economy, the dominant sector of economic regions, economic sectors effect on the growth of regional economy and the impact on the growth of leading sectors of economic sectors in the province of Riau. The research shows that The economic structure based on the demand and supply of output, gross value added and employment. Riau is the main structure: The food and beverage industry, tobacco, trade, construction, other services and goods paper & printing industry. Dominant sector in 2000 Riau oil, gas and geothermal energy, petroleum refining, transportation equipment industry, machinery & equipment, trade, plantation crops and buildings. Year 2005 plantation crops, food industry, beverages & tobacco, paper and printed material industry, commerce, fisheries, mining, oil, gas and geothermal energy, and buildings. The variable government investment, suwasta investment, exports, imports, employment, forward linkage, backward lingkage, the impact of output and gross value added impact of simultaneous positive effect on regional economic growth (GDP) in Riau.DOI: 10.15408/sjie.v1i1.2596

A test of trade theories when expenditure is home biased

We develop a criterion to distinguish two dominant paradigms of international trade theory: homogeneous-goods perfectly competitive models, and differentiated-goods monopolistically competitive models. Our analysis makes use of the pervasive presence of home-biased expenditure. It predicts that countries’ relative output and their relative home biases are positively correlated in differentiated-goods sectors (the “home-bias effect”), while no such relationship exists in homogeneous-goods sectors. This discriminating criterion turns out to be robust to a number of generalisations of the baseline model. Our empirical results, based on a world-wide cross-country data set, suggest that the differentiated-goods model fits particularly well for the machinery, precision engineering and transport equipment industries, which account for some 40% of sample manufacturing output.

114 軸流式容積流量計の高精度化

A positive displacement (PD) flowmeters has been used for long years as it can measure volumetric flow directly. Since features of PD's are most exerted in oil related flow measurements, in present society which environmental issues are emphasized, they are required for high accuracy fuel consumption measurements in transport equipment industry such as automotive industry, as well as assuming an important role in cross-border transactions. Also, in recent years, development of secondary standards for JCSS registration is an urgent need; verification of our Screw PD Flowmeter is made, corresponding to such necessity.

Location quotients versus spatial autocorrelation in identifying potential cluster regions

Most cluster-based economic development programs use co-location to initially identify the spatial footprint of cluster areas. Geographic proximity (co- location) is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for potential clustering activity. Therefore, an assessment of industry location and density patterns becomes the first phase in the identification of potential cluster regions to be included in a cluster driven development policy. This paper compares the use of location quotients and Getis–Ord G i * in the identification of potential cluster regions in the transportation equipment industry of four states in the Midwestern USA. Also, both location quotients and G i * are used to classify counties with respect to their concentration of transportation equipment manufacturing.

The Evolution of an Innovation System in a Rural Area: The Case of La Pocatière, Québec

AbstractThis article aims to examine the development trajectory of a local innovation system in a rural region, namely La Pocatière, Québec (Canada), from an extended historical perspective (1830–2005). More specifically, its objective is to identify and analyse historical factors that give us a better understanding of the main determinants of the special heritage of this innovation system and of the institutional context in which it emerged and evolved. In short, the relation between the dynamics of innovation and institutional change is examined over time. Historical documents are analysed and the research provides a description and contextualization of the development of this innovation system, and of its spread, particularly in the farming and agricultural‐science sector initially, and subsequently in technological and industrial areas (physical technologies and the transport equipment industry). Four main periods are described, corresponding to changes in types of institutional behaviour in relation to innovation: a phase of setting up pioneering institutions and innovations (1827–1911), a phase of growth and influence of the agricultural‐science institutions (1911–62), a phase of rupture, economic diversification and development of the technological cluster (1962–97), and a phase of redeployment and growing complexity of the elements of the innovation system (1997–2005).

Estimation of Zellner-Revankar Production Function Revisited

Arnold Zellner and Nagesh Revankar in their well-known paper “Generalized Production Functions” [The Review of Economic Studies, 36(2), pp. 241-250, 1969] introduced a new generalized production function, which was illustrated by an example of fitting the generalized Cobb-Douglas function to the U.S. data for Transportation Equipment Industry. For estimating the parameters of their production function, they used a method in which one of the parameters (theta) is chosen at the trial basis and other parameters relating to elasticity and returns to scale are estimated so as to maximize the likelihood function. Repeated trials are made with different values of theta so as to obtain the global maximum of the likelihood function. In this paper we show that the method suggested and used by Zellner and Revankar (ZR) may easily be caught into a local optimum trap. We also show that the estimated parameters reported by them are grossly sub-optimal. Using the Differential Evolution (DE) and the Repulsive Particle Swarm (RPS) methods of global optimization, the present paper re-estimates the parameters of the ZR production function with the U.S. data used by ZR. We find that the DE and the RPS estimates of parameters are significantly different from (but much better than) those estimated by ZR. We also find that the returns to scale do not vary with the size of output as reported by ZR. A Fortran program for estimation of ZR production function by the Particle Swarm and the Differential Evolution has been appended.

The Impact of Gravity-Weighted Knowledge Spillovers on Productivity in Manufacturing

This paper tests for localized knowledge spillovers from out-of-state innovations in U.S. manufacturing from 1977 to 1997. The source of these spillovers is innovations categorized into six technologies based on U.S. patent classes and patent data. Using a gravity-weighting for out-of-state innovations, knowledge spillovers are found from mechanical technologies and drug and medical technologies for a broad group of manufacturing industries. Innovations from chemical-related technologies are found to generate spillovers for the Chemical and Allied Products Industry and for the Transportation Equipment Industry. Additionally, specialization of production at the two-digit Standard Industrial Classification of industry level is also found to increase state-level productivity in manufacturing.

A Canada–U.S. customs union: Potential economic impacts in NAFTA countries

Using a multi-sector and multi-region dynamic CGE model, the paper estimates the potential economic impacts of a possible Canada–U.S. customs union in the three NAFTA countries. Our scenario for the customs union assumes common Canadian and U.S. tariffs against the non-NAFTA countries as well as the elimination of the Rules of origin provisions of NAFTA. Our simulation results suggest that all three NAFTA countries would benefit from such an arrangement. However, the biggest beneficiary would be Mexico, followed by Canada and the U.S. Mexico's real GDP could increase by as much as 5%, compared to over 1% for Canada and 0.2% for the U.S. Canada's total trade could expand by almost 20%. American trade would also increase significantly, but the increase will be much smaller than that of Canada. Most of the increase in trade flows and real GDP are the result of the elimination of the Rules of origin provisions. On the other hand, economic benefits from common external tariffs (CET) are quite modest. All Canadian industries, except food and beverages, would gain from a Canada–U.S. customs union. Nevertheless, the big beneficiaries are going to be transportation equipment, electronics, and machinery and equipment industries. On the other hand, the gains in service and resource-base industries will be quite modest.

Government spending on research and development and industrial production in Singapore

The role of government policies in the economic growth of Singapore has been well documented. The government’s actions, such as the provision of appropriate infrastructure, have resulted in massive inflow of foreign capital to Singapore. Government sponsorship of selected industries and foreign investment helped domestic firms to gain access to advanced technologies. During the 1990s there was a significant increase in government spending on research and development (R&D) that can be attributed to the development of advanced technologies by Singaporean firms. This paper examines the impact of government-funded R&D in fostering the development of Singapore’s industrial production in the 1990s. The study explicitly considers the performance of three industries within the manufacturing sector: the machinery and equipment industry, the electrical machinery industry, and the transport equipment industry. It is shown that the fluctuations in real government spending on R&D had a significant positive impact on the performance of the selected manufacturing industries.

Pricing-to-market tests in instrumental regressions: Case of the transportation equipment industry

Pricing-to-market (PTM) theory suggests that exporting monopolistic firms adjust their destination-specific mark-ups in the face of exchange rate shocks. A large proportion of the existing evidence for PTM comes from Wald tests applied to OLS- and IV-estimated parameters of single-equation models. Such tests can seriously over-reject in the presence of endogeneity and weak instruments so that some of the available results supporting PTM could be spurious. In this paper we revisit the PTM evidence for Japanese and German exporting firms in the transportation equipment industry. Using the model of Marston (1990), we apply exogeneity and LR-LIML-based tests for which the error probability is controlled irrespective of the quality of the available instruments. Our results show right-hand-side endogeneity in almost all of the examined PTM equations. In addition, we find that statistical decisions often differ depending on whether they are based on the traditional Wald test or on our proposed test.