The efficiency of major industrial enterprises in Sichuan province of China: A super slacks-based measure analysis

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>The main objective of this research is to measure the efficiency of 397 major industrial enterprises in Sichuan province of China in 2013.To this end, we employed DEA super slacks-based measure (Super-SBM) model for performance evaluation of 397 major manufacturing firms.The empirical results show that 21 of the 397 enterprises operate efficiently, and the average efficiency score of the analyzed enterprises is only 0.15. The enterprise with the highest efficiency score is 96.15% higher than the average score, which is the benchmark enterprise of operational efficiency. Among the selected sample enterprises, 5.29% of the industrial enterprises are highly efficient in operation. It was also noticed that the average efficiency score of pharmaceutical firms was the highest among all industrial firms with a mean score of 0.75, which is 80% higher than the overall average score of all industries. While the average efficiency of manufacturing of chemical raw materials and chemical products was the lowest with a mean score of 0.39. Results of sensitivity analysis show that profit has a great impact on the efficiency score of special equipment manufacturing firms, but a relatively weak impact on the firms which manufacture computers, communications, and other electronic equipment. The effect of export delivery value on efficiency score is not obvious.</p>

A Soft Skills Experiment in an Industrial Engineering and Management Academic Course

Industrial firms increasingly concentrate on their core competences and outsource non-core activities, affecting the personal (soft) skills requirements of purchasing and supply chain management (PSM) personnel in their boundary-spanning roles. In parallel, machines take over processes but cannot replicate humans' soft skills such as creativity and strategic thinking. The literature shows that learning objectives in PSM courses in higher education are evaluated for not covering soft skills. Moreover, there is evidence that soft skills development is challenging. It is questionable which soft skills can be developed and which didactics are applicable. This study presents an educational soft skills experiment with IEM graduates, and it provides evidence that soft skills learning can effectively be introduced in existing courses. The graduates self-rated their competence levels of 36 soft skills before and after the course that provided soft skills workshops and a case study. In the first survey, “strategic thinking” ranked low and could be improved the most in the second survey.

Study of the Effect of Risk Management Application on the Performance of Giad industrial Group

Risk management is particularly important at the present time and constitute a new approach in firms, has seen all industries acceleration and great changes in recent years, in order to benefit from risk management to provide protection for firms and continuity performance its activities should provide the critical success factors for risk management. The research problem is represented in the role of risk management on the performance of industrial firms in Sudan, the research aims to deepen the understanding of risk management and its application to firms and to know the reasons that led to the failure and faltering of the performance of these firms as well as finding appropriate solutions ,The researcher used the descriptive-analytical method in conducting this study and designed a questionnaire as the main tool for data collection, This research develops through the assumption that there is a positive relationship between risk management and the performance of the firm where the study found that risk management practices are applied in moderate proportions by the leaders and employees of the Sudanese industrial firms and dominated by the reactive method rather than proactive, One of the most important recommendations of the study is that industrial organizations have to adopt effective systems for managing organizational risks and that they be monitored and reviewed for deviations in order to be in line with the strategy of the firm.

The Dynamics of Traditional Religion in the Political Economy of Ìkòrodú

In the precolonial period, the coastal town of Ìkòrodú played a prominent role in the traffic of goods and services between traders on its coast and many Yorùbá groups who lived in the interior. While this traffic was sustained by socio-political institutions such as the Oloja and the Osugbo cult, the role of religious groups – including the Ifá priests, Màgbó, Líw`ẹ and Agẹmọ – remained highly influential because they represent the deities and spirits which shaped Ìkòrodú’s inhabitants’ views about social life, economic activities and political institutions. Ìkòrodú has, however, experienced a transformation from a traditional commercial economy into an urban center with modern industrial firms and capital infrastructures. The town has also witnessed the emergence of Muslimand Christian groups, and socio-ethnic groups from many parts of Nigeria. This transformation has not only challenged the authority of the traditional institutions in Ìkòrodú, it has also impacted on the religious beliefs and practices which underpin the socio-economic and political systems of the people. A notable example is the reduction in dates of religious festivals which Traditionalists believe were once instrumental in sustaining social order and prosperity in the town. The power of the state has also affected the responsibilities of the Traditionalists in the town. This article further shows how this transformation hasshaped relations between religious groups and the state in Ìkòrodú.

Environmental regulation and location dynamics of the livestock industry: evidence from 279 Chinese prefecture-level cities

PurposeThis paper examines the impact of livestock environment regulations (LERs) on the location dynamics of the livestock farming industry. Specifically, it tests whether a “pollution haven effect” (PHE) exists in the Chinese livestock industry.Design/methodology/approachThe authors manually collected LERs data based on the frequency of livestock-related vocabulary in government work reports from 279 prefecture-level cities from 2010 to 2017. Using China's implementation of LERs since 2014 as a natural experiment, the authors employed difference-in-difference (DID) to avoid the endogeneity problem.FindingsLERs have led to a decline in livestock production in regulated areas. Moreover, compared with areas with more stringent LERs – southern China and developed areas, areas where LERs are less stringent – northern China and undeveloped areas, attract more livestock industry. As a result, people in northern China and undeveloped areas are exposed to higher livestock pollution.Originality/valueFirst, most empirical studies on PHE focus on industrial firms. PHE in the livestock industry has received limited attention. This paper aims to fill this gap. Second, this paper regards LERs as an endogenous process and uses the DID method to generate unbiased results. Third, this paper introduces a novel measurement of LERs based on the frequency of livestock-related vocabulary in government work reports from each prefecture city. Fourth, this paper uses prefecture-level data to analyze the PHE of LERs, and thus obtains more reliable results.

Directed Internationalized Statism in Germany

Germany has been seen as relatively closed to overseas equity purchases because of its corporate governance system based on insiders. Yet, after an initial period of debate, it has followed policies of directed internationalized statism towards Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). A powerful coalition of the federal finance and economics ministries, together with representatives of firms, has argued that openness to SWF investment offers export orders and patient capital, in contrast to short-term private investors. The coalition has followed policies of welcoming and seeking SWF investment in industrial firms, large and small. Although a new legislative framework for non-European share purchases has been established, its powers have never been used against SWFs. The German case shows how economic and finance ministries, and representatives of companies, are able to use SWFs to reinforce key elements of the German model of capitalism such as patient capital and export-led growth.

University-industry collaboration importance in innovative brazilian industrial firms: a sectorial model

This article examines empirically the university-industry collaboration (UIC) importance in innovative firms on Brazilian industry. This relation is considered an important tool for economic growth in innovation-led firms. It was used a hierarchical regression model for 25.667 innovative industrial firms in the year 2005, the innovation involves product, process, or organizational change. The Total Factor Productivity was introduced as independent variable, because it can be used in all firms as performance measure, and it was average centralized. The TFP is explained by firm’s internal capabilities, and in industry by the UIC importance. The found results are upward average (positive sign), and downward average (negative sign). The sectorial impact of UIC in the TFP is positive, but near zero. The internal capabilities present exchanged signs between the firm and the industry, only innovative labor have both signs positive. The random effects identify nine industries with upward productivity gains, 8,26 % of total Brazilian industry, and these industries are traditional, low-tech intensity, only the automotive industry is medium-technology. Twenty industries have downward productivity gains, 18,35 % of total Brazilian industry, and between them are high-technology industries, as diverse capital tools, and electronics.

Free-to-Fee Transformation of Industrial Services

Industrial firms venturing into services is a common phenomenon in B2B markets. However, companies are often unable to monetize many such services, thus incurring high costs of service provision without benefiting from revenue generation in return. To address this critical but little-studied problem, we investigate how industrial firms can transform existing free services into for-fee offerings. Employing a theories-in-use approach, we explore leading global firms via a cross-section of B2B industries, including automotive, maritime, material handling, medical equipment, mining and construction tools, and petrochemicals. Contingent on the empirics, we precisely characterize and define free industrial services. Based on the internal and external challenges that firms face in free-to-fee (F2F) transformations, we develop a typology classifying free services into four distinct categories: Front-runners, Tugs of War, In-house Shackles, and Dead Ends. For each category, we provide empirical illustrations and identify critical actions and activities that firms deploy to successfully implement F2F transformations along the dimensions of structures, processes, people, and rewards. Thus, we offer guidance on how to overcome both external and internal challenges. Our findings demonstrate that F2F transformations of industrial services are not isolated marketing, sales, or pricing activities but require a concerted effort among all organizational functions involved.

Credit Resource Availability and Innovation Output: Evidence from Chinese Industrial Enterprises

This paper investigates the effect of credit availability on the number of industrial enterprises' patents from the perspective of financial geography, using the number of bank branches in the vicinity of industrial enterprises in China as a proxy variable. The number of patents is a proxy for the innovation output of an enterprise. The study finds that the higher availability of credit resources, represented by the number of bank branches in the vicinity, inhibits the innovation output of enterprises, and this inhibitory effect is more obvious in state-owned enterprises and large enterprises. Higher availability of credit resources leads industrial firms to fall more easily into the resource curse trap and thus fail to gain more innovative capabilities. This paper also provides a theoretical and data base for China's inability to complete industrial upgrading; it provides new evidence for the phenomenon of insufficient innovation capacity of industrial enterprises under China's rapid economic development in recent years; and it also provides a policy reference for financial supply reform. Keywords: Availability of credit resources, Innovation output, Financial geography.