Suchergebnisse

AbstractSpecifying quality requirement is integral to any sourcing relationship, but vague and ambiguous specifications can often be observed in practice, especially when a buyer is in the initial stage of sourcing a new product. In this research, we study a supplier's production incentives under vague or exact quality specifications. We prove that a vague specification may in fact motivate the supplier to increase its quantity provision, resulting in a higher delivery quality. Vague quality specification can therefore be advantageous for a buyer to screen potential suppliers with an initial test order, and then rely on the received quality level to set more concrete quality guidelines. There is a degree, though, to which vague quality specification can be effective, as too much vagueness may decrease the supplier's quantity provision and hence the expected delivery quality. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013

ABSTRACTWe consider a manufacturer's new market entry problem when it already has some established facility in its existing market. We consider two common market entry strategies: the export strategy and the foreign direct investment (FDI) strategy. In the export strategy the firm increases the capacity at its existing facility and subsequently allocates the output to the existing and the new market dynamically, depending on realized market conditions. The export strategy is a flexible strategy. In the FDI strategy, the firm invests in a dedicated capacity to serve the new market only. The FDI strategy is a (partially) dedicated strategy. We study these two strategies from a planning perspective, that is, how the firm's strategy choice influences the optimal capacity levels. We find that the firm's strategy choice can significantly impact the optimal capacity investment levels. We prove, for example, that the firm may enter the new market in the export strategy but not in the FDI strategy, even if the capacity investment cost is identical in the existing and the new market. In addition, we prove that the firm may invest a strictly higher capacity level in the export strategy than that in the FDI strategy. We also prove that new market entry in the FDI strategy may strictly decrease the firm's supply to its existing market but this is not so in the export strategy, and hence policy makers should carefully consider the implications of trade regulations on firms' market entry choices.

AbstractThere has been a dramatic increase over the past decade in the number of firms that source finished product from overseas. Although this has reduced procurement costs, it has increased supply risk; procurement lead times are longer and are often unreliable. In deciding when and how much to order, firms must consider the lead time risk and the demand risk, i.e., the accuracy of their demand forecast. To improve the accuracy of its demand forecast, a firm may update its forecast as the selling season approaches. In this article we consider both forecast updating and lead time uncertainty. We characterize the firm's optimal procurement policy, and we prove that, with multiplicative forecast revisions, the firm's optimal procurement time is independent of the demand forecast evolution but that the optimal procurement quantity is not. This leads to a number of important managerial insights into the firm's planning process. We show that the firm becomes less sensitive to lead time variability as the forecast updating process becomes more efficient. Interestingly, a forecast‐updating firm might procure earlier than a firm with no forecast updating. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2009

AbstractWe propose that quality of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, as measured by independent agencies, will decline when firms perform well in social responsibility. Building on the existing literature on stakeholder theory and existing literature, we theorize that lower‐quality CSR reports may correlate with better actual CSR because performing well in CSR will increase external stakeholders' expectations but simultaneously stimulate discontent among shareholders, forcing firms to mitigate the conflict through CSR reports. This study takes Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2019 as subjects and examines the relationship between winning prestigious CSR awards and CSR report quality. The results support our hypothesis. We further investigate two moderator variables and find the negative relationship is weakened when firms are state‐owned, potentially resulting in more social expectation pressures from the government and public. As an important financial indicator tracked by internal stakeholders, return on equity weakens this negative relationship.