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Volume 1 Number 2

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Editorial: Learning to Be an Author of a Journal Article

The Strategic Supplier Partnership in a Supply Chain Management with Quality and Business Performance

The study investigates the association of strategic supplier partnership (SSP) in supply chain management (SCM) with product quality performance and business performance in the Malaysian manufacturing industries. In the inferential process, relationships between strategic supplier partnership practice, product quality performance and business performance and associations are analyzed using Pearson’s correlation, cluster analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings suggest that strategic supplier partnership practice and implementation have significant associations with product quality performance and business performance. The results of the study will be of particular interest to practicing production managers or top level managers for learning about the factors stimulating the adoption of strategic supplier partnership in SCM.  

The Grouping and Prioritising of Driving Forces for ICT Adoption by Medical Practitioners: Do These Differ between Rural and Urban GPs in Australia?

Increasing use of ICT technologies in medical practices has led to a number of studies examining their use in rural as well as urban settings. The purpose of this study is to examine how GPs in rural and urban practice group and prioritise the driving forces for ICT adoption. Correlation and factor analysis was performed on the data sets (198 GPs, 122 Rural – 76 urban) obtained by means of a survey questionnaire. Not only do the results show that the drivers can be ‘simplified’ from 16 to 2 or 3, but they also show that there are differences both in the grouping and priorities placed on certain drivers between rural and urban GPs. Whereas rural GPs consider that there are 3 distinct underlying reasons for ICT adoption (medical/business efficiency, external pressure, enhanced communication), urban GPs couple external pressure with enhanced communications as a single driver for ICT adoption.

Firm Characteristics and Access to Bank Loans: An Empirical Analysis of Manufacturing SMEs in China

Using the World Bank’s Enterprise Survey, this paper examines the relationship between the financing patterns of China’s manufacturing SMEs and their characteristics including ownership and location. The financing patterns of our sample firms are bi-polar depending on whether a firm makes use of bank loans. Therefore, we focus on the characteristics of those firms which have commercial bank loans for financing working and investment capital. Conducting probit analysis, we show that smaller firms and firms in the regions with less developed financial environments are more constrained in using bank loans. The availability of accounting and legal services, export right, and government agency’s assistances enhance access to bank credits, although the government assistance has not necessarily targeted smaller firms.

Critical Success Factors of TQM: Impact on Business Performance of Manufacturing Sector in Pakistan

This paper develops comprehensive criticality index (CCI) of TQM implementation and investigates its relationship with business performance of the manufacturing firms selected from four major industries of Pakistan. Data collected from randomly selected two hundred ISO 9000-2000 certified firms. CCI of quality implementation for overall manufacturing sector as well as for individual industry is developed so as to find specific requirements of quality management improvement in each industry. Critical Success Factors (CSFs) based on CCI are arranged in descending order and classified into three tiers. By using Multivariate regression analysis; significance of CSFs of TQM for firm’s business performance is analyzed for each industry. The results of this study will guide the senior management in implementation of TQM program and allocation of resources that will yield best performance in term of higher returns and maximum stakeholder value.

Training and Education Program as a Major Determinant of Quality Improvement in Malaysian Electrical and Electronics Industry

Organizations that are committed to quality improvement invest heavily in training and education (T&Ed) program of their employees. T&Ed program is therefore becomes an important aspect in the human resource management. The aim of the paper is to examine the influence of training and education program on quality improvement in 255 Electrical and Electronics (E&E) firms in Malaysia. The findings reveal that quality improvement in the Malaysian electrical and electronics industries are significantly influenced by training and education. Thus, this study has empirically shown that quality improvement will increase when the firms implement more training and educational programs.

Evaluation of SMEs Innovativeness Using Patent Stock Variables

Patent stock is used as a proxy for firm’s knowledge capital. It is supposed to be a useful indicator of firm’s innovative capacity. However, past studies have relied on simple and incomplete patent counts to quantify an aspect of firm's knowledge stock. It follows that large firms are more innovative than SMEs in most cases. This paper examines candidates of attribute adjusted patent stock considering citations. We find that stock variables created from citation data contain relevant information of firm’s knowledge stock. As an example, we calculate various patent stocks and patent quality indices using six Japanese chemical firms consisting of three large firms and three SMEs showing SMEs are more innovative than large firms in some measures.

Organization and Growth of Firms: Validation of an Organizational Model through Survey Data

The main endeavour in this study is to design a set of statistical methods such as factor, bi-dimensional scaling, cluster, and regression analyses in order to provide validation evidence of logical and internal consistency of the observed variables by applying PROBB (Process of the block box). Thus, it is found that a firm needs five factors (latent variables), that is, teamwork dynamics, coordinated execution, and overall planning in order to act and react successfully in the markets (all this is assisted by the thinking and feeling process). Each of these factors contains about 20 interrelated observed variables of the PROBB model. Also it is found that there is a hierarchy in subgroups of these five factors and those key business variables such as sales and product uniqueness can be explained in the map of PROBB variables. It is recommended that the knowledge of all these findings will assist both scholars and business people to better understand what firms need to grow and prosper in terms of organization and management.