<p class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.1pt; color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">A sample of the best manufacturing firms from Industrial Week’s Annual Survey of Manufacturers (2008-2009) is analyzed within the context of a value driver matrix and free cash flow regime that link manufacturing to important determinants of shareholder value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The framework for analysis developed in association with this analysis relies on the format advocated by Rappaport (1998), whereby a manufacturing value driver map is derived that isolates those variables generally accepted as determinant with respect to manufacturing performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This map is subsequently used to identify that subset of variables that have the greatest impact on value and, in turn, to focus on those micro-value drivers over which operations management has a meaningful level of control.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></em><em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">If superior performance measured in terms of the micro-value drivers is an avenue to manufacturing excellence and the creation of shareholder value, one would expect to see statistically significant relationships between these predictor variables (micro-value drivers) and market value.<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here this proposition is tested by way of</span> a simultaneous reverse entry multiple regression analysis where market capitalization (<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">V<sub>0</sub></span>) is treated as a function of a set of manufacturing related micro-value drivers.</span></em></span></p>
Unpacking the interplay between organisational factors and the economic environment in the creation of consumer vulnerability
