Managerial Practices in a High Cost Manufacturing Environment

This chapter explores the management strategies adopted by manufacturing firms operating in high versus low cost economies and investigates the reasons for differences in the management practice choices. The study reported in this chapter identifies a subset of countries that have either high or low labour costs, with USA, Sweden, and Japan being high, and India, China, and Brazil being low labour cost economies. The high labour cost manufacturing firms are found to have better management practices. In this chapter, the authors find that Australia and New Zealand manufacturing firms face relatively high labour cost but lag behind world best practice in management performance. The chapter concludes by highlighting the need for improvement in management capability for Australian and New Zealand manufacturing firms if they are to experience a reinvigoration of productivity, competitiveness, and long-term growth.

Human Resource Development in Globalized Era

Human resources development is the process of increasing the knowledge, the skills, and the capacities of all the people in a society. In economic terms, it could be described as the accumulation of human capital and its effective investment in the development of an economy. In political terms, human resources development prepares people for adult participation in political processes, particularly as citizens in a democracy. From the social and cultural points of view, the development of human resources helps people to lead fuller and richer lives, less bound by tradition. In short, the processes of human resources development unlock the door to modernization. Education is essential for all and is fundamental to their all-round development, material and spiritual. Education has continued to evolve, diversify and extend its reach and coverage since the dawn of human history. Even Alfred Marshall emphasized the importance of education as a national investment and in his view the most valuable of all capital is that invested in human beings. Every country develops its system of education to express and promote its unique socio-cultural identity and also to meet the growing challenges with the changing times. In this regard, major initiatives/programmes taken by the Central as well as State governments. This paper deals with the changes in our education structure and system after independence of country like increment of literacy rate, growth of educational institution, enrolment ratio of girls, pupil teacher ratio in educational institutions, government's expenditure on education, structural change of education and vocationalisation of education.

Measuring the Effect of Team Characteristics, Team Effectiveness on Organizational Performance, Organizational Survival and Competitiveness

Teamwork was already utilized since the beginning of human history. Pressure of global competition, needs to align business models, and urgency to have continuous improvement have made many organizations and the majority of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) think of teamwork as one of their core competency. One way to improve NGO's competitive advantage was to enhance teamwork performance. The purpose of this research was to explore the relations between team characteristics, team effectiveness, organizational performance, organizational survival and competitiveness in the NGO context. A TEPS Model was created and analyzed by using Partial Least Squares (PLS) method. The findings indicated that team characteristics had a positive significant effect towards team effectiveness; team effectiveness also had positive significant effect towards innovation, customer's satisfaction, financial performance, as well as organizational survival and competitiveness of YCAB. Practical implications and suggestions were also proposed in order to improve overall teamwork performance in YCAB.

The Effect of E-Money on the Non-Financial Performance of Banks

This study is to explore the effect of the various aspects of e-money on the non-financial performance of banks. The population included all clients of Bank Mellat in the capital of Tehran, who use e-money services. A random sample of 404 of the clients was selected. Further, to collect data, the researchers developed a questionnaire with a Cronbach's Alpha of 0.891, which was validated by university lecturers and experts in banking and structural analysis. In order to analyze the problem and test the conceptual model of the study, factor analyses of first and second ranks, as well as path analysis were utilized. Throughout the research process, e-money was categorized into card-based and network-based types, and the non-financial performance of banks was measured in three indices of customer satisfaction, diversity of services offered by the banks, and the quality of those services. Findings suggest that e-money affects the non-financial performance of banks and its sub-factors, where the effect is more conspicuous on customer satisfaction and quality of services, compared to service diversity.

The Impact of Outsourcing on Performance and Competitive Priorities among Malaysian SMEs

The objective of this research is to examine the influence of outsourcing on financial performance and competitive priories of Malaysian SMEs. A data sample of 100 SMEs was analyzed to examine these relationships. The analysis was conducted via Partial Least Squares. Based on the findings, while outsourcing has significant influence of SMEs financial performance in Malaysian context, outsourcing activities do not have an impact on competitive priorities. Outsourcing approach emphasizing on the establishment of core competitive advantage, allows Malaysian SMEs to get the numerous benefits such as overall sales growth, market share, net profit, return on investment, and financial liquidity.

Supply Chain Management Practices, Competitive Advantage and Organizational Performance

Supply chain is the process of continuous flow of products or services from source to the destination. Supply chain management has become an effective tool now a day to survive in this competitive world. Organizations do their best to harvest profits by adopting better supply chain management practices for competitive advantage and organizational performance. In this paper an attempt has been made to understand the relationship among supply chain practices, competitive advantage, and organizational performance using structural equation modelling. This research conceptualizes and develops five secondary dimensions of supply chain practices (Use of technology, SC speed, Customer satisfaction, SC integration, and Inventory management). The research also identifies four primary competitive advantage components (Inventory management, Customer satisfaction, Profitability, and Customer base identification) and six primary organizational performance components (Financial Performance, Market performance, SC competencies, Customer satisfaction, Stakeholder satisfaction, and Innovation and learning). The data for analysis was collected from top 10 non-livestock organized retail players operating in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, New Delhi and, Gurgaon in India. The relationships in the proposed framework were tested using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that Indian retailers know that competitive advantage has high impact on SCP but they have less understanding in matching SCP and competitive advantage with organizational performance.

Sustainable Approach towards Thai SMEs

This study examines issues surrounding the sustainability of SMEs in the context of Thailand. Sufficiency economy philosophy and government support are seen as important covariates that could foster sustainable performance of SMEs. A sample of 119 SME entrepreneurs in the South of Thailand participated in this study. Exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical multiple regression were conducted and the results demonstrated that some dimensions of sufficiency economy philosophy and government support are critical predictors of economic and social performance. Moreover, knowledge and morality are found to promote the principle of sufficiency economy philosophy, as such SME entrepreneurs should be cognizant of the potential effects of this philosophy. The appropriate practices can be equipped and nurtured through the values of sufficiency economy philosophy, which shed light on means to achieve firm sustainability.

Financial Statement Analysis Under IFRS

This chapter provides a clear conceptual discussion on the recent developments in the Financial Statement Analysis (FSA). It presents how IFRSs changed the outlook of the financial reporting and the analysis and explains the key points that should be considered in FSA. Using a case study on the financial reports of Turkcell, a communication and technology company listed both on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Borsa Istanbul (BIST), the differences between IFRSs and U.S. GAAP accounting standards in the measurement of overall financial performance and position are documented. Overall findings show that IFRSs change the appearance of financial statements significantly. While IFRS reporting extenuates “the bottom line” it accentuates total assets with higher shareholder equity compared to U.S. GAAP. This chapter might be a practical guide for users, preparers, and regulators to understand the cosmetic impact of IFRSs on financial statements.

Organizational Intelligence Scale for Business Organizations in Chaotic Situations

One of the key roles of the present era in the management of an organization is intelligence. This influences the management of employees as well as applicability of human capital within the organization at a particular time. The significance of intelligence to both employees and organizations for the smooth operation of the organization cannot be overemphasized. It not only depicts the theoretical bases of intelligence in organizations but it also outlines the practical reflections at workplace. The purpose of this study is to develop a new scale that can be adopted in the evaluation of organizational intelligence based on management and competence in decision-making within firms in as far as trade, industry, finance and services tailored to transformation of companies operating in the business sector is concerned. Equally, a new methodology for testing the consistency of financial data of the companies in relation to this scale will also be introduced.

The Evaluation of Business Performance in ERP Environments

ERP systems, supporting and integrating all business processes across functions and offering real time information necessary for taking actions and making decisions, have prevailed in most enterprises worldwide. The costs involved in ERP implementations may be huge and must be justified by the outcomes. However, extant research has reported mixed and in some cases controversial results. In this chapter, certain important dimensions of ERP systems and of business performance are discussed. The chapter has an educational focus and aims at providing an exploration of ERP system's impact on certain business performance dimensions, informing thus scholars, practitioners and students of the issues involved and the areas they should pay attention when considering ERP implementations. Following an extensive literature review, a classification of diverse studies according to their research focus is provided, which reveals the range of business performance dimensions and can help researchers in their future projects.