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Abstract: The process of economic evolution from agriculture to manufacturing to services is nearing its end in the U.S. and other developed economies. Another major evolution along a different dimension is now underway: it is from a material-based economy to an information-based economy. In the past, the product–service dichotomy has proved useful as an organizing principle for the study of operations management. Today, however, a material–information categorization of products and services appears to be equally important and useful. The information sector now comprises the major share of the U.S. private economy and includes many of the largest industrial sectors and firms. We discuss the implications of this evolution for research and teaching in operations management (OM). The basic questions addressed here are: In what ways are information products, services, processes and chains similar to, or different from, those in the material world? To what extent is it possible to manage operations in information industries using the existing operations management concepts and techniques? The conclusions are mixed. To a great extent, traditional concepts are indeed applicable and useful. However, there are significant differences. For example, quantification and measurement pose a fundamental problem in the study of information industries. As a result, there are difficulties in analyzing some of the most basic OM issues related to productivity, cost, value, and transformation. Nevertheless, the process-centric methods of operations management can be quite effective in analyzing firms and industries that produce information goods and services. An understanding of process economics and information chains is also central to the analysis of competition given the impact of new technologies on processes, firms, information chains and information industries. We conclude that while there is much in the information sector that can be addressed with our current toolkit, some very interesting and challenging issues still remain open for research. From the perspective of management education too, operations management in the information economy is an area of growing importance, with some easy wins and some significant challenges. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In a large cross-country sample of manufacturing establishments drawn from 188 cities, average exports per establishments are smaller for African firms than for businesses in other regions. Based on the estimation of firm level exporting equations, we show that this is mainly because, on average, African firms face more adverse economic geography and operate in poorer institutional settings. One part of the effect of geography operates through Africa's lower ‘foreign market access’: African firms are located further away from wealthier or denser potential export markets. A second occurs through the region's lower ‘supplier access’: African firms face steeper input prices, partly because of their physical distance from cheaper foreign suppliers, and partly because domestic substitutes for importable inputs are more expensive. Africa's poorer institutions reduce its manufactured exports directly, as well as indirectly, by lowering foreign market access and supplier access. Both geography and institutions influence average firm level exports significantly more through their effect on the number of exporters than through their impact on how much each exporter sells onto foreign markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that the core is non-empty and coincides with the set of competitive equilibria for an assembled product industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been suggested that investment may be time irreversible, and consideration of the option value of waiting to invest has aroused renewed interest in this issue. This study tests for time irreversibility in UK investment according to disaggregation by type of investment expenditure and across manufacturing sector groupings. The test results reported indicate that the irreversibility of investment patterns varies not only from industry to industry but also according to the type of capital being purchased, with significant time irreversibility detected in gross fixed capital formation and aggregate vehicles expenditure, and industrial sector groupings comprising fuels and oil refining, engineering and vehicles, and textiles and leather. However, only in the first and last of these series is time irreversibility attributable to non-linearities in the underlying data generating process, and consistent with threshold effects which may be associated with (S,s) type models of investment dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The HIV epidemic in resource poor nations has a devastating effect on their peoples with dramatic falls in population survival rates. The extent of this epidemic is so great that in many nations basic food production is not occurring, and any significant output from manufacturing industries is falling because of the lack of people to employ within these industries. This paper describes how the effective use of information management technologies (IT) can link direct patient care processes within the micro‐environment of health clinics based on Electronic Medical Record (EMR) functionalities, with wider community‐based projects such as government initiatives and international programs (macro‐information systems). Through the linking of these domains using cost‐effective information systems and the intimate involvement of local populations in the development and management of these projects we can save lives through direct care and preventive care programs. This is particularly so with the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa and other resource poor nations. Through the use of these resources and progress towards self‐sufficiency we may be able to provide the peoples of these nations with the resources to survive and become self‐sustaining and resist their ‘extinction’ physically and economically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to examine formally the fundamental implication that technical inefficiency (TI) is related to firm exit. Traditional stochastic frontier models allow for the measurement of TI but do not allow for a direct effect of TI on exit. We propose a model which allows for such effects and consists of a stochastic frontier model, and an additional equation that describes the probability of exit as a function of covariates and TI. Since TI is unobserved, econometric complications arise, and obtaining consistent estimates is non-trivial due to the presence of integrals in the likelihood function. We propose and implement maximum likelihood estimation one step, employing data for 3,404 manufacturing firms in Greece. We find significant positive effects from TI on the probability of exit. We also propose and provide measures of TI that respect the fact that unobserved TI affects the probability of exit and compare them to TI measures from the traditional stochastic frontier model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents two hypotheses pertaining to the economic expansion in Russia, the real appreciation of the ruble, competition in the manufacturing sector, and taxation of the petroleum sector. Research methods include Vector Auto Regression (VAR) models. Evidence suggests that the ruble will have a slightly negative effect on manufacturing's performance. More taxation in the oil industry is expected to have a significant negative effect on investment in the Russian economy during the fifth and ninth forecast periods.

The article identifies the factors that contribute to the economic growth of China and India. The average economic growth rate of both countries is 10% annually during the period 1980-2004. The diverse manufacturing sector of China boosts its economy while the economy growth of India is driven by globalization particularly in information technology (IT) sector. Bilateral trade increased by more than ten times in both countries. The U.S. is the most significant export market of the countries.

This paper is a survey of recent contributions to, and developments of, the relationship between outsourcing, efficiency and productivity growth in manufacturing and services. The objective is to provide a thorough and up–to–date survey that provides a significant discussion on data, as well as on the core methods of measuring efficiency and productivity. First, the readers are introduced to the measurement of partial and total factor productivity growth. Different parametric and non–parametric approaches to the productivity measurement in the context of static, dynamic and firm–specific modelling are discussed. Second, we survey the econometric approach to efficiency analysis. The issues of modelling, distributional assumptions and estimation methods are discussed assuming that cross–sectional or panel data are available. Third, the relationship between outsourcing and productivity growth in manufacturing and services is discussed. The correspondence between a number of hypotheses and empirical findings are examined. Examples of varieties of relevant empirical applications, their findings and implications are presented. Fourth, measurement of inputs and outputs in manufacturing and services are discussed. Finally, to promote useful research, a number of factors important to the analysis of outsourcing, efficiency and productivity growth in the service sector are summarised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the effect of lagging behind in the process of downsizing and deconcentration in manufacturing industries. Analysis on the extent of downsizing in manufacturing industries; Discussion on the measurement of restructuring and economic growth; Results of the effect of restructuring on economic growth.

Dual production specifications derived under certainty are typically randomized for econometric purposes with ad hoc error specifications. This article shows that such approaches can cause integrability conditions to fail. In particular, if errors in input demands represent errors in optimization that affect output, then typical dual approaches do not yield congruent supplies and demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents findings from an exploratory study into the content and impact of product innovation charters (PICs) in 86 North American corporations. The findings demonstrate that managers have some distinct preferences in terms of the items that they choose to include in a PIC and that certain components seem to be more important to mention than others. The findings also make evident the relationship that PICs have with selected performance measures. The results suggest that product innovation charters, like their mission statement ‘cousins’, may be of more value than most managers realize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the deindustrialization of Singapore, or the structural shift from the manufacturing sector toward the service sector. Statistics highlighting the movement of Singapore's economy towards the service industry; Role of the state in the economic restructuring; Regional security issues in Asia which affect the success of Singapore's deindustrialization.

Examines the procyclical productivity and returns-to-scale in Philippine manufacturing industry. Estimation of the returns to scale of the economy; Reasons for the weak economy of the Philippines; Discussion of the Philippine short-run macro-economic dynamics.

The article comments on the lecture given by the author in the memory of the macroeconomist Michal Kalecki regarding the political economy of full employment in modern Great Britain. The lecture is about unemployment. Kalecki believed that unemployment in advanced capitalist economies can often be reduced by creating demand through deficit-financed government expenditure. Kalecki considers how capitalism might be reformed so that it can function without unemployment. The authoritarian solution is fascism, which replaces the discipline of unemployment by the direct repression of the working class by force. The democratic solution, which he favors, is a new settlement between capital and labor, in which powerful trade unions co-operate with the employers in return for income redistribution and other egalitarian measures. Kalecki also recognized that structural factors might limit the scope for demand-stimulating measures. In his 1944 paper, "Three Ways to Full Employment," he argues that inflation will result if demand increases so much that a general scarcity of productive capacity emerges.

Analyzes the trend in overtime hours in manufacturing industries in the United States. Overtime growth from 1991 to 1998; Sources of overtime growth; Overview of employment and overtime in 1998.

This article examines the Drink Free Days (DFD) campaign run by Public Health England and the industry funded alcohol education charity, Drinkaware, in eight English regions in 2018–2019. More specifically, it examines uses, and usefulness, of the campaign to the alcohol producers which fund Drinkaware. It draws on 36 semi-structured interviews with policy actors and a framing analysis of industry social media accounts and news coverage of the campaign. Industry-associated bodies such as Drinkaware have been identified as key components of alcohol industry strategies to influence policy and shape the regulatory contexts in which they operate in three ways. First, funding such bodies forms part of corporate social responsibility programmes which allow companies to position themselves as legitimate policy actors and 'part of the solution' to alcohol related harms. Second, reliance on industry funding incentivises governments to co-operate with industry actors and provides leverage in policy debates. Third, their programmes absorb policy bandwidth and deflect from more effective, evidence based interventions (e.g. on pricing and advertising) which affect industry sales and profits. This is particularly effective if the perception of independence from the industry is created. The analysis presented below suggests that the DFD was not used explicitly by the industry actors for public relations purposes. However, it was useful to their broader strategic aims. It reinforced the position of Drinkaware as a key policy actor and promoted the particular, industry-favoured understanding of alcohol harms and their solutions which it promotes. This is in keeping with the previous insights from international research literature on corporate political activity in health harming industries which finds that policy influence is often subtle, indirect and designed to embed organisations within the policy architecture. It suggests that government agencies should proceed with great caution in entering into such partnerships with industry associated bodies. • The DFD campaign was not promoted by alcohol industry actors. • The partnership between Drinkaware and PHE was useful in indirect ways. • It legitimises Drinkaware and reinforced its key position in UK alcohol policy. • It promotes an industry-favourable policy framing. • The campaign benefits industry regardless of whether there is industry influence over Drinkaware. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT According to Harold Innis, Canada's economic history has been based on the discovery of natural resources, consequent community formation to facilitate their extraction, resource depletion, and finally, community disappearance. This model links industrial change and development in the resource sector with both community and ecological outcomes but neglects detailed exploration of the industry/ecosystem linkage. The purpose of this paper is to adapt the ecological footprint concept in order to make the ecological impact of economic and technological change in a Canadian resource industry (sawmilling) explicit. This investigation utilizes a large cohort of sawmill workers gathered in 14 British Columbia (B.C.) mills, a study that measured the ecological footprint in several of these mills, and a labor adjustment study conducted by Statistics Canada to explore the links between technological change and downsizing in this resource industry and both community and ecological sustainability. The ecological footprint concept is adapted for use in a resource-extracting industry. This allows moving the estimation of the ecological footprint from its usual place, an urban consuming population, to the site of natural capital transformation (the sawmill) thereby linking the costs and benefits of this transformation with site or region-specific ecosystem exploitation. Results demonstrate that the recession of the early 1980s eliminated over 40% of the sawmill workforce and stimulated increased replacement of labor by capital, thus increasing productivity and the ecological footprint of sawmills. The new technical infrastructure now in place in most sawmills is accelerating the pace of forest ecosystem draw-down while at the same time producing less economic benefit for the local community. Adaptation of the ecological footprint for use at the site of the transformation of natural capital makes these trade-offs more specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of localisation and urbanisation economies on regional manufacturing development in Poland 1976-96 is assessed in terms of employment and the regional convergence or divergence of the economy. Current research on the role of dynamic production externalities in regional manufacturing development is examined, starting with a review of recent literature on the nature of such externalities in manufacturing location, and how positive externalities may influence the spatial clustering of manufacturing industries. The paper shows that radical changes have occurred in patterns of Polish regional manufacturing employment, both with regard to sectors and regions. Transition is refocusing the regional economy on strong regional centres, and on sectors regarded with little favour in the planned economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the impact of unions on wages. Wage dispersion within the union sector; Examination of Brazilian manufacturing that shows how unionism creates a positive wage differential; The validity of findings in the context of a developing country labor market; the variance in the characteristics of unionized workers; The vulnerability of nonunion workers to market conditions; The structure of wage bargaining.

Examines the entry and exit process in the Finnish manufacturing industry. Positive influence of industry growth on entry and negative influence on exit; Influence of variables describing the general economic climate and monetary transmission mechanism on the entry-exit process; Unit elasticity of entry/exit relative to industry size.

Examines the productivity record in Germany and Great Britain for a number of industries within manufacturing. Influence of a third form of capital, research and development expenditures; Productivity levels in manufacturing; Relative levels of capital; Accounting for productivity differences; Conclusion.

Comments on W. Wiewel and J. Persky's contention on the increase in the agglomeration of economies in the service sector. Decline of commercial agglomeration in manufacturing; Effects of economic and technological developments in the service and manufacturing sectors; Changes in production technology; Deconcentration of service activities.

Describes the potential exposure of the manufacturing industry's revenues and costs of United States, Canada, Great Britain and Japan to world events through exports, imports and imported inputs. Measures of external orientation; Cross-country comparisons of external orientation; Export and import share rankings; Imported input share ranking. INSET: Calculating imported input share..

Focuses on the effects of technological trends in the manufacturing sector of New York City. Factors that have contributed to the outmigration of manufacturing firms in New York City; Three forces that are crucial to the future of manufacturing firms in New York City.

Examines a number of factors that might explain the trends in U.S. trade composition. Detail of the trends in U.S. import and export composition during the 1980s; Impact of shifts in trade composition on the U.S. trade outlook; Conclusion.

This paper puts the role of product quality in the market game of supply and demand into the center of the analysis. To that purpose it provides a systematic investigation of market diagrams with quality instead of price on the ordinate. This new focus allows interesting conclusions by simple application of well-known diagrammatic methods. For instance, as far as single markets are concerned, it is shown that providing consumers with information about product quality may increase or decrease quality in the market, depending on the type of information provided. Another conclusion of practical relevance, concerning the macroeconomic activity level, is that an effective demand problem may be caused ff present product quality is too low compared with the product quality expected for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on a study which determined the degree of correspondence between a country's export vector of manufactures and a trade partner's import vector. Measures of export-import similarity and their role in explaining the level of trade between countries; Analysis of an index of relative trade potential in manufactured products; Conclusion.

Examines the process by which agents form expectations on price and cost inflation. Measures of expectations; Qualitative survey responses in nine industrial sectors covering the manufacturing companies in Great Britain; Effect of aggregation bias in the test; Expectation formation process.

The labour market consequences of trade and protection have only recently come under the scrutiny of labour economists. This paper seeks to accomplish two things - to survey the recent research and to provide estimates of the effect that reductions in effective rates of assistance afforded to Australia's manufacturing industries have had on employment. Recent labour market developments reveal a downward trend in manufacturing employment levels. The declines appear to have been associated with lower levels of assistance. However, the estimates of the effect of lower levels of protection are generally small - about a one per cent reduction in employment for each ten per cent reduction in the effective rate of industry assistance. In addition, the manufacturing employment developments appear to be only weakly linked to real wage resistance. Overall, an overriding impression from the find ings presented in this paper is the strength of the structural adjustments ongoing in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the existence of externalities in production for an endogenous growth model to explain sustained economic growth in Taiwan. The researchers used Caballero and Lyon's methodology which estimated indexes of internal returns to scale and external economies for two-digit manufacturing industries in the country to argue for the existence of externalities. The methodology factored in the log-linear approximation of the production function, share of labor in the total factor costs, growth of output, growth of labor input and the two-digit industry. It also used the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) and three-stage least square (3SLS) estimating procedures with three sets of instrumental variables.