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This paper studies the trade-off nature of the external knowledge-sourcing strategy of firms. Different combinations of external knowledge and information sources (KISs) on innovation performance are analyzed in the light of the existence of complementary and substitution effects between relational and codified sources. We assert that these effects are conditioned by the knowledge basis of the firm, which is associated with the firm's relative cost of sourcing and internationalization. Our results shed new evidence on the specific features of sourcing knowledge for innovation in a less developed context, highlighting the critical role of codified sources and explaining the existence of the trade-offs that firms face in accessing and exploiting external KISs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the framework of institutional theory, this study explores how the proactiveness of focal (or buying) manufacturing firms, demonstrated through the adoption of various sustainability practices, influences the sustainability performance of suppliers. Additionally, it examines how the leadership capability of buying firms, particularly in terms of supply chain leadership, can play a crucial role in this link. Through empirical analysis of a sample taken from the fourth round of the High‐Performance Management (HPM) project, our study reveals compelling evidence indicating that buying firms, by adopting diverse sustainability practices, such as internal initiatives, monitoring efforts and collaborative approaches with suppliers, are able to create distinct institutional pressures. These pressures serve as a conduit for the diffusion of a shared set of sustainability goals, values and norms among suppliers, ultimately contributing to the development of sustainability competences and improving their overall sustainability performance. Furthermore, our findings suggest that when buying firms undertake a leading position, they can effectively translate isomorphism pressures into sustainability improvements on the supplier side. Overall, this study sheds light on important and understudied aspects of sustainability practices in buyer–supplier relationships and underscores the critical role that supply chain leadership can play in promoting sustainable practices across the entire supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of global concern for the environment and considering the observation that very few manufacturing companies have taken a more proactive position on sustainability, it has been suggested that the stakeholder approach can contribute to the study of sustainability management. Hence, this paper analyzes the relationship between a set of individual stakeholders pressures (STP) from different groups and the adoption and implementation of some specific sets of sustainability practices (SP) in manufacturing: internal and external monitoring and external collaborative. It also contributes to the open debate around the "monolithic" versus differentiated reaction to perceived STP, showing that companies respond selectively to the different stakeholder groups. Finally, this research also considers the possible influence of different country development contexts (developed vs. emerging countries), which may be very informative in the context of the growing globalization of operations. Using a large, worldwide, multicountry, and multi‐informant sample of manufacturing plants from three industry sectors located in 15 emerging and developed countries, this study shows that the different stakeholders play different roles in the adoption and implementation of different sustainability practices, thus contributing to the open debate around a suitable balance of stakeholder pressures. This research further contributes to the debate around the convergence and divergence perspectives by supporting the "universal" adoption of sustainability practices (convergence perspective) as no statistical differences are found in stakeholder pressures in different country development contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the effects of different integrative strategies related to supply chain (SC) actors (suppliers, customers and internal manufacturing) in the early stages of new product development (NPD) on NPD success. Relying on various theories and related empirical evidence, we state three hypotheses and empirically test them using multi-country and multi-industry data from 309 manufacturing plants. The results show that different strategies of involvement explain different NPD success. We observed that integrative practices involving three distant actors have a positive impact on all NPD success indicators. We also observed that NPD success related to specific purposes, for example, market or internal processes, can be obtained with simpler combinations of collaboration. This shows the significance of choosing a differentiated portfolio of SC partners based on cognitive distance to achieve success in different NPD performance measures. Our results confirm that the types of partners are determinants in achieving different NPD success and that there are different alternatives to achieve success. These results have implications for managers to optimise the allocation of limited resources when cooperating with different agents in NPD projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the impact of manufacturing technologies (MTs) and workers' qualifications on labour productivity and flexibility, taking into account the product-process (P-P) strategy adopted by the company. This allows for a discussion about the well-known P-P matrix initially proposed by Hayes and Wheelwright (1994) in order to evaluate options of production systems. The empirical analysis is performed by means of a panel of data of 13 years for the Spanish manufacturing industry, which includes a total of 7741 observations. The results indicate a complementary effect between technology and skills to overcome the trade-offs of production systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to analyse the relationship between the internalisation of ISO 9000 standards and two measures of employee-level outcomes: Job Satisfaction (JS) and Affective Commitment (AC). The relationship has been analysed from the perspective of shop-floor employees, a perspective that have been under-researched in the scholarly literature. 329 shop-floor employees belonging to 11 Spanish companies from the automotive parts industry participated in the survey. The results indicate that the internalisation of ISO 9000 impacts strongly and positively on JS and AC. Moreover, the analysis shown that JS plays an important mediator role in the relationship between the internalisation of ISO 9000 and AC. This study is relevant and contributes to the literature providing an analysis focused on the internalisation of ISO 9000, related to two work-performance measures at the individual level and from the perspective of the shop-floor workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human Resource Management issues are a crucial factor in the effective implementation of tools and practices in the field of Quality Management. Our study addresses this issue by considering the existence of complementarities between Process Control (PC) and two shop-floor leadership practices (i.e. Shop-Floor Contact (SFC) and Supervisory Interaction Facilitation (SIF)), directed to promote contact and interaction between middle managers and supervisors with blue collar workers to explain quality performance, which is measured by Quality of Conformance (QC) and Customer Satisfaction (CS). The data used in this study were gathered from 317 manufacturing plants, with more than 100 workers, operating in 10 countries all over the world. Our results confirm the positive effects that PC practices have on both QC and CS. In addition, we observed that leadership practices moderate the relationship between PC and quality performance measures. Specifically, it seems that the SFC interacts with PC to improve CS; whereas, SIF can be an aid for PC to increase QC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how ability, motivation and opportunity bundles of HRM practices affect enhanced manufacturing performance in family firms (FFs) and non-family firms (NFFs). Five hypotheses were proposed and tested using data from a unique survey of 301 manufacturing plants located in Uruguay and Argentina. Estimations indicate that coherent bundles comprising HRM practices aimed at enhancing abilities (A) and giving workers the opportunity to participate in the decision-making process (O), individually and interactively, have a positive effect on manufacturing performance in FFs. A motivational bundle of HRM practices (M) has a positive effect on enhanced performance in NFFs. The study therefore establishes the existence of hierarchies among bundles, which vary with company ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with quality management practices in the global supply chain. More specifically, the association between the geographical location of suppliers (within a country or in low labour cost countries) and quality assurance practices is analysed. Three hypotheses are proposed and tested using a sample of 401 Spanish manufacturing establishments with at least 50 workers in all industries. The results indicate that plants purchasing a higher proportion of their inputs in low-cost countries are more likely to be certified according to a quality standard. However, no associations have been found between the localisation of suppliers and the establishment of close relationships with suppliers in order to assure quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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