E. James Flynn

• Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis

The fit between designed product characteristics and the supply chain process has been researched in the operations and supply chain management literature as an important strategic part of operations, but how to secure this fit is still a pending issue. The aim of this study is twofold: (a) to examine the relationship between product characteristic...

This study reports the findings of five different performance types that exist among business firms. These types were: Growing firms, turnabout firms, stagnant firms, turnaround firms, and declining firms. Using multiple discriminant analysis, the strategic differences among the five types were revealed. These strategic differences were captured in...

Research on the role of the board of directors and configurations of strategic attributes, important areas in strategic management, have proceeded somewhat independently. This study integrated these two streams of research to highlight the configurations among board of director composition and structure, and strategy. Hypotheses that firms with abo...

This study explores the mechanism of building an effective linkage among manufacturing practices that is a basic attribute of high performance manufacturing. High performance manufacturing companies are those that sustain high levels of performance over time. We propose a strategic management cycle, which explains how a firm establishes and maintai...

This paper puts forth a model of supply chain complexity and empirically tests it using plant-level data from 209 plants across seven countries. The results show that upstream complexity, internal manufacturing complexity, and downstream complexity all have a negative impact on manufacturing plant performance. Furthermore, supply chain characterist...

Investment in information systems and technology is often justified as a necessary strategy for coping with the increased complexity and information needs of today/s manufacturing environments. However, the world class manufacturing paradigm suggests that increased complexity is not always necessary to meet the needs of markets and customers. Galbr...

This paper examines the potential that quality management offers for improving supply chain management performance. Based on the theoretical and descriptive literature, four themes related to this topic are extracted. These are related to the pursuit of supply chain and quality goals simultaneously, leading to the development of cumulative capabili...

This research sets out to test some yet unanswered questions from the literature on cumulative capabilities, as well as addressing some of the shortcomings in prior research on cumulative capabilities. Multiple regression analysis is used to test hypotheses using an existing data set of 165 plants in five countries and three industries. The finding...

The article aims to develop the supplier obstructionism construct, drawing upon the strategic management, organization theory, psychology and supply chain management literature, and test its antecedents in a new product development context. Supplier obstructionism is hypothesized to have supplier power, dependence on suppliers, transaction-specific...

This paper investigates whether it is possible to achieve excellence in quality and other dimensions of competitive performance simultaneously. Drawing upon the operations management and strategic management literatures, it summarizes the theoretical and empirical arguments in favor of both the compatabilities and tradeoffs perspectives of simultan...

Although Hayes and Wheelwright originally coined the term `world class manufacturing', the global manufacturing environment has undergone many changes since their work. In the study, we seek to determine whether the practices which they described are still relevant in today's manufacturing environment. We also look at their list of competitive prio...

Although Hayes and Wheelwright originally coined the term ‘world class manufacturing’, the global manufacturing environment has undergone many changes since their work. In the study, we seek to determine whether the practices which they described are still relevant in today's manufacturing environment. We also look at their list of competitive prio...

Examines the role and influence of management systems, practices and behaviour in successful manufacturing strategy, based on the development of manufacturing strategy into a comprehensive concept which contains three paradigms: manufacturing as a source of competitive advantage, that the choices of manufacturing processes and other related charact...

A number of authors have used terms such as “world-class manufacturing”, “high performance manufacturing” and others to describe comprehensive approaches to manufacturing performance improvement. They have broken new ground by introducing the notion of broad, organization-wide improvement approaches, involving many complex interrelationships. Howev...

The resource-based view of the firm provides the logic for hypothesizing that firms will have different longitudinal patterns of manufacturing innovation adoption in plants. Early innovators were hypothesized to have higher levels of competitive performance. Results provided support for the hypotheses. Discussion centered on the capacity to innovat...

This study examines the performance implications of fit between the product-market strategy of a firm and its structure. The theoretical fit relationships between strategy and structure are developed on the basis of the Miles and Snow strategy framework (Organizational Strategy, Structure and Process. New York: McGraw Hill, Inc.) The study utilizes...

This study examines the direct and indirect impact of organizational context factors (strategy and environment) on the emphasis placed by firms on strategic information support. Data from a questionnaire survey of 167 banking institutions in mid-Western USA are used; analysis of the results shows that firms adopting marketing and service differenti...

This paper discusses the need for more research in operations management which is based on data from the real world. Tying operations management theory in with practice has been called for over a long period of time, however, many P/OM researchers do not have a strong foundation in gathering and using empirical data. This paper provides a starting...

This study examines the adoption of manufacturing process innovations in a sample of German, Italian, Japanese and U.S plants. Results support the hypotheses that future innovation adoption is a function of a plant's past innovation adoption history. We found no support for the impact of industry specific conditions on plant's adoption. These resul...

The major concern of this paper is predicting decision-maker momentum to change product and service offerings in response to signifi cant uncertainties as an antecedent to organizational change. From a survey of organizations in the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA), data were obtained on decision-makers' perce...