Search results

This study aims to address the current gap in knowledge of indirect procurement performance management. It attempts to argue the need for a specific and tailored performance management approach for the indirect procurement function that incorporates a balanced approach, beyond financial measures.

The case study approach evaluated key performance indicators from a balanced scorecard (BSC) perspective in the development of a performance measurement system (PMS) for a Middle Eastern university’s indirect procurement division. It initially reviewed the literature to assess potential indicators for this context. It used vision and mission statement analysis alongside expert interviews to augment the literature. The candidate indicators were then evaluated and ranked by an expert panel through applying a four-round Delphi technique.

Twenty-nine procurement-specific indicators are suggested in a BSC framework. The five highest-ranked indicators were not in the financial perspective unlike other BSC studies in the broader field of supply chain management (SCM).

The study suggests a framework and indicators for a procurement PMS for practitioners to consider. It also highlights there is no one-size-fits-all and that organisations need to tailor PM to the organisation and divisional strategy and operational needs. This study aids the development of guidelines for executives and procurement management that wish to develop indicators and a PMS.

This study contributes to knowledge by partly addressing the under-researched field of indirect procurement PM. The literature suggested that various roles in SCM require specific PM indicators. This study puts forward a BSC framework with 29 indicators specifically for indirect procurement. Fourteen of these indicators were derived from non-literature sources. This study enhances knowledge and contributes to the limited debate and evidence on indirect procurement PM and the broader PM literature.

This paper analyses the impact of institutional proximity, cognitive proximity and geographical proximity (in the form of agglomeration economies) on the firm-level productivity of foreign-owned firms in Ireland. The analysis of agglomeration economies, consisting of internal economies of scale, localization economies, related variety and urbanization economies, has a strong pedigree in regional economics literature. Increasingly, however, alternative explanations of firm-level productivity performance have been explored with institutional and cognitive proximity often identified as other important determinants of performance. This paper presents an analysis of the importance of agglomeration economies (based on geographical proximity) versus institutional and cognitive proximity (which may be a-spatial).

A series of measures capturing regional level agglomeration economies are generated as well as measures of institutional and cognitive proximity. The impact of these effects on foreign-owned firm-level productivity is analysed using data from the Irish Census of Industrial Local Units 2009. The estimation method employed is general method of moments (GMM) which allows for the potential endogeneity of variables within the system of analysis.

The results reveal that institutional proximity has a positive impact on productivity. A possible reason for this result is that local units of the same nationality are sharing knowledge in relation to successfully conducting business in Ireland. However, cognitive proximity is found to be statistically insignificant. Agglomeration economies are also important with urbanization economies and the availability of skilled labour having a positive effect on productivity.

The key contributions of this paper are as follows; firstly, the paper provides the first test of the institutional and cognitive proximity hypotheses on productivity while also controlling for a series of internal and external agglomeration economies. Secondly, the analysis considers, firm level, regional level and national level indicators as determinants of firm's productivity. In combining micro and macro level indicators, the paper attempts to answer the call of Van Oort et al. (2012) for such analyses. Thirdly, the paper provides the first detailed examination of the role of ‘proximity’ on foreign-owned manufacturing firms in the Irish context.

Mr Eoin C. Mekie, C.B.E., has been appointed to the Board of the Decca Navigator Co. Ltd.

Japanese overseas investment will go up nearly tenfold by 1980, much of it in Europe. But UK ventures are likely to be small, like the YKK zip factory at Runcorn, to avoid conflict with unions. Preston Witts reports; pictures by Patrick Thurston.

The quote above was taken from the actor Brendan Gleeson, who struck a chord with Irish people in his outburst about the lack of care shown to the old and vulnerable during the years preceding the economic downturn in 2008. In the Irish case, it has always been the marginalised and poorest who have suffered at the hands of the pride and greed of the ruling elite. This chapter will establish an understanding of the ideologically driven and often tragic economic planning undertaken in the Irish state since Independence in 1922. The chapter will outline the problems associated with political elites which then became manifest in the socio-economic life of the country. These problems were political, but also cultural, and shaped the difficulties that have befallen the Irish state in almost every decade of its history.

A series of research experiences provoked this paper. In the spring of 2003, I was asked to act as an assessor, for the Island of Ireland Seed Corn competition¹. There I came across academic start-ups (ASUs), directly linked to Irish public sector science and technology (S&T) funding. Several of the competition teams consisted of young scientists, who presented business plans. Probing demonstrated that the teams appeared to possess little understanding of the business concepts these contained. Another consistent finding was that any market reference made was focused on multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries already located in the country. Intrigued by this, together with a colleague, we then began looking at ASUs, university-based funded S&T research centres and the activities of the newly created Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI).²

The purpose of the study has been to fill the gap detected in the literature and to analyze whether the application of management of R&D in accordance with UNE 166002:2021 allows companies to obtain higher product innovation and better performance, specifically incremental and radical product innovations.

The population used in this study included Spanish manufacturing organizations that were active, had more than 50 employees according to the SABI. The information was collected through a structured questionnaire previously tested using a company specializing in the sector under the supervision of the authors. A total of 1,154 companies were randomly contacted in order to reach an acceptable number of 225 valid questionnaires. The data analysis has been carried out with structural equation methodology.

The results obtained with a sample of 225 companies show that the application of this standard for innovation management promotes the development of new products with incremental and radical changes, and improves business performance. It has also been found that incremental and radical product innovations mediate the relationship between this standard and performance.

Firstly, the survey is only addressed to the company's operations manager. Secondly, the sample used is cross-sectional, whereas innovation management implies a broad implementation process.

Managers must know that radical and incremental product innovation can improve the company's operational performance. And the most direct implication of this work is that, those companies that are committed to the development of innovations should seriously consider the application of the principles incorporated in Standard 166,002, as an instrument that improves the results of innovation in the organization. Since this SIMS promotes both types of innovations, it improves results directly and indirectly through these product innovations.

The existing literature indicates that no empirical study has focused on the benefits of this SIMSs for innovation and BP. This paper fills this gap detected in the literature and analyzes the results of the implementation of this standard on incremental and radical product innovations and business performance.