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The purpose of this research is to identify the competitive priorities of the manufacturing firms in their internationalization efforts.

A structured questionnaire survey is conducted involving 569 manufacturing firms in China. The competitive priority in internationalization efforts is gauged by combining the degree of emphasis of manufacturing firms on a certain factor over the past three years and the level of improvement of the factor into an index.

It is found that “technology level”, “cost control”, and “brand consciousness” are the top three most important factors affecting the competitiveness of internationalization of manufacturing in China. The three bottlenecked factors that impede internationalization include “Internationalization business experience”, “Financing capacity” and “Senior managers with management know‐how”.

With the rapid development of economy globalization, firms in the Chinese manufacturing sector have begun the process of internationalization. As these young firms venture into the foreign markets, they may face some uncertainty and risks which entail a process of learning and adaptation. It is hoped that the empirical findings can shed some insight for improving the process of internationalization of the manufacturing sector.

There is a paucity of internationalization efforts from manufacturing firms in developing countries. By examining the competitive priority of the Chinese manufacturing firms, this study can enrich the body of knowledge on internationalization of manufacturing firms in developing countries.

The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast manufacturing strategies and practices, and its impact on business performance between Korean and Japanese firms in the electronics industry. It is based on the premise that: (1) manufacturing strategies and practices differ significantly between these two countries; and (2) these differences significantly impact firm's manufacturing operations and business performance. The focus of the study is to explore the differences that may exist between Japanese and Korean firms in manufacturing strategies and business practices by analyzing survey results of electronics firms from both countries. Differences between Japanese and Korean firms are investigated in several respects.

The purpose of this paper is to report on an industry policy implementation case involving around 30 manufacturing firms, where the intellectual capital (IC) lens, and especially the intellectual capital navigator (ICN) approach, was found to be very useful for evaluating alternative servitisation strategies. Servitisation is a form of business model innovation and as such involves restructuring the firm’s resource deployment system including its IC resources.

The ICN was one of several methods and themes used by a sample of manufacturing firms during a 12 month period. Data capture were through video filming, observation, and formal interviewing during and after the interventions.

The ICN is considered to be the third most valuable theme in a strategic and operational servitisation programme for manufacturing firms, primarily in the domain of effectiveness evaluation of alternative resource deployment strategies and as such should be one of the key dimensions in a business model template for manufacturing firms that aim to servitize. This research also illustrates the usefulness of the intellectual capital lens in the policy implementation process.

The findings of this study is limited to the servitization process of SME manufacturing firms in an Anglo-Saxon operating environment which very rapidly have gone from low to high cost.

The development of service-oriented business models for manufacturing firms suffers due to traditional business model frameworks not having a high relevance for servitising manufacturing firm. Consequently it is important to understand the potential contribution that the IC lens through the ICN can make in the servitisation process.

The purpose of this study is to assess if the mediating effect of green innovation capability (GIC) in the relationship between green market orientation (GMO) and new product success (NPS) was conditional on the moderating effects of green knowledge acquisition (GKA) and green brand positioning (GBP).

The analysis was based on primary data gathered using a structured questionnaire, which was developed on a five-point Likert scale of 1-Strongly disagree to 5-Strongly agree. There were 259 manufacturing firms engaged in the study, with data analyzed using PROCESS macro (v.3.4) for SPSS (v.23).

The research revealed that GMO had no direct effect on NPS among manufacturing firms, the relationship was rather mediated by GIC of the firms. The effect of GMO on GIC was moderated by GKA, whereas the effect of GIC on NPS was moderated by GBP. Overall, the mediating effect of GIC in the relationship between GMO and NPS was conditional on the moderating effects of GKA and GBP.

The study focused on only knowledge acquisition (green), without recourse to assimilation, transformation and exploitation. These may, however, be very important in explaining the role of knowledge in green innovation.

Green market-oriented manufacturing firms must seek to also make investments in GIC to transform those concepts into successful innovative products.

Despite the increasing number of studies on GMO, very limited concentration has been paid to how firms could leverage on the potentials of GMO to enhance the success of new products introduced into the market. This study did not just establish the effect of GMO on the success of new products but also identified some intervening variables in this relationship.

The purpose of this study is to understand how manufacturers (both discrete and process) are managing disruptions amid the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, using UAE as an empirical context.

This research uses a multiple case study approach and undertakes 36 semi-structured interviews with senior management of four discrete and four process manufacturing firms that outsource products/components from overseas and domestic suppliers.

Results reveal that manufacturing firms are using six distinct actions to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, they are relying on the automation process, transferring new and updated knowledge to the current and new suppliers, managing workforce diversity, understanding the impact of demand’s disruption, managing the ecosystem and finally using digital technologies to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study has some limitations. Firstly, the results of this study cannot be generalized to a broader population as it attempts to build an initial theory in manufacturing supply chains within the context of a pandemic outbreak. Second, the study uses a cross-sectional approach to explore the actions used by manufacturing firms to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Manufacturing firms can replicate the actions proposed in this study to lessen the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and emerge stronger in the post-COVID-era.

This study contributes to the manufacturing supply chain literature within the context of pandemic outbreaks by exploring the steps taken by manufacturing firms to minimize the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Particularly, it explores such steps by considering both the discrete and process manufacturing industries within the United Arab Emirates.

To report a recently completed study on enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation in Korean manufacturing firms.Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was conducted (with e‐mail invitation and telephone call reminder) to collect data from 306 Korean manufacturing firms.Findings – This study presents the issues related to ERP implementation in Korean manufacturing firms, including pre‐implementation activities, implementation experiences, ERP system configuration, benefits, and future direction. Additionally, the results are compared to those results from previous studies on US and Swedish manufacturing firms.Research limitations/implications – The study focused on one industry in one Asian country which perhaps limits the application of its generalized results to other industries or other Asian countries.Practical implications – The results of this study present and discuss both similarities and differences in ERP implementation issues among Korean, US, and Swedish manufacturing firms.Originality/value – This research is the first empirical study on the issues related to ERP implementation in manufacturing firms in the Asia/Pacific region. It is also the first study providing comparison results regarding ERP implementation in manufacturing firms in Asian, North American, and European countries.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of factors and their associated attributes that largely influence achievement of manufacturing flexibility.

Using two sequential phases consisting of literature review, plant visits and focus group interviews, the study identifies key factors that influence manufacturing flexibility and develop and validate these factors through postal survey. In total, 211 responses from multiple industries were collected to analyze the data.

The study identifies and develops eight factors and their associated 39 attributes that largely influence achievement of manufacturing flexibility. Out of eight underlying constructs, operational improvement practices construct reported highest level of variance followed by advanced manufacturing technology, human resource practices, supplier flexibility, supplier integration, customer integration, product-process technology integration and marketing and manufacturing integration.

The scope of the study is limited to the plant level. Therefore, other strategic-level factors, such as business strategy, the amount of investment, leadership quality have not been addressed in this research.

The findings can assist managers in improving the level of manufacturing flexibility by specifying key factors essential for achievement of manufacturing flexibility. An important implication for managers is that identification of factors should be followed by proper assessment and implementation so as to remain competitive in the market.

The findings provide insight into the factors that facilitate in achievement of manufacturing flexibility.

Advanced processing technologies, managerial practices, and information systems have merged as vital elements of modern day production. It has been argued that these changes in practice and technology have yielded a strategic manufacturing environ‐ment in the 1990s which is very different from that which existed in the 1970s and 1980s. Examines and documents these changes through the findings of a study in the US power tool industry of the effectiveness of the product‐process matrix in explaining the operations strategies of firms over the period 1970‐1990. Utilizes data from a detailed literature‐based survey, from on‐site interviews with executives and tours of manufacturing plants in the industry to explore the strategies followed over time by main and niche power tool firms competing in the US market. Shows that, while the Hayes and Wheelwright product‐process model captures many aspects of strategic operations decisions through 1980, changes have dramatically altered the competitive landscape and that many of the trade‐offs central to the model are no longer central to the articulation and formulation of operations strategy.

The aim of this study was to examine how manufacturing digitalization can be leveraged to promote green innovation in the digital era by investigating the effects of manufacturing digitalization on green process innovation, and thus firm performance. The authors also explored how the role of manufacturing digitalization varies with horizontal information sharing, vertical bottom-up learning and technological modularization.

Five hypotheses were examined by performing regression analyses on survey data from 334 manufacturing firms in China.

Manufacturing digitalization positively affects green process innovation, and thus firm performance. Furthermore, this positive effect is strengthened by horizontal information sharing and technological modularization and weakened by vertical bottom-up learning.

This study extends the literature rooted in the natural-resource-based view by identifying the crucial role of green process innovation and investigating the value of manufacturing digitalization for developing green capabilities in the digital era. It also contributes to this line of research by revealing contingent factors to leverage manufacturing digitalization from the information processing perspective. Furthermore, this study extends information processing theory to the digital context and identifies the interaction of organizational design (vertical bottom-up learning and horizontal information sharing) and digital investment (manufacturing digitalization).

Recently, total quality management (TQM) has attracted increasing interest throughout Chinese manufacturing industries and its programs have been widely implemented. Currently, there are few studies conducted about TQM implementation by small manufacturing firms in China, even though small firms are still dominant in many areas of manufacturing industries in China. This study analyzes survey results of Chinese small manufacturing firms to investigate the present status of TQM and its perception and development among them.