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This chapter proposes a hybrid heuristic method combining a clustering search (CS) metaheuristic with an exact algorithm to solve a two-stage capacitated facility location problem (TSCFLP). The TSCFLP consists of defining the optimal locations of plants and depots and the product flow from plants to depots (first stage) and from depots to customers (second stage). The problem deals commonly with cargo transportation in which products must be transported from a set of plants to meet customers’ demands passing out by intermediate depots. The main decisions to be made are related to define which plants and depots must be opened from a given set of potential locations, which customer to assign to each one of the opened depots, and the amount of product flow from the plants to the depots and from the depots to the customers. The objective is to minimize costs satisfying demand and capacity constraints. Computational results demonstrate that our method was able to find good solutions when comparing it directly with a commercial solver and a genetic algorithm (GA) reported in a recent chapter found in the literature, requiring less than 1.5% and 41% of the computational time performed by these methods, respectively. Thus, our hybrid method combining CS with an exact algorithm can be considered as a new matheuristic to solve the TSCFLP.

The study analyses production worker hiring standards based on time series personnel records drawn from matched plants in the U.S., U.K., Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. Our hypothesis is that labor market regulation pushes upwards hiring standards for production workers. Labor market regulation is measured both by an employment protection index, and by workforce average tenure as a proxy for insider power. We find that the average tenure variable gives more robust results than the index. Its effect is to increase education standards, but to reduce starting age standards. The expected positive effect of employment protection on hiring standards is found in simple regressions, but is not generally supported by the multivariate analysis once other influences are held constant. However, union density is found to increase hiring standards, and might take over the effect of employment protection as an indicator of overall regulatory pressure. We also find a strong substitutability between recruits’ prior experience and education. This substitutability indicates the power of education to widen job opportunities for inexperienced workers.

Using an Internet-based business simulation, we examine emergent strategy processes and their consequences in a competitive environment. We find that the emergent decision processes of management teams vary in the extent to which they entail forward looking, anticipatory thinking and experimentation, and the attention the teams pay to their organizations’ capabilities. In dynamic and uncertain environments, information search activities and decision processes are key determinants of organizational performance. Our results suggest that effective emergent decision processes necessarily include elements of deliberate strategy.

Using an extensive data set on Finnish workers during the years 1990–2002, we analyze the relation between dispersion of wages within plants and labor productivity. We find a positive and significant relation between dispersion of wages within plant and average sales per worker. This relation is quadratic when dispersion is conditioned on workers’ observable characteristics. We also find positive and significant relation between unconditional dispersion of wages within plant and value added per hours worked, while we find a non-significant relation between conditional wage dispersion and valued added per hours worked. Results indicate that the incentive effect of wage dispersion dominates fairness or sabotage considerations.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess the main and interaction effects of activity-based costing (ABC), internal information systems integration (IISI), and external information systems integration (EISI) on manufacturing plant operational performance, controlling for plant characteristics.

Methodology/approach: The study uses survey data from a cross-section of 369 U.S. manufacturing plants. Data were analyzed using hierarchical regression model.

Findings and implications: The results indicate partial support for the main and two-way interaction effects on plant operational performance. The three-way interaction effects are significant and positive, suggesting that deploying all three resources (i.e., ABC, IISI, and EISI) leads to the higher plant operational performance.

Originality/value: The paper significantly extends prior research and contributes to the understanding of the main and interaction effects of ABC, IISI, and EISI on manufacturing plant operational performance. The paper would also be of interest to practitioners interested in keeping up with academic literature.

Ten years ago, Resende was a peaceful town near a well-known mountain resort in the State of Rio de Janeiro and housing the famous military academy through which many of the military elite of Brazil have passed. Near the border of the State of São Paulo and beside the main road linking the cities of Rio and São Paulo, Resende seemed doomed to a slow existence with no bright future ahead. This paper draws upon on-going research into the social impacts of new developments that took place in Resende, after the inauguration of two big vehicle assemblers – Volkswagen’s bus and truck plant in 1996 and the Peugeot/Citroen car assembly plant in 2001. In the case of VW, the plant was also presented as a major development in vehicle assembly. The unique feature of the plant’s production system rests on the relationship between the assembler (VW) and its component suppliers. At Resende, these were involved in a joint enterprise to establish a “modular consortium” of production. In this system, the component suppliers finance a part of the factory and organise the assembly of their components on site. As such, few of the production workers are employed by VW whose main role in the process is to co-ordinate production and market the vehicle.

This study examines whether the 38 electric utility firms owning the 110 plants targeted by the 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) made adequate pollution disclosures to inform the stakeholders whether they met the pollution emission requirements of the Act by the start of its first phase. First, it evaluates pollution emissions of the targeted plans at the start of the first phase of the Act, i.e. 1995. Then, it evaluates whether pollution disclosures of these firms improved leading up to the first phase of the Act. This evaluation is done by comparing pollution disclosures for the start of the first phase, i.e. 1995, with the year the CAA was enacted, i.e. 1990. Pollution emission data are obtained from the Department of Energy and from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and pollution disclosure data for 1989, 1990 and 1995 are obtained from the annual reports and 10Ks. A specifically designed content analysis technique is used to categorize pollution disclosures.

The pollution emissions results indicate that 1995 emissions are significantly lower than 1990 emissions. On an individual plant basis, the results, however, indicated that some plants reduced emissions while others used the permit system. The pollution disclosures results indicate that the 1995 pollution disclosure are comparatively lower than 1990 disclosures. The reason for high disclosures for 1990 could have been to protect the firms against potential legal cases if the requirements were not met. Once the fears of legal actions subsided, pollution disclosures were probably reduced. Lack of consistency and adequacy in pollution disclosures, however, make it difficult for stakeholders to properly evaluate their future risks.