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The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to measuring the performance of motor vehicle manufacturers (MVMs) from economic and environmental (E&E) perspectives.

Eight measures are identified for benchmarking the performance from E&E perspectives. A new company performance index I_MVM is constructed to quantitatively generate the historical data of MVMs’ company performance. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models are built to generate the forecast data of the I_MVM. The minimum Akaike information criteria value is used to identify the model of the best fit. Forecast accuracy of the ARIMA models is tested by the mean absolute percentage error.

The construction of the index I_MVM is benchmarked against three frameworks by six benchmark metrics. The I_MVM satisfies all of its applicable metrics while the three frameworks are incapable to satisfy their applicable metrics. Out of 15, 4 MVMs are excluded for benchmarking future performance due to their non-stationary time series data. Based on the forecast I_MVM data, GM is the best performer among the 15 samples in the FY2018.

This research highlights the environmental perspective during vehicles’ production. The development of this approach is based on publicly available data and transparent about the methods it used. The data out of the approach can benefit stakeholders with insights by benchmarking the historical performance of MVMs as well as their future performance.

Current literature presents limited measurement methods of quantifying manufacturers' performance with environmental concerns. The purpose of this paper is to construct a company performance index for benchmarking motor vehicle manufacturers (MVMs) with environmental concerns.

Methods of constructing the index include regression analysis, a modified linear method for normalizing variables and a geometric mean for aggregating variables into a single index I_MVM (index for MVMs). A case study is conducted in 12 MVMs from 2008 to 2017. A sensitivity analysis with the simple additive weighting method is performed to analyze how different aggregation methods affect the final value. The index I_MVM is assessed through a benchmark with three existing indices.

Three realistic considerations are identified from MVMs, based on which proper and transparent methods are chosen to construct the I_MVM. The construction of the index I_MVM has been assessed through a benchmark against the methodologies of three other indices. The results indicate that the new measurement is feasible and effective for MVMs to measure their company performance from an environmental perspective.

The construction of the index I_MVM can support policymakers with accurate statistics for decision-making. As a response to current imperative climate policies, this paper raises awareness of CO₂ emissions in vehicles' production. For statistical organizations and stakeholders in the investment world, this paper provides available and reliable statistics for trend analysis of different MVMs.

A new method is designed for constructing a company performance index for MVMs. Three environmental variables are identified based on literature, their environmental impact as well as their data availability from public documents. A ranking by manufacturer with environmental concerns is generated. This index can contribute with available statistics and useful insights toward decision-making.

This article aims to focus on strategy disclosure in annual reports across Europe and to try to establish whether national culture and national corporate governance features have an influence on the extent to which companies disclose their strategy. The research was conducted to fulfil three main purposes: to build a model for measuring strategy disclosure; to find reasons for differences in strategy disclosure across countries; and to test whether there are indeed differences in the extent to which strategy is disclosed.

The extent to which companies disclose their strategy is predicted on the basis of comparative management and corporate governance literature. This prediction is subsequently tested on ten criteria (describing corporate strategy). The empirical results were statistically analysed by using Manova and linear regression.

The main conclusion is drawn that national differences in corporate governance and culture do influence the extent to which companies disclose their corporate strategy.

The research sample consists of the annual reports of five European countries. Future research could be extended into a broader sample. Furthermore, possible influence of other elements on the extent to which companies disclose their strategy (besides the control variables already taken into account) could be considered.

Practical implications for managers from this conclusion are that, in order to keep the stakeholders satisfied, the company should look at their demands for disclosure when deciding on a strategy for disclosure.

The link between national differences and strategy disclosure has not been specified so clearly in the literature before, and therefore can be seen as the largest contribution of this study.

In this paper the concept of the value of resources is operationalized. It is argued that the resource value is determined in dyads, instead of within one firm. The purchasing model of Kraljic (1983) is used to operationalize “value” from a supply chain perspective. The value of the resource of a firm is determined by the value of the resource as perceived by its customer(s). The presented model can be used by organizations to build and develop their resource base, and thus create better relations with their customers.

Trends in the car and aircraft manufacturing industry showed an evolution in the configuration and management of the production network. For instance, the aerospace manufacturing industry tended to be a closed system, competing on scale of production and focusing on maximization of own profit. Nowadays the automotive companies are developing open systems under the influence of globalization, outsourcing, and co-creation of value. Doing this with suppliers causes a shift of value from the focal firm to the supply chain, creating a value levering position for the so-called large-scale system integrator (LSSI). The leverage of value on suppliers introduces the value-leverage capability of the LSSI company. The capability of the LSSI to balance continuation, conception, and configuration is crucial for (long-term) profitability and competitive position. To express the value-leverage capabilities, the authors propose the variables “turnover per employee” (T/E), “research and development per employee” (RD/E), and “profit per employee” (P/E), whose (inter) relationship determines the capabilities.

The competence-based perspective shares with the resource-based view the notion of the fundamental importance of an organization's resources in its competitive outcomes.¹ In his paper “Probing into the nature of resources: Sustainable advantages and appropriable rents in the U.S. motion picture industry,” Jamal Shamsie investigates the sustainability of the competitive advantages that strategically important resources can bring to a firm, as well as the appropriability of the economic profits (rents) that can be derived from the uses of resources. To this end, the paper develops a classification of resource types based on the nature of a resource's ownership and control. Shamsie studies the U.S. motion picture industry to assess the degree of sustainable advantages and appropriable rents that can be generated by three types of resources: contracted resources, owned resources, and embedded resources. His findings suggest that in the subject industry both sustainability and appropriability are likely to be low for contracted resources such as top-rated stars and directors, while the greatest potential for sustainability and appropriability attach to embedded resources that accumulate firm-specific knowledge and learning in the development and marketing of various film genres.

This focused issue (Volume 6) of Research in Competence-Based Management provides a number of research papers – both theoretical and empirical – on what we have characterized in the volume title as “new industry dynamics.” It also contains papers that might just as accurately be described as providing “new competence perspectives” on industry dynamics. In effect, this volume both applies existing competence theory to the analysis of new industry dynamics, and provides new conceptualizations for representing and analyzing industry dynamics that are now emerging in many industries and product markets. While much competence theory has been developed through analysis of micro-level phenomena in individual organizations, we expect that the papers included in this volume will help point the way to further development of competence theory relevant to the macro-levels of industry and product-market phenomena.