Jasna Prester

Competitive priorities, capabilities and practices of best performers: evidence from GMRG 4 data

Global Manufacturing Research Group is a group of enthusiasts that researches manufacturing practices all around the world. So far the group has collected 1493 filled plant questionnaires, from 25 countries [Whybark, C., Wacker, J., & Sheu, C. (2009). The evolution of an international academic manufacturing survey. Retrieved from September 5, 2010, from http://www.decisionsciences.org/DecisionLine/Vol40/40_3/dsi-dl40_3pom.pdf]. This research divided the sample into three groups (low performers, medium performers and best performers). An extensive exploratory research on the data is conducted to find out why the best performers are better than the others and what should the others do to become more profitable. First, best performers are identified and then their competitive priorities and applied manufacturing practices are analysed. The results show that quality is most important to best performers. Best performers score better in comparison with their competitors, they score higher in the usage of most explored ‘best practices’, and the level of rejects of the incoming material is significantly higher for the best performers. This result can be interpreted as that lower and medium performers should review their incoming material inspection and lower their manufacturing costs accordingly as these are considerably higher in the group of middle and low performers in comparison with high performers.

Are innovative organizational concepts enough for fostering innovation

The purpose of this article is to define which organizational practices have significant impact on returns from new products or which foster or at least influence positively innovation. Survey responders were divided to see whether they innovated or not by the survey questions which explicitly asked them if they have introduced new products in the last two years. With Chi Square test, we identified the difference in usage of certain organizational practices. After that, two multi-regression models showed the impact on launching a new product and their impact on generated returns from new products.There is a significant statistical difference in usage of these four practices between innovators and non-innovators: temporary cross-functional project teams, quality circle, ISO 9000, financial participation by employees. Regression analyses showed that for new product launch, quality circles and ISO900 have a positive impact. Since not all new product launches do not become successes when regressed to returns on new products, team performance incentives and knowledge-based systems have a significant positive impact. To our knowledge and through our literature research, we did not find works that explored the impacts of innovative organizational concepts on the final result — innovation. Most studies focused only on some organizational innovations and their impact on innovation. Here we present an overall overview of innovative organizational practices, why they are mostly used and identified those which mostly influence innovation.

How to Increase Share of Product-Related Services in Revenue? Strategy Towards Servitization

The process of creating value by adding services to product offerings, or servitization, has flourished in recent years. Manufacturing companies increasingly produce and provide services along with or instead of their traditional physical products. The provision of product-related services in emerging economies has been neglected and can tremendously improve understanding of service growth, especially in the field of billing. The aim of this study is to examine is it worthwhile for the manufacturing companies in transition countries to offer product-related services and what strategy should they pursue to build service business model. Our analysis used the Croatian, Serbian and Slovenian dataset from the European Manufacturing Survey conducted in 2015. Empirical results revealed that in manufacturing companies in transition countries product-related services can significantly increase share of revenue. Results indicate that management in manufacturing companies should directly invoice software development and revamping, and indirectly installation, and design, as product-related service to maximize firm’s turnover and create a service business model.

Manufacturing Strategies in Selected European Countries

Our contribution to the manufacturing strategy research is to identify the strategic manufacturing practices among manufacturers in selected EU countries and to identify differences, if any, among Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, and Ukraine. The Global Manufacturing Research Group (GMRG) is an international community of researchers studying the improvement of manufacturing supply chains worldwide, and the data was a subsample from the Round V GMRG. The multi-focus cluster appeared to compete on all capabilities (but dominantly on quality, cost, and delivery and in that order) and may be supporting the cumulative model rather than the trade-off approach which competes on a single competitive priority. This puts additional pressure on manufacturing companies which have to provide exceptional quality and reliable delivery at the price that is not significantly higher. These findings suggest that the manufacturing strategy needs to be focused at country level rather than as a global perspective with a single dominant model.

Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions in Southeast Europe: Cases from Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria

Researches regarding cross-border M&A are present in economic literature for a long time period starting from 1890s, but nowadays in time of globalization their impact is particularly remarkable in terms of size and geographical dispersion. The focal interests of this paper are cross-border transactions in selected Southeast European countries. These countries (Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria) are deficient in cross-border transaction analysis and are interesting for academic research since they are comparable economies and resemble in political history. Analyzed transactions were cross-border mergers and acquisitions, precisely cross-border acquisitions since they account more than 95% of all cross-border transactions in selected countries. Results indicate that trends in M&A activities in selected countries are consistent with general - national and globe – economic tendencies. Furthermore, the dynamics of cross-border M&As are largely similar to those of domestic M&As for each country, even though they differ in volume. However, due to their international nature, cross-border M&As also involve unique challenges, as countries have different economic, institutional (i.e., regulatory), and cultural structures. Due to the growing importance and popularity of cross-border M&As, this study provides relevant review of the extant literature across different areas, applicable empirical research concerning influence of cross-border M&As for economic development of transition economies and finally provides potential areas for future research.

DEREGULATION AND PRIVATIZATION PRIVATIZATION OF EUROPEAN ELECTRICITY MARKET - CASE STUDY OF HEP PRIVATIZATION

Discussion of energy liberalization took place several decades ago between countries of Western Europe. The general belief was that with changing ownership of companies, they would become more profit oriented and thus more efficient. Through deregulation the idea was to introduce competitiveness among energy players which would further increase efficiency, lower the electricity price and therefore make the European manufacturing more competitive on a global scale. This case gives a brief overview of electricity market privatization in Europe and additionally, the case of Croatian electro energetic company HEP.