Robert Mellor

Attributes of destination competitiveness: a factor analysis.

A model is developed to capture the main elements of competitiveness highlighted in the general literature, while appreciating the special issues involved in exploring the notion of destination competitiveness as emphasized by tourism researchers. Associated with the model is a set of indicators that can be used to measure the competitiveness of any given destination. These indicators, comprising both objective and subjective measures, were identified from the major elements comprising the generic destination competitiveness model and also from discussions at workshops held in Korea and Australia in 2001. This article has three major objectives: to display a model of destination competitiveness that identifies key success factors in determining destination competitiveness; to display the findings arising from the application of factor analysis to survey data collected in a study of Australian and Korean tourism industry stakeholders; to explore issues for further research arising from the study.

Strategic quality management and financial performance indicators

Despite the increasing international evidence that has identified quality of product and service and a culture of continuous improvement to be essential for long‐term competitive advantage, many Australian firms apparently remain unconvinced of the substantial gains available through a focused commitment to quality and continuous improvement. Anecdotal evidence and limited previous research suggest that this is at least partly due to the often touted cost barrier and the failure of firms to integrate quality improvement developments with their strategic planning activities. Discusses specific outcomes of a survey of medium‐sized manufacturing and service firms in Australia. Categorizes questions relating to strategic aspects of quality and continuous improvement into five major indicator groups, related to their commitment to the integration of quality and strategic planning initiatives. Compares mean scores for these indicators to standard financial performance and productivity measures, to test the hypothesis that there is a definite link between a firm’s commitment to quality improvement and its financial and marketplace performance. Also compares individual question responses relating to continuous improvement and strategic planning to selected performance indicators in an attempt to identify quality‐improvement activities which may have a particularly influential impact on performance.

A comparison of Australian firms and their use of continuous improvement tools

Continuous improvement (CI) is a process used by manufacturing firms to improve quality, reduce lead times, reduce price, and improve delivery reliability. A survey of firms in Australia was conducted to determine the main motives for implementing CI and the focus of CI activities. This article will examine the responses of firms using CI. However, not all firms surveyed were at the same stage of development in their use of CI. While some firms were using CI across all aspects of their business and regarded CI as second nature most firms were in the early stages of development of CI using it primarily in the manufacturing function at the operator level. This article reports on the experiences of mature firms, so providing useful guidance for developing firms seeking to learn from the experience of mature CI.

Performance measurement and continuous improvement: are they linked to manufacturing strategy?

To maintain or achieve competitiveness and profitability, a manufacturing firm or enterprise must respond to a range of challenges, including rapid improvements in technology; declining employment and output; globalisation of markets and environmental requirements. In addition, substantial changes in government policy have had important impacts in many countries, as have the increasing levels of global trade. Manufacturing enterprises need to have a clear understanding of what their customers want and why customers purchase their products rather than purchase from their competitors. They need to fully understand the aims of the business in terms of its customers, market segments, product attributes, geographical markets and performance. Continuous Improvement (CI) methods have become widely adopted and regarded as providing an important component of increased company competitiveness. This article examines the extent to which continuous improvement activities have contributed to the different areas of business performance.

Product Innovation Strategies and Performance of Australian Firms

This study investigates the relationship between product innovation strategies and new product success for N = 108 Australian firms. Five different types of strategies were identified. Interestingly, the different strategies had quite similar levels of reported success, suggesting that firms adapt their product innovation strategies to allow for industry and market conditions. Overall, however, the best-performing strategy appeared to consist of technical fit, attention to customer needs, and aggressive marketing.

Factors Affecting Ethical Management: Comparing a Developed and a Developing Economy

This paper compares a number of ethical management practices of firms in two different economies. The recent behaviour of firms, described in terms of industry, size, international involvement and ownership, in a developed, western economy (Australia) are contrasted with the behaviour of similar firms in an emerging, eastern economy (Sri Lanka). This paper extends an earlier empirical study by Batten, Hettihewa and Mellor (1997) on the relationship between key firm-specific variables and firm ethical management practices in Australia by drawing on similar survey data from Sri Lanka to facilitate an international comparison. The importance of this study is that it provides a valuable insight into the impact the level of economic development may have on ethical management behaviour and practice.

The Ethical Management Practices of Australian Firms

This paper addresses a number of important issues regarding the ethical practices and recent behaviour of large Australian firms in nine industries. These issues include whether firms have a written code of ethics, whether firms have a forum for the discussion of ethics, whether managers consider that their firms activities have an environmental impact and whether there are any statistical relationships between the size, industry class, ownership, international involvement and location of the firm and its ethical management practices. These questions are examined by using data collected from a sample of 136 large firms operating in Australia.

Scaling laws in variance as a measure of long-term dependence

Abstract Many asset-pricing models require an annualized risk coefficient that is determined by the linear rescaling of the variance from other time intervals. However, this approach may not be appropriate for distributions that display linear dependence or leptokurtosis. Research in this paper investigated scaling relationships for spot month daily closing prices for four currency futures contracts (British pound [GBP]/United States dollar [USD], German mark [DMK]/USD, Japanese yen [JPY]/USD, and Swiss franc [CHF]/USD) traded on the Chicago International Money Market (IMM). Our results suggested that although all four series were non-Gaussian, they displayed similar scaling properties that were not consistent with their underlying level of long-term dependence. These results demonstrate that models of long-term dependence may be biased and that scaling laws can be used as an alternative and accurate proxy of dependence.

Comparing the manufacturing strategies of Australian firms with their European counterparts

Australia has strong European traditions, rooted in its history of the past 200 years. On the other hand, Australia differs from many European countries in a number of important respects, including geography, population density and aspects of government economic policy. This paper uses data from the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (1996‐98) to examine how these similarities and differences may have impacted on the manufacturing strategies adopted by firms in the two regions. Whilst Australian and European manufacturers seem similar in many respects, in that they are listening to their customers, adopting quality strategies and utilizing technology, there are important differences in the speed of adoption of some aspects of these approaches. In particular, European manufacturers introduced a number of manufacturing technologies earlier and are using them more extensively than their Australian counterparts, whilst health, environmental and safety activities seem to be more prominent among Australian firms.

Learning strategies and CI: lessons from several small to medium Australian manufacturers

Australian manufacturers need to develop strategies that will enable them to compete in the Asia‐Pacific region. Australia is regarded as a high wage economy so can rarely compete solely on price. Once they are able to deliver a quality product at an acceptable price to remain competitive they must get the most out of their existing resources, particularly their workforce. CI is a widely recognised low cost strategic process for improving a manufacturing operation. This paper examines five small to medium manufacturers and uses a mapping tool that measures the extent of learning within the firms. If firms using CI are to fully benefit from the learning process then they must have a strategy in place that ensures knowledge is captured and the workforce is willing to transfer knowledge throughout the organisation.