Competition on today’s market is fierce. Providing a defect-free product is no more a competitive advantage. Now money and focus is put on managing the supply chain, a competitive tool to thriving in today’s business climate. There are two distinct flow pipelines: the order information transfer pipeline and the product transfer pipeline, both dependent on the collaboration efforts of individuals. Evolving within supply chain management equals integrating the supply chain from basic to complex; from baseline or functional to internal or external. Bringing focus to where it is found to be lacking, this literary study highlights and connects issues that may arise during implementation of external supply chain integration. The focal point is thus on employee reactions to change, with each stage of implementation that the implementation issues connect to. Simultaneously, the study provides (pre)requisites to management during the different stages, which would support the implemented transition in its different phases. The result of this study is a Manger Model that gives an overview of each of the implementation stages, the requisites for management and issues regarding employees at each of the stages. Constructed to be applicable to more than just external integration the model encompasses all the gathered models and theories through a discussion of not only the complexity of the internal and the external supply chain, but also the complex nature of the individuals caught within the implementation, both from the manager’s as well as the employee’s point of view.

<p>Competition on today’s market is fierce. Providing a defect-free product is no more a competitive advantage. Now money and focus is put on managing the supply chain, a competitive tool to thriving in today’s business climate. There are two distinct flow pipelines: the order information transfer pipeline and the product transfer pipeline, both dependent on the collaboration efforts of individuals.</p><p>Evolving within supply chain management equals integrating the supply chain from basic to complex; from baseline or functional to internal or external. Bringing focus to where it is found to be lacking, this literary study highlights and connects issues that may arise during implementation of external supply chain integration. The focal point is thus on employee reactions to change, with each stage of implementation that the implementation issues connect to. Simultaneously, the study provides (pre)requisites to management during the different stages, which would support the implemented transition in its different phases.</p><p>The result of this study is a Manger Model that gives an overview of each of the implementation stages, the requisites for management and issues regarding employees at each of the stages. Constructed to be applicable to more than just external integration the model encompasses all the gathered models and theories through a discussion of not only the complexity of the internal and the external supply chain, but also the complex nature of the individuals caught within the implementation, both from the manager’s as well as the employee’s point of view.</p>

This dissertation studies the effects of external integration and internal liberalization on the economic geography within a country when regions within the country have different access to the world market. The first paper introduces internal geography into the Melitz (2003) model to examine how external and internal liberalizations affect the economic geography within a country. By dividing a country into a coastal region and an inland region, the model shows that trade leads the coastal region have a higher than proportional share of industry, and causes firms in the coastal region to be larger and more productive than firms in the inland region. Both external and internal liberalizations encourage industry agglomeration in the coastal region. However, external trade liberalization leads to firm divergence, and internal liberalization leads to firm convergence, between coastal and inland regions. This allows me to test the relative importance of internal and external liberalization. Using Chinese data from 1998 to 2007, I find that the manufacturing sector grew faster in the coastal region than in the inland region after the WTO accession in 2001. Firms also converged between coastal and inland regions, indicating that internal liberalization had stronger effects during this period. In the second paper, I document large economic discontinuities across the east/non-east provincial borders in China and argue that the border effects are largely due to preferential policies that give the east advantages in international trade and economic development. Using counties contiguous to the borders of 4 plain provinces, I find that manufacturing activities (output, employment, and export) increase abruptly from the west to the east of the borders. The counties in the east also have a lower share of agricultural population and a higher share of output by foreign firms. The economic discontinuities are larger for non-state sectors than for the state sector and are stronger in non-mountain regions than in mountain regions. The large economic discontinuities are unlikely to be explained by geographic and cultural differences across the borders, and can be accounted for by the policy differences between east and non-east provinces. I find that the openness level and the index of market liberalization can account for a large part of the east/non-east divide. In the third paper, I use the ending of the Multi-fiber Arrangement (MFA) to study the effects of an external trade liberalization on Chinese textile and clothing industry. After the Multi-fiber Arrangement ended in 2005, Chinese textile and clothing exports in products that faced quotas before experienced significant boom. The effects are stronger in the coastal region than in the inland region. Using distance to the seaport as a measure of world-market access, I show that the external trade liberalization (the quota removal) had larger effects on regions with better access to the world market. A further analysis of firm entry shows that the large adjustment of export after the expiration of the MFA was largely due to destination and product expansions by existing firms.

Submitted by FELLIPE LUIS GUERRISE VIEIRA SANCHES null (fellipeguerrise@gmail.com) on 2017-01-23T05:15:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO_Versão Final.pdf: 2397657 bytes, checksum: 4914949e16c9b674389a352c9196f5e1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by LUIZA DE MENEZES ROMANETTO (luizamenezes@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2017-01-25T18:21:54Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 sanches_flgv_me_bauru.pdf: 2397657 bytes, checksum: 4914949e16c9b674389a352c9196f5e1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-25T18:21:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 sanches_flgv_me_bauru.pdf: 2397657 bytes, checksum: 4914949e16c9b674389a352c9196f5e1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-02 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / A combinação de recursos de conhecimentos, por meio da integração interna, com a obtenção de informações de parceiros, por meio da integração externa, parece ser necessária para a condução de projetos inovadores nas empresas. Dessa forma, o objetivo da pesquisa foi compreender como essas duas formas de integração influenciam nas práticas de gestão das empresas de pequeno porte. Para isso, foi realizada uma pesquisa quantitativa, bibliográfica e documental. Entre os resultados obtidos estão o entendimento de como são configuradas as relações de integração externa e interna para inovação, bem como sua influência nas práticas de gestão que podem auxiliar no processo inovador. Revelou-se neste estudo que há relação entre a integração externa e a integração interna. Ao se observar a integração externa, vê-se correlação com a gestão de desenvolvimento de produto, operacional e ambiental, e como suas práticas estão associadas às práticas de gestão de mercado. Observando a integração interna, nota-se as relações ocorrendo com a gestão de desenvolvimento de produto, de mercado e operacional, assim como suas práticas também estão associadas. Considerando os resultados apresentados, pode-se afirmar que este estudo demonstra a importância das práticas de integração externa e interna para a gestão operacional, de desenvolvimento do produto, de mercado e ambiental. Ao fazer uso de algum tipo de colaboração externa ou interna, nota-se uma influência positiva nas práticas de gestão. A constatação desse fato em empresas brasileiras de pequeno porte mostra que a integração externa e interna deve estar presente, haja vista como são favoráveis as características de porte quando se visa ao desenvolvimento da gestão em todas as suas áreas. / The combination of knowledge resources through internal integration and the acquisition of partner information through external integration seems to be necessary for the conduct of innovative projects in small enterprises. This paper aims to understand how these two forms of integration influence in innovation in small enterprises. For this, a quantitative, bibliographical and documentary research was conducted. Among the results obtained are the understanding of how external and internal integration relationships are configured for innovation, as well as their influence on management practices that may aid in the innovative process. It was revealed in this study that there is a relation between external integration and internal integration. When observing external integration, we see a correlation with product, operational and environmental management, and how its practices are associated with market management practices. Observing the internal integration, one can notice the relations taking place with the management of product, market and operational development, as well as their practices are also associated. Considering the results obtained, it can be stated that this study demonstrates the importance of external and internal integration practices for innovation in operational management, product development, market and environmental. When making use of some kind of external or internal collaboration, we can see the positive influence on management practices. The finding of this fact in small Brazilian companies shows that external and internal integration must be present, considering the size characteristics are favorable for the development of innovation in all its areas. / CNPq: 131707/2015-9

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Background: The needs of the consumers seem to develop at the same rate as the technology advancements and put more pressure on firms to produce new and innovative products at a faster pace. Research has shown that external sources can have a significant effect on the firms’ innovation performance, but the results are partial contradicting and more research is needed. Purpose: Investigate customer and supplier involvement in product innovation in Swedish manufacturing firms. Delimitations: The study was carried out to manufacturing firms in Sweden, as Swedish firms are the most innovative in Europe at this point in time. Only large and medium sized firms were under investigation as larger firms are more eager to innovate than smaller firms. Method: The research had a deductive quantitative approach. The data was collected through a questionnaire sent out by e-mail and 124 firms participated in the study. After assessing validity and reliability, the hypotheses were tested by multiple and single regression analysis. Conclusions: Firms that strives to improve their new product development process should seize their customer’s knowledge and use it to co-develop new products. Another important factor was to use lead users, as these will improve the innovativeness even more than “ordinary” customers. The study found no support for early supplier integration in the new product development process.