In the ICT sector, product-software is an important factor for the quality of the products (e.g. cell phones). In this context, open source software enables firms to avoid quality competition as they can cooperate on quality without an explicit contract. The economics of open source (OS) versus...

It is commonly assumed in private label literature that store brands are of lower quality than competing national brands. In this paper, we contest this notion by studying quality competition between a national- brand manufacturer and a store-brand retailer. The manufacturer sells its...

Objective - This research aims to test the effect of productivity and innovation toward competitiveness of batik SMEs in West Java.Methodology/Technique - The study uses Partial Least Square (PLS) for data analysis, as well as an explanatory method and simple random sampling.Findings - The...

Trade credit is a widely adopted industry practice. Prior research has focused on how trade credit benefits firms by improving vertical supply chain relationships. This paper offers a novel perspective by examining whether trade credit benefits suppliers through a horizontal channel. Under the...

We investigate firms' re-manufacturing strategies in the case of a Cournot duopoly. On one hand, re-manufactured products cannibalize sales of new products by the same firm and hurt its profits. On the other, re-manufacturing can be a profitable marketing strategy to target different customer...

A manufacturer commonly distributes through a set of retailers who are authorized to sell its product; demand-enhancing services may also be provided by the manufacturer. These services may be granted to all authorized retailers (uniform service provision) or to a favored few authorized...

Suppliers often make proactive investments in capacity to strategically position themselves to win a contract with a monopolist buyer. Such investments reduce the suppliers' variable costs of serving the buyer's demand. We show that an auction mechanism does not always benefit the...

In the mid-1990s, productivity growth accelerated sharply in the U.S. economy. In this paper, we identify several other industry-level changes that have occurred during the same time and argue that they are consistent with an increased use of information technology (IT). We use case studies to...

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between quality ambidexterity, competitive strategies (cost leadership, differentiation, and focus), and firm performance in Palestinian industry, and to analyze the combination of quality exploitation and quality exploration...

This study investigates the influence of blockchain and smart contracts on partners' trust, increasing visibility, competitiveness, and environmental performance when implemented in manufacturing supply chains. Partial least squares (PLS) was the main method used to test and verify the research...