A great deal of controversy exists about the impact of information technology on firm performance. While some authors have reported positive impacts, others have found negative or no impacts. This study focuses on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) technology. Many of the problems in this line of research are overcome in this study by conducting a careful analysis of the performance data of the past decade gathered from the assembly centers of Chrysler Corporation. This study estimates the dollar benefits of improved information exchanges between Chrysler and its suppliers that result from using EDI. After controlling for variations in operational complexity arising from mix, volume, parts complexity, model, and engineering changes, the savings per vehicle that result from improved information exchanges are estimated to be about $60. Including the additional savings from electronic document preparation and transmission, the total benefits of EDI per vehicle amount to over $100. System wide, this translates to annual savings of $220 million for the company.

AbstractÐIn this paper, an empirical study that links software process consistency with product defects is reported. Various measurement issues such as validity, reliability, and other challenges in measuring process consistency at the project level are discussed. A measurement scale for software process consistency is introduced. An empirical study that uses this scale to measure consistency in achieving the CMM goal questions in various key process areas (KPAs) in 45 projects at a leading software vendor is reported. The results of this analysis indicate that consistent adoption of practices specified in the CMM is associated with a lower number of defects. Even a relatively modest improvement in the consistency of implementing these practices is associated with a significant reduction in field defects. Index TermsÐSoftware process consistency, software process measurement, CMM, software defects, empirical model. 1

The rate of inter-industry job turnover in Swedish manufacturing seems to be driven by the dispersion of profit changes among industries. Shifts in international competitiveness among industries played a central role for explaining this pattern. The rate of intra-industry job turnover among plants has been higher in industries with many small plants, low profit margins and high import penetration.

Good corporate reputations are critical because of their potential for value creation, but also because their intangible character makes replication by competing firms considerably more difficult. Existing empirical research confirms that there is a positive relationship between reputation and financial performance. This paper complements these findings by showing that firms with relatively good reputations are better able to sustain superior profit outcomes over time. In particular, we undertake an analysis of the relationship between corporate reputation and the dynamics of financial performance using two complementary dynamic models. We also decompose overall reputation into a component that is predicted by previous financial performance, and that which is ‘left over’, and find that each (orthogonal) element supports the persistence of above-average profits over time. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. A growing body of research argues that good corporate reputations have strategic value for the firms that possess them (Dierickx and Cool, 1989; Rumelt, 1987; Weigelt and Camerer, 1988). According to a resource-based view, firms with assets

■ For over 30 years, researchers have investigated the relationship between corporate internationalization and performance. While most recent findings indicate that the link may exhibit a non-linear form, researchers disagree on the exact shape of the statistical curve. ■ In this study, the relationship was examined through cross-sectional and longitudinal statistical analyses of data from 84 German manufacturing companies during the 5-year period 1993–1997.

: Using data for the life insurance industry during 1990-1995, we empirically test for a relationship between a firm's output choice and measures of X-efficiency. Our empirical evidence suggests that diversification across multiple insurance and investment product lines resulted in greater X-efficiency than a more focused production strategy. The analysis in this article is consistent with the proposition that managers of multiproduct firms are able to achieve greater cost efficiencies than their counterparts in more focused firms by sharing inputs and efficiently allocating resources across product lines in response to changing industry conditions. Our findings are important since they justify the existence of multiproduct firms in the absence of cost complementarities and identify product diversification as a source of efficiency in the life insurance industry that should be recognized by managers, policyholders, and regulators. This paper was presented at the Wharton Financial Insti...

Abstract: In 1992, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (Boston Fed) released a now well-known study of mortgage lending practices in the Boston Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Using an econometric model to examine extensive mortgage loan data collected from 131 financial institutions in the Boston MSA, the authors of the Boston Fed study tried and failed to find explanations other than racial discrimination for the significant disparities observed in the rejection rates for white and minority loan applicants. The Boston Fed study attracted considerable attention from Congress, the banking industry, the civil rights community, bank regulators, and the news media. But three follow-up studies have raised a variety of problems with the Boston Fed study relating to data and methodology. In this paper, we discuss and evaluate the problems cited by critics of the Boston Fed study. We focus our attention on three broad areas of concern: model specification; data errors; and differences in characteristics of the groups being compared. Our principal findings can be summarized as follows: (i) Several alternative model specifications perform better than the Boston Fed model in terms of various econometric performance measures; however, the race of the applicant

Research on sequential effects in magnitude scaling is reviewed, and its implications about the adequacy of current time series regression models is discussed. A regression model that unifies what at first appear to be contradictory results is proposed. Theoretical models of judgment and perception are introduced, and their relation to alternative regression models is clarified. A theoretical model of relative judgment that clarifies the role of judgmental error and frames of reference in magnitude scaling is examined in detail. Four experiments that test the model are presented. The results, along with recent results presented by Ward (1987), provide support for the model. The importance of being explicit about the relation of theoretical models to regression models and about the role of error in these models is discussed. In the 1950s, Stevens (e.g., 1956, 1957) popularized a new class of procedures where subjects "directly " indicated sensation magnitude by responding to presented magnitudes of physical stimuli with numbers (or stimuli). Stevens observed that, when plotted on log-log coordinates, the (geometric) means of responses given to each stimulus intensity showed a

Labour Market Analysis Division. Analysis for this paper started when the first two authors were

I investigate the nature of the incentives that lead outside directors to serve stockholders' interests. Specifically, I document the effect of a takeover bid on target directors, both in terms of its immediate financial impact and its effect on the number of future board seats held by those target directors. Directors are rarely retained following a completed offer. All target directors hold fewer directorships in the future than a control group, suggesting that the target board seat is difficult to replace. For outside directors, the direct financial impact of a completed merger is predominately negative. This documents a cost to outside directors should they fail as monitors, forcing the external control market to act for them. Future seats are related to pre-bid performance. Among outside directors of poorly performing firms, those who rebuff an offer face partial settling-up in the directorial labor market, while those who complete the merger do not.