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Airfreight Development Supporting the Strategy of Global Logistics Companies
Published in Werner Delfmann, Herbert Baum, Stefan Auerbach, Sascha Albers, Strategie Management in the Aviation Industry, 2017
High inflation rates and low economic growth characterized the 1970s. The Arab oil embargo in 1973 caused an increase of the oil price from 3$ to 12$ per barrel, triggered massive and widespread inflation (figure 21-2) and depressed the business cycle. In the same year, flexible exchange rates were introduced. But this did not, as expected, reduce the dependency on the oscillation of the international business cycle. The volatility of the exchange rates, nevertheless, was identified as a new source of instability in the following years. The EEC introduced the European Monetary System (EMS) in 1979 with the objective to reduce this volatility by a system of semi-fixed exchange rates.
An integrated framework of mimetic pressures, quality and environmental management, and firm performances
Published in Production Planning & Control, 2020
Research recognises that the integrated approach (i.e. adopting both QMPs and EMS) brings better outcomes as opposed to the siloed approach (i.e. adopting either QMPs or EMS) (Bernardo et al. 2009, 2015; Yu et al. 2014). For an EMS to be effectively put in place for the intended benefits, it is suggested that EMS must be integrated with every business function of an organisation, including quality management (Angell and Klassen 1999; King and Lenox 2001). King and Lenox (2001) empirically showed that manufacturing firms’ quality management practices (e.g. lean management practices) demonstrate good spill-over effects on environmental performance, based on 17,499 U.S. manufacturing organisations over the period of 1991–1996. Pil and Rothenberg (2003) also explored how improvement in environmental performance can enable quality performance enhancement. Sroufe (2009) found that an EMS has positive effects on firms’ operational performance, including cost reduction and quality improvement. Yang, Hong, and Modi (2011) showed a positive link between lean manufacturing and environmental management practices. Karapetrovic and Willborn (1998) found that firms tend to adopt an integration approach to quality and environmental management practices. In brief, firms can benefit greatly by implementing both QM and EM practices at the same time. Other scholars argue that firms implement QM first and then the EM (Douglas and Glen 2000; Salomone 2008). Bernardo et al. (2009) empirically analyzes the benefits of integration of management systems (among many management systems, they focussed on ISO 9001 for quality management and ISO 14001 for environmental management) and conclude that 86% of their sample (435 companies) already integrated their EM ISO 14001 standard with the QM ISO 9001 standard at various levels. Thus, the body of research suggests that integrating QM with EM is proven to be beneficial to the performance of a firm. Our research framework, shown in Figure 1, is presented to describe the inter-relationships among mimetic pressures, QMPs, EMS, and environmental and financial performances. Based on the analysis of the related topics from the above literature review, we argue that mimetic institutional pressures can serve as a driving force to adopt both QMPs and EMS. The review of the literature shows that the empirical examination of the influence of mimetic pressures on both practices and the dynamic relationships among mimetic pressures, QMPs, and EMS has not yet been done. We also contend that firms’ adoption of QMPs will facilitate the adoption of EMS due to their complementary nature. The framework also considers how both practices influence firms’ performance outcomes (e.g. environmental and financial performances). Specific hypotheses are discussed next.