Manufacturing strategy and organisational performance

Abstract

Purpose – The extant literature suggests that an increasing number of organisations are adopting manufacturing strategies such as JIT practices to continuously improve provision of products and associated services desired by customers. The authors aim to investigate the relationship between adoption (implementation) of JIT practices and organisational performance taking into account the role of market competition and managerial use of management accounting system (MAS) information. Design/methodology/approach – Data for the study were collected from 92 general managers of Australian manufacturing organisations. Mailed questionnaire and personal interviews were used to collect the data. Findings – The results reveal that market competition and managerial use of MAS (hereafter, the use of MAS) information impact the relationship between an organisation's adoption of JIT practices and its financial performance. The results reported in prior studies on the relationship are mixed; some studies report a positive relationship while others report no relationship. This study explains with empirical evidence when adoption of JIT practices provides financial benefits and when it does not. Research limitations/implications – The results are of interest to researchers and managers to understand performance implications of adoption of JIT practices and the use of MAS information. For researchers, the results make an incremental contribution to knowledge by revealing that adoption of JIT practices is beneficial in situations where it is supported by the use of MAS information in high competition market. For managers, the results highlight that an organisation will perform better in competitive market if it adopts JIT practices and its managers' information needs are met by its MAS. Specifically, the results will help managers to decide when adoption of JIT practices is beneficial, thereby help prevention of suboptimal decisions and the associated costs. Originality/value – The study challenges the inconclusive results reported in previous studies on the relationship between firms' adoption of JIT practices and financial performance and offers explanations for those results. The results show that benefits from an organisation's adoption of JIT practices are not universal. Rather, the benefits occur in situations where the use of MAS information and market competition are high.

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