Competitive Advantage in Metal Processing
Kevin Celuch, Chickery Kasouf
This project had two main objectives. First, we wanted to identify the key success factors in the three mental processing industries (P/M, casting, and heat treating) from the perspective of part producers. Second, extending the emerging literature on marketing capabilities, we used the data to test the relationship between marketing orientation, learning orientation, and firm capabilities.
We began this project at about the same time that we initiated the longitudinal buyer-seller study. This research involved a mail questionnaire sent to 247 firms (94 P/M part producers, 81 casters, and 72 heat treaters) that yielded 126 usable responses (51%). Full details of the conceptual foundation, questionnaire, methodology, and results are in the detailed reports in the appendix. Key results include:
- Critical current and future skills across all industries included a mix of technical and managerial capabilities, but the largest change in importance (current vs. expected in five years) among the top 10 capabilities were in information systems, the organization's ability to change, and the organization's ability to learn. This is probably a reflection of the expected impact of electronic business in 1998/1999, and the expected need to adjust to changing industry conditions as supplier consolidation continues.
- P/M rated design engineering, R&D, and part conversion from other technologies more important than the other two industries. This may account for the continuing growth in new automotive applications.
- Skill in maintaining external partnerships is expected to increase in importance in all three industries. Heat treating firms rated design engineering and part conversion as less important than the other industries, and rated the future importance of maintaining external partnerships as more important than the other industries.
- P/M expected greater market share concentration than either casters or heat treaters, yet believed that firm size was less important to compete effectively than the other industries. Moreover, P/M companies agreed more strongly that they can compete effectively against the largest firms in the industry.
- Linking the meta-capabilities in the analysis (the broad-based capabilities underlie the capability building process itself) with the skill portfolio, we found that market orientation and learning orientation, two concepts from the marketing and strategy literature were related to complementary portfolios of skills/ Managers who perceived their firm to be higher on market orientation also reported stronger marketing, global, and product/service capabilities compared to managers who perceived their firms as lower on market orientation.
- Also, managers who perceived their firm to be higher on learning orientation reported stronger information systems and marketing capabilities. This supports the implications of earlier literature suggesting that learning is essential for effective information systems development and management, and that market information is a key driver of marketing capabilities. These firms also report stronger product/service, order fulfillment, and external partnering capabilities, consistent with organizations that are able to use data in a changing marketplace to learn about customer needs and adapt effectively. Finally, managers in higher learning orientation firms report stronger upper management competencies compared to lower learning orientation firms, reflecting the importance of upper management commitment and the resulting strategic consistency.
This project resulted in the following papers:
- Kasouf, Chickery J. and Kevin G. Celuch (2004)"An Exploration of Relationships Among Perceived Market Orientation, Strategic Flexibility, and Customer Value in the Supply Chain Under Different Conditions of Environmental Turbulence," presented at the Meeting of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vancouver, BC, May, 26, 2004.
- Celuch, Kevin G., Chickery J. Kasouf, and Venkatakrishnan Peruvemba (2002), "The effects of Perceived Market and Learning Orientations on Assessed Organizational Capabilities," Industrial Marketing Management, 31 (6) 545-554.
- Kasouf, Chickery J. and Kevin G. Celuch (2002), "Assessment of Competitive Advantage in Metal Processing: A Comparison of P/M, Metal Casting, and Heat Treating," International Journal of Powder Metallurgy, 38 (2), 67-72.
- Kasouf, Chickery J., Diran Apelian, and P. Ulf Gummeson, "Opportunities and Challenges for P/M: A Retrospective and Prospective View of the Industry, International Journal of Powder Metallurgy, 2002, 38 (4), 72-81.
- Celuch, Kevin G., Chickery J. Kasouf, and Jeffrey C Strieter (2000), "The Influence of Organizational Market Orientation on Individual Level Market-Oriented Cognitions," Psychology and Marketing, 2000, 17 (11) 935-954.
- Strieter, Jeffrey C., Kevin G. Celuch, and Chickery J. Kasouf (1999), "Market Oriented Behaviors Within Organizations: An Individual Level Perspective'" Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 1999, 7 (2), 16-27.
- Kasouf, Chickery J. and Kevin G. Celuch (1999), "Small Suppliers' Opportunity Assessment in the Supply Chain," presented at the UIC/AMA Symposium on Entrepreneurship Research, San Francisco, CA, August 6, 1999.
- Apelian, Diran, John J. Healy, P. Ulf Gummeson, and Chickery J. Kasouf (1999) "Powder Metallurgy Parts," in U.S. Industry in 2000, Washington DC: National Academy Press, David C. Mowry, ed.
- Celuch, Kevin G., Chickery J. Kasouf, and Jeffrey C. Strieter (1998), "Market Orientation Within Organizations: An Initial Test of an Individual-Level Framework," in Enhancing Knowledge Development n Marketing: 1998 American Marketing Association Summer Educators' Proceedings, Ronald C. Goodstein and Scott B. McKenzie, eds., 110-117.
- Apelian, Diran, John J. Healy, P. Ulf Gummeson, and Chickery J. Kasouf (1997), "Competitive and Economic Performance in the Powder Metallurgy Parts Industry," presented at the Meeting of the Science, Technology, and Economic Policy Board of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, December 8, 1997.
Last modified: October 23, 2007 08:45:35