Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 29, Number 4
Fall 1998
Competitive Priorities in Operations Management
Peter T. Ward
Max M. Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University,
Columbus, OH 43210
John K. McCreery
College of Management, North Carolina State University, Raleigh,
NC 27695-7229
Larry P. Ritzman
Wallace E. Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Chestnut
Hill, MA 02167
Deven Sharma
Booz Allen & Hamilton, 101 Park Ave., New York, NY, 10178
ABSTRACT. Identifying manufacturers’ competitive
priorities has long been considered a key element in manufacturing
strategy research. However, relatively little effort has been
devoted to measurement of these constructs in published research.
In this study we develop scales for commonly accepted competitive
priorities, cost importance, quality importance, delivery-time
importance, and flexibility importance. We assess how well the
scales capture the constructs that they represent using data
collected from 114 manufacturing plants in the United States.
The findings suggest that the instrument developed can provide
reliable data and that the constructs measured are valid. In
addition, comparisons between pairs of informants representing
the same business indicate that the perceptual measures of competitive
priorities are as reliable as point estimates of routine, seemingly
objective information.
Subject Areas: Manufacturing Strategy, Multivariate
Statistics, Operations Management, and Survey Research/Design. |