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The complex and often uncertain business
environment has distinct consequences for individual industries.
Specific industries confront unique challenges often overlooked
in the broad view. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation regularly
sponsors research at the Industry Centers and at other
research institutions to provide analysis of policy and
economic issues that have a significant cross-industry
impact.
Industry studies have highlighted aspects
of globalization that are often lost in generalized analysis.
Among numerous areas of research, projects have documented
the restructuring of the semiconductor industry and a
study of assembler and supplier facilities in the international
motor vehicle industry and how differing manufacturing
strategies affect job quality and quantity. The publication,
Locating Global Advantage (Stanford Business Books,
2003), outlines corporate asset decision-making strategies
by firms in seven industries. The book examines
factors that influence such issues as plant site selection
and location decisions for core operational areas in industries
including hard disk drives, flat panel computer displays,
personal computers, autos, apparel, semiconductors, and
television sets.
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Through an association with the Labor
and Employment Relations Association, industry studies
researchers investigate how workplace practices
and human resource management and policies produce
organizational excellence, along with favorable
employee outcomes, such as wage equity and the quality
of work life. Research has encompassed comparisons
of lean manufacturing and traditional assembly lines
in automobile assembly plants, and high performance
steel finishing plants with traditional mills. Other
research projects include examinations of the shifting
practices in manufacturing industries, and studies
of wage inequality and causes of wage differentials
in the retail food, semiconductor, retail banking,
trucking, telecommunications, printing, and metal
working industries.
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These studies concluded that the results of human resource
management practices vary by industry; no single pattern
predominates across all industries.
Industry studies researchers are also looking
at the dramatic impact of new technologies on industries,
both in the workplace and the marketplace. Research projects
have included a study of how technological change has
dramatically altered the skills of employees in the auto
mechanics industry and what new abilities are required,
and an examination of the impact of e-commerce on product
design, technology development, logistics, parts and materials
supply, distribution, marketing, and retailing in a variety
of industries.
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