Summary This paper focuses on the question whether West German firms have experienced an increase in their financial risk position with due implications for the macroeconomy. The investigation is based on a special evaluation of the balance sheet statistics by the Deutsche Bundesbank broken down...

Summary The changes in the financial structures of West German industrial enterprises have been investigated in Größl/Stahlecker/Wohlers (2001). The empirical analysis confirmed the hypothesis that small and medium-sized enterprises are confronted with higher - and even rising - financial...

Summary This paper investigates the borrowing behavior of 2,900 French and 1,300 German firms over the 1987-95 period. Both samples based on data sets of the Banque de France and the Deutsche Bundesbank not only include large but also small and medium-sized enterprises. Applying GMM techniques,...

Purpose – The design of distribution networks is prone to risks due to the uncertainties associated with factors that change over time. The purpose of this paper is to present a new method to identify those factors that the structure of a distribution network is most sensitive to....

In this paper, experimental design techniques are utilized to understand sources of variation in an optical fiber sensor design and development project in a university research setting. Application of the Taguchi method of robust design assisted fiber optic sensor development in a...

Purpose – To identify, discuss and provide a solution for a common problem in the mathematical analyses in business analyses, namely, paralysis by analysis. Design/methodology/approach – The paper first discusses the scale and frequency of the paralysis by analysis problem, before discussing...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology was applied to a medical records department (MRD) of a hospital in India to reduce the Turn-Around-Time (TAT) of medical records preparation process and thus to improve the productivity and performance of...

Purpose – The aim of this article is to identify the relationships between strategic orientations and various performance measurements in Spanish hospitality enterprises. Design/methodology/approach – With a sample of 189 hospitality firms, this study uses the Miles and Snow strategy...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to overcome the problems surrounding the operational performance of health care foodservice systems and provide a comprehensive comparison and analysis of the performance of all the different types of foodservice systems. The paper seeks to show that...