工商管理文献翻译
工商管理专业英语有关英语论文及翻译
Benchmarking of human resource management in thePu b lic sector: Prospects, pro blems and challengesDavidM AkinnusiOrganisational/Industrial Psychology and Human ResourcesManagementNorth West UniversitySouth AfricaCorrespondence to: David M Akinnusie-mail: david.akinnusi@nwu.ac.zaABSTRACTThis paper reviews the role of humanresource management(HRM)which, today, plays a strategic partnership role in management. The focus of the paper is on HRM in the public sector, where much hope rests on HRM as a meansof transforming the public service and achieving muchneeded service delivery. However, a critical evaluation of HRM practices in the public sector reveals that these services leave much to be desired. The paper suggests the adoption of benchmarking as a process to revamp HRM in the public sector so that it is able to deliver on its promises. It describes the nature and process of benchmarking and highlights the inherent difficulties in applying benchmarking in HRM. It concludes with some suggestions for a plan of action. The process of identifying “best ” practices in HRM requires the best collaborative efforts of HRM practitioners and academicians. If used creatively, benchmarking has the potential to bring about radical and positive changes in HRMin the public sector. The adoption of the benchmarking process is, in itself, a litmus test of the extent to which HRM in the public sector has grown professionally.Keywords: benchmarking, benchmarking process, human resource management,public sector, public sector managementIn any organised human activity, human beings naturally take precedence over other resources, as it is they and they alone who are capable of directing and utilising other resources. Effective human resource management(HRM) has, therefore, becomecrucial and critical to the achievement of individual, organisational, community, national and international goals and objectives. Ironically, even though humanbeings are widely considered as the most important assets of any organisation or nation, their development, motivation and utilisation have not always occupied the central place in management(Bendix, 1996, p. 4-10). In the history of management hought, the neglect of the humanside of enterprise brought the scientific school of management to its knees and led to the rise of the humanrelations and the behavioural schools of thought which firmly succeeded in putting human beings as the core of management (Carrell, Elbert & Hartfield, 1995). In the practical world, the commodification or de-personalisation of human beings during the industrial revolution was also associated with the rise of trade union movements, leading to government interventions and regulations and the emergence of labour relations and personnel administration as fields of study (Bendix, 1995, p. 7). In the 1990s, personnel management metamorphosed into humanresource managementin clear recognition of its strategic role in the overall performance of organisations (Authur, 1994; Cascio, 1995; Huselid, 1995; Gerber, Nel & van Dyk, 1998).THE STATE OF HRM IN SOUTH AFRICAThe history of South Africa, rising from the ashes of the apartheid regime, is replete with cases of poor HRM, to the point of constrictingits development more than a decade after its independence (Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, 2006). The Deputy President while launching the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) remarked that:Nothing short of a skills revolution by a nation united will extricate us from the crises we face. Weare addressing logjams, some ofwhich are systemic and therefore in some cases entrenched even in post-apartheid South Africa. The systemic nature of someof our challenges undermine our excellent new policies, at least in the short term, hence the need for interventions such as JIPSAto enhance implementation of our policies(.za/speeches/2006/06032810451001.htm)Historically, South Africa has performed very poorly in practically all the criteria on the liability side of human resources balance sheet as measured by the World Competitiveness Ratings (1998, 1999). Some of these include equal opportunity, skilled labour, Aids, worker motivation, brain drain, unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse, values of the society, illiteracy, dependency ratio, human development index and competent managers. The field of labour relations (LR), like its human resources counterpart, reflects the country 's socio -political history which wascharacterised by deep divisions along racial and political lines, discrimination, unfair labour practices and gross distortions in the labour market systems, resulting in serious confrontations between the social partners and perennial industrial unrest (Bendix, 1996, p. 71-104).These stark realities have prompted the democratic government to enact a series of laws designed to bring radical changes in the areas of HRM and labour relations. Some of these include:• Occupational Health and Safety Act No 85 of 1993• Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 and Labour Relations AmendmentAct No 127 of 1998• South African Qualifications Act No 58 of 1995• Basic Conditions of Employment Act No 104 of 1997• Employment Equity Act No. 55 of 1998• Skills Development Act No 97 of 1998• Skills Development Levies Act No. 9 of 1999• Promotion of Equality and the Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 • White Paper on Human Resource Management in the Public Service, 2000The intention of these Acts was to create a healthy, humane, justand equitable workplace or society, free from discrimination and oppression and in which people and workers are educated and continuously trained to meet the challenges of nationaldevelopment and globalisation in a peaceful industrial climate. In 2006, the nation launched the Joint Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (JIPSA) to develop skills that are most urgently needed as part of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA), which was to propel South Africa at a development trajectory of6%GDPby 2010. The implementation and the realisation of these Acts and initiatives require, among other things, managers and, especially, human resource professionals, whose responsibility it is to effectively manage the human resources of their organisations. For its own part, the South African Board of Personnel Practice has proposed a bill, the HumanResource Profession Bill (2005), which intends to professionalise the practice of HRM in South Africa.The focus of this paper is on HRM in the public sector, where the challenges are most acutely felt. The Government White Paper on Human Resource Management in the Public Service (2000) notes that national departments and provincial administrations employ approximately 1,2 million people, who account for more than 50%of all public expenditure.It declares that “people are therefore the Public Service 's most valuable asset, and managing human resources effectively and strategically must be the cornerstone of the wider transformation of the Public Service ”. Appropriately, Government has embraced the shift offocus from personnel administration to HRM. Therefore, Government 'svision of HRMin the Public Service is that it will “result in a diverse, competent and well-managed workforce, capable of, and committed to, deliveri ng high quality services to the people of South Africa ”. Itfurther stressed that the practice of HRM would be underpinned by the following values which derive from the Constitution: fairness, accessibility, transparency, accountability, participation and professionalism.However, the White Paper on Human Resource Management in the Public Service (2000) was quick to point out the inadequacies and out-dated practices of HRM in the public sector, describing various aspects of it in the following ways: (It is) over-centralised, excessively bureaucratic and rule-bound. It is focused on form rather than substance and results. Human resource planning is weak; post-filling and promotion criteria over-emphasize educational qualifications and seniority and little or no emphasis is placed on the requirements of the job to be done. Performance management is also underdeveloped.All these inadequacies and the racial imbalance simply mean that Government's avowed desire to transform public service delivery by putting people first (via the “Batho Pele principles ”) would be greatly frustrated by an inefficient and ineffective management, in general, and lacklustre state of human resource management, in particular.More than a decade after independence, the state of HRM in SouthAfrica has not changed as drastically as expected at either the macro ormicro level. This is due to a number of factors including the following(Gerber, Nel and van Dyk, 1998; Bowmaker-Falconer, Horwitz, Jain & Taggar, 1998; White Paper on HRM,2000; Horwilt, Browning, Jain & Steenkamp, 2002;/ipp/guardian/2008/05/27/115219.html):1. Reluctance by corporations to embrace transformation and major changes impliedor required by the various legislations.2. Reluctance on the part of trade unions to buy into the perceived capitalist agendaof the newgovernment, leading to a shaky alliance between government and itsalliance partners, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and South African Communist Party (SACP).3. Fear of reverse discrimination by whites, sparking off emigrationin large numbers and leading to only modest gains in the area of employment equity and diversity management.In short, although South Africa is armed with formidable legislative armoury to create a humane society and organisational environments conducive to HRM, the fact remains that it will take many more years to undo the legacy of apartheid in “creating structural inequalities in the acquisition of education, work skills and access to managerial, professional and occupational positions ” (Horwitz, Browning, Jain & Steenkamp, 2002). This situation, therefore, calls for innovative practices such as benchmarking, the focus of this studyAIMS AND STRUCTURE OF THE PAPERThe role of benchmarking will be discussed in the context of the above concerns. The aim of this paper is to advocate the adoption of benchmarking as a tool to revamp, in order for Government to be able to deliver on its promises. The objectives are to describe the nature and process of benchmarking, to highlight the inherent difficulties in applying benchmarking in HRMand to suggest a plan of action. Accordingly, the restof this paper is structured, first, to highlight the nature and process of benchmarking and then to review the literature on benchmarking as applied to the HRM function. The problems and prospects of benchmarking in HRM are highlighted and discussed. In conclusion, approaches andsuggestions for using benchmarking to improve HRMpractices in the public sector are made.BENCHMARKING OF HRMBest practice in the case of HRM refers to high performance work practices such as recruitment, selection, performance management and training that mayin turn have an impact on the institution 's performance and, ultimately, on the competitive advantage of an organisation (Huselid, 1995; Schuler & MacMillan, 1984). The search for the best practice in HRM is driven by two major considerations. The first is the fact that labour costs are generally high everywhere and South Africa is not an exception. The second is that evidence highlighting the value of HRM to an organisation mayhelp the humanresource function to gain strategic status (Torrington & Hall, 1996).A range of HRM practices often incorporated into these analyses includes the following: incentive plans, training and development, recruitment and selection, compensation, industrial relations and performance appraisals. These have been identified as high-performance work practices that can lead to lower employee turnover, greater productivity and better corporate financial performance (Huselid, 1995; Huselid & Becker, 1996). Other potential best practices are occupational health and safety (Nelson, 1994) and enterprise bargaining, reflecting management quality and Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) and Affirmative Action (AA) policies as indicators of human resource utilisation. The ultimate benefit of strategic HRMto an organisation isits ability to facilitate HRM's contribution to the organisation in theacquisition and maintenance of a sustainable competitive advantage (Teo, 1998). One way to achieve improvements in competitiveness, which is the focus of this paper, is through benchmarking HRM best practices.The Rodwell, Lam and Fastenau (2000) paper is a significant contribution to benchmarking for two major reasons. Firstly, it is an attempt by academics to seek the“best ” set of HRM practices which distinguishes poor from better performing organisations. In this respect, their example is worth emulation, as the set of best practices is contingent on the nature of the industry and the environment investigated. Rodwell et al's (2000) study surveyed the financeindustry in Australia where, they found, counter-intuitively, that a lack of written policies on health and safety was one of the major “best ”practices. It is immediately apparent that the findings of this study are not only limited to the industry and the country studied, but also cannot be generalised to the finance industry of another country, say South Africa, where the issue of safety has taken on dramatic importance in that industry in the era of bombings of ATM cash points and cash-in-transit heists that are a daily occurrence in South Africa, with Crime Statistics reporting a 74% rise in cash-in-transit heists in June 2008(/stories/200609280232.html, accessed in July 13, 2008). SUGGESTIONS FOR BENCHMARKING HRM IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR Benchmarking presents managers of public sector institutions in South Africa with the challenge of venturing to compare their functions, not only internally among themselves, but also against other best-run government departments or best-run companies in South Africa. Admittedly, there are differences in the ethos and cultures of public and private sector organisations; nevertheless, the call for the public service to be more results oriented can only be met by understanding and learning frompractices of their private sector counterparts and initiating creative and appropriate changes. Benchmarking is no longer the monopoly of the private sector. Publicsector institutions in most of Western countries are using benchmarking to meet the enduring challenge to provide maximum value for money —i.e. highest quality at least cost (see, also Sedgwick, 1995; and Dorsch & Yasin, 1998).As for HRM managers in public sector institutions in South Africa, benchmarking presents them with the challenge of moving out of their cocoons. Benchmarkingpresents HRM professionals in the public sector with a golden opportunity to improve their image and deliver on the Government hope that: “Human resourcemanagement in the Public Service should become a model of excellenee, …..The management of people should be regarded as a significant task for those who havebeen charged with the responsibility a nd should be conducted in a professional manner ” (White Paper on Human Resource Management in the Public Service, 2000; italicised for emphasis)Research results have clearly indicated that investments in human resources are a potential source of competitive advantage, with increase in overall HRM effectiveness leading to increase in the performance of the institutions concerned (Huselid, et. al., 1997). The practical implication of this is that improving HRM efficiency and effectiveness will hold off the threat of downsizing, increase job satisfaction and servicedelivery. Benchmarking may be the technique which could bring about a true revolution in HRMin the public service. For this to happen, the following suggestions are made:1. Human resource managers in the public service must improve their skills instrategic human resource, since the adoption of benchmarking should focuson strategic rather than operationalobjectives, if it is to succeed.2. Academics in collaboration with public sector HR managers should searchfor the “best ” combination of HRM practices in theirrespective sectors.3. Meanwhile, there are benchmarking tools such as peer reviews, excellentmodels or even Investors in People, which could be adopted as ways ofstimulating creative changes in the human resource arenas.4. The Government of South Africa should follow the American, European,Canadian and Australian 's examples of instituting national awards for bestpractices in public sector managementin general or in HRM in particular.It is hoped that HRMdirectors and managers in national, provincial and municipal councils would embrace the challenge of benchmarking in order to make the desired impact on service delivery, productivity and job satisfaction of their employees. This challenge is enormous , considering the desperate state of human resource management problems enumerated at the beginning of this paper. It is aprocess of a guided tour and fundamental change. The adoption of the benchmarking process is, in itself, a litmus test of the extent to which HRM managers have grown professionally by implementing a set of internally consistent policies and practices, ensuring that the institution 's humancapital contributes to the achieve of government's objectivesREFERENCES[1] Arthur, J. B. (1994). The effects of human resources management systems onmanufacturing performance and turnover. Academyof ManagementJournal , 37(3), 670-687.[2] Auluck , R. (2002). Benchmarking: Atool for facilitatingorganisational learning.Public Administration and Development, 22(2), 109-2002.[3] Bendix, S. (1996). Industrial Relations in the new South Africa . Third Edition. CapeTown: Juta & Co.[4] Bowmaker-Falconer, A., Horwitz, F. A. Jain, H. & Taggar, S. (1998).Employment Programmes in South Africa: Current Trends. Industrial RelationsJournal, 29(3), 222-233.[5] Camp, R. C. (1989). Benchmarking: The search for industry best practices that leadto superior performance . Milwaukee: ASQC Quality Press.[6] Camp, R. C. (1992). Learning from the best leads to superior performance. Journal ofBusiness Strategy , 13(3), 3-6.[7] Lema, N. & Price A. (1995). Benchmarking - performanee improvement towardcompetitive advantage. Journal of Management Engineering , 11(1), 28-37.[8] Loffler, E. (2001). Quality awards as a public sector benchmarking concept in OECDmembercountries: some guidelines for quality award organizers.Public Administration and Development , 21(1), 27-40.[9] Republic of South Africa (1995). South African Qualifications Act No 58of 1995. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from the World Wide Web:http://llnw.creamermedia.co.za/articles/attachments/02709_saqualauth act58.pdf [10] Republic of South Africa (1998), Employment Equity Act No. 55 of 1998,Government Gazette No 19370, 19 October 1998.[11] Republic of South Africa (1998), Skills Development Act No 97 of 1998, RetrievedJuly 15, 2008, from the World Wide Web:http://llnw.creamermedia.co.za/articles/attachments/03387_sklldevac9 7.pdf [12] R epublic of South Africa (1999), Skills Development Levies Act No. 9 of 1999,Government Gazette No 1984, 30 April 1999.[13] Teo, S. T. T. (1998). Changing roles of Australian HRM practitioners.Research and Practice in Human Resources Management , 6(1), 67-84.[14] Torrington, D. & Hall, L. (1996). Chasing the rainbow: how seeking status thoughstrategy misses the point of the personnel function. Employee Relations, 18(6), 87-97.[15] Treadwell, J. & Maguire, J. (1995). Benchmarking corporate services:ASouth Australian publicsector case study. Australian Journal of PublicAdministration , 54(3), 408-514.[16] Watson, G. H. (1993). Strategic Benchmarking: Howto measure company'sperformance against the world 's best. Wiley: Chichester.[17] Zairi, M. & Ahmed, P. (1999). Benchmarking maturity as we approach the nextmillennium. Total Quality Management Journal , 4(5), 810-816.。
工商管理文献翻译
Understanding Customer Requirements1 Listening to Customers Through Research1.1Using Marketing Research to Understand Customer ExpectationsFinding out what customers expect is essential to providing service quality, and marketing research is a key vehicle for understanding customer expectations and perceptions of services, In services, as with any offering, a firm that does no marketing research at all is unlikely to understand its customers. A firm that does marketing research, but not on the topic of customer expectations, may also fail to know what is needed to stay in tune with changing customer requirements. Marketing research must focus on service issues such as what features are most important to customers, what levels of these features customers expect, and what customers think the company can and should do when problems occur in service delivery. Even when a service firm is small and has limited resources to conduct research, avenues are open to explore what customers expect.One of the biggest challenges facing a marketing researcher is converting a complex set of data to a form that can be read and understood quickly by executives, managers, and other employees who will make decisions from the research. For example, database management is being adopted as a strategic initiative by many firms, but merely having a sophisticated database does not ensure that the findings will be useful to managers. Many of the people who use marketing research findings have not been trained in statistics and have neither the time nor the expertise to analyze computer printouts and other technical research information. The goal in this stage of the marketing research process is to communicate information clearly to the right people in a timely fashion. Among considerations are the following: Who gets this information? Why do the need it? How will they use it? Does it mean the same thing across cultures? When users feel confident that they understand the data, they are far more likely to apply it appropriately. When managers do not understand how to interpret the data, or when they lack confidence in the research, the investment of time, skill, and effort will be lost.1.2 Using Marketing Research InformationConducting research about customer expectations is only the first part of understanding the customer, even if the research is appropriately designed, executed, and presented. A service firm must also use the research findings in a meaningfulway–to drive change or improvement in the way service is delivered. The misuse(or even nonuse)of research data can lead to a large gap in understanding customer expectations. When managers do not read research reports because they are too busy dealing with the day-to-day challenges of the business, companies fail to use the resources available to them. And when customers participate in marketing research studies but never see changes in the way the company does business, they fell frustrated and annoyed with the company. Understanding how to make the best use of research – to apply what has been learned to the business – is a key way to close the gap between customer expectations and management perceptions of customer expectations. Managers must learn to turn research information and insights into action, to recognize that the purpose of research is to drive improvement and customer satisfaction.The research plan should specify the mechanism by which customer data will be used. The research should be actionable: timely, specific, and credible. It can also have a mechanism that allows a company to respond to dissatisfied customers immediately.1.3Upward CommunicationIn some service firms, especially small and localized firms, owners or managers may be in constant contact with customers, thereby gaining firsthand knowledge of customer expectations and perceptions. But in large service organizations, managers do not always get the opportunity to experience firsthand what their customers want.The larger a company is, the more difficult it will be for managers to interact directly with the customer and the less firsthand information they will have about customer expectations. Even when they read and digest research reports, managers can lose the reality of the customer if they never get the opportunity to experience the actual service. A theoretical view of how things are supposed to work cannot provide the richness of the service encounter. To truly understand customer needs, management benefits form hands-on knowledge of what really happens in stores, on customer service telephone lines, in service queues, and in face-to-face service encounters. If gap 1 is to be closed managers in large firms need some form of customer contact.2Building Customer Relationships2.1Relationship MarketingRelationship marketing essentially represents a paradigm shift within marketing –away from an acquisitions/transaction focus toward a retention/relationship focus.Relationship marketing (or relationship management) is a philosophy of doing business, a strategic orientation, that focus on keeping and improving relationships with current customers rather than on acquiring new customers. This philosophy assumes that many consumers and business customers prefer to have an ongoing relationship with one organization than to switch continually among providers in their search for value. Building on this assumption and the fact that it is usually much cheaper to keep a current customer than to attract a new one, successful marketers are working on effective strategies for retaining customers.It has been suggested that firms frequently focus on attracting customer (the “first act”) but then pay little attention to what they should do to keep them (the “second act”). Ideas expressed in an interview with James L. Schorr, then executive vice president of marketing at Holiday Inns, illustrate this point. In the interview he stated that he was famous at Holiday Inns for what is called the “bucket theory of marketing.” By this he meant that marketing can be thought of as a big bucket: It is what sales, advertising, and promotion programs do that pours business into the top of the bucket. As long as these programs are effective, the bucket stays full. However, “There’s only one problem,”he said, “there’s a hole in the bucket,”When the business is running well and the hotel is delivering on its promises, the hole is small and few customers are leaving. When the operation is weak and customers are not satisfied with what they get, however, people start falling out of the bucket through the holes faster than they can be poured in through the top.The bucket theory illustrates why a relationship strategy that focuses on plugging the holes in the bucket makes so much sense. Historically, marketers have been more concerned with acquisition of customers, so a shift to a relationship strategy often represents changes in mind set, organizational culture, and employee reward systems. For example, the sales incentive systems in many organizations are set up to reward bringing in new customers. There are often fewer(or not) rewards for retaining current accounts. Thus, even when people see the logic of customer retention, the existing organizational systems may not support its implementation.Relationship value of a concept or calculation that looks at customers from the point of view of their lifetime revenue and/or profitability contributions to a company.The lifetime or relationship value of a customer is influenced by the length of an average “lifetime,” the average revenues generated per relevant time period over the lifetime, sales of additional products and services over time, referrals generated by the customer over time, and costs associated with serving the customer. Lifetime value sometimes refers to lifetime revenue stream only; but most often when costs are considered, lifetime value truly means “lifetime profitability.”If companies knew how much it really costs to lose a customer, they would be able to accurately evaluate investments designed to retain customer. One way of documenting the dollar value of loyal customers is to estimate the increased value or profits that accrue for each additional customer who remains loyal to the company rather than defecting to the competition. This is what Bain & Co. has done for a number of industries, The percentage of increase in total firm profits when the retention or loyalty rate rises by 5 percentage points. The increases are dramatic, ranging from 35 to 95 percent. These increases were calculated by comparing the net present values of the profit streams for the average customer life at current retention rates with the net present values of the profit streams for the average customer life at 5 percent higher retention rates.With sophisticated accounting systems to document actual costs and revenue streams over time, a firm can be quite precise in documenting the dollar value and costs of retaining customers. These systems attempt to estimate the dollar value of all the benefits and costs associated with a loyal customer, not just the long-term revenue stream. The value of word-of-mouth advertising, employee retention, and declining account maintenance costs can also enter into the calculation.The emphasis on estimating the relationship value of customers has increased substantially in the past decade. Part of this emphasis has resulted from an increased appreciation of the economic benefits that firms accrue with the retention of loyal customer. (Our Strategy Insight for this chapter describes ways that firms explicitly demonstrate this appreciation to customer.) Interestingly, recent research suggests that customer retention has a large impact on firm value and that relationship value calculations can also provide a useful proxy for assessing the value of a firm. That is, a firm’s market value can be roughly determined by carefully calculating customer lifetime value. The approach is straightforward: Estimate the relationship value of a customer, forecast the future growth of the number of customers, and use these figures to determine the value of a company’s current and future base. To the extent that the customer base forms a large part of a company’s overall value, such a calculation can provide an estimate of a firm’s value —a particularly useful figure for young, high-growth firms for which traditional financial methods(e.g., discounted cash flow) do not work well.2.2Customer Profitability SegmentsCompanies may want to treat all customers with excellent service, but they generally find that customers differ in their relationship value and that it may be neither practical nor profitable to meet (and certainly not to exceed) all customers’expectations. Federal Express Corporation, for example, has categorized its customers internally as the good, the bad, and the ugly ––based on their profitability. Ratherthan treating all its customers the same, the company pays particular attention to enhancing their relationship with the good, tries to move the bad to the good, and discourages the ugly. Other companies also try to identify segments —or, more appropriately, tiers of customers — that differ in current and/or future profitability to a firm. This approach goes beyond usage or volume segmentation because it tracks costs and revenues for segments of customers, thereby capturing their financial worth to companies. After identifying profitability bands, the firm offers service and service levels in line with the identifying segments. Building a high-loyalty customer base of the right customers increases profits.Although some people may view the FedEx grouping of customers into “the good, the bad, and the ugly” as negative, descriptive labels of the tiers can be very useful internally. Labels are especially valuable if they help the company keep track of which customers are profitable.Virtually all firms are aware at some level that their customers differ in profitability, in particular, that a minority of their customers accounts for the highest proportion of sales or profit. This finding has often been called the “80/20 rule”— 20 percent of customers produce 80 percent of sales or profit.In this version of tiering, 20 percent of the customers constitute the top tier, those who can be identified as the most profitable in the company. The rest are indistinguishable from each other but differ from the top tier in profitability. Most companies realize that there are differences among customers within this tier but do not possess the data or capabilities to analyze the distinctions. The 80/20 two-tier scheme assumes that consumers within the two tiers are similar, just as conventional market segmentation schemes typically assume that consumers within segments are similar.However, more than two tiers are likely and can be used if the company has sufficient data to analyze customer tiers more precisely. Different systems and labels can be helpful. One useful four-tier system, includes the following:1.The platinum tier describes the company’s most profitable customer, typicallythose who are heavy users of the product, are not overly price sensitive, are willing to invest in and try new offerings, and are committed customers of the firm.2.The gold tier differs from the platinum tier in that profitability levels are not ashigh, perhaps because the customers want price discounts that limit margins or are not as loyal. The may be heavy users who minimize risk by working with multiple vendors rather than just the focal company.3.The iron tier contains essential customers who provide the volume needed toutilize the firm’s capacity, but their spending levels, loyalty, and profitability are not substantial enough for special treatment.4.The lead tier consists of customers who are costing the company money. Theydemand more attention than they are due given their spending and profitability and are sometimes problem customers —complaining about the firm to others and tying up the firm’s resources.Not that this classification is superficially reminiscent of, but very different from, traditional usage segmentation performed by airlines such as American Airlines. Two differences are obvious. First, in the customer pyramid profitability rather than usage defines all levels. Second, the lower levels actually articulate classes of customers who require a different sort of attention. The firm must work either to change the customers’ behavior — to make them more profitable through increases in revenue —or to change the firm’s cost structure to make them more profitable through decreases in costs.Examples of effective use of the customer pyramid approach exist in a number of business contexts. Financial services firms are leading the way, perhaps because of the vast amounts of data already housed in those firms. In 1994 Bank One realized that all financial institutions had grossly overcharged their best customers to subsidize others who were not paying their way. Determined to grow its top-profit customers, who were vulnerable because they were being underserved, Bank One implemented a set of measures to focus resources on their most productive use. Next it identified the profit drivers in this top segment and thereby stabilized its relationships with key customers.Once a system has been established for categorizing customers, the multiple levels can be identified, motivated, served, and expected to deliver differential levels of profit. Companies improve their opportunities for profit when they increase shares of purchases by customers who either have the greatest need for the services or show the greatest loyalty to a single provider. By strengthening relationships with the loyal customers, increasing sales with existing customers, and increasing the profitability on each sale opportunity, companies thereby increase the potential of each customer.Whereas profitability tiers make sense from the company’s point of view, customers are not always understanding, nor do they appreciate being categorized into a less desirable segment. For example, at home companies the top clients have their own individual account representative whom they can contact personally. The next tier of clients may be handled by representatives who each have 100 clients. Meanwhile, most clients are served by an 800 number, an automated voice response system, or referral to a website. Customers are aware of this unequal treatment, and many resist and resent it. It makes perfect sense from a business perspective, but customers are often disappointed in the level of service they receive and give firms poor marks for quality as a result.Therefore, it is increasingly important that firms communicate with customers so they understand the level of service they can expect and what they would need to do or pay to receive faster or more personalized service. The most significant issues result when customers do not understand, believe they have been singled out for poor service, or feel that the system is unfair. Although many customers refuse to pay for quality service, they react negatively if they believe it has been taken away from themunfairly.The ability to segment customers narrowly based on profitability implications also raises questions of privacy for customers. In order to know who is profitable and who is not, companies must collect large amounts of individualized behavioral and personal data on consumers. Many consumers today resent what they perceive as an intrusion into their lives in this way, especially when it results in differential treatment that they perceive is unfair.Prudent business managers are well aware that past customer purchase behavior, although useful in making predictions, can be misleading. What a customer spends today, or has spend in the past, may not necessarily be reflective of what he or she will do(or be worth) in the future. Banks serving college students know this well — a typical college student generally has minimal financial services needs ( i.e., a checking account) and tends to not have a high level of deposits. However, within a few years that student may embark on a professional career, start a family, and/or purchase a house, and thus require several financial services and become a potentially very profitable customer to the bank. Generally speaking, a firm would like to keep its consistent big spenders and lose the erratic small spenders. But all too often a firm also has two other groups they must consider: erratic big spenders and consistent small spenders. So, in some situations where consistent cash flow is a concern, it may be helpful to a firm to have a portfolio of customers that includes steady customers, even if they have a history of being less profitable. Some service providers have actually been quite successful in targeting customers who were previously considered to be unworthy of another firm’s marketing efforts. Paychex, a payroll processing company, became very successful in serving small business that the major companies in this industry did not think were large enough to profitably serve. Similarly, Progressive Insurance became very successful in selling automobile insurance to undesirable customers — young drivers and those with poor driving records — that most of the competition did not feel had a sufficient relationship value. Firms, therefore, need to be cautious in blindly applying customer value calculations without thinking carefully about the implications.2.3Relationship ChallengesGiven the many benefits of long-term customer relationships, it would seem that a company would not want to refuse or terminate a relationship with any customer. Yet, situations arise in which either the firm, the customer, or both want to end (or have to end) their relationship.The assumption that all customers are good customers is very compatible with the belief that “the customer is always right,” an almost sacrosanct tenet of business. Yet any service worker can tell you that this statement is not always true, and in some cases it may be preferable for the firm and the customer to not continue their relationship.A company cannot target its services to all customers; some segments will bemore appropriate than others. It would not be beneficial to either the company or the customer for a company to establish a relationship with a customer whose needs the company cannot meet. For example, a school offering a lock-step, daytime MBA program would not encourage full-time working people to apply for its program, nor would a law firm specializing in government issues establish a relationship with individuals seeking advice on trusts and estates. There examples seem obvious. Yet firms frequently do give in to the temptation to make a sale by agreeing to serve a customer who would be better served by someone else.Similarly, it would not be wise to forge relationships simultaneously with incompatible market segments. In many service businesses(such as restaurants, hotels, tour package operators, entertainment, and education), customers experience the service t ogether and can influence each other’s perceptions about value received. Thus, to maximize service to core segment, an organization may choose to turn away marginally profitable segments that would be incompatible. For example, a conference hotel may find that mixing executives in town for a serious educational program with students in town for a regional track meet may not be wise. If the executive group is a key long-term customer, the hotel may choose to pass up the sports group in the interest of retaining the executives.3 Service Recovery3.1 The Impact Of Service Failure And RecoveryService recovery refers to the actions taken by an organization in response to a service. Failures occur for all kinds of reasons —the service may be unavailable when promised, it may be delivered late or too slowly, the outcome may be incorrect or poorly executed, or employees may be rude or uncaring. All these types of failures bring about negative feelings and responses from customers. Left unfixed, they can result in customers leaving, telling other customers about their negative experiences, and even challenging the organization through consumer rights organizations or legal channels.Research has shown that resolving customer problems effectively has a strong impact on customer satisfaction, loyalty, word-of-mouth communication, and bottom-line performance. That is, customers who experience service failures but who are ultimately satisfied based on recovery efforts by the firm, will be more loyal than those whose problems are not resolved. That loyalty translates into profitability, Customers who complain and have their problems resolved quickly are much more likely to repurchase than are those whose complaints are not resolved. Those who never complain are least likely to repurchase.Similar results were reported in a study 720 HMO members in which researchers found that those who were not satisfied with service recovery were much more likelyto switch to a different health care provider than were those who happy with how their problems were addressed. The study also found that satisfaction with service recovery was the second most important factor out of 11 service attributes in predicting overall customer satisfaction. The most important, not surprisingly, was perceived medical outcome.An effective service recovery strategy has multiple potential impacts. It can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty and generate positive word-of-mouth communication. A well-designed, well-documented service recovery strategy also provides information that can be used to improve service as part of a continuous improvement effort. By making adjustments to service processes, systems, and outcomes based on previous service recovery experiences, companies increase the likelihood of “doing it right the right the first time.”In turn, this reduces costs of failures and increases initial customer satisfaction.Unfortunately, many firms do not employ effective strategies. A recent study suggests that 50 percent of customer who experienced a serious problem received no response from the firm. There are tremendous downsides to having no service recovery strategies. Poor recovery following a bad service experience a service failure, they talk about it to others no matter what the outcome. That recent study also found that customers who were satisfied with a firm’s recovery efforts3.2How Customer Respond To Service FailuresSome customers are more likely to complain than others for a variety of reasons. These consumers believe that positive consequences may occur and that there are social benefits of complaining, and their personal norms support their complaining behavior. They believe they should and will be provided compensation for the service failure in some form. They believe that fair treatment and good service are their due, and that in cases of service failure, someone should make good. In some cases they feel a social obligation to complain —to help others avoid similar situations or to punish the service provider. A very small number of consumers have “complaining”personalities — they just like to complain or cause trouble.Consumers who are unlikely to take any action hold the opposite beliefs. They often see complaining as a waste of their time and effort. They do not believe anything positive will occur for them or others based on their actions. Sometimes they do not know how to complain —they do not understand the process or may not realize that avenues are open to them to voice their complaints. In some cases noncomplainers may engage in “emotion-focused coping” to deal with their negative experiences. This type of coping involves self-blame, denial, and possibly seeking social support. They may feel that the failure was somehow their fault and that they do not deserve redress.Personal relevance of the failure can also influence whether people complain. If the service failure is really important, if the failure has critical consequences for theconsumer, or if the consumer has much ego involvement in the service experience, then he or she is the more likely to complain. Consumers are more likely to complain about services that are expensive, high risk, and ego involving (like vacation packages, airline travel, and medical services) than they are about less expensive, frequently purchased services (fast-food drive-through service, a cab ride, a call to a customer service help line). There latter services are simply not important enough to warrant the time to complain. Unfortunately, even though the experience may not be important to the consumer at the moment, a dissatisfying encounter can still drive him or her to a competitor next time the service is needed.If customers initiate actions following service failure, the action can be of various types. A dissatisfied customer can choose to complain on the spot to the service provider, giving the company the opportunity to respond immediately. This reaction is often the best-case scenario for the company because it has a second chance right at that moment to satisfy the customer, keep his or her business in the future, and potentially avoid any negative word of mouth. Customers who do not complain immediately may choose to complain later to the provider by phone, in writing, or via the Internet. Again, the company has a chance to recover. Researchers refer to these proactive types of complaining behavior as voice responses or seeking redress.Some customers choose not to complain directly to the provider but rather spread negative word of mouth about the company to friends, relatives, and coworkers. This negative word-of-mouth communication can be extremely detrimental because it can reinforce the customer’s feelings of negativism and spread that negative impression to others as well. Further, the company has no chance to recover unless the negative word of mouth is accompanied by a complaint directly to the company. In recent years, customers have taken to complaining via the Internet. A variety of websites, including web-based consumer opinion platforms, have been created to facilitate customer complaints and, in doing so, have provided customers with the possibility of spreading negative word-of-mouth communication to a much broader audience. Some customers become so dissatisfied with a product or service failure that they construct websites targeting the firm’s current and prospective customers. On these sites, angry customers convey their grievances against the firm in ways designed to convince other consumers of the firm’s incompetence an evil.Finally, customers may choose to complain to third parties such as the Better Business Bureau, to consumer affairs arms of the government, to a licensing authority, to a professional association, or potentially to a private attorney. No matter the action (or inaction), ultimately the customers determine whether to patronize the service provider again or to switch to another provider.3.3Customers’ Recovery ExpectationsWhen they take the time and effort to complain, customers generally have high expectations. They expect the firm to be accountable. They expect to be helped。
工商管理外文文献及翻译
工商管理外文文献及翻译The Contractor's Role in Building Cost Reduction AfterDesignAuthor：Waddle,T odd W.Nationality：UKDerivation：Cost Engineering; Feb2008, Vol. 50 Issue 2, p14-21It has become evident from recent news articles that inflationary pressures and increased construction activity are causing many building projects to come in well over owner's budgets. This trend has increased dramatically over the past few years, as much of the construction industry has been impacted by an unprecedented increase in the cost of construction. The historical rate of increase in construction cost has been under five percent per year, as reported by the Engineering News Record. Over the last few years, the industry has seen a significant increase from historical escalation rates, up to 10-15 percent per year in many regions of the US. These increases have been caused by a variety of factors, including the following.Shortage of steel resulting from rapid growth in China.Demand for materials in the US resulting from increased hur ricane damage. ? Rising oil prices leading to higher manufacturing and transportation cost. ? Rising labor cost because of increased construction activity .To be successful in having over budget projects awarded, the building contractor has had to take a proactive role in working with owners and design teams to reduce project cost to amounts that owners are able to award. This cost reduction is normally accomplished through the following methods.value engineering;scope reduction;Value EngineeringValue engineering (VE) has been defined as a systematic method to improve the value of goods and services by using an examination of function. Value, as defined, is the ratio of function to cost. Value can therefore be increased by either improving the function or reducing the cost.It is a primary tenet of value engineering that quality not be reduced as a consequence of pursuing value improvements . VE is a process originating at General Electric Company (GE) during World War II. Because of shortages of skilled labor, raw materials, and component parts, engineers at GElooked for acceptable alternates and often found substitutions that resulted in reduced costs and/or product improvement.GE developed a systematic process that they called value analysis. Over the years the name gradually changed to VE. The basic steps of VE include the following：Information gathering: project requirements defined, function analysis.Alternates: various ways of meeting the requirements and functions.Evaluation: asses sment of alternates on how well they meet requirements and costs savings.Presentation: selection of best alternatives to be presented to client for decisions.True VE evaluates life cycle costs such as initial cost, maintenance cost, operational cost, life span, time value of money, replacement cost, and frequency of replacement. VE canbe undertaken at any stage of the building design process; however, it is most effective in the early stages, since it is less costly to make changes to preliminary documents .Scope ReductionScope reduction involves identifying areas of the project scope of work that can be reduced in quality, quantity, or both in a manner that is acceptable to the owner.Scope reduction items of work often consist of material or equipment substitutions that lower the cost of the project, but may not be an equal substitute. An example of quantity scope reduction would be to reduce the guttering system on a pitched roof from the entire roof perimeter to entrances only. A quality scope reduction example would be to provide vinyl composition floor tiles (VCT) in lieu of ceramic floor tiles.After a project has been determined to be out of budget because of high bids, the project is normally either cancelled, redesigned and re-bid, or negotiations are held with the low bidder to reach an acceptable contract amount. For the building contractor that is selected for negotiations, this is an opportunity to move toward project award and to also build a relationship of trust and openness with the owner and design team that could lead to future projects.First, the building contractor should meet with the owner and design team to fully understand the owners project requirements, priorities, life cycle considerations, and budget.Next, the building contractor's role is to use his estimating and construction expertise to analyze various components and systems within the project for alternate solutions. The contractor should also bring in key subcontractors and suppliers who are often able to identify alternate materials and/or systems withintheir specialties. Each division of work should be examined and evaluated for VE solutions. In past years, this process and service was considered part of the building contractors overhead. However, in today's market, some contractors will negotiate rates and be reimbursed for the time and effort that they spend in this process in the event that theproject is not awarded to them.The work breakdown structure (WBS) can be a helpful tool to the building contractor in analyzing the various components and systems within a building project. The WBS is a tree-type structure of functional systems used to classify the project on a level-by-level basis . This breakdown structure facilitates the evaluation of each system of the project from the building foundations to the completed sitework.Questions to Ask or Areas and/to Consider by WBSThis section provides a list of areas for the building contractor to examine and/or questions to ask in the WBS system level format for cost saving alternatives. Some of these changes can be accomplishedwithout major re-design cost and incorporated into the construction documents in the form of an addendum. Other changes listed would require extensive re-design and time delays.SUBSTRUCTURE—Have alternate types of foundation system been considered?wood piles in lieu of precast;drilled caissons vs. piles;mat foundations in place of piles or caissons.—Evaluate sand base in place of gravel or stone under slab on grade. SUPERSTRUCTURE—Have alternate types of building structures been evaluated?structural steel, precast concrete, cast in place concrete, light gauge steel framing or wood framing systems.—Compare Alternate Stair Systems.steel pan stairs vs. precast concrete or cast in place concrete.EXTERIOR CLOSURE—Evaluate exterior wall systems.Light gauge metal framing in lieu of reinforced concrete masonry units.Can wall widths or gauges be reduced?—Compare sheathing systems.Fiber sheathings in place of cement boards.—Review alternate wall insulation systems.Batt insulations, rigid insulation materials, loose fill block insulation.—Consider alternate exterior wall veneers.Conventional stucco versus exterior insulation finish system.Brick or precast in lieu of stone.—Evaluate alternate glazing systems.Can exterior glazed areas be reduced?Storefronts in lieu of curtainwalls if code allows.Painted aluminum in lieu of stainless steel or brass framing.—Review exterior entrances.Manual entrance doors in place of automatic entrances.Automatic entrances in lieu of revolving doors.Cedar entrance doors rather than mahogany.—Examine exterior railing systems.aluminum or cable systems in lieu of glass;standard designs in place of custom elements;ROOFING—Evaluate the specified roofing with alternative materials.Combined metal decking/insulation systems in lieu of separate systems.Interior batt insulation in place of rigid roof insulation.Built-up roofing vs. single ply membranes.Fib erglass or concrete tiles in lieu of clay tiles.Painted metals in place of copper.Can the specified gauge of metal roofing be lowered?Eliminate or reduce the guttering system?Can skylights be reduced or styles changed?Are standard warranties specified?INTERIOR CONSTRUCTION—Examine interior wall systems.Can light gauge metal-framed walls be used in lieu of concrete masonry units?Can wall thicknesses or gauges be reduced?Are drywall systems being used in lieu of plaster? Examine inte rior doors and hardware.Are the specified doors standard sizes or custom?Have alternate wood door species been considered?Have alternate hardware styles or manufacturers been compared?Can manual doors be used in lieu of automatic?Are the doo rs pre-machined for hardware installation?Compare pre-finishing doors with finishing on-site.—Review interior specialties.Have alternate types of toilet partitions been considered?Prefinished metals vs. plastic laminates.Can vinyl corner guard s be used rather than metal?Metal lockers vs. wood.Have special partitions been evaluated?Plastic veneers in lieu of wood.Can the sound rating be reduced?Defer installation?Has the access flooring system been evaluated?Standard floor f inishes rather than custom?INTERIOR FINISHES—Evaluate interior wall finishes.Painted wall finishes in lieu of wallcovering.Epoxy coatings in place of tile finishes.FRP instead of stainless steel.Are textured drywall systems being used rather than plaster?—Examine interior floor finishes.Resilient flooring vs. ceramic or wood.Ceramic flooring in lieu of stone.Tile or stone in place of terrazzo.Alternate carpet manufacturers.—Review alternate ceiling finishes.Standard ceiling vs. custom.Fiber ceiling vs. metal.CONVEYING SYSTEMS—Review specified elevators and escalators.Have alternate manufacturers been considered?Are standard interior elevator cab finishes specified or custom?Can glass walls be eliminated?Are sta ndard warranties specified?SITE PREPARATIONHas a site work analysis been performed to balance cuts and fills.SITE IMPROVEMENTSCan paved areas be reduced or more economical paving materials used?? Has resurfacing existing parking areas been conside red rather than new parking construction?Have alternate types of enclosure walls been considered?Have landscaping alternatives or substitutions been considered?Seeding in place of sodding.Reduce or change tree and plant materials.Use existin g trees and other existing landscaping.SITE CIVIL/MECHANICAL UTILITIESHave alternate utility piping materials been evaluated?Can existing site utilities be abandoned rather than removed?SITE ELECTRICAL UTILITIESHave alternate exterior lighting p ackages been compared?Have alternate utility piping materials been evaluated?CONTRACTOR OVERHEAD AND PROFITCan phasing be reduced to shorten the project duration?Can the start of the project be timed to avoid cost impact of winter conditions?F or high-rise projects; have crane and hoisting options been compared? ? Can the Owner include the Builders Risk policy?.Breaking down and analyzing the components of a building project through the work breakdown structure can aid in reduction summaries also reveal that the mechanical, electrical and plumbing(MEP) systems typically offer the greatest opportunity for cost savings due to their total significance to a project. The MEP systems normally make up between 30 to 50 percent of a building project's cost.The owners of the illustrated projects accepted cost reducing changes ranging from 6 to 14 percent of the original low bids. These reductions allowed themto meet their particular budgets and have their projects constructed by incorporating the changes into addendums. Some projects may be so far over budget that substantial structural and/or building redesigns are unavoidable. However, building contractors can play a major role in bringing projects into budget—using their past experience along with their subcontractor and supplier networks to develop cost reduction alternatives that may not have been previously considered by owners and/or design teams.设计阶段后承包商在降低施工成本方面所扮演的角色作者：Waddle,Todd W.国籍：英国出处：营销的智慧与计划2008.11.05，第14-21页从最近的新闻报道中可以明显的看出，通货膨胀的压力和建筑产业的不断发展使很多工程项目超出了业主的预算。
工商管理英文论文翻译
外文资料翻译AbstractThis paper introduces the concept of knowledge networks toexplain why some business units are able to benefit from knowledgeresiding in other parts of the c ompany while others arenot. The core premise of this concept is that a proper u nderstandingof effective interunit knowledge sharing in a multiunitfirm requires aj oint consideration of relatedness in knowledgecontent among business units and t he network of lateral interunitrelations that enables task units to access related k nowledge.Results from a study of 120 new product developmentprojects in 41 bu siness units of a large multiunit electronicscompany showed that project teams o btained more existingknowledge from other units and completed their projects fas terto the extent that they had short interunit network paths to unitsthat possessed related knowledge. In contrast, neither networkconnections nor extent of related k nowledge alone explainedthe amount of knowledge obtained and project completi on time.The results also showed a contingent effect of having directinterunit relations i n knowledge networks: While establisheddirect relations mitigated problems of tra nsferring noncodifiedknowledge, they were harmful when the knowledge to be tra nsferredwas codified, because they were less needed but stillinvolved maintenance costs. These findings suggest that researchon knowledge transfers and synergies i n multiunit firmsshould pursue new perspectives that combine the concepts ofnetwork connections and relatedness in knowledge content.Why are some business u nitsable to benefit from knowledgeresiding in other parts of the company while othersare not? Both strategic management and organization theoryscholars have ex tensively researched this question,but differences in focus between the various ap proacheshave left us with an incomplete understanding of whatcauses knowledge sharing to occur and be beneficialacross business units in multiunit firms. In one line ofresearch, scholars have focused on similarity in knowledgecontent among b usiness units, arguing that a firmand its business units perform better tothe exten t thatunits possess related competencies that can be used bymultiple units (e.g., Rumelt 1974, Markides and Williamson1994, Farjoun 1998). While this knowledg e content viewhas demonstrated the importance of relatedness in skillbase, it doe s not shed much light on the integrative mechanismsthat would allow one busine ss unit to obtainknowledge from another (Ramanujam and Varadarajan1989, Hill 1994). When sharing mechanisms are consideredin this research, it is often assu med that the corporatecenter is able to identify and realize synergies arisingfrom similarity in knowledge content among businessunits, but this assumption is typic ally not tested empiricallyand excludes a consideration of lateral interunit relation s(Chandler 1994, Markides and Williamson 1994,Farjoun 1998).In other lines of research, in contrast, scholars havedemonstrated the importanc e of havinglateral linkagesamong organization subunits for effective knowledgesha ring to occ ur. Researchhas shown that a subunit’sinformation processing capacity is enhanced by lateralinterunit integration mechanisms (e.g., Galbraith 1973,1994; Egelhoff 1993; Gupta and Govindarajan 2000),product innovation knowledge flow s more efficientlythrough established relationships spanning subunitboundaries (Tu shman 1977, Ghoshal and Bartlett 1988,Nobel and Birkinshaw 1998,Hansen 199 9), and bestpractices are transferred more easily when a positive existingrelations hip exists between the two parties to atransfer (Szulanski 1996). These lines of r esearch on linkageshave, however, not incorporated opportunities forknowledge sh aring based on commonality in knowledgecontent among subunits, but has taken this aspect asgiven.Yet the existence of both related knowledge in thefirm—i.e., expertise in the f irm’s business units that canbe useful for tasks per formed in a focal business un itand a set of established linkages among business unitsseems necessary for inter unit knowledge sharing to occurand be effective. In this paper, I consider both d imensionsand develop theconcept of task-specific knowledge networks,which comp rise not only those business units thathave related knowledge for a focal task un it, but also theestablished direct and indirect interunit relations connectingthis sub set of business units.I define establishedinterunit relations as regularly occurring informal contactsbet ween groups of people from different businessunits in a firm, and I assume thatt ask units will be abletouse these relations to search for and access knowledgeresi ding in other business units.I make two main arguments. First, with respect to indirect relations (i.e., conne ctions throughintermediaries),I argue that task teams in focal business units with shortpath lengths in a knowledge network (i.e., few intermediariesare needed to c onnect with other units) are likelyto obtain more knowledge from other business units andperform better than those with long path lengths becauseof search benef its accruing to business units with shortpath lengths. Long path lengths, in contra st, lead to informationdistortion in the knowledge network, makingsearch for usef ul knowledge more difficult. Second, I arguethat a focal unit’s direct established relations in aknowledge network are a two-edged sword: While theyprovide im mediate access to other business units that possessrelated knowledge, they are als o costly to maintain.They are, therefore, most effective when they help teamssolve difficult transfer problems, as when the knowledgeto be transferred is noncodified (Szulanski 1996, Hansen1999). Whenthere is no transfer problem, they are likelyto be harmful fort ask-unit effectiveness because of theirmaintenance costs.This knowledge network model seeks to advance ourunderstanding of knowled ge sharing in multiunit companiesin several ways. First, by integrating the conce ptsof related knowledge and lateral network connections thatenable knowledge sharing, the model seeks to extend extantresearch that has addressed only one of th ese aspects.Second, while extant research on knowledge transferstends to focus o n direct relations (i.e., the dyadic linkbetween a recipient and a source unit of k nowledge), Ialso consider the larger organization context of indirectrelations, which are conduits for information about opportunitiesfor knowledge sh aring (cf. Ghoshal and Bartlett1990). This approach enables a richer understandin g ofsearch processes forknowledge use in multiunit firms.Third, while scholars of ten consider the positive effectsof network relations on knowledge sharing, I also considermaintenance costs of n etworks byincorporating thistime commitment in analyzing the impact of interunit networkrelations on knowledge-sharing effectiveness inmultiunit firms.Knowledge Networks in Multiunit FirmsThe joint consideration of related knowledge and lateralinterunit relations of a knowledge network is illustratedin Figure 1 for a new product development team, whichis the unit of analysis in this paper. Diagram 1a illustratesa network of re lations among all business units in a firm,but does not partition these units into those that have relatedknowledge for the focal new product developmentteam, A (i.e., a pure network consideration). Diagram 1b,in contrast, partitions the busines s units in the firm intothose that have related knowledge for the focal productde velopment team (A) and those that have not, but thereis no consideration of then etwork among the units (i.e.,a pure related knowledge consideration). Diagram 1 illustratesa project-specific knowledge network: Businessunits are partitioned into t hose that have related knowledgefor the focal product development team (A), an d thecomplete set of network ofrelations among them are included,including both direct and indirect relations (i.e.,intermediarylinks connecting the focal unit with othersin the knowledge network). Both the indirect and directrelations affect the extent to which a focal product developmentteam is able to obtain knowledge fr om otherbusiness units and use it to perform better.Effects of Indirect Relations in Knowledge NetworksA product development team’s direct and indirect interunitrelations in its know ledge network affect the effectivenessof its search for useful knowledge by being importantconduits for information about opportunities the existence, whereabouts, a nd relevance of substantiveknowledge residing in other business units. While busi nessunits in the network may not be able to pass onproduct-specific knowledge directly, as such knowledgeoften requires direct interaction with the source to be extracted,a focal team that hears about opportunitiesthrough the network can cont act the source directly toobtain the knowledge. Sucknowledge,as defined here,incl udes product-specific technical know-how, knowledgeabout technologies and mark ets, as well as knowledgeembodied in existing solutions, such as already develop edhardware and software.Although direct relations in the knowledge networkprovide immediate access a nd hence areespecially usefulfor a focal team inquiring about opportunities, indire ctrelations are beneficialas well, because information aboutopportunities is likely t o be passed on by intermediaryunits and eventually reach the focal team, provide d thatbusiness units in the knowledge networkare reachable.1The idea that interm ediaries pass on messages and thatthey help forge connections has been well sup ported incommunications and social network research. Studies investigatingthe “s mall-world” phenomenon demonstratedthat the path length (i.e., the minimum nu mber of intermediaries)needed to connect two strangers from differentstates in the United Stateswas remarkably short and consistedof about five to seven intermedia ries (Milgram1967, Kochen 1989, Watts 1999). Early work on innovationresearch showed that new product developmentteams benefited from having a gatekeeper o r boundaryspanner, that is, a person who scans and interprets theteam’s environm ent and then passes on information to therest of the tea (Allen 1977, Katz and Tushman 1979).In social network research, Granovetter (1973) showedthat intermediary persons who are weakly tied to a focalperson are uniquely plac ed to pass on information aboutnew job opportunities because they are more likely thanstrongly tied connections to possess nonredundant information.The common thread in these lines of work is thatindirect relations are pervasi ve conduits for information.Intermediaries help forge connections and pass on me ssagesthat bridge two otherwise disconnected actors.However, indirect interunit relations may not be perfectconduits of informationa bout opportunities. As informationgets passed on across people from different uni ts,there is likely to be some degree of imperfect transmissionof the message abo ut opportunities for knowledgeuse. In particular, when information about opportun itieshas to be passed on through many intermediaries (i.e.,through long paths, cf. Freeman 1979), it is likely to becomedistorted (Bartlett 1932, March and Simon 1958).People who exchange such information are prone to misunderstandingeach other, forgetting details, failing tomention all that they know to others, filtering, or deliberatelywithholding aspects of what they know (Collinsand Guetzkow 1964 Huberand Daft 1987, Gilovich1991). The distortion may be unintentional or delib erate(O’Reilly 1978). Huber (1982) relates a drama tic example,originally provided by Miller (1972), of a mistakemade during the Vietnam War. The chain of mess ageswas as follows: The order from headquarters to the brigadewas “on no occas ion must hamlets be burned down,”the brigade radioed the battalion “do not bur n down anyhamlets unless you are absolutely convinced that the VietCong are in them;” the battalion radioed the infantry companyat the scene “if you think there are any Viet Congin the hamlet, burn it down;” the company commanderordered his troops “burn down that hamlet.” Thus, themore intermediaries needed, the hig her the chances ofsuch distortion, and hence the less precise is the informationth at is passed on (Miller 1972, Huber 1982).The implication of receiving imprecise information inthis context is that a proj ect team cannot easily focus ona few opportunities that are especially relevant, b ut mustinstead check anumber of imprecise leads to verifywhether they are releva nt for the team, resulting in a moreelaborate interunit search process that takes ti me. For example,a project manager in my study told me that he hadbeen told b y a third party in the company about a groupof engineer in another unit who were supposed to havesome useful technical know-how, but when he was ableto r each them after trying for a while, it turned out thatthe know-how was not relev ant for the project. Such fruitlesssearches not only take time, but also cause dela ys inthe project to the extent that the needed knowledge inputholds up the comp letion of other parts of he project.Because of the problem of information distorti on whenrelying on intermediary units, a focal team is likely tobenefit from short path lengths in the knowledge network(i.e., few intermediaries required to connec t a team in afocal unit with other units). Short path lengths enable theteam to k now about precisely described opportunities involvingrelated knowledge and allow it to discard informationabout irrelevant opportunities. The team can thenfocus on opportunities with a high degree of realizationpotential and can quickly contact p eople in these unitsand begin working with them to extract and incorporatetheir knowledge into the focal project. Thus, less time isspent evaluating and pursuing opportunities, reducing effortsdevoted to problemistic search, including search effo rtsthat establish that no useful opportunities exist(Cyert and March 1992). Teams with short path lengthsare thus more likely than teams with long path lengths to hear about more opportunities that overall yield more usefulknowledge, to the ext ent that opportunities are notredundant to one another. All else equal, this benefi tshould reduce a focal team’s time to complete t he project.The arguments can be summarized in two hypotheses.HYPOTHESIS 1. The shorter a team’s path lengths inthe knowledge network, the more knowledge obtainedfrom other business units by the team. HYPOTHESIS 2. The shorter a team’s path lengths inthe knowledge network, the shorter th project completiontime.Effects of Direct Relations in Knowledge NetworksThe shortest possible path length is to have an establisheddirect relation to all other business units in a knowledgenetwork. Such a network position does not re quire anyintermediary units and should remove the informationdistortion caused by using intermediaries. However, unlikeindirect relations, which are maintained by intermediarybusiness units, direct interunit relations need to bemaintained by peo ple in the focal business unit, possiblyincluding focal team members, and require their own setof activities that take time. In the company I studied, forexample, product developers spent time outside of theirprojects traveling to other business units on a regular basisto discuss technology developments, market opportunities,a nd their respective product development programs.Such interunit network mainten ancecan be adistraction from completing specific project tasks: Timespent on mai ntaining direct contacts is time not spent oncompleting project-related tasks. Although direct interunit relations involve maintenancecosts, they also provide a benefit incertain situations:Established direct relations between a focal team and anotherbusiness unit may be helpful when the team identifiesknowledge that requ ires effort to be moved from thesource unit and incorporated into the project. Fo r example,in a number of projects in my sample, team memberswere frequently able to obtain software code from engineersin other business units, but sometime s the engineerswho wrote the code needed to explain it and help the teamto inc orporate the code into the new project. Receivingsuch help was often much easie r when the team and theengineers providing the code knew each other beforehan d.This likely positive aspect of direct relations needsto be compared with their maintenance costs.Direct relations are especially helpful when a team isexperienci ng transfer difficulties—i.e., spending significanttime extracting, moving, and inco rporating knowledgefrom other subunits—because the knowledge is noncodified,w hich is defined as knowledge that is difficultto adequately articulate in writing (Zander and Kogut1995, Hansen 1999). Relying on establisheddirect relationsmay ease the difficulties of transferring noncodifiedknowledge, because the team and people in the directlytied unit have most likely worked with each other beforean d have thus established some heuristics for workingtogether, reducing the time itt akes to explainthe knowledgeand understand one another (Uzzi 1997, Hansen199 9). When a focal team experiences significant transferdifficulties because of noncodified knowledge, having establisheddirect relations to related business units is li kelyto reduce the amount of time spent transferring knowledge,which may offset the costs of maintaining such relationsand shortening project completion time. In particular,having a number of direct relations in a knowledgenetwork increases th e likelihood that a team will be ableto use one of them in transferring noncodifi ed knowledge.Thus, while indirect relations are beneficial to the extentthat they serve as inte rmediaries that provide a focal unitwith nonredundant information, direct relations are beneficialto transferring noncodified knowledge, implyingthat the benefit of ha ving intermediaries supplying nonredundantinformation is relative (cf. Burt 1992).I n contrast, this transfer benefit of direct relations isless important when a focal t eam can easily extract andincorporate the knowledge that was identified in anoth ersubunit, as when that knowledge is highly codified. Inthese situations, direct int erunit relations are not usefulfor transfer, but they still carry maintenance costsw hichtake time away from the completion of the project to theextent that team me mbers d not have slack resources thatcan be devoted to maintaining these relatio nships. Themore suchrelations that are maintained by a focal unit,the higher the maintenance costs, and the more time istaken away from completing a project. T he arguments canbe summarized as follows:HYPOTHESIS 3A. The higher a team’s number of directrelations in the know ledge network, the shorter the projectcompletion time when the knowledge to be transferredis noncodified.HYPOTHESIS 3B. The higher a team’s number of directrelations in the knowl edge network, the longer the projectcompletion time when the knowledge to be tr ansferred iscodified.Data and MethodsSettingI tested the knowledge network model in a large, multidivisionaland multinatio nal electronics company (hereaftercalled “the Company”). I negotiated access to t hecompany through three senior corporate R&D managersand initially visited 14 divisions where I conducted openendedinterviews with 50 project engineers and managersto better understand the context, and todevelop surveyinstruments. The c ompany, which has annual sales ofmore than $5 billion, is involved in developin g, manufacturing,and selling a range of industrial and consumerelectronics produc ts and systems, and is structured into41 fairly autonomous operating divisions tha t are responsiblefor product development, manufacturing, and sales.By focusing on these divisions, I was able to compareunits that occupy the sa me formal position in the Company,thereby controlling for a potential source of variationin formal structure. They all had the same formalstatus as a business uni t with profit-and-loss responsibility,all had a general manager, and none of the di visionsreported to another division. In additio to interunit relations,there were a f ew other integrative mechanismsacross divisions, notably divisionwide conferences andelectronic knowledge management systems, but initial interviewsrevealed that these did not vary much among thedivisions.Selecting Product Development ProjectsI used two surveys: a network survey administered to theR&D managers in th e 41 divisions and a survey for theproject managers of the product development projects includedin this study. In selecting projects, I first createda list of all projects that the di visions had undertaken duringthe three-year period prior to the time of data colle ction.I then excluded very small projects (i.e., those withless than two project engineers) and projects that had notyet moved from the investigation to the developmentphase and were therefore ha rd to track I also excludedidiosyncratic projects that had no meaningful start and end (e.g., special ongoing customer projects). Includingonly successfully complete d projects may lead to an overrepresentationof successful projects, biasing the res ults.I therefore included both canceled projects and projectsstill in progress. After having removed too-small, premature,and idiosyncratic projects, I ended up with a listof 147 projects. The project managers of 120 of thesereturned their survey, yielding a response rate of 85%. Ofthe 120 projects, 22 were still in progress at the time ofdata collection, four had been canceled, and 54 reporteda significant t ransfer event involving another division.Specifying Project-Specific Knowledge NetworksIdentifying Related Subunits. Together with the threecorporate R&D managers, I developed a list of 22 technicalcompetencies that constituted related knowledgea reas(see Appendix 1 for the list of technical competencies).2 I asked the R&D managers in the divisions toindicate up to four specific competencies of their divisionson this list and to add any if they thought the listwas incomplete. The three corporate R&D managers r eviewedthe responses to verify whether it made sense togroup those divisions tha t had reported the same competence.The project managers of the 120 projects we rethen asked to indicate what technical competencies thespecific project required and were presented with thesame list that was presented to the divisional R&D managers.Thus, for a given project, a number of divisionshad a competence that matche d the requirements listedby the project manager (see Appendix 1 for the distribut ionof projects per competence). For example, a projectmanager indicated that his project required technicalcompetencies in three areas: distributed measurement,communication system monitoring, and optics. Twelve different divisions had at least one of these technical competenciesand thus constituted theknowledge network fo rthis particular project.Specifying Interunit Relations. A group of engineers ina di vision typically maintained an informal regular contactwith a group of engineers inanother division, and aproject team would use such contacts to access other di visions.These relationships were common knowledge inthat most product develope rs seemed to know about theirexistence and how to use them, and I was told in preliminaryinterviews that a main responsibility of a division’sman agers was to p rovide these contacts for his or herproject teams,should the need arise. I therefor e assumedthat at least one member of a project team woul knowabout the divisi onal-level contacts and that the teammembers could access these contacts if they wanted to.Because of the importance of these interdivisional contactsin the compa ny, I chose to focus on these types ofcontacts.Following previous research, I use d a key informant toobtain information on interdivisional relations (Knokeand Ku klinski 1982, Marsden 1990). I considered the divisionalR&D managers to be the most appropriate informantsbecause they were “in the thick of things” in theR& D department in their division. The R&D manager ineach of the 41 divisions re ceived a questionnaire asking,“Over the past two years, are there any divisions fr omwhom your division regularly sought technical and/ormarket-related input?”3 T he question was followed by alist of the 41 divisions included in the study, allo wingrespondents to indicate whether they had a tie to any onthe list, leading to a complete network where everybodywas asked whether a tie existed with everyb ody else(Marsden 1990). Because I asked everybody to indicatewhether a tie exis ted with each of the other 40 divisions,I avoided a potential bias resulting from having to asksomeone to ascertain whether ties exist among others(Krackhardt an d Kilduff 1999).To validate the responses, I employed the crossvalidationmethod used by Krac khardt (1990by askingthe R&D managers who comes to them for input. Anactual tie exists when both divisions agree that one comesto the other for input. I then sent an e-mail to all of theR&D managers, asking them about the ones about whichthere was no joint agreement. On the basis of their responses,I included som e of these suspect ties and excludedothers.Merging Network and Project Data. I constructedproject-specific knowledge net works by including all relationsamong divisions possessing related knowledge fora given project. For example, for the aforementioned projectfor which there were12 related divisions, I includedall relations among these 12 divisions, and this ne tworkconstituted the project-specific knowledge network. Toconstruct these project -specific networks, I merged theproject data with the divisional network data by ass igninga division’s network relations to its projects. Thus, interdivisionalties bec ame the equivalent of interdivisionalproject ties. It is important to record thevalu es on thenetwork variables prior to the start of a project becausemy theoretical a rguments assume that a project team usesestablished preexisting interunit ties to s earch for andtransfer knowledge. Following the approach of Burt(1992) and Podo lny and Baron (1997), I handled this issueby measuring the interdivisional netwo rk relationsover several years by only assigning network ties thatexisted prior to the start of the project. This proceduregenerated time-varying network data from informationthat the respondents could recall.The potential bias in this approach is that it may excludesome relations that e xisted prior to a project’s startbut that ceased to exist by the time the R&D ma nagerscompleted the survey. This problem can be partially controlledfor. This pot ential bias should be more of a problemfor projects in divisions in which relatio ns come andgo than in divisions with long-lasting relations. If a division’srelatio ns are long lasting, then it is less likelythat there were some relations that cease d to exist betweenthe time just prior to the project’s start and the timeof surveying. To control for this potential bias, I entereda control variable for th e average age of direct relationsto related subunits (Age relations).Dependent VariablesProject Completion Time. To assess project task performance,I measured project completion time as thenumber of months from the start of concept developmen tto the time of marketintroduction for a given project (ortime to the end of the study period or cancellation forongoing and canceled projects, respectively). I def inedstarting time as the month when a dedicated personstarted working part or f ull time on the project, whichtypically coincided with the time an account was o penedfor the project. I defined the end date as the date on whichthe product was released to shipment, which is a formalmilestone date in this co mpany because it signifies thatthe product is ready to be manufactured and shipp ed ona regular basis. These definitions turned out to be veryclear and provided f ew problems in specifying the startand completion times, which were 14.8 months on averagefor completed projects. Scholars have proposed two alternative measures ofcompletion time. First, com pletion timecan be measuredas the extent to which the project is finished on sch edule(e.g., Ancona andCaldwell 1992). The assumption in thisschedule measure is that inherent project differences areaccounted for in the original schedule, but als o that everybodysets equally ambitious schedules, which was mostlikely not true in this company, where individual projectmanagers set their own targets. A second approach is togroup projects according to some similarity measure andthen take a project’s deviation from the mean completiontime of the group (Eisenhardtan d Tabrizi 1995). Theproblem with this approach is that the mean deviationrelies on a clearsimilarity measure that was not easy toattain in this setting. Given that these two alternativemethods seemed problematic, I chose to use the numberof m onths as the dependent variableand then add projectspecificvariables to control for inherent differences betweenthe projects.Amount Acquired Knowledge. During field interviewsI was told that the most c ommon knowledge that projectteams received from other divisions took the form of technicalsolutions embodied in already developed softwarecode and hardware components. T here were two types of“ware” being used in the projects—standar input to theproducts being made (e.g., components that were used innearly all os cilloscopes being manufactured), and warethat helped solve ad hoc problems that。
工商管理 文献翻译(DOC)
中小企业融资扬·尔迪[丹麦],切萨里奥·马特乌斯[英国]，《中小企业融资》,伦敦商业观察.2007(9):43-45.工商管理摘要中小企业融资的主要来源有：股权融资、按时兑现的贸易信贷融资、中长期银行信贷融资、延迟兑现的贸易信贷融资以及其他债务融资，每种融资方式的边际成本取决于与其滞纳金相关的信息不对称成本和交易成本。
根据啄食理论，企业在融资时，会优先选择成本最低的融资方式；而根据静态权衡理论，企业在进行融资时，各种资金来源的边际成本都是相同的；再者，根据优序融资理论，企业进行融资时要结合企业自身具体情况，是考虑多重因素下的优序融资。
在本文中，我们认为，以上这些理论都忽略了一点，那就是边际成本的确定主要依赖于融资资金的使用，以及资产负债表中资产方作为融资来源的重要影响作用。
一个来自葡萄牙中小企业的数据分析证实，企业资产负债表资产方对于融资方式的选择有着重要的影响，而这是静态权衡理论和优序融资理论所不能接受的。
中小企业的融资主要来源于股权（内部融资），商业信用，银行信贷和其他债务。
融资方式的选择取决于资金成本，而资金成本又是由信息不对称成本和基于无债务负担情况下的预期成本决定的。
信息不对称成本主要是为了支持管理决策而收集和分析信息所产生的费用，无债预期成本主要产生于企业为收回债务而收集和出售抵押品时的费用。
由于中小企业的管理层和股东往往是同一个人，股权和内部产生的资金没有信息不对称成本，因此股权融资是成本最低的融资渠道。
2 中小企业资产融资理论在前面的论述中，我们曾建议，葡萄牙的中小企业多采用内部资金、廉价贸易信贷、中长期银行信贷、高价贸易信贷和其他贷款进行融资。
接下来，我们将对以上各种类型的融资动机进行讨论。
2.1 廉价贸易信贷首先，我们将讨论的是贸易信贷。
贸易信贷很有意思，因为它们代表的非金融企业与金融中介机构在提供金融服务方面的竞争。
这一领域内的早期研究关注于贸易信贷同的信贷渠道的作用（或所谓的“梅尔策”影响）之间的关系，以及同货币政策的效率之间的关系。
工商管理外文参考文献翻译
工商管理外文参考文献翻译外文参考文献翻译题目: 城市之星客户服务管理浅析学院: 经济管理学院专业:工商管理班级: 0601学号: 200607080130学生姓名: 雷月茜导师姓名: 胡琳完成日期: 2010年04月23日一、外文参考文献原文All too often, marketers of homogenous products fail to identifytheir competitive advantage, resulting in dismal results. Similarly, SME participants find it difficult to identify such competitive advantages. Fortunately, the Franchise Model facilitates the notion of ‘ being in business for yourself, but not on your own’. The reason for this caseis to facilitatecompetitive advantage within a Home Entertainment SME Franchise environment, enabling participants to successfully compete with thecorporate environment. The outcome is to identify and implement Service Profit Chain (Heskett et al, 1997) initiatives, linking customer service to long term profitability and growth.The home video industry is a product of technology. Prior to the introduction of the home VCR in 1976, there was no way to watch movies at home, except as shown on broadcast television, and no one had thought of a retail store where movies could be rented for the night. In the course of the past quarter-century, those VCR's and those video rental stores became the foundation for a US$ 17 billion industry.This study researches the Home Entertainment Video Rental industry, consisting predominantly of SME home entertainment outlets. The particular analysis is in a leading South African Franchise system, consisting of family owned ‘Franchisees’.The service profit chain will centre on analysis from the 'gurus' on the topic, specific reference to " The Service Profit Chain- how Leading Companies Link Profit and Growth to Loyalty, Satisfaction, and Value, as depicted by Heskett. J, Sasser. W, Schlesinger. L, (1997). Concepts, models and frameworks will also be researched from leading customer service oriented organizations, including Southwest Airlines, Xerox, Wal-mart, Taco Bell, Au Bon Pain Restaurants, British Airways, and other relevant leaders in their respective fields.The service profit chainwill be analysed from the above sources, whereby customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer value are linked to the long term profitability and growth of Blockbusters Video.CRM systems have become the rule for customer service centers. Now managers are taking the next step; to arm their agents with a knowledge base that can deliver fast, accurate answers. They are reaping the benefits of integrating a true knowledge management system with CRM - such as decreasing escalation rates, shorter call times and increased first call resolution.Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions have been widely accepted by1global enterprises seeking to improve customer satisfaction and retention. But it takes more than just technology to maintain customer relationships. It takes improved business processes and a method for providing customers with the information that they demand in anefficient and effective manner. This is where knowledge management (KM) comes in to play in the customer interaction center.Today, industry experts recommend customer service and support knowledge bases as a critical component of successful CRM. According to Tim Hickernell, senior analyst with the META Group, "Service strategies that include knowledge bases, accessible to both agents and customers across all deployed points of interaction, can optimize cost of service and increase customer satisfaction by providing a more consistent customer experience." META concludes that by 2004, companies seeking customer service superiority will add cross-channel knowledge bases and escalation capabilities .Knowledge management is often an enterprisewide initiative...a discipline that encompasses managing and sharing knowledge across all departments within an organization. However, quite often organizations choose to kick-off KM on a departmental basis. With customersatisfaction as a mission-critical driver for all businesses, especially today when repeat business from existing customers can make or break a company, many companies are choosing to invest in knowledge managementfor their customer contact centers. Other common implementations occur within IT help desks, human resources departments and sales organizations. It's important to remember that organizations must tailor KM processes and tools to the specific needs and goals of each department.Today, knowledge management is not just for agents accessing a knowledge base. Allowing customer access to self-service knowledge bases is a must. The bonus of Web self-service (also referred to as e-service or online self-help) is that customers are happier with your company if they can quickly and easily find answers without having to contact the call center, and companies can reduce operating expenses by deflecting queries to the Web.It's not enough, however, to put the information on the Web and ask your customer to go find it. You need to make the information timely, accurate, easy to find and in the format that most customers want. By knowledge-enabling your online customer service, you empower customersto find answers quickly through dynamic FAQs or knowledge search engines.Both FAQs and search engines must generate dynamic responses in order to be useful, meaning that they must learn and adapt from usage. This type of technology is referred to as a self-learning2search engine. To be considered a true self-learning search, the system must learn from previous experiences had by customers withsimilar issues. It must be self-organizing, in that it is always moving the most relevant information to the top of the search results. It also must be tied into a reporting system that monitors knowledge usage - which items in the knowledge base are being used most frequently and which are not being accessed.At its simplest, customer service is being influenced andrevitalized by information technology. Regardless of how one visualizes customer service, either from a logistics or marketing perspective, information technology now assumes an important role in customer service. Information technology is a powerful tool or enabler in the arena of customer service. Information technology is essentially in the processof migration, from the support function to the front-line functions where the customer is served, as indeed is customer service itself.In particular, the degree of marketing orientation and itsrelationship to both customer service and information technologyrequires further quantitative measurement. A greater understanding would facilitate marketing managers in identifying other areas in which information technology may be of use.One of the most remarkable features of the debate on workplaceskills over the last few years has been the increasing emphasis placedon soft skills and attitudes. In part this is because work itself is changing. The rise of the service sector has meant that increasing numbers of people in employment are (at least in part) delivering a service and are themselves part of the process being sold. This is perhaps most dramatically apparent where the ‘service’ is itself entertainment. In Disneyworld staff are expected to be physically attractive, friendly, helpful, smiling and able to follow scripted exchanges (Van Maanen, 1991). But these dramatic elements and the emphasis on aesthetic and emotional ‘skills’ are not restricted to the entertainment industry, rather they are increasingly accepted as a‘normal’ aspect of servicework (Hancock and Tyler, 2000). So staff in restaurants, bars and hotels are hired on (and groomed in) aspects of their looks (Nickson et al., 2001); flight attendants are monitored onlooks, weight and consistent helpfulness (Hochschild, 1983); andcall centre workers are expected to infuse their voice with appropriate emotions (Callaghan and Thompson, 2002; Wray-Bliss, 2001; Taylor andT yler, 2000). Even official reviews of the state of the nation’s skills emphasis personal qualities and attributes (Skills Task Force). Work, it seems, is increasingly about appearing, being andfeeling as well as doing.The picture presented in these organisations is not one of opening the public sector to3market forces or responsiveness to customers but of confusion. Here additional levels of monitoring and new performance measures are introduced and customer service was emphasised often over areas where those serving have little control. As might be predicted, the implications for employee skills are also mixed. At one level training, at least in areas relevant to customer service, is increasing at others technical skills still needed to complete the work are not being reproduced and it is difficult to see, rhetorical or structurally, many incentives for them to be developed in the future.Most chief executives say that customer satisfaction is a number-one priority for their companies. Given a little background information on what has really transpired in their companies, however, many will admit that pressures for short-term results create thinking processes and decisions that often negatively impacts customer service. Management needs to carefully and critically assess how their companies have performed at developing and implementing a customer-focused service strategy.Too many companies limp along with less than top-notch customer service.Well-intentioned goals to achieve and sustain a high level of customer service often exist. Yet, customer service is often one ofthose perpetual problems in the process of being solved, but without measurable results. Executive management is often very frustrated with the seeming inability to solve the customer service competitive dilemma once and for all.Customer service is a competitive weapon that can easilydifferentiate one supplier from another. A lot of talk today is centered on quality, new processes and systems, continuous improvement and the like, b ut it must be aimed at customer satisfaction or it isn’t worth muchover the longer term. The same old way of doing business is just not good enough; the complex job of redefining and implementing new processes, policies, systems and measurement are mandatory to solidify your company’s future.In most industries, customers have become more sophisticated and demanding of their supply chains. Suppliers that offer the most in customer-defined quality products, pricing and quickorder turnaroundwill outperform their competitors and easily gain more marketshare in the future as customers clamor for more. For management, a high level of customer service must become a measurable result.The discipline to adhere to a good customer service and operational strategy can create substantial rewards. A notable example of effective strategy and disciplined adherence is Dell Computer. Dell provides its customers with a quality product, flexible product configurations,4quick response and a reasonable price. The marketplace responded by buying more and more product from Dell and its stock went up 10.000 percent over the past five years.World class companies have taken more market share by providing notably better customer service. Executives know that to stand out in a crowded field of competitors, customer service is a very critical component in achieving and maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction. When pressures move the organization to meet only performance goals and measurements such as overhead absorption, shipping dollar targets, labor efficiency, purchase price variance and the like, however, customer service often takes a back seat to these other concerns. The result can be a plunge in customer satisfaction and ultimately, if allowed to continue, an erosion in market share.Finally, and in broad terms, the evolution and revolution of customer service will continue and therefore deserves further investigation. Specifically, empirical research should aim tocrystallize the transitional process and variables necessary for an organization to broaden its definition and understanding of customer transaction service to customer relationship service. This should assist marketing academics and managers face the competitive challenges of a new century.二、外文参考文献翻译很多时候，营销的同质产品不能确定自己的竞争优势，在令人沮丧的结果产生。
外文文献翻译-工商管理企业管理创新
外文翻译Analysis of enterprise management innovation measures FORM:Elliott Renwick.Analysis of enterprise management innovation measures[J].Journal of Enterprise Reform and Management,2016(08):180-182. Abstract：The effective management of the scientific enterprise is an important factor in the development of enterprises and innovation. Now with the continuous improvement and development of the international market economy, China's enterprises in the development of continuous innovation and change. How to improve the ability of management innovation, how to promote the development of enterprises is an important issue in the development of enterprises at present. This article from the aspects of how to carry out the innovation of enterprise management is analyzed, to provide a scientific theoretical basis for enterprise management, make a contribution to the innovation of enterprise management.Keyword：enterprise management; innovation; measures;浅析企业管理创新的措施来源：Elliott Renwick.浅析企业管理创新的措施[J].企业改革与管理杂志，2016(08):180-182.摘要：企业科学有效的管理是企业发展和创新的重要因素。
工商管理外文翻译外文文献中英翻译客户关系管理
工商管理外文翻译外文文献中英翻译客户关系管理CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT这是一份来自布加勒斯特(罗马尼亚首都)经济学院的研究:As. univ. drd. Mihaela Cornelia PrejmereanLect. univ. dr. Alina Mihaela DimaAcademy of Economic Studies, BucharestAbstract: After 17 years of economical and market development, Romanian companies face a new challenge: the tough competition from the European Union and the battle for the customers. The Romanian enterprises will have to learn not only how to attract customers, but also how to keep them. Marketing programs include now aspects regarding customer orientation, relationship management, loyalty and quality. In this paper, we will follow the main aspects, characteristics, dimensions and processes of Customer Relationship Management, and we will analyze the challenges that the local companies will have to face. Examples from the financial service sector will round the actual situation of the implementation of the CRM rules and principles in Romania.Keywords: marketing information system; customer relationship management; business asset, customer acquisition; customer retention.1. IntroductionIn the last decade, the majority of the companies were preoccupied with production, recession, mergers, new technologies and business regulation. Romania’s accession in the European Union will bring manyadvantages for further development, together with membership in a Common Market with common policies on product regulation, and freedom of movement for all the four factors of production (goods, services,capital and labor). This means that Romanian companies will compete with other companies from the EU directly in their home market. European companies are more flexible and mobile and will put a high pressure on the local companies in order to produce better products, launch better offers and services and orientate more towards their customers. High revenue equals important customer is a classic rule when the company organises its customer policy. “An important customer brings a gross amount of money for our enterpris e” has become a reflex for many companies abroadand perhaps in Romania, too. But is this always true, or do we need more information than a simple figure reported at the end of the year?2. Marketing information systemA winning company is more productive in acquiring and retaining customers, to expand its clientele (Kotler, 2003). This company improves the value of the customersby reducing the rate of defection, increasing the longevity of customer Management & marketing relationship, making low-profit customers more profitable or terminating them etc. Gathering information on the actual or potential marketplace not only allows the organisation to monitor trends and issues concerning its current customers, but also helps it identify and profile potential customers and new markets, tokeep track of its competition, their strategies, tactics and future plans (Brassington and Pettitt,2003). In order to collect and organize a high quantity of diverse information, the enterprises started to build marketing information systems. There are, mainly, a set of procedures and methods by which pertinent, timely and accurate information is continually gathered, sorted, analysed, evaluated, stored anddistributed for the use of marketing decision makers (Zikmund andD?Amico,1993). The marketinginformation system includes data from external and internal sources (sales records, customer records, marketing communications, and sales force information). The focus on the customer and the integration of the marketing function helps the company to create customer databases with comprehensive information about individual customers or prospects.3. Customer relationship managementCustomer Relationship Management has been around for the last 30 years, but it became very important when companies changed theirattitude towards marketing function. Nowadays, the cross-functional approach to marketing requires an organizational culture and climatethat encourages collaboration and cooperation between departments. People within the business must understand their role in serving customers, internal or external one. CRM builds on the principles of relationship marketing and recognizes that customers are a business asset and not simply a commercial audience, implies the structuring of the company from functions to processes, information are usedproactively rather than reactively and develops the ne-to-one marketing approaches (Payne, 2006).When defining CRM, we must first explain the difference between customer acquisition and customer retention. The two concepts have different drivers. Attracting customers has become very difficult these days, when people are harder to please. They are smarter, price conscious and sensitive, more demanding, less forgiving, and they are approached by many more competitors with equally good or better offers (Kotler,2003). Companies focus more on sales analysis, customer segmentation, advertising, merchandising and campaign management. The more difficult part is keeping the customers. According to Bruhn, a customer is satisfied when the comparison between offer and consumption fulfils his/her expectations, after he/she accepts the company, trusts it and exhibits a positive attitude towards it, becomes loyal to that company. In this situation, the customer talks favourably about the company and about its products, pays less attention to competing brands and is less sensitive to price, which turns transactions into routine (Bruhn, 1999). With customer retention, the company must pay attention to service satisfaction and trust in Customer relationship management the organization and its staff. Some companiesbelieve that if a customer complaints the problem will be solved, but 96% of unsatisfied customers don’t complain and go to another company. Therefore, Customer Relationship Management is the mechanism for retaining customers (Russell-Jones, 2003). Mainly CRM allows thecompany to understand who their customer is, isolate the best customer (those with whom you desire to have long-standing relationships), create relationships stretching over time and involving multi-interactions, manage the relationship to mutual advantage, seek to acquire more ofthose “best” customers. Inputs like marketing strategy, customer base, products, and regulation, competitors and staff skills are synthesizedin a CRM programme which creates outputs as customer service, customer retention, higher share of wallet, customer referral, more predictable revenues streams, improved profitability, lower costs and better compliance (Russell-Jones, 2003).4. Developing a strategy in customer relationship managementBecause CRM is a cross-functional activity and large companies have thousands and millions of customers, the need for a strategic frameworkis very high. The dimensions of a CRM strategy are mainly focused on defining the following topics: - object of the customer relationship management – the company has three options:focusing on the company itself, on a brand or on the distributor;- target segment – the company usually sets priorities between different customer segments, it defines strategic customers based on the portfolio analyses, factors as revenue, length of the relationship, income, collaboration with the customer. These are its analysis criteria;- ways of retaining the customers –customers’ satisfaction is inthe centre of allthe decisions, but customers retention can also become a centralissue through contractual clauses, such as service, leasing and warranty;- choosing the instruments of CRM – the company combines the instruments of the4P?s with focus on the customer;- intensity and timing of the CRM decisions – show when and howshould thecompany introduce different instruments; programmes can last fromone day to one week, or from three month to two years;- cooperation within the CRM programme – sometimes the company must cooperate with other partners from the distribution channel, mainly between producer and wholesaler and retail.5. Instruments of customer relationship managementThe communication policy plays an important role in the instruments mix. It follows two objectives: first, to build a permanent dialoguewith the customer in order to stabilize or change its expectations, and second, to counteract influences after consumption. The main CRM instruments within the communication policy are: Direct-Mail is material distributed through the postal service to the recipients’ home or business address to promote a product or service. In CRM the mailedissue canvary from a simple letter to a catalogue, and its sending willalways occur at a particularmoment in customer’s life (birthday, invitation for an event). It must incorporate sticky gadgets to increase their chances of being opened and read; Newsletters are distributed to customers for free and contain information about new products, offers for special events and others; Fidelity cards (store cards) are an important tool in gathering information about customer behaviour. By accumulating points of fidelity, the customer can benefit from different special offers; Clients club designates a concept which has grown in parallel with the fidelity cards. Its main forms are VIP-Club, Fan-Club, Product-Interest-Club, and Lifestyle-Club. The club represents an opportunity for the company to make offers in accordance with the social status, acceptance, prestige and expectations of its customers;Telemarketing allows companies to undertake marketing research andis highly measurable and accountable; the number of positive andnegative responses are easily recorded and monitored. It provides for interaction, is flexible and permits immediate feed-back. Online-marketing includes many forms such as on-line advertising, on-line sales promotions, on-line direct marketing, on-line public relations, one-line personal selling. The medium used is the internet and the maininstrument is the email. Virtual promotions are cheaper than hard copy versions, but the challenge is to drive traffic to your company’s Web site. Event-marketing takes place in three main areas: theproduct (here, it focuses on increasing sales), the corporation (for developing a corporate body) and the community (to make a difference in the life of the local community) (Bruhn, 1999& Fill, 2002).The price policy can be thought about in various ways when building a CRM programme: discounts for special customers, underselling or matching competitors, loyalty refunds, bundling items together and offering overall prices. Although price is not a measure of inherent value received, it is often used by customers as a benchmark, ignoring any other features or differences.Key factors in the product policy are the product itself, with quality, design, technical features, packaging and service management which includes lifelong warranty, price warranty or a customer telephone line. An active management in the distribution policy can focus on the customer or on the distribution channel. The producer evaluates the activity of the distribution partner and Customer relationship management intervenes when needed. The focus on the customers isrealised through a Key Account Management which develops programmes for special customers.6. Customer relationship management in financial servicesFinancial services differ from many other industries. This can be seen particularly in Romania, where 40 commercial banks fight for a population of 21 million citizens. They cover the whole spectrum of customers from individuals to partnerships, institutions, corporations and governments. As a result, it can be very difficult to focus onsingle markets. Customers are often in two positions: they may have a deposit and savings accounts, but also loans and overdrafts. They are very service focused, theysell only intangibles. Financial services require processingbillions of transactions worldwide and they are one of the heaviest regulated industries in the world (Rusell-Jones, 2003).The customers in the financial services are better informed, are switching channels, and seem to be more demanding of service, and used to change. The market is also highly competitive and new entrants are coming with diverseproducts and approaches.The industry of financial services in Romania has a very highpotential and registers every year high growth rates. Till now, the location in a major city of the country with a population around 300.000 people was an advantage of the business and a success factor. Now the battlefield has moved in the small towns. The competition became tougher; banks began to develop and to introduce new products. Some experts say that a weakness of the banking sector is market segmentation. There is lots of information about customers, but it seems that banks prefer to focus on clients with large savings accounts. The main banks in Romania, as BRD, BCR, ING, and HVB-Tiriac announced for the year 2005 an increase in the number of the private banking clients. These are mainly customers with accounts between 50.000 and 100.000 Euros, they benefit of private consultancy, special interest rates, commissions, and special insurances. Customers have also a word to say about their bank. A market study madeby Deadalus Consulting revealed that the customer profile for banking services is: person aged between 45-55 years, with higher or middle education. The most utilized service is the bank card for salaries payment (32,6%). Next, savings accounts (10,2%), credits for personal needs (11,1%), credits for buying electronics (9,2%) and auto leasing. The best grades were received by Raiffeisen Bank (8,83), BCR (8,58) and BRD Societe Generale (8,57). A customer’s criteriawhen choosing a bank are the trust in the bank, the environment in the branch, the quality of the staff, the advice they receive, the best interest rate they can receive, the information about the credit costs, and the conditions for obtaining a credit. A successful service provided by the majority of the banks is internet banking. It allows clients to save time and money, without going to the bank, 24 of 24 from inside or abroad. The access is free of charge or very cheap, and includes all kinds of activities from money transfer, payment orders, currency exchange, payment of current bills, external payments etc. The rate of penetration is still low, ranking between 10% and 30% of the customers in one middle bank.7. ConclusionsRomanian companies must focus in the future on the Customer Relationship Management and try to turn a “susceptible” client into a “partner”, to transform people who once needed their product/service, or occasional business partners into supporters and advocates and, eventually, into loyal partners that “sell” on the behalf of thecompany. Companies must create a permanent dialogue with their customers, and fight for them, because the clientele is not given for free. Customers that were price sensitive show now a higher interest in quality, service and behaviourof staff, and a company which concentrated on a price strategyshould check how prepared its rivals are for a competition in the aforementioned fields. Customer Relationship Management increases its flexibility and adaptability to the market, in a world of capricious clients.客户关系管理这是一份来自布加勒斯特(罗马尼亚首都)经济学院的研究:摘要:经过17年市场经济的发展，罗马尼亚的公司面临着一个新的挑战:来自欧盟的激烈竞争和抢夺消费者的大战。
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中小企业融资扬·尔迪[丹麦],切萨里奥·马特乌斯[英国]，《中小企业融资》,伦敦商业观察.2007(9):43-45.工商管理摘要中小企业融资的主要来源有：股权融资、按时兑现的贸易信贷融资、中长期银行信贷融资、延迟兑现的贸易信贷融资以及其他债务融资，每种融资方式的边际成本取决于与其滞纳金相关的信息不对称成本和交易成本。
根据啄食理论，企业在融资时，会优先选择成本最低的融资方式；而根据静态权衡理论，企业在进行融资时，各种资金来源的边际成本都是相同的；再者，根据优序融资理论，企业进行融资时要结合企业自身具体情况，是考虑多重因素下的优序融资。
在本文中，我们认为，以上这些理论都忽略了一点，那就是边际成本的确定主要依赖于融资资金的使用，以及资产负债表中资产方作为融资来源的重要影响作用。
一个来自葡萄牙中小企业的数据分析证实，企业资产负债表资产方对于融资方式的选择有着重要的影响，而这是静态权衡理论和优序融资理论所不能接受的。
中小企业的融资主要来源于股权（内部融资），商业信用，银行信贷和其他债务。
融资方式的选择取决于资金成本，而资金成本又是由信息不对称成本和基于无债务负担情况下的预期成本决定的。
信息不对称成本主要是为了支持管理决策而收集和分析信息所产生的费用，无债预期成本主要产生于企业为收回债务而收集和出售抵押品时的费用。
由于中小企业的管理层和股东往往是同一个人，股权和内部产生的资金没有信息不对称成本，因此股权融资是成本最低的融资渠道。
2 中小企业资产融资理论在前面的论述中，我们曾建议，葡萄牙的中小企业多采用内部资金、廉价贸易信贷、中长期银行信贷、高价贸易信贷和其他贷款进行融资。
接下来，我们将对以上各种类型的融资动机进行讨论。
2.1 廉价贸易信贷首先，我们将讨论的是贸易信贷。
贸易信贷很有意思，因为它们代表的非金融企业与金融中介机构在提供金融服务方面的竞争。
这一领域内的早期研究关注于贸易信贷同的信贷渠道的作用（或所谓的“梅尔策”影响）之间的关系，以及同货币政策的效率之间的关系。
其基本思想是，企业尤其是大型知名企业，同的面临财务困境小企业，直接在金融市场达成贸易信贷的交易。
在最近的研究中，将对贸易信贷的利用分为战略动机和财务动机。
战略动机第一种理论是关于公司产品的信息不对称。
贸易信贷是由卖方提供，使买方可以在付款前确认产品的数量和质量。
通过提供贸易融资，供应商想证明的是，他们可以为买家提供优质的产品。
由于中小企业在一般情况下信誉不高，因此这些企业迫于无奈，往往使用贸易信贷的方式以证明其产品质量。
由于产品的信息不对称，买方对供应商的资料很少，或者供应商产品的情况复杂，质量难以鉴定，因此贸易信贷被中小企业广泛使用。
第二个战略动机是定价。
以优惠条件提供贸易融资，其作用同商品降价类似。
因此，企业可以利用贸易信贷，间接的降低产品价格或作为不同买家之间的价格歧视工具，以促进销售。
相比于风险借款而言，贸易信贷是有利的，因为这种替代性融资的有着一个更为优惠的融资利率。
因此，贸易信贷可以被用来作为直接的价格歧视的工具，或者作为低信誉借款人的间接工具（如果所有的买家提供相同的条件）。
贸易信贷也可以帮助供应商发展与买家的长期合作关系。
这往往体现在买方出现暂时财务困难的情况下，供应商要允许其延长付款期。
同金融机构相比，供应商具有更好的的行业知识，因此能够更好地判断买方是面临暂时的困难还是存在一个长期性的问题。
没有严格意义上的战略动机，最终动机都是基于交易成本。
贸易信贷作为进行交易有效方式，可以明确地区分货物交割和帐款支付。
从最基本的方面讲，卡车司机运送货物，不必再四处找相关负责人支付帐单，买方还可以节约交易成本所需的现金。
融资动机这种观点的基本内容是，企业与金融机构在为其他公司提供信贷业务上进行竞争。
金融机构的传统观点是，他们在向企业提供信用时的主要问题是信息不对称。
金融机构在收集和分析来自企业，特别是受制与信息不对称影响的中小型企业的信息时，具有一定优势。
这种优势的确立，关键在于银行与目标企业之间存在支付功能的密切关系，金融机构可以通过监测目标企业的帐目现金流入和流出来获取相关信息。
但随着贸易信贷逐渐流行，非金融企业同金融机构在解决这些问题及拓展信贷渠道方面，展开了激烈的竞争。
非金融机构如何能够在这个市场进行竞争？彼得森和拉詹（1997）就此简要讨论几种方式，并提出供应商对金融机构可能存在的优势。
相比于金融机构，供应商同借款人之间有着更加密切的工作关系和更加频繁的沟通交流。
供应商和贷款人之间所达成订单的时间及规模，提供借款人有关业务情况的信息，需要注意的是，此信息是先提供给供应商的，金融机构必须等待与订单相关的现金流产生后，才能获取相关的业务信息。
还有早期付款折扣的提供，使供应商及早的同借款人达成了一种信用关系，因此供应商能够比金融机构更快，更方便地取得相关业务信息供应商在收款方面也存在一定的优势。
如果供应商至少能在一个地方形成供货的垄断，那么他们就能对客户公司支付账款形成强有力的督促。
这种督促作用很明显，特别是当借款人的业务只占供应商业务中的很小一部分时。
在相同的情况下，相比于金融机构，供应商对借款人货物的扣留能对借款人产生更大的影响，以及通过其销售网络，以更高的价格出售商品和更的速度回收账款。
当然这些优势都是要建立在供应商对借款人所提供货物和借款的重要性的基础之上。
鉴于信息不对称是产生贸易信贷的因素之一，那么客户企业就要明白，供应商在授予他们贸易信贷的同时，也能够为自己争取到更多的银行信贷。
银行业会把供应商的贸易信贷质量的优劣，作为对他们授信的重要参考。
贸易信贷通常以货物的供应作为担保，客户企业在获取贸易信贷的额度上也有一定的限制，因此他们就不能随意利用贸易信贷，以达到为其整个生产经营提供融资支持的目的。
总而言之，由于对客户企业及其所属行业的了解毕竟还存在欠缺，贸易信贷的提供者同借款人之间的信息不对称程度还比较低。
贸易信贷发展至今，经验告诉我们贸易信贷的实施主要是基于企业商誉风险和产品销售成本。
由于以货物供应作为担保，使企业的贸易信贷额度始终控制的货物总价值之内。
2.2 银行信贷相比于贸易信贷的提供者，银行能够获取的信息更少，获取信息的成本也更高。
在使用货物作为抵押时，贸易信贷提供者比银行具有优势；然而，受交易的数量和规模的影响，银行往往以诸如建筑、机械设备等大宗资产作为抵押，在这个方面反而是银行更具优势。
因此，银行更倾向于以有形资产作为信贷担保，而且由于信息不对称，他们也不愿意向信息不透明的公司，如增长迅速的小企业，发放贷款，相对的银行更愿意提供的是有形资产作为担保的长期贷款。
在接下来基于有形资产和信用风险变量的实证研究中，我们将要重点阐述银行长期贷款的授予和授予额度是如何取决于作为担保的有形资产的价值的。
银行在收集和评价债务人应收账款方面的相对优势，是发放短期银行贷款的基础。
当然现金及其等价物也可以用作担保，但由于存在现金流动和市场安全方面的风险，相比于其他信贷提供者，银行在收集和研究这些信息并没有任何优势。
在存货抵押方面，情况也是如此。
因此，我们在解释银行短期信贷行为时，将会把债务人的数量作为主要的变量因素来研究。
2.3 高价贸易信贷和其他贷款当其他融资手段都丧失作用时，企业还可以利用拖延支付账款的贸易信贷方式。
然而，采用此种方式的成本是非常高的，因为它意味着企业放弃了现金折扣，甚至会招致罚金。
使用这种贸易信贷会降低企业的信誉，可能会使企业以后很难获取同类的信贷。
当然，成本的高低取决于企业所对应的供应商数量：如果只有一个供应商，那么这种成本还是相当高的；如果供应商有多个，那么这种成本也不算很高。
其他种类的信贷如信用卡债务、汽车贷款等，其成本比银行贷款还要高，同样客户财务表现的优劣，也是决定其能否获取这些信贷的主要因素。
由于我们对此类贷款的关注较少，获取的信息不够充分，在这里就不多作论述。
结论目前关于资本结构的理论主要有两种。
第一种是优序融资理论，即企业要首先选择成本最低的融资来源，其次是成本较低的，然后以此类推。
基于信息不对称而进行的逆向选择，是产生资金成本差异的主要原因。
第二种是权衡理论，即企业债务增加的前提是其能带来更多的利润增加。
债务的好处在于它可以作为企业的“抵税盾牌”、“积极代理成本”以及“负代理成本”。
这些理论的论述，对于企业资产负债表资产方的组成也有着重要影响。
由此得出的结论是，由于企业在融资中所采用的债务类型不同，企业资产负债表的资产方组成对负债方组成也有着重要影响，或者说资金的用途很大程度上决定着企业的融资类型。
我们可以进一步认为，这是信息不对称和抵押品因素在资产负债表中资产和负债双方关系的反映。
这种认知对于廉价贸易信贷和长期银行信贷来讲是合理的，但却不能应用在短期银行贷款上。
中小企业融资在欧洲：介绍和概述简.瓦耿沃特，欧洲投资银行，《经济与金融研究》（2009）本文介绍了中小企业融资问题和总结欧洲投资银行论文的主要研究结果这个版本的贡献，本概述强调中小企业的信贷供给关系的重要性的银行;指出了分歧和企业结构的异同首都在大小班和整个欧洲;注意到，尽管有广泛的中小企业信贷配给的迹象，金融市场不完善仍可抑制中小企业的成长和亮点，在欧洲的金融环境的变化 - 包括银行合并和新巴塞尔协议 - 承诺，以促进中小企业财务1.介绍在欧洲的金融环境中一些变化应给中小企业融资支持。
首先，新的信息和通信技术作出贡献，以较低的成本，减少贷款人与借款人之间的信息不对称问题，从而使中小企业贷款更具吸引力。
其次，部分原因是由于在信息技术的进步，新的银行管理办法正在制定和实施。
例如，银行信贷风险采取新的组合模式，让他们自己的资源配置和价格更有效。
此外，信贷风险转移机制（如中小企业贷款使用）正在蔓延，使银行能够专注于比较优势的活动，特别是信贷风险评估，贷款发放，信贷风险监控- 所有活动提供重要的为中小企业融资。
第三，股权资本提供给中小型企业越来越通过（二级）资本市场和风险资本融资的发展。
第四，欧盟第二银行指令旨在促进银行之间的竞争，从而提高银行融资的条款及条件，包括提供给那些中小型企业。
欧洲的金融环境的其他功能提出了关于中小企业融资的条件可能恶化的关切。
首先，在国家银行市场的整合，减少了对银行的数目，并已在许多欧盟国家，特别是在较小的，增加了五大最大机构市场份额（欧洲央行2002年）。
这可能不利于中小企业的贷款，因为有证据表明，与大银行相比，小区域银行投资小；其次是他们是资产比例较低的小企业贷款，有证据（戴维斯，此卷），资本市场和机构投资者获得对银行的理由。
机构投资者与银行竞争时收集的经济积蓄，但他们往往对中小企业贷款比银行少。
第三，新资本充足架构银行（巴塞尔二）正在形成。