Term of Award

Summer 2019

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Logistics and Supply Chain Management (Ph.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (restricted to Georgia Southern)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Logistics & Supply Chain Management

Committee Chair

Alan Mackelprang

Committee Member 1

Kwabena Boakye

Committee Member 2

William Wells

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the concept of ‘persistence’ (or consistency) in firms’ operating performance. In this respect, the relationship between operating persistence and firm performance is the central focus of this study. While ostensibly both the level and persistence of operating performance are important to firms, given that firms often have to make a choice between these two elements, the study aims to enable businesses to identify situations where focusing on improving operating persistence may be more beneficial compared to improving the absolute level of operating performance in order to attain greater financial performance. In addition, the study seeks to understand the relationship between environmental dynamism, operating persistence and firm performance, and how operating slack buffers of excess inventory and capacity impact these relationships, which leads to a cost-benefit case for having these buffers. To accomplish these aims, the study uses rolling regression analysis on secondary data gathered for the period from 1990 to 2016. An important insight from this study is that it emphasizes businesses to become more consistent if they are making inconsistent ‘supernormal’ profits than focusing on the level of operating performance since such firms tend to have poor translation between operating performance and firm performance. Furthermore, the study identifies that capacity buffers are better suited to reducing the adverse effects of environmental dynamism on operating persistence and firm performance, as compared to inventory buffers.

OCLC Number

1112110067

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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