Showing papers by "IE University published in 1995"

An assessment of operations in US service firms

Abstract: The service sector of the American economy is expanding very rapidly at a greater than 6 per cent annual growth rate during the 1984‐88 period. The extraordinary growth of the service sector in the last two decades has focused attention on the challenges of effective management of service organizations and operations, vastly different from those faced in classical manufacturing settings. However, while services play an increasingly significant role in society, the productivity of services is much less than that of manufacturing. Determines and describes operations‐related practices and assesses skills development requirements faced by service firms operating in a real‐life environment. Findings of the study include the degree of awareness of the importance of operations‐related tasks and of their impact or organizational performance in services, the performance drivers and allocation of responsibilities for operational decisions, and the significance of operational gaps and misalignments that need correct...

The Evolution of Ownership and Control in German Ipos: A Dynamic Analysis

Abstract: This paper provides an alternative analysis of German IPOs by looking at the evolution of control and ownership. Most companies are floated by families and in a majority of companies control stays with the family six years after the flotation. Control is not gradually dispersed by sales on the market, but is directly transferred to the new controlling shareholder. There is a positive relationship between the stake size of the family and the family members sitting on the supervisory and management boards. The seats held by banks on the supervisory boards date back to the time before the IPO and do not depend on holdings by the banks.