industrial performance
...r delivery?, to try to be responsive to the market. Production of a good quality product efficiently is not good enough unless it is a product that people want to buy. The last factor which determines industry performance is the responsiveness to social concerns. Firms started taking responsibility by respecting concerns as environmental protection, resource conservation, product safety, and equal opportunity for employees. Public opinions and liability suits caused businesses to clean up their acts. Japan lagged behind American industries in social responsibilities. Due to these concerns, many business colleges added mandatory ethics courses to their curriculum. How can industry performance be improved? Fearing competition, the United States have been forced to improve productivity, delivery times, better management of their inventory, and do a better job satisfying their customers. There are four factors which help to increase productivity and improve other aspects of industry performance. The first is investment in human capital. Second is the investment in capital equipment. Third is employee involvement. The last factor is research and development. Performance can be improved by investing in capital equipment, which is investing in machinery and tools used to produce goods and services. Investment in capital equipment has steadily increased in the United States since 1980 to 1997. It is important to increase real capital as well. Lowering interest rates by increasing private and public savings, redirecting capital from financial speculation to a new investment, and shifting the pressure on corporate executives from short to long-term performance objectives are some ways to aid in this process. Investing in human capital, which is literate, skilled, trained, healthy, motivated, is more effective than investing in physical facilities. This concept allows workers to be better trained allowing an increase in productivity. Employee involvement is as important as employee training. This allows the employees to feel important, thus resulting in a more productive employee. Research and development aids in helping companies discover what products are in demand and what products are no longer being purchased, the amount of money being spent on research and development enables companies to profit from their findings. The effects of market structure on industry performance can be divided into three sections: market concentration, aggregate concentration...