| Small and medium-sized manufacturing firms play a critical role in the U.S. economy. Of the 19 million people employed in U.S. manufacturing, seven million (36.8%) work in only 6,000 firms with 500 or more employees. The other 12 million (63.2%) work in 350,000 firms with fewer than 500 employees. Of the 350,000 firms, 120,000 employ 10.5 million (55%) people. These 120,000 firms, ranging in size from 20 to 500 employees, are what economists call "foundation firms."; Foundation firms are the core of the U.S. industrial base. They comprise one-third of all manufacturing firms and 55% of manufacturing employment. In the last twenty years, U.S. plants with 500 or more employees eliminated over 1 million jobs while foundation firms added 1.5 million jobs.; The importance of foundation firms provides the impetus for the following research question: What explains the variation in performance among foundation firms? To answer this question, the study identifies eight discipline-specific models, one fully integrated model, and one research model. The research model examines the relationship between strategy, integrated manufacturing technology, and performance.; Four of the twelve hypothesized relationships were supported. Cost leadership was positively associated with total quality management. Differentiation was positively associated with total quality management. Total quality management was positively associated with performance. And total quality management mediated the relationship between cost leadership, differentiation, and performance. The preferred regression model of firm performance explained 50.97% of the variance.; Theoretical directions suggested that sociotechnical researchers should clearly identify the boundaries within and between the following meta-constructs: strategy, integrated manufacturing technology, organization structure, and human resource management. Specifically, the content validity of total quality management (TQM) and just-in-time inventory control (JIT) should be rethought. |
