Despite abundant information explaining the expected benefits from successful just‐in‐time (JIT) implementation, only tenuous validation of the linkage between financial performance and JIT exists. Managers act rationally in implementing JIT if they are convinced that JIT enhances firm performance. From both a cross‐sectional and longitudinal perspective, this survey study of 253 US manufacturing firms finds significant statistical relationships between measures of profitability and the degree of specific JIT practices used. The evidence provides empirical support to the premise that firms that implement and maintain JIT manufacturing systems will reap sustainable rewards as measured by improved financial performance.

The intense competition in the current marketplace has forced firms to reexamine their methods of doing business. The US manufacturers have struggled with growing trade deficits and outsourced operations, while strong market competitors have emerged, using superior manufacturing practices in the form of just‐in‐time (JIT) and continuous process improvement. Although proponents cite the many benefits of JIT adoption, its implementation rate in the US has been relatively conservative. This study uses survey responses from executives at 95 JIT‐practicing firms to better understand the benefits that firms have experienced through JIT adoption, and whether a more comprehensive implementation is worthwhile. The research results demonstrate that implementing the quality, continuous improvement, and waste reduction practices embodied in the JIT philosophy can enhance firm competitiveness. JIT implementation improves performance through lower inventory levels, reduced quality costs, and greater customer responsiveness. This study indicates that JIT is a vital manufacturing strategy to build and sustain competitive advantage.

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This study focuses on the participation of women in the development of the specialist international accounting history literature. Specifically, based on data collected from the three specialist, internationally refereed, accounting history journals in the English language from the time of first publication in each case, the study provides evidence of the involvement of women through publication, through membership of editorial boards and editorial advisory boards and also through holding editor, associate editor and guest editor positions. In doing so, the study builds on the earlier work of Carnegie and Potter (2000) and extends an understanding of publishing patterns in the specialist international accounting history literature.

This study complements our investigations into the use of accounting manuals as representations of commercial activities. Our previous work focused on the Guide du Commerce of Gaignat de l'Aulnais and the slave trade in eighteenth-century France. We broaden our scope with cross-sectional archival evidence to examine the extent to which the methods and operations in these sources point to a collective knowledge shared amongst traders and those engaged to conduct the slave trade on their behalf. Of particular interest is the prevalence of standardised methods, documents and terms of trade, all of which point, in a similar way to that of the Guide du Commerce, to the slave trade's technical contributions to capitalism (Petre-Grenouilleau 2004, 352). The archival evidence illustrates the rationalisation and institutionalisation of an economic system, albeit a particular outlier, and its progressive sophistication in terms of operating processes, creating thereby the illusion of a rational business model.accounting manuals, institutional networks, knowledge transmission, triangular trade, France,