PRODUCTIVITY IN SERVICE, MANUFACTURING, AND HYBRID INDUSTRIES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

摘要

Productivity is an essential element of a business unit and of the economy at large. When measured at highly aggregated levels, it may not accurately reveal the most productive forces of the economic activity. This study proposes a way of disaggregating the manufacturing sector into servitized and pure manufacturing sectors, and the service sector into manufacturized and pure service sectors on the basis of textual analysis of the 10-K business descriptions of individual firms. Servitized manufacturing and manufacturized service firms together form the set of hybrid firms. The analyses of this study shows that hybrid firms are on average 18% more productive than pure manufacturing firms, and 17% more productive than pure service firms. The results indicate that the most productive firms are those with lines of business that allow an additional dimension to differentiate in the product markets. Moreover, hybrid firms also appear to be better investments for the shareholders as they yield higher levels of profit margin and return on equity compared to non-hybrid firms.