A second stream of research can be identified, examining the specific benefits of JIT adoption and other modern manufacturing technologies on inventory performance. Huson and Nanda (1995), for example, study a sample of 55 JIT adopters, discovering increased inventory turnover subsequent to their JIT implementation. Furthermore, they find a significant correlation between inventory turnover improvements and increasing earnings per share. Balakrishnan et al. (1996), on the other hand, also compare a sample of 46 JIT adopters with a sample of nonadopters of the same size but observe no significant effects on financial performance. This also holds for a survey conducted by Sakakibara et al. (1997). Lieberman and Demeester (1999) study 52 Japanese automotive companies over a time period from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, shedding light on the linkage between inventory and productivity: as expected from the standpoint of the zero inventory paradigm, they find firms reducing inventory substantially were able to improve labour productivity significantly. Following this paradigm, inventories are not seen as residua of production and operations activities, but as important contributors to a firm’s overall success. Accordingly, Fullerton and McWatters (2001) show that extensive adopters of JIT reduce their work-in-process inventories and increase their profitability substantially. Biggart and Gargeya (2002) find decreasing total and raw material inventory to sales ratios after JIT implementation, whereas this does not hold for work-in-process and finished goods inventories.