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Reports on the difficulties currently faced by department stores. Argues that a return to a true service orientation is needed. Discusses consumer attitudes towards the service offered in such stores via the results of a focus group interview, ranking and perceptual mapping of store services. Offers managerial guidelines for implementing a successful service strategy.

The Great Benchmarking Scam? Time was, in management circles, that the term “benchmarking” would induce none‐too‐disguised yawns in recognition of it “being something to do with computers or job evaluation”. Not today; those yawns have been replaced with the excited management‐blabber of a new fad. You can benchmark anything these days; I encountered recently a guide to benchmarking employee attitudes.

The purpose of this research was to study the nature and extent of differences, if any, between male and female grocery shoppers in terms of grocery shopping behavior and attitudes and with respect to those store criteria that are important in selecting a food store. The results suggest that the underlying constructs influencing grocery shopping behavior and attitudes are basically the same for the male and female shoppers; however, the findings indicated that the degree to which some of these behavior/attitude factors impact resulted in a difference in grocery shopping patterns between the sexes. Further, even though some differences were observed in the relative importance rankings of 22 store‐selection criteria, the overriding pattern was one of congruence between the two groups of respondents. The paper concludes with a discussion of the strategic implications of the findings for the food retailer.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study in which data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to evaluate and classify the suppliers of a Colombian motorcycle assembly company. This tool allows the integration of several attributes into single performance measures (cross-efficiency and diversity efficiency) and subsequent classification based on the values obtained for these two metrics.

The classification uses a methodology based on two main tools. The first is an input-oriented cross-efficiency DEA model with ordinal variables to evaluate the suppliers’ performance, and the second is a classification of these into categories that identifies those with good performance for features that make them outstanding.

The assembly company segments its suppliers according to supply frequency. The results show that suppliers working under a just-in-time system achieve superior performance with respect to other suppliers.

The application of this methodology in a real-world case illustrates how DEA can be a useful tool to support the evaluation and classification of suppliers (a process of increasing complexity given the current trend to include multiple strategic measures together with classical operational measures). Moreover, the methodology illustrated in the study can be adapted to other similar settings.

The main contributions of this paper are twofold. First, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to illustrate the use of DEA in a real case related to supplier evaluation. Second, the presence of ordinal variables (e.g. quality or environmental ratings) gives rise to DEA variants seldom used in this context.

Este artículo presenta un caso de estudio en el que se utiliza análisis envolvente de datos (DEA) para evaluar y clasificar los proveedores de una ensambladora colombiana de motocicletas. Dicha herramienta permite integrar múltiples atributos en dos medidas de desempeño (eficiencia cruzada y de diversidad) y la posterior clasificación de éstos con base en los valores obtenidos para ambas medidas.

La clasificación usa una metodología basada en dos herramientas. La primera es un modelo DEA de eficiencia cruzada orientado a las entradas con variables ordinales que se usa para evaluar el desempeño de los proveedores. La segunda es una clasificación de los proveedores en categorías para identificar aquellos con buen desempeño en algunas características que los hacen sobresalientes.

La compañía segmenta sus proveedores de acuerdo con la frecuencia de abastecimiento. Los resultados muestran que los proveedores que operan bajo justo a tiempo (Just-in-time, JIT) tienen un desempeño superior con respecto a los demás proveedores.

La aplicación de esta metodología en un caso real ilustra como DEA es una herramienta útil para apoyar la evaluación y clasificación de proveedores (un proceso de complejidad creciente gracias a la tendencia actual de incluir medidas estratégicas junto a las medidas operacionales comúnmente utilizadas). Además, la metodología utilizada puede adaptarse fácilmente a otras situaciones similares.

Las contribuciones de este artículo son dos. Primero, hasta donde sabemos, este es el primer estudio que ilustra el uso de DEA en un caso real de evaluación de proveedores. Segundo, la presencia de variables ordinales (por ejemplo, evaluaciones de calidad y medioambiente) resultan en modelos DEA que son poco utilizados en este contexto.

Performance appraisals are often described asthe “job managers love to hate”. A study was designed to provide sales managers with information designed to increase the benefits of engaging in the evaluation process and reduce the negative sentiments often associated with appraisals. To accomplish this objective, 214 salespeople were personally interviewed and asked to provide information regarding their perceptions of their performance appraisals. The results indicate that salespeople have positive perceptions regarding the appraisal process. Findings also indicate that while salespeople are oftenevaluated at least twice annually, the criteria used are not always the ones thatsalespeople view as being the most appropriate. The conclusions derived from the analysis may provide insight to sales managers as they attempt to develop and implement appraisal processes that are viewed as being valid and as they attempt to enhance the benefits that may be obtained from engaging in this process.

The high cost and importance of organisational professional services together with the often uncertain outcomes can evoke significant risk in their purchase. Using the appointment of planning consultants by a public organisation as an example, the article explores the potential of a new risk framework for measuring risk perceptions and developing risk‐based segmentation for organisational purchasers of professional services. The approach proved to be effective and identified three distinct risk segments which varied demographically and in their attitudes towards risk. It is suggested that risk‐based segmentation may be useful for purchasers and providers of other organisational professional services and other high‐risk organisational purchasing contexts.

Identifies sources of influence in organizational buying choices from a review of the literature. Constructs a model of influence by extending the buying behavior model of Webster and Wind (1972). Uses the model to categorize and analyze representative research of influence on organizational buying choice processes over the period 1970‐1995. Indicates that new research directions and emphasis in a number of areas could improve the usefulness of research results to marketing management. Recommendations include: use of a higher unit of analysis, investigation of non‐deterministic choice behavior, greater use of integrating or broad‐based studies, reduction in use of self‐professed data, more research of relatively neglected areas of influence, and more empirical testing of conceptual models.

Being in possession of the “right” information is vital in maintaining competitiveness in the modern business age. There is a mass of information “out there” in the environment, so coping with it, managing it effectively, and selecting from it that which is useful, would appear to be the key to success.

Despite the importance of professional services to organisations, relatively little is known about the way they are purchased. This study details the risks perceived and risk‐reducing strategies employed by purchasers in local government and examines how these vary with buying‐phase and buy‐class. Risk varied little, but some of the 36 risk‐reducing strategies identified varied across the buying phases and were more useful in the modified‐rebuy situation. The results are discussed in the context of risk measurement and implications for purchasers and providers of professional services.

Compares the processes for decision making during the acquisition of equipment and materials among firms in the USA, Sweden, France and Southeast Asia. Reports the findings from a detailed questionnaire in which 236 firms in the four‐country area participated. The companies provided data on buying centre influences and supplier search criteria with half reporting for capital production equipment acquisition and the other half for key production materials. It was found that buying decisions in Sweden have the highest team effort while the USA has the least, even though the American and Swedish firms had very similar demographics. Sweden depended on technical staff, both their own and suppliers′, much more than the other countries. There was no consistent pattern for purchasing department involvement. Except for the USA capital equipment buying centres were much more inclusive than materials buying centres.