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The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for advanced relationship planning between a contract manufacturer and the other key players within the supply chain. In doing so it allows the contract manufacturer to achieve improved optimisation through better insight into current and future supply chain activity.

The research commences with a literature review that synthesises across total quality management (TQM), customer focus and contemporary business excellence to create a framework specific to contract manufacturing. The major elements were verified by surveys. Applicability and exploitability was validated using action research.

The paper confirms that horizontal alliances in either collaborative or cooperative form are in their infancy as regards contract manufacturing. The framework presented makes it possible for contract manufacturers to identify, evaluate and form relationships with competitors and complementor companies towards understanding the interdependence between all supply chain players.

Further refinements are possible and could include the determination of formal avenues for relationship development and guidance while operating within supply chains at different levels of development.

Understanding how supply players interact in the field of contract manufacturing will assist in determining the influence of cooperation and competition or a mixture of both. The framework presented will provide direction in unravelling the intricacies of the connections and therefore provide the contract manufacturer with a valuable tool for relationship planning.

The Advanced Relationship Planning Framework described offers a unique supply management approach from the supplier of contract manufacture viewpoint that synthesises across the TQM, Customer focus and business excellence.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a study which was carried out in order to explore and identify perceived barriers to productivity in six academic and six public libraries in Botswana, through an examination of the perceptions of library personnel. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected by means of a questionnaire. The questionnaire used a 5‐point Likert scale to collect data on the measures of higher and lower productivity. The questionnaires were personally distributed to 111 respondents (63.7 per cent) out of a population of 174. The most pressing barriers to productivity were identified as: job dissatisfaction, a lack of facilities, a lack of training, poor management, a lack of commitment, poor relationships among staff and a lack of WITs/work teams. In spite of the lack of basic facilities and training, librarians could still improve their performance and maximise their output with the resources available. A change in their work attitudes and commitment to work could also make a great difference. The study recommends a three‐way communication process, work teams, active participation of librarians in the productivity movement, regular training in information technology and good work ethics, all of which should help improve productivity in both academic and public libraries in Botswana.

A successful supply chain should ensure that all participating members benefit from the marketplace. To achieve this goal, the supply chain members need to improve their competences all the time, which requires a continuous learning process. Thus, mutual learning, through knowledge sharing between the different members, is a necessary approach to increase the competence of supply chain partners. To realise efficient and effective knowledge sharing in a supply chain, this paper aims to explore and formulate a model that supports an enterprise with its management of the supply chain members' knowledge resource sharing (herein referred to as “advanced practice” and includes two levels of knowledge – strategic and operational). The model is based on the theories of supply chain management (SCM) and case‐based reasoning (CBR).

This research follows a conductive and inductive cycle. Firstly, based on the learning expounded through an extensive literature survey regarding SCM and CBR, as well as available empirical applications, the conceptual model is designed. Then the primary stage evaluation will be discussed regarding the feasibility and refinement of the model towards its maturity.

To share knowledge along the supply chain is theoretically sound, but a difficult task to realise in practice, due to the complexity of knowledge sharing between the different organizations.

This research explores one of the important topics in SCM – knowledge sharing within a supply chain, and the model also extends and explores a new tool for this knowledge‐sharing process by applying CBR methodology.

The designed model in this research will provide a practice‐oriented vehicle allowing the supply chain members to share and apply their knowledge.

This research applies CBR in the domain of SCM, it both enriches the available approaches to supply chain performance enhancement and enlarges the application domains of CBR methodology.

Quality has progressed from a rough conceptualization of a tactical problem to a viable competitive opportunity that should be maximized strategically. We discuss the viability of quality as a sustainable competitive advantage. Based on a longitudinal study of general service hospitals, we provide results indicating that quality not only has a temporal effect on organizational performance, but also translates into long‐term benefits. The findings of this study reinforce anecdotal claims of the efficacy of quality‐based strategies in improving organizational performance.

The purpose of this research is to examine the potential contribution of private branding to the service sector, and to integrate private branding into the SERVQUAL model.

A total of 300 customers of a health maintenance organization (HMO) were asked about the five dimensions of the service‐quality model and about several aspects of their HMO's private brand.

The study finds that satisfaction with service quality among subjects who were aware of the HMO's private brand was higher than that of unaware subjects when asked directly. In addition, a positive relationship was found between the perceptions of service quality in the HMO and the evaluation of a private brand in the HMO those customers who were aware of the private brand. The data analysis suggests that private branding constitutes an additional (sixth) dimension in the SERVQUAL model.

This research was conducted during the initial stages of the market penetration of the HMO's private brand.

HMOs, and other service providers, should consider private branding as a pivotal strategy in reinforcing service quality.

This research is of importance for service providers because it identifies private branding strategy as having significant marketing potential for improving service quality.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of total quality management (TQM) practices on employees' work‐related attitudes, such as job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and organizational commitment.

The paper proposes and tests 16 hypotheses on the relationship between TQM practices and work‐related attitude.

The results indicate that training and education have a significant positive effect on job involvement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Empowerment and teamwork significantly enhance job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Continuous improvement and problem prevention significantly enhance job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Customer focus does not contribute to job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, or organizational commitment.

The study was unable to evaluate the wider dimensions of TQM practices.

Managers should be aware that TQM practices have a positive effect on employees' work‐related attitudes (such as job involvement, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, and organizational commitment).

The paper focuses on TQM in practice, rather than on TQM in theory and/or TQM as organizational change.

Two major markets exist in manufacturing and both are rapidly changing. On the one hand, there are the traditional original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who build their own end‐user products. Fewer and fewer of the vital components within the products sold are original. Instead, a structured network of supplier companies builds the components. These contract manufacturers may have a number of OEMs as clients and keep their manufacturing processes running full‐time by shifting jobs back and forth among client’s orders as demand requires. In recent years, more and more is required of the contract manufacturer. As well as working with traditional external forces the contract manufacturer now has to contend with the concept of complementors. This paper describes research into the concept of the complementor and proposes the complementor impact model for contract manufacturers. This new model demonstrates how contract manufacturers may capitalise relationships with fellow complementors. In doing so they themselves become superior complementors.

Much has been written about the strategic importance of added value as a means for achieving competitive advantage, but little attention has been paid to the meaning of the term “added value”. For the concept to realise its purported advantages, a better understanding of added value is crucial. To gain greater insight into the concept we undertook depth interviews with 20 leading‐edge brand experts to explore their views about the nature, roles and sustainability of added value. We conclude that added value is a multidimensional construct, playing diverse roles, and interpreted in different ways by different people. The more sustainable added values are the emotional values.

Addresses the value definition and conceptualization issues in a business‐to‐business professional services context. Finds that results of exploratory research reveal that providers and organizational customers do not perceive value as a static concept; rather, the value definition comprises a time aspect and is associated with the exchange value during the transaction itself and value in use after the transaction. Discovers that value exchange is made up of a set of quality and relational criteria, whereas value in use refers to financial, social, operational and strategic performance and furthermore, perceptual differences may be explained by the presence of causal ambiguity which refers to differences in competency level between providers and customers, between hierarchical levels and professional services.

Although customer‐perceived value is discussed widely in the literature, few empirical studies have been conducted due to an absence of operational measures. Reports on the development of measures and tests two customer‐perceived value structures using data collected from industrial customers of the information technology industry. The findings generally support both structures and provide empirical support for a value proposition with 13 value drivers. Furthermore, results indicate that most of the 13 drivers are assessed in a similar way by industrial customers of three service sectors surveyed, ICE (information, communication, entertainment), distribution and finance. Flexibility and responsiveness – two service‐related benefits – are important value drivers for all the business customers surveyed. Relationship value drivers are assessed the most differently in two of the three sectors studied, finance and ICE (information, communication, entertainment).