Search results

Supply chain management as a system of operation continues to evolve. This study employs confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis to examine empirically the relationships among supplier selection criteria (quality, delivery reliability, product performance and unit price), supplier involvement on design teams and in continuous improvement programs, four dimensions of customer satisfaction (competitive pricing, product quality, product variety, and delivery service), and overall firm performance.

Just‐In‐Time (JIT) manufacturing remains an important issue and research efforts are beginning to examine its impact on other business functions. This paper proposes a theoretical model that relates the extent of JIT implementation to changes in inbound logistics practices and outcomes. Exploratory factor analysis was applied to responses from a large‐scale survey. Six underlying constructs were identified and retained, and eleven hypotheses concerning the causal relationships between these constructs were tested using LISREL. Analysis indicates that JIT: (1) improves supplier operations, (2) enhances transportation operations with respect to inbound carriers, (3) reduces the level and improves the management of inventories, (4) does not cause overall inbound logistics costs to increase, and (5) increases the quality and performance of inbound logistics.

The volume of cargo shipped just‐in‐time (JIT) in the USA has been increasing over the last decade. At the same time, purchasing has been undergoing transformations. Examines empirically the effects of both these trends on the purchasing function, and consequently on inbound logistics, and reports on them in four sections: criteria for supplier selection, changes in purchasing practices, purchasing′s interaction levels with other functional areas and with vendors, and strategic partnerships regarding suppliers. Also examines the impacts on purchasing and inbound logistics in terms of performance. The findings indicate that purchasing is experiencing modifications and that JIT acts as a positive influence. The changes taking place are improving competitive position without an increase in logistics expense.

Strategy.

Undergraduate final year or MBA.

This teaching case describes the journey undertaken by Yoma Strategic Holdings (YSH) Ltd, a Singapore-listed company that operates predominately in Myanmar, to become a successful and highly profitable conglomerate business empire in Myanmar. The case provides a rich contextual description of how YSH leveraged upon its partnerships and capabilities, especially with its parent and sister companies, to pursue its conglomerate business model. To facilitate the discussion that this teaching case aims to generate among lecturers and students, we have provided a summary of the latest developments in Myanmar since the 2010 general election. This helps to give students an appreciation of the challenges involved in creating a successful business in Myanmar.

The learning outcomes that this teaching case hopes to achieve in students are as follows: Understand the concept of “economies of scope” in corporate strategy; identify and explain the various corporate strategies (i.e. diversification and vertical integration) that can be implemented to develop a conglomerate business model; recognize the organizational and managerial issues arising from implementing these corporate strategies and understand the circumstances that influence its success; and assess the relative advantages of managing a business in a conglomerate business model and advise a company on whether a particular activity should be undertaken internally or outsourced.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate if online reviews (e.g. valence and volume), online promotional strategies (e.g. free delivery and discounts) and sentiments from user reviews can help predict product sales.

The authors designed a big data architecture and deployed Node.js agents for scraping the Amazon.com pages using asynchronous input/output calls. The completed web crawling and scraping data sets were then preprocessed for sentimental and neural network analysis. The neural network was employed to examine which variables in the study are important predictors of product sales.

This study found that although online reviews, online promotional strategies and online sentiments can all predict product sales, some variables are more important predictors than others. The authors found that the interplay effects of these variables become more important variables than the individual variables themselves. For example, online volume interactions with sentiments and discounts are more important than the individual predictors of discounts, sentiments or online volume.

This study designed big data architecture, in combination with sentimental and neural network analysis that can facilitate future business research for predicting product sales in an online environment. This study also employed a predictive analytic approach (e.g. neural network) to examine the variables, and this approach is useful for future data analysis in a big data environment where prediction can have more practical implications than significance testing. This study also examined the interplay between online reviews, sentiments and promotional strategies, which up to now have mostly been examined individually in previous studies.

Besides designing a comprehensive building maintainability scoring system, this paper aims to develop a standard and reliable method for acquisition of tacit knowledge in facility management (FM) and convert the same into organizational records so that the current dearth of information and poor feedback leading to recurrent defects and arbitrary FM strategies can be eliminated.

Nine major building elements in terms of maintainability were compared by analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Various aspects of consistency checking and group decision making were reviewed to find the best suitable method. During data collection via an AHP questionnaire in face‐to‐face interviews, logical reasoning employed by experts was noted and later matched with the subjective data.

It was observed that technical viability of services and business profile given by building height and location, respectively, set different priorities for major building elements. HVAC system is the prime element followed by elevator and façade. Such priorities can be derived from consistent judgment which improves steadily with a decision‐maker's work experience. A threshold of 10 per cent consistency and aggregating individual priorities (AIP) using geometric mean method of AHP were found most appropriate.

Adaptation of this framework will help industry experts to document their tacit knowledge in a structured manner without facing present constraints. By tracking the recorded facts and logical reasoning, neophytes can learn the multi‐faceted aspects of FM without trial and error.

This research establishes AHP as a standard and reliable method for knowledge acquisition and thus elevates its status from a multi‐criteria decision analysis tool to decision enhancement tool.

Triggered by the advancement of information and communications technology, open access repositories (a variant of digital libraries) is one of the important changes impacting library services. In the context of openness to a wider community to access free resources, Wawasan Open University Library initiated a research project to build open access repositories on open educational resources. Open educational resources (OER) is an area of a multifaceted open movement in education. The purpose of this paper is to show how two web portal repositories on OER materials were developed adopting a Japanese open source software, called WEKO.

The design approach is based on a pull to push strategy whereby metadata of scholarly open access materials kept within the institution and network communities’ digital databases were harvested using the Open Archives Initiatives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting method into another open knowledge platform for discovery by other users.

Positive results emanating from the university open access repositories development showed how it strengthen the role of the librarian as manager of institutional assets and successfully making the content freely available from this open knowledge platform for reuse in learning and teaching.

Developing further programmes to encourage, influence faculty members and prospective stakeholders to use and contribute content to the valuable repositories is indeed a challenging task.

This paper provides insight for academic libraries on how open access repositories development and metadata analysis can enhance new professional challenges for information professionals in the field of data management, data quality and intricacies of supporting data repositories and build new open models of collaboration across institutions and libraries. This paper also describes future collaboration work with institutions in sharing their open access resources.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the factors influencing intention to adopt 3D design digital technologies (3DDTs) by Colombian firms.

A conceptual framework was developed using technology-organization-environment (TOE) and technology acceptance model (TAM) theoretical frameworks. From a sample of 138 firms, a structural equation model was analysed with partial least squares (SEM-PLS).

The study identified that perceived usefulness in the technological dimension; technological competence and top management support in the organizational dimension; and competitive pressures in the environmental dimension, are variables affecting intention to adopt 3DDT. The effects of the mediating variables with respect to intention to adopt the technology are also analysed, such as perceived usefulness on the effect of ease of use; top management support on the effect of technological competence and financial readiness; and competitive pressures on the effect of stakeholder pressure. The model explained 71.1% of the 3DDT intention to adopt.

The model can be used as a guideline to ensure a positive outcome of the 3DDT adoption in organizations. The results could be useful to understand a technological adoption process for digital transformation.

The proposed model integrates some contributions from the TAM and TOE theories and identifies some novel mediating effects that improve its predictive and explanatory power. Furthermore, this is a pioneering study in empirical research on 3DDT in the context of a developing country, specifically in Colombia. The findings from this study provide a foundation for other studies, as well as constructive insights for digital transformation, due to its infancy in an emerging economy.

Drawing inspiration from the organizational information processing theory, the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the theory of motivation, this study aims to examine the acceptance of private and public blockchain technology-based collaboration among supply chain practitioners.

A total of 257 samples were collected through a survey from supply chain practitioners. The study used parallel mediators of perceived usefulness (extrinsic motivation) and perceived ease of use (intrinsic motivation) to measure behavioral intention to use.

The results reveal that partial mediation exists between blockchain-based collaboration (private and public) and behavioral intention to use. For perceived usefulness, a stronger mediating effect was found between private blockchain-based collaboration and behavioral intention to use. For perceived ease of use, a stronger mediating effect was found between public blockchain-based collaboration and behavioral intention to use.

By integrating insights from the organizational information processing theory, the TAM and the theory of motivation, this study provides an in-depth understanding of how the distinct features of information processing in blockchain technology-based collaboration influence the supply chain practitioners’ to accept it. The novelty and results of the study expand the existing literature and pave the way for future research.