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The purchase of business services is a growing activity among firms but with little appreciation that the purchase of a service requires a modification of the decision process developed for the purchase of material goods. A taxonomy for purchasing business services is developed to create a matrix with importance of service and focus of service as dimensions. Business services are classified according to their focus on three aspects of the firm: property, people, and process. A number of propositions are formulated based on insights derived from this taxonomy. The taxonomy results in six business service cells: facility support, equipment support, employee support, employee development, facilitator, and professional. Implications for managers considering a purchase in each category are explored. The paper concludes with a research agenda to test the propositions and validity of the taxonomy for purchasing business services.

The purpose of this study is to identify the challenges, the benefits, the risks and the motives of petroleum companies in the Persian Gulf toward outsourcing strategy. While the petroleum companies are faced with massive costs of operation that stem from the aging infrastructure, human capital deficit, inefficient fragmented business processes and lack of access to new technologies, outsourcing strategy toward cost savings and the overt and covert resistance of management and employees are significant barriers for creation of continuous process.

Based on the review of existing literature, the industry ' s archives and in-depth personal interviews with senior executives of the national oil and gas companies in five Gulf countries and seven global outsourcing companies and 87 survey responses, this study develops a methodological framework which substantiates or refutes the hypotheses based on the objectives: industry challenges are the driving forces behind outsourcing strategy; the potential risks of cost savings of outsourcing outweigh the consequential loss in control over the product or service, companies ' safety and security of the region.

The findings indicate that the oil and gas exporters have mixed but broad positive view of outsourcing strategy. While outsourcing could provide savings across the entire supply chain, it also generates a distracting resistance due to the fear of unknown in a complex range of culture, infrastructures and sequential processes that requires resiliency for continuity of operations.

This study is the first of its kind in the Persian Gulf oil and gas industry investigating the implementation of outsourcing strategy. The result of this investigation reveals the compromise between the potential benefits in cost reduction and the security of petroleum supply. This study contributes to all who are in the industry or who are involved with it to share a clear assessment of the future.

The purpose of this study is to share quality process experience from a US comprehensive university to use both direct (participation rate and assessment quality) and indirect assessment measures (assessment survey) to evaluate the quality process.

A mixed method design was used to evaluate the quality process. The qualitative design used thematic analysis to find the common themes from the assessment survey. The quantitative design included reliability and internal consistency for the survey and inter-rater reliability for the peer review.

Findings indicated that participation rate and assessment quality improved over the years. Faculty provided positive feedback about assessment website, the peer review process and feedback but negative perspectives on the assessment management software and heavy workload on assessment activities. The researcher shared the actions made based on three-year assessment results, especially how leaders have used it to align with planning and budgeting to close the institutional effectiveness loop.

This research had two limitations. The inter-rater reliability of the peer review was not high and the number of peer review reports in two years were so different, so the results could not be checked for statistical significance.

The meta-assessment results could have important implications for other universities to improve the quality process.

There have been limited studies on using both direct and indirect assessment measures to evaluate the quality process. This study uses multiple measures to provide accurate results for administrators’ decision-making in resource allocation.

This study presents a systematic literature review (SLR) of the interdisciplinary literature on drones in last-mile delivery (LMD) to extrapolate pertinent insights from and into the logistics management field.

Rooting their analytical categories in the LMD literature, the authors performed a deductive, theory refinement SLR on 307 interdisciplinary journal articles published during 2015–2022 to integrate this emergent phenomenon into the field.

The authors derived the potentials, challenges and solutions of drone deliveries in relation to 12 LMD criteria dispersed across four stakeholder groups: senders, receivers, regulators and societies. Relationships between these criteria were also identified.

This review contributes to logistics management by offering a current, nuanced and multifaceted discussion of drones' potential to improve the LMD process together with the challenges and solutions involved.

The authors provide logistics managers with a holistic roadmap to help them make informed decisions about adopting drones in their delivery systems. Regulators and society members also gain insights into the prospects, requirements and repercussions of drone deliveries.

This is one of the first SLRs on drone applications in LMD from a logistics management perspective.

This Society, originally known as “The National Pure Food Association,” has been reconstituted under the above title. The objects of the Society are to assist as far as possible in checking the widespread evils of food adulteration, for this purpose to bring about a public realisation of the admittedly serious character of food frauds, and, under expert advice, to co‐operate with constituted authority in effecting their repression. The policy of the Society is directed by a representative Council, and, the Society being thus established on an authoritative basis, cannot fail to become a powerful and valuable organisation if adequately and generously supported by the public. The governing body of the Society is constituted as follows:—

The laws directed against adulteration and fraudulent or unfair dealing have undoubtedly done much good wherever they have been enforced. Their application in this and in other countries has shown how widespread are these practices and how various are their forms, while the punishment of real offenders, in the by no means large proportion of cases where it has been possible to bring forward sufficient proof of guilt, has certainly not been displeasing to the general public, and must have afforded particular satisfaction to those members of the trading community who have appreciated the injury done to them by unfair or actually dishonest competition.

Medical institutions face management challenges from intense competition and an unclear link between patient-centredness and profitability. This study examined the association between efficiency and patient-centredness in general hospitals and identified management strategies to optimise both.

Data from the 2021 patient experience evaluation by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service and financial statements from the Korea Health Industry Development Institute for general hospitals in South Korea were used. Efficiency scores and patient-centredness were determined for 256 general hospitals using data envelopment analysis (DEA), and their relationships were analysed through matrix analysis. The Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney tests assessed group differences identified through matrix analysis.

Efficiency and patient-centredness can be improved concurrently. Hospitals in the highest efficiency group reported significantly higher average inpatient revenue per 100 beds (179.67) and net profit (158.84) than those in lower-performing groups (p < 0.001). Optimal management of hospital beds and specialised diagnostic equipment per 100 beds was associated with higher efficiency scores, while a greater number of doctors and nurses positively influenced patient-centredness metrics. Therefore, general hospitals should invest in personnel and resources to enhance efficiency and patient-centredness, achieving optimal financial and operational outcomes.

This study combines DEA and matrix analysis to explore the link between hospital efficiency and patient-centredness, using recent data on patient experience and financials from South Korean hospitals. It identifies strategies to enhance both dimensions.