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This study aims to understand the impact of professionalism (PR) of the workplace learning support team on learning outcomes. The context of this study is an e-procurement system implementation. Management provides initial formal training (TR) to potential users of the system and also arranges informal learning support by deploying the support team for technical guidance/resolving issues on day-to-day basis for successful implementation. Learning outcome has been measured in terms of perceived ease of use (PEU) by employees and also in terms of the actual use (AU) of the system. This study also explores the role of timely and appropriate initial TR on learning outcomes.

An empirical study has been conducted by collecting survey data from 167 employees using an e-procurement system from India. SPSS 22.0 with add-in Process Macro v3.4 developed by Hayes has been used for statistical analysis.

The results indicate that the PR of the workplace learning support team positively influences employee’s PEU of the system and also the final required outcome in terms of the AU of the system. This study also found that the employee’s PEU of the system mediates the relationship between the PR of the workplace learning support team and the AU of the system. The result also indicates that higher is the user perception of the appropriateness of initial TR, higher is the effect of PR of the workplace learning team on user learning outcome.

This study is an attempt to investigate the unexplored aspect of workplace learning. This paper contributes by studying for the first time, the impact of PR of the workplace learning support team and appropriate initial TR in enhancing the learning outcome in the context of e-procurement implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive framework for quality-related performance measures linked to supply chain risk (SCR) by analyzing and framing them into a hierarchical structure.

In this paper, quality-related performance measures (QM) are identified on the basis of literature survey and expert opinion. The quality measures are formulated as hierarchy structure and fuzzy AHP as a multi attribute decision-making tool is applied to judge the viable candidates.

Based on a fuzzy AHP approach, a revised risk matrix with a continuous scale was proposed to assess the QMs’ classes. The result classifies the QMs in different categories (extreme, high, medium and low). Based on this result, some management implications and suggestions are proposed.

The present work proposes an assessment methodology for quality-related performance measures linked to SCR. The revised risk matrix with continuous scale for risk assessment in this field is a novel approach. This study contributes to the supply chain management and quality management literature, and provides suggestions for managers to adopt different strategies for different risk classes.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the process through which external diffusion of business-to-business (B2B) e-procurement impacts firm performance. The research model has been developed to empirically examine the role of information transparency and supply chain coordination in improving the firm financial performance by external diffusion of e-procurement.

The survey is conducted in India with a target population of purchasing professionals working on the B2B e-procurement platform. The measurement model was first tested by using confirmatory factor analysis for reliability and validity, then structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses of the research model using AMOS 22. The phantom model approach has been used for testing multiple mediators.

The result of the study highlights the importance of information transparency and supply chain coordination in enhancing the firm financial performance by external diffusion of e-procurement. The results establish the role of information transparency in enhancing firm performance by improving supply chain coordination. The results also indicate that supply chain coordination mediates the relationship between external diffusion of e-procurement and firm financial performance.

This is the first study that has focused on the external diffusion of e-procurement and its impact on firm performance. Also, this study attempted to understand the process through which external diffusion of e-procurement impacts the firm financial performance.

Building resilience in food supply chains is considered vital to tackle disruptions and ensure the availability of food. This study aims to empirically explore how firms operating in food supply chains can develop dynamic capabilities and use digital technologies to address disruption.

A multiple case study methodology was adopted to understand how the firms built resilience by developing dynamic capabilities. Twenty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted with four case companies to gather data across various functional areas (sourcing, operations and logistics).

Results show that knowledge management is a key antecedent to developing dynamic capabilities. The development of such dynamic capabilities − sensing, seizing and transforming, along with the adoption of digital technologies enabled firms to address the disruptions and, hence, build resilience. Resilience is demonstrated in the form of maintaining or improving performance outcomes such as profit, waste reduction, food quality, lead time, efficiency and customer satisfaction.

This is one of the earliest empirical studies that provide insights into how firms operating in food supply chains have built resilience by developing dynamic capabilities through knowledge management practices and, which required the implementation of digital technologies. The study extends dynamic capability theory with the knowledge-based view and develops a novel framework along with a pathway to build resilience.

This research aims to develop a new generic framework for estimating different maintenance costs (preventive, corrective and conditional based) and its distribution to original equipment manufacturer (OEM), customer and supply chain due to no fault found (NFF) events. The study extend the domain of NFF to military aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) by including broader range of cost drivers than are normally found in maintenance NFF literature.

The research applies the soft system methodology involving 80 field surveys and five in depth semi-structured interviews with practicing experts having background in military aircraft NFF MRO. For impact analysis, authors have used an agent-based model to represent and prioritize the critical NFF cost drivers during aircraft MRO based on the cost inputs of 21 technology transfer cases.

The paper provides imperial insights about how NFF cost drivers affect the OEM, customer and supply chain. It suggests that NFF cost need to be part of the commercial MRO contract, depending on its frequency pattern in different types of maintenances.

The context of the current research is military aircrafts industry and may lack generalizability to commercial aircrafts. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.

The developed framework will provide invaluable help in key financial decision-making during signing of MRO contract in technology transfer cases.

This paper proposed a new prediction model for NFF cost estimation across its shareholders and current status of NFF in military aircraft NFF MRO in India.

The purpose of this research paper is to identify the non-financial e-procurement performance measures and find out whether these non-financial performance measures are leading indicator of impact on firm financial performance by adoption of e-procurement in terms of reduction in production cost.

The research model has been tested with the data collected from target procurement professionals in India. Structural equation modelling has been used for testing conceptual model hypotheses including mediation. The phantom model approach for testing multiple mediators has deployed.

The present empirical study found that non-financial performance measure of e-procurement, namely, transparency, coordination, efficiency and effectiveness are leading indicators of the impact of e-procurement adoption on production cost. This paper suggests that managers should try to design the e-procurement platform or opt for third party platform which reduces transaction cost to a minimum for enhanced coordination, work on transparency policy with maximum disclosure of information for enhanced transparency and ask for a fast and responsive system for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness.

This study, first time, attempted to identify non-financial performance measures of e-procurement and tried to understand how these intermediate non-financial performance measures impact the firm financial performance. The interdependence of non-financial performance measures has also been explored, and the research model has been developed to empirically examine the interdependence of these financial measures and its impact on production cost.

This paper aims to present a hybrid approach to measure the efficiency of virtual contact centers (VCCs) started during the pandemic and benchmark them for service performance. The results are used to plot the VCC's efficiency score (performance) and customer perception (Importance) to propose appropriate strategies.

Using the survey method, 854 responses were collected from customers who used VCC services during the pandemic. This data was then employed to assess the performance of VCCs using SERVPERF and DEA methods, followed by the development of the model for performance analysis.

Results reveal the ranking of different VCCs started during the pandemic for the telecom company using SERVPERF and DEA methods. Further, the performance analysis model highlighted the strategies appropriate for each VCCs.

The findings add to the body of knowledge on how multiple service units of a large organization can assess service efficiency utilizing a combination of SERVPERF-DEA. The present work also contributes to the performance analysis field by proposing a model to assess the service centers and provide improvement guidelines.

The work is one of the first to assess the service efficiency of the VCCs started during the pandemic by using a unique hybrid approach of SERVPERF and DEA. This approach provides a direction to whom to benchmark and to what degree service quality should be improved. Further, the study proposes a unique performance analysis model based on performance scores and customer perception.

The subject area of the case is operations management and capacity planning. The case adopts different operation strategies to use the idle capacity.

The case study is suitable for discussion in masters level classes. The case explains the situation of a company which is fighting for its survival. The case reveals the alternative operations strategies it applies to maximize its capacity utilization and reduce its costs.

The case describes a paper producing company which is earning low margins. The company’s capacity remains unused during the off-seasons. The company then plans to share its capacity with another dying industry. Both the companies plan to cooperate and share resources. However, there are other attractive alternatives too and the dilemma situations leave the gap for continuous discussions.

The case aims at providing potential alternatives to the students and initiating healthy discussions. The students will be able to understand the capacity utilization dilemmas and applicability of the operations strategy concept in practice.

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

CSS 9: Operations and Logistics.

Humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM) in today’s environment faces the challenges such as information availability, inventory management, collaboration, logistics related issues and preparedness. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the HSCM performance, considering the consequences in terms of operation, recovery and responsiveness based on the fuzzy estimates of the components presented.

In the study, triangulation approach was adapted for collecting data and developing a hierarchical structure for humanitarian supply chain performance assessment. The relationships between HSCM performance and its suddenness and required preparedness are depicted by cause and effect diagrams. The concepts of fuzzy association and fuzzy composition are applied to identify relationships.

In the hierarchy presented, the performance in a disaster situation, preparedness and suddenness of the situation and factors that influence the above are modeled. The taxonomy is developed for describing the relationship between factors, their likelihoods and impacts to achieve consistent quantification.

The study considers case studies from Indian conditions; however, conditions in other countries and their practices for the disaster management may vary to certain extent.

A methodology presented for evaluating the exposures in considering the consequences in terms of responsiveness, operations, recovery, mitigation and emergency response. The study may help the humanitarian relief practitioners to understand the insights of the disaster situations using the proposed framework.

A common language for describing the different factors of HSCM is presented, which includes terms for quantifying likelihoods and impacts. The concept of fuzzy association and fuzzy composition has been applied to identify relationships between sources and consequences on HSCM performance. The use of descriptive linguistic variables is ensured through the implementation of fuzzy logic.

No fault found (NFF) in maintenance has been a frequently observed problem in industrial sectors, but very few academic contributions are devoted to reviewing and summarizing the related research. Considering the growing interest of academicians in NFF during the last decade, there is a critical need to examine theme evolution in this field, most influential authors, contemporary practices, research gaps and proposed solutions.

A portfolio of 169 articles published between 1982 and 2020 was collected from the Scopus database and was systematically analyzed using a two-tier method. First, the evolution, current state of literature and research clusters are identified using bibliometric techniques. Finally, the research clusters are studied to understand the literature's main themes and develop the future research agenda using content analysis.

The results indicate that publications on NFF are rising quickly in the last decade, especially after 2010. The previous NFF research primarily focuses on system design, fault diagnostics, reliability engineering, data management and human factors, but the criticality of economic and risk analysis has not been significantly represented.

The study resulted in developing an inclusive framework and identifying six research clusters that will help in granular understanding, benefit the researchers, practitioners and policy formulators in NFF.

This study examines the NFF's current research direction and calls for further research in integrating NFF economics on its stakeholders like manufacturers, supply chain, customers and risk analysis during the product life cycle.