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The institutional logic in developing countries is changing from aid toward trade, having implications for institutionally embedded supply chains (SCs) and their members. The purpose of this study is to investigate the transition from aid toward trade through a theoretical lens of institutional logics and the implications of changing logics for SC members and designs.

This is a large-scale qualitative study of the SCs of maintenance and repair operations (MRO) of water points. Empirical data were collected via 53 semi-structured interviews, observations, including photographs, and field notes from several echelons of MRO SCs in ten different Ethiopian districts.

In spite of the same underlying tenet of a unidirectional trajectory toward a business logic, the study shows that the co-existence or constellation of different institutional logics resulted in diverse practices that impacted SC design.

The research was carried out in the MRO SC at a time of changing institutional logics, thereby being able to study their transition or constellation of logics.

The research has implications for policymakers and development practitioners: when designing and implementing rural water supply programs, the presence of co-existing logics and the lack of uniform SC designs should not be viewed as a hindrance. In fact, the study showed how constellations of logics can provide ways through which water points continue functioning and providing clean drinking water to the communities.

Few studies so far have focused on institutional logics and their implications for SC design.

In a supplier‐dominated channel system, how a supplier manages the channel has profound influence on its retailers’ overall operations. The effect of supplier channel management behavior on retailers’ market orientation and overall business performance is examined in the context of automotive supplier‐dealer relationship. Investigating the effect of channel management behavior along three dimensions, directive, participative, and supportive, the results support that the participative and supportive management styles have a positive effect on market orientation. Further analysis shows that both supplier management leadership and market orientation are linked to various perceptual, productivity, volume, and profit performance measures. The results offer important managerial implications and future research directions.

Crystallization calls for the interaction between mind, body and spirit. While the knowledge of the mind is how we are used to see knowledge creation, the body influences the co‐creation and the embodied experience between the researcher and the participant as a human instrument for understanding. Spirit refers to the sensitivity to ethics in preventing the reaffirmation of the stereotypical narratives. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate how body and spirit in addition to mind can provide alternative insights on a research topic.

The current study focuses on the body and spirit. Self‐reflective empirical narratives from China and India evidence interpretive findings that suggest that crystallization help us to create an emic understanding of those studied and affirms our commitment to them.

The interpretive findings demonstrate that with help of body and spirit research can move towards indigenous findings of the research site that can be put into action to improve the life of those studied. Two new quality criteria are established to trustworthiness namely indigenousness and action orientation.

The paper contributes to research methodology by demonstrating how in addition to mind generated findings reflections from body and spirit open new avenues to additional findings. It is proposed that knowledge from body and spirit is particularly important in Asian settings because of the Asian culture's holistic view on life and tolerance for multiple truths.

Healthcare service quality studies primarily examine the relationships between patients ' perceived quality and satisfaction with healthcare services, clinical effectiveness, service use, recommendations and value for money. These studies suggest that patient-independent quality dimensions (structure, process and outcome) are antecedents to quality. The purpose of this paper is to propose an alternative by looking at the relationship between hospital atmosphere and healthcare quality with perceived outcome.

Data were collected from Finland, India, Nigeria and the People ' s Republic of China. Regression analysis used perceived outcome as the dependent variable and atmosphere and healthcare service quality as independent variables.

Results showed that atmosphere and healthcare service quality have a statistically significant relationship with patient perceived outcomes.

The sample size was small and the sampling units were selected on convenience; thus, caution must be exercised in generalizing the findings.

The study determined that service quality and atmosphere are considered significant for developing and developed nations. This result could have significant implications for policy makers and service providers developing healthcare quality and hospital atmosphere.

Studies concentrate on healthcare outcome primarily regarding population health status, mortality, morbidity, customer satisfaction, loyalty, quality of life, customer behavior and consumption. However, the study exposes how patients perceive their health after treatment. Furthermore, the authors develop the healthcare service literature by considering atmosphere and perceived outcome.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview concerning employer brand image in a Finnish hospital organization. What is done for recruitment marketing? This study offers some proposals for improving the recruitment process.

The research is a qualitative case study and the research method used is a group interview. The research questions are approached from an organizational perspective. Background information about the current labour shortage in health care is gathered from the focus hospital organization, from the public media and from the health care trade organizations.

Very few marketing actions concerning employer image have been done in the focus hospital. There also existed a lack of appropriate recruitment tools and competence. Data systems and the internet have not been fully exploited in the recruitment process. Vacancies are not announced in educational institutes. Career development possibilities are not presented in job advertisements and job‐rotation has not been used in recruitment.

This paper provides useful information for health care managers and researchers concerning the role of employer image in recruiting and the importance of a well‐organized recruitment process.

In this editorial introduction to the special issue, the authors lay out the problem of inadequate qualitative research about markets and consumers in the vast demographic‐economic space represented by Asia and present an integrative view of six articles that tackle this problematique. The aim of this editorial and the rest of the special issue is not so much to redress the imbalance of inadequate qualitative work on Asia's markets and consumers, but rather to begin to address the problem and start offering directions and suggestions that may make strides toward addressing it.

This editorial introduction presents the perspectives of the special issue editors and introduces the six articles that are part of this issue. It is a conceptual piece.

While the authors' main goal here is to summarize and introduce the work of the authors featured in this issue, they also strive to present a meta‐theoretic frame to guide future similar efforts.

The efforts of the authors in this special issue should serve as demonstrable evidence that interesting, well‐executed qualitative research on Asian markets and consumers is possible and publishable, and motivate other researchers – particularly those based in Asia – to undertake further such work.

Qualitative work on Asian markets and consumers, particularly if produced organically in Asia, would help in a rounder and more insightful understanding of this demographically enormous, culturally rich and economically rising space.

The value of this introductory piece lies in its integration of the articles in the issue, and in presenting a meta‐theoretic frame on the central problematique of inadequate qualitative research on markets and consumers of Asia.

Several service quality studies show how cultural features may influence the way service quality is perceived. However, few studies specifically describe culture's influence on health service quality. Also, there are few studies that take into account patients' health service quality perceptions. This article seeks to present a first step to fill these gaps by examining patients' cultural values and their health service quality assessments.

The study draws on published work and applies its ideas to Chinese healthcare settings. Data consist of hospital service perceptions in the People's Republic of China (PRC), a society that is socially, economically and culturally undergoing major changes. In total, 96 patients were surveyed. Data relationships were tested using partial least square (PLS) analysis.

Findings show that Chinese patients' cultural values and their health service assessments are related and that the cultural values themselves seem to be changing. Additionally, further analyses provided interesting results pointing to which cultural values influenced service quality perceptions. The strongest service quality predictor was power distance.

The sample is relatively small and collected from only one major hospital in China. Therefore, future research should extend the sample size and scope. Follow‐up research could also include cross‐cultural investigations of perceived health service quality to substantiate cultural influences on health service quality perceptions.

In line with similar research in other contexts, the study confirms that power distance has a significant relationship with service quality perceptions.

The study contributes to existing health service literature by offering patients' views on health service quality and by describing relationships between health service perceptions and cultural values ‐ the study's main contribution.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest the use of reverse medical supply chain data to infer changes of a population's health status with regard to a focal disease. It includes a detailed illustration of how health status information can be obtained from drug reverse chains.

A Bayesian dynamical model linking drug reverse supply chain data to relevant health status indicators with regard to a focal disease is developed. A detailed implementation of the model on computer‐simulated data is considered. The predictive ability of the methodology is also assessed using out‐of‐sample Monte Carlo‐based predictive analysis.

The results substantiate the good fit of the model to the empirical data.

Difficulty in obtaining actual return data and in selecting appropriate health status indicators. The correspondence disease‐drug is typically not one‐to‐one. Experts' opinion is required in setting up suitable mixing weights as many drugs may inform the health status relative to a given disease and vice versa.

Reverse logistics data may contain potential information, and this is not exclusive to medical chains.

The paper's suggestions tend to reinforce the notion that supply chain data may be used in many unsuspected settings. Solutions to issues of immediate concern in public health require multidisciplinary cooperation, and this paper shows how supply chain management can contribute. It is believed that the potential of reverse chain data in the health status prospect has previously hardly ever been pointed out.