Search results

The field of supply chain management (SCM) evolves dramatically due to factors of globalization, innovation, sustainability, and technology. These changes raise challenges not only to higher education institutions, but also to students, employing organizations, and third parties like SCM-related professional bodies. To understand the challenge, the purpose of this paper is to examine the gap between demand and supply of SCM-related knowledge areas, answer-related design questions, and make recommendations to close the gaps.

To compare the demand and supply of SCM-related knowledge areas, demand data is collected from a professional career website and supply data is gathered from operations management (OM) and SCM course syllabi from AACSB-accredited business schools in the USA. Cluster analysis identifies how supply and demand are matched on the data collected.

First, gaps exist between SCM talent requirements from industry and the knowledge/skill training by US business schools. This paper identifies matching, under-supplying, and over-supplying knowledge areas. Under-supply in emerging areas such as SCM information technology and certain logistics management topics are found. Some traditional OM topics are over-supplied due to out-of-date industry applications and should be revised to reflect the field’s transition from an OM to SCM view. Last, this paper makes recommendations to different stakeholders in this matching supply with demand process.

This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it provides an up-to-date understanding on demand and supply of SCM talent in USA. Second, it provides insights and recommendations not only to educators on curriculum design, but also to potential candidates interested in SCM careers, to companies’ job recruiters, and to professional organizations (such as APICS and Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals) to reduce the gaps between demand and supply.

The purpose of this case study is to explore enterprise creation and explore the entrepreneurship process, which necessitates entrepreneurial recognition and entrepreneurial orientation. The case also investigates how an entrepreneurial firm appreciates the importance of innovative practices for an organisational growth.

The case is based on primary research, secondary information, followed by testing the case several times and plugging case gaps. To authenticate information, multiple sources have been used in a time frame of over one year.

This case clearly demonstrates ability by an entrepreneur towards opportunity recognition, pro-activeness, engaging innovative skills and a capacity to undertake risks.

The findings are based on observations of one company and research carried through secondary sources, which may limit the theory creation.

The accomplishment of the firm is attributed in accepting opportunities and potentially utilising its strengths towards growth. The case reflects, how Ajay, the founder of a Start-up ‘Comfort and Shelter’, intrinsically motivated and with prior knowledge in the financial services sector, was able to translate opportunities effectively via his orientation skills. Besides this in his entrepreneurial journey, Ajay was able to scale the business by continuously orienting his start-up towards customer orientation.

It is imperative to understand social needs of individuals, hereby in this case need for affordable homes. An entrepreneur can be driven by social needs and create a profitable enterprise.

The case is original and reflects entrepreneurial journey of an individual as well as that of an enterprise.

Online search effort is routinely measured by the duration of visit at the website as obtained from clicksream data or surveys. Measuring search effort by the time spent at a website assumes that all consumers who search for the same duration obtain the same amount of information. This would be acceptable if all consumers possessed the same navigational ability. In practice, different consumers have different levels of ability to navigate a website. The purpose of this study is to find whether an individual’s navigational ability has an influence on visit duration and purchase likelihood.

The authors use visit duration data from a real website which makes it possible to partition the visit duration into the times spent on relevant and irrelevant pages. The data were collected through an experimental study. The authors develop an empirical model, comprising hazard and choice models, to assess the relationship between navigational ability and elements of website usage.

A consumer with poor navigational ability spends more time searching on the Web and has lower purchase probability compared to a consumer with superior ability.

The study is limited to one data.

This research has managerial implications for website design, such as link-structure, appearance, size and the number of graphics.

This is the first study to research navigational ability’s influence on online consumer behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the key requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), recently passed by the US Congress to safeguard the nation's food supply, and to ascertain the role of quality professionals in the management of food safety and quality systems for food facilities.

Since genesis of the Act emanates mainly from the recent upsurge in food disease outbreaks in North America, key lessons learnt from the 2008 Listeriosis outbreak in Canada were reviewed. Thereafter, a case study of developing a food safety and quality management system for a “very low risk facility” – i.e. a third party warehouse – was considered. Finally, potential connections between the sections of the FSMA and roles of various quality practitioners were discussed.

Recent study at the third party logistics warehouse revealed developing and implementing pre‐requisite programs (PRPs), i.e. mainly operational and physical controls, had a positive impact on the food safety and quality management system (FSQMS). Hence, quality practitioners may focus on PRPs to enhance compliance to FSMA requirements.

Food production, processing, packaging and/or distribution companies that export their products to the USA, as well as enterprises requiring preventive controls to ensure food safety and quality, can greatly benefit from the services of quality practitioners. Other key inputs the practitioners provide to the FSQMS include costs reduction, value addition, defects prevention, process control, maintenance and improvement.

The paper closely studies quality practitioners’ perspectives towards meeting or even exceeding the new food safety regulatory expectations in food‐related institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to combine systems thinking, lean management, value methodology and Six Sigma concepts into an integrated quality methodology using the TALEVAS model.

TALEVAS is an acronym for Tandem‐Lean‐Value‐Sigma, as each element correlates to a best practice or concept mentioned by intent. The model is based on two theories: “The rising pendulum system” and “The seven rules of quality driving” proposed in this paper.

Four key performance drivers are identified using the model. These are: communication, investigative correction, innovation, and synchronization.

The integrated methodology can be deployed by any type (product‐or‐service based) or level (small, medium or corporate) of an organization in order to gain a competitive advantage in the market. Further, there is a possibility that recent cases of product recalls could be reduced or avoided by companies through implementing a TALEVAS Quality approach.

The paper displays the interdependence between the quality concepts by model analysis. This reflects a more holistic approach to quality required by organizations to raise the bottom line, reduce costs, promote value, and provide consistent products to customers.

The purpose of this paper is to study the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) based on assessment of sustainability indicators for public transportation system including pedestrians and feeder services in developing country.

A hybrid approach based on the AHP is considered for assessment of the sustainability of public transportation system including pedestrians and feeder services. Sustainability related indicators for public transportation system (namely for metro, bus and feeder bus) and pedestrians based on past data were reviewed and subsequently, more important indicators catering needs of developing country have been added to achieve significant sustainability score and a total of 17 indicators were selected for assessment of comprehensive sustainability (seven indicators under economic, six under social and four under environmental categories).

For quantifying the assessment, specific user interview surveys are performed in south Delhi region and accordingly perception of user and transportation-related operational characteristics of the public transport system were also collected. Preliminary result shows air pollution in environmental category, public health in social category and productivity in economic category is most influential parameters in developing country.

AHP method is applied for rating the criteria and setting out the priority of designed sustainable indicators. Subsequently sustainable mitigation measures and scenarios for the study area can be evaluated utilizing developed comprehensive sustainability indicator for public transportation system including pedestrian and feeder services available in developing country.

Business models and the business model concept have become a fixture of scholarly and managerial attention. With a focus on how actors create, capture and disseminate value, business model research holds the promise to inform the tourism sector’s search for ways to innovate and change outdated business practices. Yet, the concept has inspired little research tackling the contingencies of the tourism context. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap in this review and research agenda on business models in tourism.

In this paper, the authors review and synthesize contributions from publications in EBSCO, Emerald Insight, ProQuest and Science Direct databases, that make explicit use of the business model concept in tourism (anytime up to September 2016). We conceptualize the identified articles as a coherent body of knowledge on business models in tourism with the objective of identifying common themes that characterize existing contributions.

From the review of 28 qualified articles, the authors identify four emergent themes: sector-specific configurations, the role of different value types, design themes for consistency and regulatory contingencies. These themes inform three domains in which the authors present avenues for tourism-specific studies on business models, as well as their management and innovation that the authors position in relation to the general business model literature.

This review details how researchers across disciplines conceptualize the business model. Together with the identified directions for further research, this literature review thus establishes a common conceptual basis and stock of knowledge for the study of business models in tourism research.

In 2006, four successful entrepreneurs decided to establish a world-class mega university. Initially, the project progressed slowly until Vineet Gupta was able to locate a small plot of land in Sonipat, Haryana. Forty-eight hours before the payment deadline, Ashish Dhawan and Sanjeev Bikchandani agreed to invest in their personal capital to kick start the project. They however suggested a pivot in favour of a smaller private liberal arts college. Meanwhile, Pramath Sinha, with prior experience in establishing the Indian School of Business launched a pilot through the Young India Fellowship (YIF). Dhawan and Bikchandani, through their extensive entrepreneurial networks, raised scholarships for the first two batches of the fellowship in the hope of attracting other donors to the board and getting a buy-in for Ashoka University. The team faced a number of challenges: managing the new model of collective philanthropy, recruiting faculty and finding jobs for the first undergraduate batch. At Ashoka University's first graduation ceremony in 2017 they wondered whether this model could revolutionise the higher education space like the IITs and IIMs had done for the country.

Based on social science theories of customer's action such as theory of planned behaviour, theory of reasoned action, and technology acceptance model, this paper adopts belief–attitude–intention model to study impact of perceived process-belief of different stages of e-service delivery system process (e-SDSP), i.e., searching process belief (SPB), agreement process belief (APB), fulfilment process belief (FPB) and after-sales service process belief (ASPB) on customer attitude and intention towards service providers. The study also focuses on the mediating effect of customer attitude on the relationship between process-beliefs of different stages of e-SDSP and their behavioural intention.

A quantitative method has been employed using data collected from 414 Indian e-retail customers. Structural equation modelling with bootstrap estimation is used to find the mediating effect of attitude.

The findings suggest that SPB and ASPB directly impact the customer attitude while APB and FPB directly impact the customer behavioural intention. The study also finds that customer attitude towards e-retailers fully mediates the effect of SPB and ASPB on the behavioural intention but there are no mediating effects for APB and FPB.

The sample used may not be generalizable for India, given its huge diversity and population. As the sample considers only Indian e-retail customers, this study may lack generalizability across countries.

In our knowledge, this study is the first step to conceptualize the process-oriented customer's perceived belief of different stages of e-SDSP and how these beliefs impact the customers' attitude and intention towards the e-retailers. The findings offer insight to managers on how they can create and cultivate customer happiness and positive behavioural intention by enhanced customer journey throughout the e-SDSP.

Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party made fighting corruption as a major election plank, and won the 2014 elections, and formed the National Democratic Alliance government – a majority party government in India in nearly 30 years. Modi was re-elected in May 2019 with a bigger majority. As his government celebrates the second term, it is time to assess the last five years’ accomplishments in fighting corruption. This chapter deals with the subject under four major headings. The first examines the efficacy of existing anti-corruption agencies. The second explains the office of Lokpal (Ombudsman). The third analyses the initial challenges and efforts of the Modi government. The fourth draws some conclusions.