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Heeding the call for insights into the Sub-Saharan African international marketing context, this study aims to empirically examine consumers' desires and motivations for buying counterfeit luxury goods. It examines influences on consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions related to counterfeit luxury goods in Rwanda, one of Sub-Saharan Africa's fastest-growing economies and growing luxury markets, developing and testing a model examining the effect of social context on personal attributes, providing evidence on economic and social-status factors as drivers for counterfeiting.

The data were collected using an online survey administered in Rwanda to consumers who had previously purchased luxury goods and counterfeits. A total of 312 valid responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

This study found that normative and informational influences had a positive effect on Rwandan consumers' attitude toward purchasing counterfeit luxury products, with attitude influencing purchase intentions directly and indirectly, through mediating variable desire for status or through value consciousness and desire for status.

The study contributes to academic research − one of the first empirical studies to examine consumers' desires and motivations for buying counterfeit luxury goods in Sub-Saharan Africa, providing insights that benefit scholars and practitioners seeking to better understand a market where more than half of the world's fastest economies are located.

This paper aims to explore the impact of supply chain centralities on sales performance moderated by reputation and stock listing.

Empirical data on supply chain relationships were drawn from the context of electronics and electrical appliance industries in Tokyo, sourced from Teikoku Data Bank in year 2017–2018. On average, the authors analyzed an industrial network of 4,181 focal firms with 3.6 and 3.8 supplier and customer ties, respectively, using social networks and moderated regression analyses.

The authors find that in-(out-)degree, closeness and betweenness centralities are positively related to the focal firm’s annual sales performance. Hubs and authorities as ways of measuring reputation are found to not directly affect performance; hubs negatively moderate the relationship between betweenness and performance. Stock-listing was also found to negatively moderate the relationship between in-degree centrality and performance.

This study adds to existing literature by conducting a supply network analysis in a new industrial context, introducing a new method for assessing firm reputation in supply networks and showing how the structural characteristics of supply networks influence business performance.

The Chinese Government encourages firms to diffuse their operational-level environmental management (EM) into their organization’s mission and strategy to develop strategic EM to promote sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to utilize two concepts of institutional theory (isomorphic pressures and decoupling behavior) to assess how different institutional forces arising from Chinese macro-level factors (market pressure, business turbulence, legal voids, carbon policy, structural-level governmental interference and guanxi with government) influence the efficacy of strategic EM.

In partnership with a major consulting firm in China, the authors collect multi-informant survey data from 183 manufacturing firms drawn from a variety of industries for testing the hypotheses posited.

The efficacy of strategic EM in the sampled firms is confirmed by the positive association with environmental performance. The authors also find that the efficacy of strategic EM is weakened by market pressure, business turbulence and legal voids, whereas it is strengthened by structural-level governmental interference. However, carbon policy and guanxi with government do not impact it significantly.

To extend the findings on the environmental importance of strategic EM, future research can develop and validate a management framework to guide the adoption of strategic EM. With regard to the four valid macro-level factors influencing the efficacy of strategic EM, future research can identify the reasons (e.g. conflict with corporate functions) behind them to aid manufacturers to mitigate their negative influence or enhance the positive influence on strategic EM.

China’s Government and its manufacturers (or those sharing a similar institutional environment) can expand the scope of their EM efforts from operational-level EM practices to strategic EM. The findings on the valid macro-level factors have led to practical suggestions for government bodies and manufacturers to improve the efficacy of strategic EM adoption. Overall, the implications help achieve the higher levels of firm-level environmental performance and alleviate the global pollution problem.

A particular value of this work lies in the demonstration of combining institutional theory (organization decoupling, isomorphic pressures) with practical consideration such as guanxi with government in the particular institutional environment of China to help address an important and context-related problem, environmental performance.

The purpose of this study is to develop a moderated mediation model by which quality-oriented product design practices influence operational performance via supplier involvement under the different levels of product modularity.

The authors use the multisource data from 268 manufacturing firms worldwide and apply regression and the PROCESS macro model to test the moderated mediation model.

The findings reveal that quality-oriented product design practices enhance operational performance directly and do so indirectly through promoting supplier involvement in quality improvement. In addition, this indirect effect is stronger when the level of product modularity is high.

By exploring the interaction effects of quality-oriented product design and product modularity, this study provides valuable insights into the ways in which manufacturing firms improve operational performance more effectively.

Few scholars have so far explored how healthcare service quality affects patient dissatisfaction, leading to negative behavior responses when a healthcare service fails. The purpose of this paper is to examine how different service quality attributes affect patient dissatisfaction leading to a variety of asymmetric negative behavior responses.

Following a survey of 453 dissatisfied outpatients in Korea, structural equation modeling with a series of post hoc analyses is used to test the research model. It consists of five hypotheses.

Outcome quality is found to be the most significant variable affecting patient dissatisfaction, followed by administrative quality, interactive quality, and environmental quality. Dissatisfied patients tend to engage more in active behaviors (e.g. negative word-of-mouth, switching, and complaining) than in remaining passive in a non-linear way. Also, the mediating role of dissatisfaction is found to be significant.

This paper has empirically identified the most significant service quality attributes that lead to dissatisfied patients and negative behaviors on their part. These findings indicate that different quality attributes of service failure lead to different actions. However, this study has suffered from a few limitations as a result of its research context and scope.

This paper is one of the very few empirical studies examining the relationships among the output and process quality attributes, patient dissatisfaction, and actual behaviors in a healthcare service failure context.

Recent studies have found inconsistent findings on the impact of supplier and customer involvement on new product development. This study thus aims to explore what contextual factors affect supplier and customer involvement altogether and how such involvement affects new product performance.

The study used structural equation modelling to analyze empirical survey data from 251 manufacturers in Hong Kong.

The study found that modular design, product innovation, and internal coordination are positively correlated with the supplier and customer involvement. Such involvement and product innovation lead to better new product performance.

The study is limited to the use of cross‐sectional data and a single key informant approach, and the industry structure of the sampled industries.

The study examines the contextual factors of supplier and customer involvement and how such involvement relates to new product development with new empirical evidence. The study not only provides new empirical evidence to support the importance of supply chain management in product development, but also extends existing literature to identify new contextual factors for such involvement.

The study re‐examines generalized beliefs about supplier and customer involvement in new product development, and extends prior studies of the contextual dimensions of product modularity, product innovativeness, and internal coordination on such involvement in an empirical way.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between product modularity (PM) and supply chain integration (SCI), and to identify factors influencing this relationship.

A case study approach involving in‐depth interviews on three modular and two non‐modular design projects in the Hong Kong and Pearl River Delta region was conducted. Within and cross‐case analyses were adopted.

Results support the current view that modular design is related to a loosely coordinated supply chain, whereas integrated design is associated with a tightly coordinated supply chain. However, this relationship is affected and explained by four contingency factors: new module/component development, technological knowledge leakage and creation, project team size and supply chain efficiency.

The paper used a case study approach so the generalizability of the study is limited. This approach, however, enabled us to examine explicitly the relationship between PM and SCI, where empirical research was lacking. The rich content of each case suggested how and why modular design affects supply chain management.

The findings of this paper increase the understanding of the dynamics of modular product design and supply chain management. The paper also explores four contingency factors affecting the relationship.

This paper aims to examine how an organization can achieve higher performance through integrating supply chain product co‐development (SCPC) and modular product design.

Based on a comprehensive review of literature on product development, supply chain management and system theory, the four proposed hypotheses concerning the relationships among SCPC, product modularity (PM), manufacturing capabilities and product performance (PP) were tested empirically through a sample of 251 Hong Kong manufacturers.

SCPC is found to have a direct and positive relationship with PM and PP. PM improves flexibility and customer service and in turn PP.

Given the cross‐sectional nature of the study and the focus on manufacturing industry, future research should replicate this study in different industries with more longitudinal studies.

The study provides solid evidence that managers should involve their suppliers, internal functional units and customers early in their design stages, especially in the decisions relating to PM. The study has also demonstrated that product co‐development affects PP in both direct and indirect ways.

The present study empirically verifies the relationships between supply chain integration and modular product design by means of SCPC and PM. Similar empirical research is absent from the literature on relevant disciplines.

The importance of purchasing and supply management (PSM) for business performance has received considerable attention in recent years. However, research on PSM training and education is inadequate. This paper aims to present initial findings from PSM practitioners about current PSM training and education needs in Hong Kong.

An industrial survey of PSM participants was conducted. Of the 405 PSM practitioners contacted, 53 responded to the survey, for a response rate of 13.1 percent.

The study identifies current trends, skills and knowledge areas for PSM professionals. The results show that the trends of PSM focus on purchasing cost reduction, the skills focus on negotiation and communication, and the knowledge on supply analysis and relationship management. The study also finds that companies tend to adopt on‐the‐job training for PSM staff but lack a systematic PSM training approach.

The study suggests that human resource development for PSM staff must focus not only on tactical techniques, but also on managerial knowledge and skills. However, the sampled companies are weak at providing PSM training and measuring its results. As this study is limited by the small sample size and the nature of the surveyed region, more empirical research will be required to study the effectiveness of PSM training on business performance.

This study shows that companies are weak at staff training in the studied region. Most of the companies surveyed do not have formal training programs and training effectiveness measurements. Knowledge of this is essential for other similar organizations wanting to improve their PSM personnel.

This paper identifies current trends, skills and knowledge required for PSM in Hong Kong, which have not previously been reported in literature.

While the beneficial impact of supply chain integration (SCI) and modular product design are generally acknowledged, few empirical studies have examined how an organization can achieve better performance through SCI with modular product design. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between SCI and modular product design, as well as their impact on product performance.

By surveying 251 manufacturers in Hong Kong, structural equation modelling is used to test the research constructs and the hypothesized model.

The results confirm that information sharing, product co‐development and organizational coordination are crucial organizational processes within SCI. Companies that have high levels of product modularity appear to be good at product co‐development and organizational coordination directly and at information sharing indirectly. Furthermore, companies that have high levels of product co‐development or product modularity appear to have better product performance.

This paper theoretically and empirically identifies three specific organizational processes within SCI (information sharing, product co‐development and organizational coordination), which affect modular product design and product performance. These more specific findings were previously absent from the literature. However, the study is limited to the cross‐sectional nature of a survey study, the operationalization of SCI and product modularity, and the nature of the product types.

This paper empirically examines the relationships between SCI and product modularity, which has seldom been attempted in previous research. It clearly identifies exactly which processes within SCI are directly and indirectly related to product modularity.