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The purpose of this paper is to assess the future direction of sustainable development in the healthcare industry. This study aims to reveal general similarities and specific differences between private hospitals and enabler or hinders of sustainable development.

Based on an inductive approach, judgmental sampling was applied to select relevant healthcare organizations. Informants were identified according to their knowledge of their organizations’ sustainability initiatives.

In the context the homogeneity that could be expected, the studied hospitals range from having a very strong organizational conviction as to the future direction of sustainable development to a very weak one. There are some general similarities and specific differences between them reported.

There is no common formula applicable across private hospitals to determine the future direction of their sustainable development. Although hospitals benchmark best practices, others use them only as a general frame of reference. This scenario offers opportunities for further research.

The economic, social and environmental sustainable development across private hospitals may evolve from general principles or guidelines, but the specific sustainable development at each hospital may well evolve along tailored economic, social and environmental actions.

Developing a framework considering similarities and differences between the sustainability actions of each hospital in the healthcare industry is important for understanding future directions. This study provides insights into factors that could enable success or constitute hinders of sustainable development. They can also guide the industry toward a common objective which improves the hospitals sustainability actions in the future, also minimizing the effort required.

This study aims to show how to improve supply chain performance through the relationship between firms and their customers. In doing so, this study examines the impact of a firm’s relationship commitment and customer integration on supply chain performance. The aim is to detail a way to increase supply chain performance through the relationship between companies and their customers.

The empirical analysis was based on a survey on 205 corporate-Egypt multi-industry businesses including manufacturing, retailing, wholesaling and shipping services firms. Data collection was through a questionnaire survey distributed to 1,264 senior managers with responsibilities in the field of supply chain, logistics, purchasing, marketing and operations and with a 16% response rate. A conceptual model was designed, and hypotheses were analysed with covariance-based structural equation modelling.

This study makes a significant contribution to the supply chain management (SCM) literature by examining the influence of firms’ relationship commitment on supply chain performance in the supply chain management context by means of the disaggregation of customer integration into two dimensions: integration with customer (IWC) and integration by customer (IBC). The findings indicate that firms’ relationship commitment does not relate directly to supply chain performance, but rather indirectly through integration both with and by customers.

This paper outlines a conceptual model in which firms’ relationship commitment relates indirectly to supply chain performance. The model also sheds light on the fact that IWCs precedes IBCs in supply chains. This finding suggests that firms should focus on customer integration to improve supply chain performance.

This study offers a particularly refined understanding of the reasons behind and situations in which supply chain integration (SCI) enables firms to gain superior supply chain performance. In fact, firms focusing on customer integration may improve their supply chain performance, thus enhancing the value of the supply chain.

This study contributes to the literature by considering a relational view of the SCI-Performance path. In particular, by disaggregating customer integration into IWCs and IBCs, this paper verifies customer integration acting as a mediator between relationship commitment and supply chain performance in supply chains.

The research aims to describe the foundation of healthcare organizations’ past and present sustainability endeavors; describe the direction of a health-care organizations’ sustainable development; reveal and characterize what determines the foundation and direction in a public health-care sector; and provide some insights into social marketing for sustainability endeavors.

Based on a semi-inductive approach, judgmental sampling was applied to select relevant health-care organizations. Informants were identified according to their knowledge of their organizations’ sustainability initiatives.

Offer insights into the foundation of sustainability endeavors and the direction of sustainable development for upstream social marketing in the studied public sector. The social marketing perspective is a common factor of relevance for the studied public hospitals.

The foundations of sustainability endeavors undertaken across the studied health-care organizations have not so far been homogenous. The direction of sustainable development has also varied across the studied public healthcare organizations and there is a need to move beyond individuals and shift from a micro to a macro/structural environment of sustainable development, so as to observe the effectiveness of any social marketing intervention.

This study highlights the importance of applying an upstream social marketing approach and programs, as part of a social marketing strategy, to promote and stimulate sustainable change in health-care organizations.

Contrary to the common sense predominating in many societies nowadays regarding sustainability endeavors and sustainable development, we conclude that neither the foundation of such endeavors nor the direction of sustainable development has progressed adequately in the studied public healthcare sector. As social marketing is intended to benefit society and foster social change, the macro level of intervention of the upstream approach clearly reveals its usefulness in the public health area.

Reveals two axes based on a social marketing approach. One is of micro and macro determinants characterizing the direction of sustainable development in a public sector. Another is of homogeneous and heterogeneous foundations of sustainability endeavors.

The purpose of the paper is to test and compare a framework of firms' business sustainability endeavours with internal and external stakeholders in an oriental business context and to verify the validity and reliability of a stakeholder framework through time and across oriental and occidental business contexts.

Quantitative approach based on a questionnaire survey in corporate Taiwan with a response rate of 68.5%. Multivariate analysis is undertaken to uncover the measurement properties of a stakeholder framework.

A framework of firms' business sustainability endeavours with internal and external stakeholders appears valid and reliable through time and across occidental and oriental business contexts.

This study verifies and fortifies a stakeholder framework through time and across business contexts consisting of five stakeholder groups: upstream, the focal firm, downstream, market and societal.

The framework of firms' business sustainability endeavours provides guidance to firms in their endeavours of business sustainability with internal and external stakeholders.

This study contributes to existing theory and previous studies by validating a stakeholder framework of business sustainability with internal and external stakeholders beyond occidental business context to be also valid and reliable in oriental ones.

This paper aims to test trust and commitment as mediators between economic and non-economic satisfaction in seller business relationships in contrast to previous studies on buyer business relationships.

Based on a cross-industry sample of Norwegian companies with sales or marketing managers/directors or key account managers. Key informants were selected to participate who adhered to specific criteria, such as their designations should be sales or marketing managers/directors or key account managers.

Trust and commitment mediate between economic and non-economic satisfaction in seller business relationships in line with what has been previously tested and retested across contexts and through time in buyer business relationships.

This study helps in establishing an extended foundation to assess the structural properties between economic and non-economic satisfaction, as well as trust and commitment, in business relationships based on seller and or buyer perspectives.

The tested seller business relationship research model provides a corporate foundation for assessing the seller perspective of business relationships. It also provides a corporate foundation for combining the seller perspective with that of the customer perspective.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first study based on seller business relationships that validates the research model reported in multiple previous studies based on buyer business relationships.

The interdependence of firms in the marketplace implies that the effectiveness of an action cannot be valued without considering potential reactions. Therefore, the main objectives of this paper are to analyse the effect of the initiating company characteristics on the perceived attributes of its action and to understand the effect of these dimensions on the number of companies that respond to it.

Based on action‐reaction dynamics, a series of hypotheses was theoretically justified inking the characteristics of the actor with the dimensions of its action, and these dimensions with the probability of response from rivals. Their validity with data obtained from a survey of marketing managers of Spanish companies was checked, using a variety of statistical techniques.

Results indicate that the probability of reaction is influenced by the level of visible threat of action. Further findings indicate that the leadership position of the actor has an indirect influence on the probability of response.

The size of the sample and the measures used are both limited. Also, the explanatory capacity of the model could be improved by considering new variables.

Prior knowledge of the probability of a reaction is an important input for the managerial process of strategic planning, capable of improving the success rate in implementing actions and thereby the competitive position.

Few research studies of competitive interaction have focused on the probability of response, into which this paper offers an insight.

The purpose of this paper was to test a construct of perceived justice and its dimensions in negative service encounters across Mexican, Puerto Rican and Spanish hospitals. Also to compare similarities and differences of perceived justice in negative service encounters in these countries.

Includes Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Spaniards who have experienced service failures at hospital settings. A descriptive research design was followed and a self-administered questionnaire was applied to gather the data from respondents. The researchers applied convenience sampling, and a pre-screening of respondents was included to verify that respondents were appropriate to participate in the study. A total number of 937 usable questionnaires were obtained from the hospital settings.

The empirical findings across three Spanish-speaking countries indicate that the construct of perceived justice in negative service encounters consists of merely 15 items, divided into three dimensions, namely, distributional, interactional and procedural.

The empirical findings provide satisfactory validity and reliability across three countries, but there are acknowledged research limitations. These offer an opportunity for further research to verify or falsify the validity, reliability and generalization of the current findings.

Service providers may use the three-dimensional construct of perceived justice as a guide when developing, implementing and managing processes and procedures of service failures in negative service encounters.

The current international study in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Spain complements and fortifies previous research and existing theory of perceived justice in negative service encounters, and possible actions of complaint handling as well as service recovery.

The objective of this paper is to describe the teleological actions needed to assess and manage critical incidents that cause negative emotions in service encounters. Teleological actions are movements into the future that are believed to be move either towards a predictable/known or unpredictable/unknown state or condition. The authors distinguish between, define and apply three categories: transformative – ad hoc and present-based actions; formative – pre-determined and past-based actions; and rationalist – goal-directed and future-based actions.

A qualitative study, based upon a two-phase approach applying convenience and judgemental sampling, was used. Focussing on one teleological theory, a process of abductive matching was applied throughout the study. Abductive matching refers to recurring themes, patterns and categories that are uncovered through the iterative processes of analysis. The teleological framework structured and guided the data collection and empirical observations.

Seen through the perspective of teleological actions, the study enhances our understanding of the manner in which critical incidents generate negative emotions in service encounters. Through the same perspective, the investigation also reveals that the outcome of a negative service encounter depends upon the interactive interface between service provider and service receiver.

The teleological actions between service providers and service receivers in negative service encounters appear to be mediators between cause-and-effect on the one hand (critical incident and negative emotions) and a perceptual gap on the other (outcome of negative service encounter). The teleological perspective also provides numerous opportunities for further research in this area.

Managers should strive to understand the teleological actions potentially undertaken by service receivers, so that they can deal with the teleological actions of their front-line staff accordingly. The interactive interface between a service provider and a service receiver is crucial in assessing and managing critical incidents.

Based on teleological actions, the investigation provides both a valuable and complementary contribution on assessing and managing critical incidents and the negative emotions that are often triggered in the service-encounter interface between a service provider and a service receiver. Providers also need to educate their staff on what can occur and on how to react appropriately.

The purpose of this paper is to test a research model based on the cause-and-effect relationships between perceived justice, service satisfaction and behavioral intention.

This paper is based on a questionnaire survey with service receivers in the Mexican telecom industry.

There are significant relationships between international/distributive justice and service satisfaction, as well as between service satisfaction and behavioral intention.

The research model tested appears not to be context- and time-specific, but valid across contexts and through time.

The cause-and-effect relationships between perceived justice, service satisfaction and behavioral intention provide useful insights into service recovery strategies.

This paper provides additional empirical substantiations to existing theory and previous studies.

This paper aims to assess negative emotions in Mexican, Puerto Rican and Spanish service settings in the hospital industry. The paper also attempts to validate previous findings in existing theory and previous studies across three national samples and describes the similarities and differences in negative emotions between Mexican, Puerto Rican and Spanish service settings.

The current study comprised Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Spaniards who experienced a service failure (i.e. critical incident) in hospital settings within the past year. A descriptive research design was followed, and a self-administered questionnaire was applied to gather the data from respondents.

The three-dimensional construct of negative emotions commonly identified in existing theory and previous studies of negative emotions turned out to be four in the current multinational study.

The four-dimensional construct of negative emotions thus revealed is relevant and valuable to research. A number of research limitations are provided, all of which provide opportunities for further research in assessing negative emotions in service settings.

Service providers need to manage and deal with the negative emotions in service failures in an appropriate manner. It is necessary that the front-line staff identify and understand the reasons behind service receiver’s negative emotions in service failures, and that they act accordingly to reduce the intensity of critical incidents and the overall negative consequences.

The negative emotions assessed provide a fruitful contribution and do not only complement additional facets to existing theory and previous studies of negative emotions in service settings but also fortify the notion that further research is required to gain an enhanced understanding and additional insights into them across countries and cultures, just as it is crucial to manage the occurrence of negative emotions in critical incidents accurately.