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Previous research shows that question order affects responses, but does not indicate which order is more accurate. This study aims to examine the effect of three question orders on measurements of SERVQUAL and global quality in an effort to determine which order produced the most predictive measures.

Three forms of a survey were randomly distributed to users of different services; banking, dental services, and hair salons. Correlation with intention of future interaction was used to identify the order that resulted in the most predictive quality measure.

The paper finds that correlations with intention of future interaction were highest for SERVQUAL in the global‐SERVQUAL order, but highest for the global quality measure in the random order.

This study indicates that practitioners and academicians should order questionnaire items differently depending on how the results will be used and which type of measure, specific or global service quality, is the focus of a questionnaire. Generalizations are limited to SERVQUAL and multiple item measures of service quality.

The findings indicate which of several question orders can be used to generate the most predictive measures of SERVQUAL and global service quality.

Previous research has examined measurement effects of specific‐general question orders, without indicating which order is most predictive. This study includes a random order and also suggests appropriate item order for predictive measures.

Mismanagement of supply chain operations may lead to waste of products and incur substantial monetary losses. This is particularly true for products with attributes that hasten deterioration, e.g. time, temperature, humidity and barometric pressure. Attribute-sensitive products must be carefully monitored throughout all supply chain processes to ensure acceptable quality to the end customers. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the scientific literature on attribute sensitive products and on attribute sensitive supply chains. The collected studies were reviewed using the content analysis method, focusing on the following aspects of attribute sensitive products: (1) industries; (2) product categories; (3) decisions involved; (4) processes; (5) current issues; (6) sustainability concerns; (7) research methods used; (8) objectives of decision makers; (9) solution approaches used; (10) incentives driving management and (11) future research issues. Based on the analysis of findings, gaps are identified, and future research directions are proposed.

Literature review and content analysis.

The authors discovered that, while the importance of product attributes vary from one industry to the other, overall the time attribute was critical in all of the industries considered in this literature review. Coordination, customer satisfaction, reliability and safety were key issues in attribute sensitive product supply chains (asp-SCs). Similar to the typical supply chains, asp-SCs face economic, social and environmental sustainability issues. However, the majority of the studies in our analysis emphasized importance of the social sustainability. The majority of the papers were reviewed and analyzed and adopted the modeling approach as a research method. Furthermore, it was found that asp-SCs were mostly driven with customer demands and social pressure.

Based on the literature review and content analysis, there are a number of directions for the work conducted in this study to be extended in several directions. First, the literature search could be expanded by relaxing some of the restrictions (e.g. include the conference papers and articles from on-line business journals). Second, additional scientific publishers can be considered (e.g. Emerald Insight–www.emeraldinsight.com; Inderscience–www.inderscience.com). The latter two extensions would allow a more precise assessment of published to date work on asp-SC operations. Third, our findings could be validated based on interviews with professionals and executives from companies dealing with asp-SCs. Such validation will allow identification of the differences between the state of the art and the state of practice.

Supply chains that handle attribute sensitive products (asps) must consider the complexity of products that significantly change their properties due to factors such as time, temperature, barometric pressure, humidity. Mismanagement of operations within such supply chains may lead to significant product waste, as well as substantial monetary losses.

This study presented a comprehensive literature review and content analysis of studies dealing with asps in the following industries: fashion, food, healthcare, humanitarian and pharmaceutical industries

During the last several decades, logistics has increasingly emerged as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. This article incorporates recent work in services marketing on customer information acquisition, with research on industrial buying behavior to help logistics service providers understand and manage their customers’ information acquisition and purchase activities for logistics services.

The purpose of this paper is to use the technology acceptance model (TAM) from the information technology (IT) literature to investigate the relationships among technology use and acceptance, and perceptions of quality and satisfaction with logistics services among industrial customers.

To test the proposed model, an online survey was prepared using WebSurveyor and an introductory e‐mail with a link to the survey was sent to a sample of members of two professional organizations of industrial purchasing managers.

The findings indicate that both logistics service quality (LSQ) perceptions and satisfaction levels are significantly related to future purchase intentions. In addition, LSQ perceptions mediate the relationship between the two TAM constructs and customer satisfaction.

This paper provides additional insight on technology acceptance in the context of logistics and supply chain management. IT is a common thread throughout logistics and supply chain management, from electronic data interchange, through collaborative forecasting and replenishment and vendor‐managed inventory processes. Consequently, extending research on technology acceptance and use into the context of logistics and supply chain management is an important step, both in terms of theory development and managerial relevance for both the information systems and supply chain management disciplines.

What is the best way for service organizations to evaluate and motivate service employees so that customers are retained and new customers are attracted? What motivates service employees to deliver high quality service? Are there actions a service organization can take, e.g. way of evaluating, training, and rewarding employees, which encourage them to perform to the organization’s advantage? Answers to these questions would enable a service organization to formulate a system that links human resource management policies to desired service employee performance, thus enhancing customer perceptions of service quality and organizational financial outcomes. This research investigated organizational citizenship behavior, with its framework of organizational rights and responsibilities, to explore these issues. The research shows that service employee perceptions of how they are treated by the service organization, i.e. what organizational rights they receive, are positively associated with organizational citizenship behaviors. Furthermore, it demonstrates that these behaviors result in more effective service delivery to organizational standards and enhanced customer perceptions of service quality.

This research integrates recent work on customer information acquisition in services marketing and economics of information research with literature on industrial buying behavior for the purpose of proposing and empirically testing a model that explores information acquisition in industrial purchasing.

To test the proposed model, an online survey was prepared using WebSurveyor and an introductory e‐mail with a link to the survey was sent to a sample of members of a professional organization of industrial purchasing managers.

Results indicated a differential use of information sources across differing purchase situations. When purchasing situations were perceived to be easy to evaluate, there was a significantly greater use of impersonal information sources. In addition, we offer evidence that the use of both personal and impersonal information sources does, in fact, increase the perception of goal clarity with respect to the purchasing task among industrial purchasers.

If marketers can help provide key information – both personal and impersonal – to their customers, they are helping to clarify the purchasing task. These communication efforts can then contribute to that satisfying outcome which might ultimately enhance the relationship between the two parties.

Although logistics research contains numerous applications of computer simulation modelling, logistics literature has outlined no standard procedure for determining the appropriate sample size when employing simulation methodology in logistics research. Addresses this deficiency by considering the issue of sample size determination in logistics simulation models. Describes a technique for determining the sample size required to achieve the desired level of relative precision in logistics simulation models. In addition, provides an example of the application of this sample size determination technique to a logistics simulation.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting has been theorized as a key communication device and an integral part of a broader stakeholder integration management strategy. This paper aims to examine the relationship between CSR disclosures and organized labor, an important internal stakeholder, whose institutional role in dynamically advancing employee interests creates opportunities and challenges for strategic management and firm sustainability.

By using a sample of 2,526 US firm-year observations for the period 2002–2015, the authors demonstrate that managers in unionized contexts are more likely to issue CSR reports than managers in firms, where labor is not organized.

The authors demonstrate that managers in unionized contexts are more likely to issue CSR reports than managers in firms where labor is not organized. Considering stakeholder theory, they argue that, in unionized contexts, managers more intensively resort to CSR disclosures to form an alignment of interests, develop collaborative bonds with unions and smoothen relationships with external financial stakeholders. This effect is more prominent in areas where corporate spatial clustering and the prevailing political ideology facilitate the role of unions.

First, the data refer to USA, which may limit the generalization of the results. Hence, researchers could use cross-country datasets to overcome this limitation. Second, it would be important to know what benefits are enjoyed by the unionized companies that issue CSR reports. Third, they acknowledge that there is useful qualitative information they do not analyze. This analysis could potentially relate specific CSR information to unions’ needs and demands. Further, there are alternative channels through which companies disclose relevant information such as 10-K filings, annual reports, firm websites, media, public announcements, etc. These are not captured by the data.

Managers could benefit from the empirical analysis, which suggests that through the initiation of CSR reports a dialogue with unions is greatly facilitated. Managers should consider that CSR reports reduce information asymmetries and may attract the interest of investors. Unionists should be aware that CSR reports constitute an opportunity to identify mutual interests and align goals. Business analysts, investors and shareholders should be aware that standalone CSR reports are used by managers to reduce information asymmetries and disparities with unions and to communicate an investment-friendly context. So, market participants should factor such policies by unionized firms into their investment analyses.

The authors offer implications for managers, labor unionists and market participants.

This paper examines the relationship between CSR disclosures and organized labor, an important internal stakeholder, whose institutional role in dynamically advancing employee interests creates opportunities and challenges for strategic management and firm sustainability.