Search results

The purpose of this paper is to highlight challenges for service firms communicating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) efforts to customers. Specifically, it focuses on the relationship between ESG metrics and reporting and customer perceptions of social innovativeness.

The empirical material comprises three years of data (2018–2020) covering more than 100 firms from three sources: (1) Social Innovation Index (Sii), which is collected as part of the American Innovation Index (Aii), (2) Bloomberg Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) ESG and (3) Datamaran.

ESG metrics and reporting do not suffice to explain customer perceptions of social innovativeness. Rather, a firm's industry plays the prominent role in affecting these perceptions where service firms are at a disadvantage as customers perceive services as less socially innovative compared to goods.

While ESG metrics and reporting provide important information for investors and regulators, they are not reflected in customers' perceptions of firms' social innovativeness, and services are at a disadvantage relative to goods. Therefore, services researchers and managers must advance their knowledge regarding how to better link ESG metrics and report to customers' perceptions.

The paper offers a first large-scale, cross-industry investigation of how ESG metrics and reporting impact customer perceptions of social innovativeness, leading to a research agenda on communication of ESG.

The purpose of this paper is to standardised four-step flexibility assessment methodology for evaluating the available electrical load reduction or increase a building can provide in response to a signal from an aggregator or grid operator.

The four steps in the methodology consist of Step 1: systems, loads, storage and generation identification; Step 2: flexibility characterisation; Step 3: scenario modelling; and Step 4: key performance indicator (KPI) label.

A detailed case study for one building, validated through on-site experiments, verified the feasibility and accuracy of the approach.

The results were benchmarked against available demonstration studies but could benefit from the future development of standardised benchmarks.

The ease of implementation enables building operators to quickly and cost effectively evaluate the flexibility of their building. By clearly defining the flexibility range, the KPI label enables contract negotiation between stakeholders for demand side services. It may also be applicable as a smart readiness indicator.

The novel KPI label has the capability to operationalise the concept of building flexibility to a wider spectrum of society, enabling smart grid demand response roll-out to residential and small commercial customers.

This paper fulfils an identified need for an early stage flexibility assessment which explicitly includes source selection that can be implemented in an offline manner without the need for extensive real-time data acquisition, ICT platforms or additional metre and sensor installations.

In mature global business-to-business (B2B) product markets, management of external sales channels, governed by contractual relationships, is a key determinant of business performance. However, existing sales channel management literature lacks focus on contractual governance and reseller management success. The purpose of the study is to systematically review different governance theories in relation to sales channel management and to show which factors are the most influential in making or keeping external sales channels effective.

A case study on a large B2B information and communication technology (ICT) company is used to reflect on the way the different theoretical governance perspectives explain sales channel management success. Interviews and mini-questionnaires were used to collect data.

Expressions of interdependence and equality alongside persevered personal relationships are important in managing daily business activities and in avoiding bad will at the reseller’s grass-root level. Future-oriented planning, long-term-oriented support and jointly set incentive systems are important for reseller management. Degree of professional management sets resellers apart through shifts in power balance.

A multi-theory governance perspective offers a holistic view over reseller management and provides a comprehensive view over different sales channel management issues and their relative importance.

The findings highlight the importance of long-term orientation and cooperation in setting up a reseller management system to gain and nurture distributors’ trust and commitment towards the manufacturer.

The study is the first to comprehensively use governance perspective in studying reseller management.

Despite the availability of many metrics and tools for marketing performance measurement, the way in which firms use their marketing metrics remains underexplored. This study aims to address this gap by empirically establishing the differing effects of the diagnostic and interactive uses of marketing metrics on firms’ market-sensing capability, contingent on competitive intensity and focus on market-related metrics.

This study builds on survey data collected from 210 Irish-based firms, complemented by 21 in-depth interviews with business managers. Survey data are analysed using regression analysis.

This study finds that firms using marketing metrics interactively to communicate organizational focus are better able to sense their markets, especially under high competition. The authors observe a positive impact of the interactive use of metrics on market-sensing capability, but a U-shaped impact of their diagnostic use, the magnitudes of which further depend on competitive intensity and firms’ focus on market-related metrics.

This study provides a nuanced view of marketing performance measurement (MPM) practices within firms, particularly focussing on diagnostic versus interactive uses of marketing metrics. It also sheds further light on how two diverse uses of marketing metrics – diagnostic and interactive uses – influence a firm’s market-sensing capability. Moreover, the identification of boundary conditions also contributes to the discussion of contextuality in MPM, highlighting the importance of aligning a firm’s uses of marketing metrics with its business environment.

This study provides novel insights into how diverse uses of marketing metrics may benefit firms. The differing effects of diagnostic and interactive uses of marketing metrics on market sensing highlight a primary need for developing the latter and for using the former only with caution. It establishes that all firms would equally benefit from an interactive use of marketing metrics that is pivotal to improving their ability to anticipate, detect and sense market changes.

This study provides novel understanding of the role of marketing metric uses in firms’ market-sensing capability and contributes to the discussion of contextuality in marketing performance measurement. It highlights the importance of aligning a firm’s use of marketing metrics with its business environment.

Using metrics to communicate HR’s value to an organization is critical to the perception of HR as a valuable resource. What many HR professionals miss is that how those metrics are used in making a business case is just as important as having metrics themselves.

The purpose of this paper is to identify energy efficiency metrics that can be used by IT managers to measure and maintain the implementation of cost savings and green initiatives in data centers.

The paper looks at the background of the problem and explores the reasons why energy savings in the data center are an important issue. Included are interviews and survey results from IT professionals serving at four unique organizations. A model of the measurable components of a data center is created to provide a framework for organizing metrics and communicating results throughout the corporation. The strengths and weaknesses of two of the most common data center metrics, PUE and DCP, are examined closely.

The paper concludes with future metric recommendations and a proposed credit‐based system that could be applied to encourage closer management of these metrics.

The metric recommendations can be used by IT managers resulting in energy efficiency improvements in their data centers.

The paper provides a good comprehension of multiple approaches and makes recommendations for a platform metric that can be further developed and adopted as a standard.

The purposes of this paper are to: (1) characterize farmers’ market manager and vendor perceptions of the economic, social and environmental impact markets have on their local communities; and (2) how those impacts are tracked and communicated to market actors and the local community.

Twenty-nine semistructured interviews were conducted with market managers and vendors across four farmers’ markets within Michigan. The interviews were coded and analyzed using thematic analysis.

Managers and vendors report economic and social and environmental benefits associated with the presence of a farmers' market, consistent with the existing literature. Metrics are tracked to estimate market impact, particularly economic and social benefits. Market managers reported uncertainty about how best to use data internally, and there are gaps in communicating market impacts with vendors. Most data are used for external reporting, to statewide organizations or for grant evaluation. Respondents reported data fatigue and unwillingness among vendors to share personal business information due to concerns about privacy relative to the perceived benefits of sharing data.

Additional resources are needed for markets, specifically market managers, to better utilize the data they collect for internal versus external purposes.

Metric collection and reporting are a nascent development among markets. Understanding how market actors are utilizing these tools will provide guidance to improve future efforts at impact measurement.

Logistics service providers (LSPs) are important actors for creating logistics performance in supply chains. However, there is little previous research on how they handle the performance management process. The purpose of this paper is to explore the handling of the performance management process and its obstacles from the perspective of LSPs.

A multiple‐case study is conducted with the three largest LSPs in Sweden.

The handling of the performance management process shows similarities among LSPs in selecting performance variables, defining metrics, and capturing real‐time data. The differences are found in target setting, in report‐making and analysing, and in the perceived demand for performance management. The following three perceived obstacles are found for supply chain performance management: lack of understanding and knowledge; poor capabilities for adapting performance metrics definitions; and lagging IT solutions for performance report‐making. The findings indicate possibilities for an increased supply chain scope where activities are handled by the partner that has the best capabilities, improving efficiency in supply chains.

The study contributes to performance management theory by providing exploratory knowledge of the supply chain performance management process and its obstacles from the perspective of three LSPs. The study focuses on large LSPs and has respondents at the managerial level.

The study reveals differing supply chain performance management practices among LSPs, which implies that customers can choose an LSP that handles performance management in the way required.

Little previous research includes LSPs in studies of supply chain performance management. In particular it is unusual to have the perspective of LSPs and apply case‐based methodology.

Measuring or monitoring supply chain performance reveals the gap between planning and execution and helps companies to identify potential problems and areas for improvement. However, it is recognized that developing key performance indicators (KPIs), or metrics, is very challenging and a set of practical guidelines is not readily available for companies and supply chain management (SCM) practitioners. This paper seeks to offer a practical approach to performance measurement and to present a list of essential KPIs.

This paper offers insights from industry in the area of supply chain performance measurement and a practical approach to developing performance metrics.

The experience from, and the review of, industry standards and best practices in supply chain performance measurement suggest that “less is better” as to developing performance metrics. Companies should focus on only a small list of KPIs which are critical for their operations management, customer service, and financial viability. Potential KPIs should be developed for each of the supply chain operations‐reference (SCOR) model's four meta‐processes (plan, source, make, and delivery) and need to be hierarchically grouped such as primary and secondary metrics.

The paper offers a background of why performance measurement is necessary for SCM success, pragmatic guidelines for designing and implementing performance metrics, and critical KPIs with the definition, examples, and computation mechanism.

Despite the importance of performance measurement for successful SCM, many companies wonder how to put performance metrics in place and make them work in practice. This paper offers an industry‐oriented, practical approach to performance measurement in SCM contexts and proposes key performance metrics which can be easily adapted for different businesses.

The purpose of the paper is to study the interconnections between visual management, performance management and continuous improvement programmes and to suggest a practical framework to establish an effective visual management programme in association with performance management and continuous improvement systems. For the sake of simplicity, this paper refers to such a programme as integrated visual management (IVM) throughout this paper.

The following research included proposals and discussion, which were based on a case study which took place at a quality assurance (QA) department in PACCAR Australia, a global premium truck manufacturer, as well as authors’ own findings and experience, in addition to a literature-based review on visual management, performance management and continuous improvement. A systematic approach was followed to establish an effective IVM system. This paper is composed of two sections. Some of the most important literatures on visual management, performance management and continuous improvement are reviewed in the first section. Then the findings, as well as some other author findings, on why visual management works are summarised. The second section is dedicated to the case study.

Visual management can provide a simple and yet effective solution to enhance information flow in organisations. However, for visual management to yield its full benefit, it needs be part of a bigger plan. It has to be linked to a performance management programme, which provides input into visual management, and a continuous improvement initiative, which receives inputs from visual management. This paper proposes a practical framework to establish an IVM programme and provides a detailed description of its phases. The paper also presents the results achieved, during our case study, and views on the integration benefits, as well as on how to successfully implement an IVM programme. A systematic approach to establish an effective IVM system was followed. It laid a solid foundation to facilitate an effective flow of information in QA in its respective areas. This programme not only improved an understanding of the processes and raised awareness about the performance and associated issues, it also boosted transparency, discipline, shared ownership, team involvement and scientific mindset. It assisted in achieving significant and concrete process improvements. It helped in establishing a productive continuous improvement programme. It was observed that while visual management, performance management and team or company continuous improvement programmes each served a benefit individually, when they were linked together, as a whole, their synergy allowed for more significant achievements.

The scope of this research is limited to use of visual management to manage performance and to lead continuous improvement initiatives. The research was performed in a manufacturing environment. Even though it is believed that the suggested framework for IVM and the findings are applicable to other business environments as well, further research in this direction is required. Also, the interconnection between visual management, continuous improvement and performance management based on a case study was investigated. More quantitative researches, on bigger scales, are required to better understand the mentioned interactions and to enhance our knowledge of these tools in a holistic manner.

The originality of the papers comes from its holistic approach to visual management, performance management and continuous improvement programmes and the suggested framework to establish an IVM programme.