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The aim of this paper is to present an empirical assessment and strategic planning for measuring the impact of total quality management (TQM) practices on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and its effectiveness for business excellence. The authors investigate the present status of quality system in SMEs and find the thrust areas for TQM implementation in SMEs of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis. Also, it examines the effect of external environment on internal factors of SMEs by situation analysis. This study helps to develop a model for assessing the components of TQM in SMEs after identifying their weightage.

The qualitative and quantitative techniques have been used together for robust conclusions. The survey data has been collected through the properly designed questionnaire. After studying the present status of TQM in SMEs, situation analysis has been carried out for examining the effect of the external environment on internal factors of SMEs. The weightage of TQM critical success factors was calculated by pair-wise comparison method of analytical hierarchical process (AHP) analysis for framework development.

The study offers useful insights and guidelines for identification of the contribution of TQM critical factors in SMEs performance. It has been observed that the attribute understanding of customer need and its fulfillment ability has the highest priority, whereas supplier partnership and the ability to reduce waste having the least priority in SMEs. Validation study facilitates to channelize TQM initiatives, to improve environmental and operational performance.

The authors provide a comprehensive typology of TQM practices, and its performances on SMEs. This paper can increase the awareness of the significance of TQM strategy which could help managers of SMEs to have a better understanding of the benefits of implementing TQM and therefore unable patient satisfaction with their organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants of successful customization of apparel in e‐retailing and to provide managerial suggestions for strategic planning.

Using an online survey, data are collected from 300 female adults in the US secured through a nationwide random sampling method. AMOS 7.0 and SPSS 15.0 are used to analyze the data.

Customers recognize the benefits of online customization of apparel when they perceive the website to be useful and competent. Additionally, customers perceive customization websites to be more useful when the websites are secure for the information customers provide. Interestingly, the ease of operation of a website is negatively related to the perception of a competent website and does not influence a positive attitude toward the online customization of apparel.

In order to give the impression of competent and useful websites, marketers need to develop secure websites. Ease of operation on the website may not always be an advantage for apparel customization; therefore, marketers need to find the optimal levels of ease of website operation to imply useful, yet competent, websites.

This study identified the potential factors for successful customization of apparel in e‐retailing and provided strategic implications to marketers.

This paper aims to identify: university students' perceived service quality dimensions; the dimensions contributing most towards overall students' perceived service quality; and whether there is a difference in perceived quality level of each dimension based on students' year of study and gender in the context of undergraduate students of state universities in Indonesia.

The study uses a quantitative approach through a survey method. The respondents of this study are 155 state university students from two state universities in Indonesia. Both multiple regression analysis and t‐test analysis are used to analyze the data.

Research results show that there are seven perceived service quality dimensions considered important to university students, i.e. curriculum, facilities, contact personnel, social activities, education counselors, assessment, and instruction medium. The perceived service quality dimensions contributing most towards overall perceived service quality of a state university is facilities. Furthermore, the research also shows that university students with a different study period have a different perceived quality level on the social activities dimension, while university students with different gender have a different perceived quality level on two dimensions, i.e. social activities and facilities.

The research was only conducted at two universities in the same geographic area and at a single point of time. Hence, there is a need for further research in terms of a longitudinal study with different geographic samples in order to generalize the research result.

The students' perceived quality dimensions resulting from this research can be used by universities to measure their performance according to students' perspectives. As a result, feedback will be gained by the university, so that the university can identify its weaknesses.

The research was conducted in a developing country context, while most previous research has been conducted in developed country contexts. This research also provides a new insight into quality management, since the university objects are state universities, not private universities. The paper also takes students' personal characteristics (gender and year of study) variables into account.

This paper aims to assess the readiness of retail workers to use blockchain technology (BCT) to improve supply chain performance. The assessment was made via a quantitative approach taken using a theoretical framework based on Keller’s motivation model and self-determination theory in the BCT context.

The authors collected data from 567 retail workers from an emerging country through a structured survey questionnaire. The authors tested the hypotheses of the proposed model using Warp PLS 7.0 and controlled firm age, industry type and technological intensity.

Our findings may help firms in making the process of digital transformation inclusive. The authors found that supplier-based attention and motivation through BCT lead to supply chain performance, and that supplier-based satisfaction and trust achieved through BCT positively impact supply chain performance. Further, supplier-based relevance on raw material selection with the higher trust and motivation levels achieved through BCT was found to have a positive impact on supply chain performance.

IT supply chain applications are referred to as “lean” rather than “rich” because they still rely mainly on written and numerical means to present data. When the environment is less ambiguous, then less rich media can be used to facilitate communication. IT supply chain applications allow suppliers to spend time building relationships with other suppliers instead of focusing on administrative tasks, thus enhancing such relationships.

This study can be considered the first to assess retailer readiness to use BCT to improve supply chain performance through the theoretical lens of Keller’s motivation model and self-determination theory.

The concept of innovation is gaining ground steadily in the context of an increasingly competitive and highly volatile banking sector. The purpose of this paper is to find out the role of service innovation (SI) in the relationship between service delivery (SERVD), customer satisfaction (CSAT) and loyalty in the banking sector of Ghana.

Drawing from banking and marketing literature, a conceptual framework was developed and tested using data from 450 sampled customers of commercial banks in Ghana. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The findings indicate that SI has direct influence on SERVD and CSAT. Again the findings revealed a positive relationship between SERVD, CSAT and bank customer loyalty.

This study offers theoretical support for the adoption of innovative techniques in service provision and delivery.

This paper provides an initial study into innovation management in financial services context in an emerging economy.

This study aims to identify and rank the operational and financial risks causing a delay in the commencement of the city gas distribution project in India.

This study reviews the literature to identify operational and financial risks variables associated with infrastructure projects. Followed by a survey to isolate and assess the critical risk factors for city gas distribution network project in India. The survey data is evaluated using factor analysis to understand the latent structure of the critical risk factors. Second, the author ranks the identified variables as per significance by using the mean score method.

Five critical risk factors with 20 variables were extracted and assessed to build more understanding of their significance and impact on city gas distribution network project.

This study is the first attempt to follow the management approach to identify and rank operational and financial risks impacting city gas distribution project.

A model of the relationships between individuals' perceptions of internet use and internet usage behaviors is presented and tested. The purpose of this paper is to propose that a lack of perceived responsiveness to on‐line communication is positively related to individuals' general resistance to use the internet as a communication information exchange medium, termed general internet apprehensiveness (GIA). Perceptions of GIA are negatively associated with on‐line information‐seeking behavior, and positively associated with individuals' resistance to or fear of using the internet for on‐line retail transactions, termed transactional internet apprehensiveness (TIA).

College‐aged students reported their attitudes about on‐line information seeking, on‐line purchasing, and their on‐line information seeking and purchasing behaviors. The model presented is tested with path analysis to assess the variables' interrelationships.

Ultimately, lack of responsiveness is positively related to GIA, GIA is negatively related to information‐seeking behavior, and TIA is negatively related to consumers' on‐line purchasing of goods and services.

The student sample used in this study prevents us from making broad‐based generalizations. While students represent a large base of internet users and have been presented as a viable population to study in investigations for both academic audiences and marketing practitioners, future research will continue to benefit from more diverse samples of internet users.

This study offers hospitality professionals a better understanding of the elements that inhibit or encourage on‐line information seeking and purchasing behaviors.

This paper further defines the socio‐demographic factors that inhibit consumers from using the internet as both an information‐sharing tool and purchasing medium.

Scholars and practitioners within industrial maintenance management are focused on understanding antecedents, correlates and consequences of the concept of “Smart Maintenance,” which consists of the four dimensions, namely, data-driven decision-making, human capital resource, internal integration and external integration. In order to facilitate this understanding, valid and reliable empirical measures need to be developed. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a psychometric instrument that measures the four dimensions of Smart Maintenance.

The results from two sequential empirical studies are presented, which include generating items to represent the constructs, assessment of content validity, as well as an empirical pilot test. With input from 50 industrial experts, a pool of 80 items that represent the constructs are generated. Thereafter, using data from 42 industrial and academic raters, the content validity of all items is assessed quantitatively. Finally, using data from 59 manufacturing plants, the dimensionality and factor structure of the instrument are tested.

The authors demonstrate content validity and provide evidence of good model fit and psychometric properties for one-factor models with 8–11 items for each of the four constructs, as well as a combined 24-item four-factor model.

The authors provide recommendations for scholarly use of the instrument in further theory-testing research, as well as its practical use to assess, benchmark and longitudinally evaluate Smart Maintenance within the manufacturing industry.

We develop and validate measurement instruments for the business partner, watchdog, and scorekeeper roles of controllers. This study addresses calls to enhance the quality of survey research in management accounting by devoting more attention to scale development and especially to construct validity. By focusing on the activity sets of the controllers’ roles, we provide a theoretically and empirically grounded picture of their current roles. The measurement instruments presented in this study enable systematic research progress on controller roles, their relationships, antecedents, and performance outcomes.