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The purpose of this paper is to examine the value chain processes that represent the “black box” between supply logistics integration and competitive operational performance in firms. To realize this objective, the authors develop a research model which comprises a series of linkages from supply logistics integration to operational outcomes using Porter’s concept of value chain and the relational view of resource-based theory as theoretical lenses.

The data set for testing the hypothesized relationships in this study was drawn from 232 Australian manufacturing firms.

The findings show that there is no significant direct relationship between supply logistics integration and competitive operational performance; rather, the relationship is fully mediated by inbound supply performance and internal lean production processes. Further, lean production processes have a positive effect on inbound supply performance.

The study shows the importance of managing both internal (production processes) and external processes (logistics and supply chain) of firms’ operations in an integrated manner in which supply logistics integration act through key internal processes to impact competitive performance which the end customers actually experience.

This is the first study which uncovers what happens “in between” the incoming materials and the end outputs delivered by firms into the market. This “in between black box” is important in improving our understanding of how inbound supply activities are translated into outbound competitive performance outcomes.

This paper aims to explore the extent to which four elements of the value chain – marketing, research and development, procurement, and operations – are associated with product quality and product innovation.

A survey of 194 managers of Australian firms, and multivariate analysis using structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.

The elements of the value chain differ in their association with product outcomes. Marketing and production are related to product quality, but surprisingly while research and development is related to product innovation, marketing is not. Procurement is related to both product quality and product innovation.

The paper shows that individual elements of the value chain are related to specific competitive strategies and how these elements are related to each other, suggesting the need to direct effort within the firm for better, targeted performance. The results are limited by the sample size and geography of the survey.

Specific value chain functions tend to be associated with specific performance outcomes. This suggests that managers might gain by targeting specific elements of the value chain as their organizations strive for specific competitive goals.

This paper seeks to help managers and decision makers to assess the relationship between the different attributes of the value chain and product quality and innovation. It is often not feasible for managers to emphasize all the elements of the value chain simultaneously, and this paper provides an important step in looking at these individual linkages.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the diffusion of ISO 14001-based environmental management system (EMS) on five key organisational functions, namely production, procurement, sales, logistics, and R&D. In examining the EMS diffusion, this paper focuses on two aspects of diffusion: the extent of diffusion of EMS and the balance of EMS diffusion across the five organisational functions.

Data were collected from 286 companies in Australia which were certified to ISO 14001. The respondents are personnel in the company who hold responsibility in managing the EMS.

The results show that the extent of diffusion of EMS has a positive effect on green products, green processes, and green supply chain management. In addition, diffusion variation (imbalance) has a negative effect on green product and green supply chain management. This study demonstrates the importance of both the depth and the balanced diffusion of EMS across different organisational functions in driving environmental management practices.

The results support the theory of organisational climate which emphasises the importance of both climate level and climate strength. In the context of our study, firms with high both extensive (climate level) and balanced diffusion (climate strength) of EMS will produce better environmental innovations than those which only have climate level.

The results provide insights for managers to consider the extent and balance of diffusion of EMS in their organisational functions as an indicator of the implementation of EMS in their organisations.

The findings imply the need for expanding the scope of collaborations beyond the firm's level, that is from being intra-organisational to inter-organisational by involving supply chain partners (primarily customers and suppliers). When the diffusion of environmental initiatives (including ISO 14001 EMS) can be extended to supply chain partners, the environmental effects will also be significantly larger and wider compared to when it is confined in individual firms.

This paper is one of the first to study the extent and balance of diffusion of EMS within organisations and its impact on environmental management practices

This paper seeks to present an empirical snapshot of the application of operations management (OM) activities in Australian service firms. The four key areas addressed in this study are the nature or characteristics of services, the level of importance of OM techniques, the level of importance of performance indicators, and the challenges encountered by the management of service firms.

The empirical data for this study were drawn from 190 managers of the Australian service organisations whose primary responsibilities were related to the daily operations of the firms. The targeted service organisations encompassed various sectors including transportation, communication, banking, insurance, health care, education, wholesale, retail, and professional services.

The results indicate that most services are characterised by high customer contact and a low degree of differentiation. In terms of OM activities, service delivery, customer service and quality control received the highest priority. This result was confirmed by customer retention, on time delivery, and quality which received the highest priority among performance measures. Innovation, on the other hand, surprisingly received the least attention among the surveyed firms. Finally, building service culture appears to be the most challenging issue encountered by managers in dealing with service operations as opposed to managing facilities which raised only little concern from management's point of view. In general, there is no significant difference between Schmenner's four service types with respect to the key issues addressed in this study.

From a managerial point of view, this study provides an insight into the importance of key OM practices and strategic performance indicators in the Australian service industry.

This study builds on previous studies focusing on the implementation of OM practices carried out in the USA. Therefore, it contributes to knowledge by providing comparison with the Australian context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of market orientation on exploratory and exploitative innovation, and the moderating effects of family ownership on these relationships.

This study utilizes multi-group path analysis and confirmatory factor analysis in LISREL on data from 228 firms in the Australian service sector.

This study establishes that both customer and competitor innovation are positively related to exploitative and exploratory innovation. However, customer orientation does not lead to significantly stronger effects on exploitative innovation than on exploratory innovation, and competitor orientation does not lead to significantly stronger effects on exploratory innovation than on exploitative innovation. In addition, the study found that the relationship between customer orientation and exploratory innovation was stronger for family firms, while the relationships between competitor orientation and both exploratory and exploitative innovation were stronger for non-family firms.

The cross-sectional design is one weakness of this study. In addition, as firms in the present study came from the service sector the generalizability of the findings to other sectors of the economy need to be determined.

These findings of this study highlight the need for managers to build a strong market orientation in order to promote innovation, and consider the effects of ownership structure on innovation strategies.

This study is the first to measure the relative influence of customer and competitor orientation on a firm’s use of exploitative and exploratory innovation strategies.

The present study aims to empirically explore the relationships between selected operations strategies and the associated operations activities. Specifically, for service firms targeting specific competitive priorities, it examines the extent to which there are significant differences in the relationships between these priorities and the operations activities among high‐ versus low‐performing firms.

The empirical data for this study were drawn from 190 managers of the Australian service organisations whose primary responsibilities were related to the daily operations of the firms. The targeted service organisations encompassed various sectors including transportation, communication, banking, insurance, health care, education, wholesale, retail, and professional services.

The results show that high‐performing firms have stronger relationships between their operations strategies and operations activities than low‐performing firms. The results also reveal how different operations strategies need to be deployed into different operations activities.

The design of this study was exploratory in nature, and therefore, can be improved in terms of the robustness of the scales and observations. Also, the cross‐sectional design of the study could not capture potential unique characteristics of some service sectors that affect the examined relationships.

These findings suggest the importance of implementing operations activities in the firm's strategic directions. As firms decide how they choose to strategically position their operating systems, they in turn need to decide how to best focus their resources on operational elements that support these goals.

From the authors' best knowledge, this is the first study which examines the link between operations strategies and operations activities in service firms.

Addresses the key question of whether there is a link between quality management practices and innovation performance. Presents an empirical case study of a large manufacturing firm in Australia that has been successfully maintaining its competitive advantage and growth. Analysis of the research findings suggests five major lessons that can be learned from the company. First, organisations need to keep vigilant in observing the changes occurring in the business environment and adjust their strategy in accordance with these changes. Second a quality management system needs to be implemented and aligned with the company's business strategy. Third, TQM principles that were developed in the manufacturing area can be adapted in the design and development area and provide a greater leverage for the business in the future. Fourth, the case study demonstrates a recursive learning process. Finally, it is highly important for organisations to redefine and broaden the application of the principles of total quality management and to understand the need to tailor these principles.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between exploration and exploitation innovation, and business performance in small and medium enterprise (SME) service firms. Furthermore, the paper also examines the interaction between the two innovation orientations in predicting business performance, and the influence of size in the effectiveness of each of them in enhancing business performance.

Using empirical data drawn from 180 managers in Australian service organisations, this study also compares the effect of ambidextrous innovation on business performance within these SMEs.

The findings show that, controlled for size, neither of the innovation orientations show significant, direct relationships with firms' performance. However, ambidextrous innovation was positively associated with business performance, indicating a synergy between exploration and exploitation. Further examination indicates the relationship between exploration/exploitation innovation and performance is moderated by size within the authors' sample of small firms.

Taken together, the results point to an interesting and complex relationship within SMEs relating to innovation orientation, size, and performance. This relationship suggests that service SMEs are best served by the simultaneous pursuit of both exploitive and exploratory innovation.

This research is original in that it deliberately focuses on innovation in service SMEs, an area that has not seen significant research previously. As such, the authors' insights into the relationship between ambidextrous innovation and performance suggest the need for creating balance and synergy between the two innovation types.

Firms' motives in adopting ISO 9000 have been considered as one of the primary factors in determining benefits of the implementation of the standard. Literature commonly categorized motives for adopting ISO 9000 into two types, internal and external. The purpose of this paper is to examine three major strategic roles which these two types of motives play in affecting the result of the ISO 9000 adoption, namely goal, driver, and context. As a goal, motives reflect the firms' strategic outcomes in adopting ISO 9000. As a driver, motives determine the way firms implement the standard, and as a context, motives moderate the effect of implementation on firms' performance as the outcomes of ISO 9000 adoption.

Data were collected from 328 middle and senior managers of ISO 9001 certified firms in Australia who were responsible for managing quality system in their organizations.

Consistent with predictions, internal motives had a positive relationship with operational performance and implementation. Furthermore, from a strategic fit perspective, internal motives strengthened the relationship between implementation and performance. In contrast, external motives had no statistically significant relationship with performance and weakened the relationship between implementation and performance.

The results provide key insights for managers to appropriately evaluate their ISO 9000 certification motives and to give attention to the implementation of ISO 9000 standards. Firms can thus gain a better understanding of how performance is shaped from both the motives for and the implementation process of ISO 9000.

This paper is the first which articulates the multiple roles of firms' motives for adopting the ISO 9000 standard and examines their effects on firms' performance.

This paper aims to report the results of a study focusing on the competencies and skills of supply chain managers, their use of supply chain technologies and future challenges in supply chain management (SCM), including issues relating to globalisation, environment, and supply chain integration.

The study uses a questionnaire survey to collect data from Australian supply chain professionals. A total of 921 surveys were mailed out and 148 responses were received, giving a response rate of 16 per cent.

Communication and teamwork is identified as the most important competencies for successful supply chain integration. Knowledge of a broad range of technologies is considered essential; however, their use remains somewhat low. Environmental issues relating to the management of scarce resources are identified as having a significant impact on supply chain strategies.

The study adds to the literature on the above issues by providing empirical findings from an Australian context which can be used for comparative assessment against similar studies from other countries.

The study provides insights for firms, industry associations, and governments by identifying the competencies and skills that are required to be developed for supply chain professionals. The findings also indicate the level of awareness and the extent of the adoption of information and communication technologies as well as the perceptions of supply chain professionals on the future challenges of SCM.

The study is timely given the highly dynamic environment that businesses currently operate in and the challenges that it presents to supply chain professionals.