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This paper aims to examine the moderated mediation effect of the lack of students’ socialization (as one of the COVID-19 consequences) and the university reputation on the relationship between the service innovation and students satisfaction. The relationship between students satisfaction and their loyalty is also examined.

This study adopts a quantitative research approach, whereas the study population consists of all universities’ students in Lebanon. Data were collected from 201 students, elected depending on snowballing sample technique. A questionnaire was used to gather data, whereby partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to check the proposed scales validity and the relationships between the study variables.

The findings reveal a significant direct effect for university’s service innovation on students satisfaction and an indirect effect through the mediation role for university reputation. Moreover, an evidence for weak negative significant effect for lack of socialization on students satisfaction exists. Whereby, lack of socialization does not moderate the relationship between university service innovation and students satisfaction. Finally, students satisfaction has a significant positive effect on their loyalty.

This paper advances the service innovation literature in the higher education sector. In addition, the paper might be the first paper to address the influence of lack of socialization as one of the COVID-19 consequences on students satisfaction. Furthermore, areas for future research are suggested.

This study investigates the factors influencing re-usage intention of online and mobile grocery shopping among young adult consumers in South Africa.

Data were collected from selected young adult participants using a stratified probability sampling strategy. Smart PLS was used to analyse the data.

The findings of the study indicate that perceived usefulness (PU), peer review (PR) and attitude (ATT) positively influence continuance intention (CI).

In line with the available literature, there are few prior post-adoption studies that delineate the influence of individual characteristics on digital commerce usage activities. There is high mobile penetration as a result of positive digital commerce and mobile application usage and adoption, creating the need to investigate and better understand the drivers behind, not just adoption and usage, but continued use of digital commerce platforms and applications. Since the sample size is relatively small, further future research studies can test the same model with bigger sample sizes to assess generalisability of the results in different locations.

This study adds to the current literature by concentrating on the extent to which systems and marketing elements influence young adult customers' intention to continue using online and mobile grocery shopping platforms in South Africa.

The study adds value from a theoretical standpoint, contributing to the antecedent factors of the technology acceptance model (TAM), theory of reasoned action (TRA) and stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model and giving marketing academics insights into what aspects drive re-use of online and mobile grocery shopping and on what should be the focus.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between mobbing and service innovation performance. In this context, the mediating role of boreout, a new concept in the literature, was examined.

This study was conducted with 240 participants recruited in manufacturing companies affiliated with Adana Chamber of Industry in the province of Adana Turkey in November 2019. The research was analyzed by the structural equation modeling method with the social exchange theory basis.

Findings revealed that boreout and mobbing were negatively associated with service innovation performance. Mobbing was positively associated with boreout and job boredom. According to the finding of this study, boreout partially mediated the effect of the mobbing on service innovation performance.

This study reveals the association among mobbing, boreout and service innovation performances of employees of companies operating in manufacturing sector. The findings of this study provide important practical knowledge to businesses and academics regarding the field of management, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Failed deliveries (i.e. deliveries not accomplished due to the absence of customers) represent a critical issue in B2C (Business-to-consumer) e-commerce last-mile deliveries, implying high costs for e-commerce players and negatively affecting customer satisfaction. A promising option to reduce them would be scheduling deliveries based on the probability to find customers at home. This work proposes a solution based on presence data (gathered through Internet of Things [IoT] devices) to organise the delivery tours, which aims to both minimise the travelled distance and maximise the probability to find customers at home.

The adopted methodology is a multi-method approach, based on interviews with practitioners. A model is developed and applied to Milan (Italy) to compare the performance of the proposed innovative solution with traditional home deliveries (both in terms of cost and delivery success rate).

The proposed solution implies a significant reduction of missed deliveries if compared to the traditional operating mode. Accordingly, even if allocating the customers to time windows based on their availability profiles (APs) entails an increase in the total travel time, the average delivery cost per parcel decreases.

On the academic side, this work proposes and evaluates an innovative last-mile delivery (LMD) solution that exploits new AI (Artificial Intelligence)-based technological trends. On the managerial side, it proposes an efficient and effective novel option for scheduling last-mile deliveries based on the use of smart home devices, which has a significant impact in reducing costs and increasing the service level.

The purpose of this paper is to use tenets of the complexity theory in order to study the effect of various determinants of firm’s performance, such as CEO’s compensation and age, for the case of 72 insurance companies.

The authors identify the asymmetries in the data set by creating quantiles and using contrarian analysis. Instead of ignoring this information and use a main effects approach, all the available information in the data set is taken into account. For this purpose, the authors use qualitative comparative analysis to find alternative equifinal routes toward high firm performance.

Five configurations are found which lead to high performance. Every one of the five configurations is found to be sufficient but not necessary for high firm performance.

The research findings contribute to a better understanding of the determinants of firm’s performance taking into account the asymmetries in the data set. The authors identify alternative paths toward high firm performance, which could be vital information for the decision maker inside a firm.

Africa has been identified as an area where higher mortality happens due to un-accessibility to health care, drugs and other health facilities. Nigeria, as one of the African countries, is not excluded from such difficulties. This study aims to examine the determinants of efficient last-mile delivery at selected health facilities and the Kaduna State Health Supplies Management Agency (KADSHMA).

The study sourced data from KADSHMA and the health facilities’ staff, with a total of 261 observations used. Likewise, the respondents were picked from warehouses of each health facility and KADSHMA. The data was analysed using the partial least square structural equation modelling analysis to estimate the relationship among the variables of the study.

The study’s findings revealed that all five variables of the study (i.e. determinants) were significantly affecting the efficient last-mile delivery. Four constructs (delivery cost [DC], delivery time [DT], mode of delivery [MD] and facilities technology [FT]) have shown a positive and significant association with efficient last-mile delivery, whereas one variable (product mix [PM]) indicated a negative and significant association with efficient last-mile delivery. The study concludes that DC, DT, MD, FT and PM played significant roles in efficient last-mile delivery.

The study provides that specific means of transportation should always be on standby to transport health supplies. Time schedules should always be prepared and adhered to when transporting health supplies to the facilities, and each facility should network with robust technology to ease communication in terms of order and order planning. Additionally, facilities should try as much as possible to reduce the varieties of products when ordering health supplies, as it will increase the efficiency of the delivery.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind that considered these five variables (DC, DT, MD, FT and PM) with impact on the last-mile delivery in one model, especially in the Nigerian case. This is a great contribution to knowledge, more importantly, to the last-mile delivery of the health sector. The result confirmed the importance of these determinants (DC, DT, FT and PM) of last-mile delivery efficiency in saving lives.

The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the extant research on last-mile logistics (LML) models and consider LML’s diverse roots in city logistics, home delivery and business-to-consumer distribution, and more recent developments within the e-commerce digital supply chain context. The review offers a structured approach to what is currently a disparate and fractured field in logistics.

The systematic literature review examines the interface between e-commerce and LML. Following a protocol-driven methodology, combined with a “snowballing” technique, a total of 47 articles form the basis of the review.

The literature analysis conceptualises the relationship between a broad set of contingency variables and operational characteristics of LML configuration (push-centric, pull-centric, and hybrid system) via a set of structural variables, which are captured in the form of a design framework. The authors propose four future research areas reflecting likely digital supply chain evolutions.

To circumvent subjective selection of articles for inclusion, all papers were assessed independently by two researchers and counterchecked with two independent logistics experts. Resulting classifications inform the development of future LML models.

The design framework of this study provides practitioners insights on key contingency and structural variables and their interrelationships, as well as viable configuration options within given boundary conditions. The reformulated knowledge allows these prescriptive models to inform practitioners in their design of last-mile distribution.

Improved LML performance would have positive societal impacts in terms of service and resource efficiency.

This paper provides the first comprehensive review on LML models in the modern e-commerce context. It synthesises knowledge of LML models and provides insights on current trends and future research directions.

The success of last-mile delivery is dependent on consumer acceptance of such services, yet little is known about unattended delivery experience. This paper's purpose is to provide empirically based understanding of customer experience dimensions in unattended home delivery.

Using an engaged scholarship approach, this field study investigated nine households that actively used an unattended delivery service for a period of six to nine months. Empirical data were collected primarily from in-depth interviews.

The study demonstrates that unattended delivery experience is a multidimensional construct that comprises consumers' cognitive, emotional, behavioral, sensorial, physical and social responses to the service. The empirical evidence provides rich descriptions of each customer experience dimension, and the research offers a framework and propositions on unattended delivery experience.

The results guide and support managers in assessing and developing delivery services using a consumer-centric approach to enhance customer experience.

This research is one of the first to address unattended delivery experience by providing a comprehensive, empirically grounded framework. The results provide a foundation for future investigations of last-mile delivery experience dimensions.

An increasing number of last mile deliveries (LMDs) pose many sustainability challenges that retailers and logistics service providers (LSPs) can address. Using cognitive frames (CFs) as a lens, this study explored how retail and LSP managers make sense of sustainable LMDs.

The methodological approach used is a multiple embedded case study. The data were obtained from interviews with retailers and LSPs, supplemented with secondary data for triangulation.

The findings present the operational aspects of LMDs that managers associate with sustainability and indicate that retail and LSP managers frame sustainability primarily as emission reduction. Managers indicate an externalization of responsibility and a compartmentalization of the supply chain, in which social sustainability is not associated with the last mile. Most managers indicate hierarchical CFs regarding sustainability, in which sustainability is an important topic but is subordinate to economic interests.

Collaboration between retailers, LSPs and other stakeholders is viewed as challenging but could alleviate some of the sustainability shortcomings and aid in the paradoxical framing and inclusion of social issues.

A conceptualization of managerial CFs for sustainable LMDs, together with empirical frame indicators and three propositions, is presented, providing novel insights into how paradoxical CFs could make LMDs more sustainable. This approach illuminates the possibilities for how to untangle the operational manifestations of managerial framing and adds to the empirical exploration of CFs in supply chain management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interplay between configuration dimensions (network structure, network flow, relationship governance, and service architecture) of last-mile supply networks (LMSN) and the underlying mechanisms influencing omnichannel performance.

Based on mixed-method design incorporating a multiple embedded case study, mapping, survey, and archival records, this research involved undertaking in-depth within- and cross-case analyses to examine seven LMSNs, employing a configuration approach.

The existing literature in the operations management (OM) field was shown to provide limited understanding of LMSNs within the emerging omnichannel context. Case results suggest that particular configurations have intrinsic capabilities, and that these directly influence omnichannel performance. The study further proposes a taxonomy of LMSNs comprising six forms, with two hybrids, supporting the notion of equifinality in configuration theory. Propositions are developed to further explore interdependencies between configurational attributes, refining the relationship between LMSN types, and factors influencing omnichannel performance.

The findings provide retailers with a set of design parameters for the (re)configuration of LMSNs and facilitate performance evaluation using the concept of fit between configurational attributes. The developed model sheds light on the consequential effects when certain configurational attributes are altered, preempting managerial attention. Given the global trend in urbanization, improved LMSN performance would have positive societal impacts in terms of service and resource efficiency.

This is one of the first studies in the OM field to critically analyze LMSNs and their behaviors in omnichannel retailing. Additionally, the paper offers several important avenues for future research.