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This study aims to propose a framework for developing strategies for the supply chain of craft beer that can make the business efficient and profitable, and at the same time, generate sustainability benefits from reducing waste, conserving natural resources and reducing pollution.

Based on an extensive review of the literature of academic and industry publications, source material from craft brewers primarily situated in the USA and industry experience in craft brewing, the proposed framework describes strategies to establish sustainable craft beer supply chains.

The framework for craft beer supply chain consists of four categories that contribute to craft beer sustainability: ingredient procurement, recycling efforts, energy usage and distribution systems – some of these mimicking those used by macrobrewers. Each of the categories is further subdivided. Successful practices and examples are highlighted for each of the subcategories.

This proposed framework was built upon current practices and available literature in the USA and focused on the environmental pillar of sustainability. Further, the proposed framework arises from the fact that current best practices in sustainability were available primarily from larger craft brewers, like Sierra Nevada and New Belgium.

By paying attention to operational changes in their supply chains, craft brewers can manage costs and improve their sustainability track record by reducing waste, conserving natural resources and improving upon their pollution footprint. Craft brewers can economize in the use of water, grains, hops and yeast by using practices discussed in this paper.

This is the first time that all aspects of supply chain and sustainability considerations in craft beer production are discussed in a comprehensive manner to propose a framework for analysis and enhancement of productivity and sustainability at the same time. The fact that the proposed framework can be used in future studies to empirically evaluate the utility of various sustainability strategies adds to the originality and value of this research.

The distributed corporate networking technology environments of the 1970s and 1980s are gaining new life, only this time the move toward distributed networks is being led by upstart application service providers (ASPs). Organizations of the twenty‐first century are going to be Web‐centric and focus their objectives on agility and cost savings. Pressure to reduce overhead in information technology (IT) pushes these organizations to consider outsourcing. With the use of Internet technology, a new alternative for IT outsourcing has evolved. ASPs allow companies to access and run software applications over the Internet on a subscription basis. By using the Web as an application platform, an enterprise can quickly and easily deploy new systems in response to market changes as well as reap the savings of using a single, standard platform. Recently, there has been a tremendous growth in the number of ASPs. This growth in ASPs has raised several issues and challenges that need to be resolved to realize the potential benefits of ASPs. Discusses the developments in ASPs, outlines the activities of various kinds of ASPs, describes the ASP business models, and examines the issues and challenges facing ASPs for their future success.

Clients in an accounting firm were surveyed to identify factors relating to client satisfaction in service organizations. Four independent variables ‐ communication,responsiveness, service quality, and effectiveness ‐ correlated with, and explained the variance in client satisfaction. Interpretation and implications for business practice are discussed and practical guidelines for enhancing client satisfaction are offered.

Computer use has become so common that most people think using one should increase the efficiency and effectiveness of business operations. Guided by these perceptions, a small business executive could invest in computers only to find that the costs incurred in the acquisition and use of the equipment are more than its benefits. This paper discusses computer selection in a small business and describes guidelines for making an effective computer equipment selection such that the benefits of its use are more than the total costs associated with it. These guidelines are simple, straightforward and can be implemented by a small business executive to increase the total profits of the firm without the need for any elaborate resources.

Many practical decision problems in small business involve situations where complexities of the situation and uncertainty of future outcomes require rational analysis. This paper discusses the role of probability in risk analysis for small business situations involving uncertainties, describes an approach for probability assessments and discusses a way to ascertain one’s risk attitude in decision making.

Considers the recent development of time‐based management as a way of enhancing the competitive position of a manufacturing organization. Based on a review of literature related to time‐based management, several possible relationships between the use of time‐based competition and its benefits in attaining stated business goals are defined. Results of empirical investigation using the manufacturing firms in the State of Indiana are discussed and some preliminary conclusions about the use of time‐based competition strategies among manufacturing organizations are drawn. The results of this study suggest that a full‐scale study of international scope will be beneficial to judge the use of time as a competitive weapon among manufacturing firms.

The paper aims to analyse research conducted for assessing the current state of supply chain management practices followed by Indian organisations and identifying important areas that need to be addressed in order to increase their competitiveness.

The paper begins by proposing a framework for evaluating the supply chain strategy of an organisation along the three key dimensions – supply chain objectives, supply chain processes, and management focus on supply chain activities. Data collected through survey questionnaire for the three dimensions have been used to assess the alignment of supply chain strategy with the overall business strategy through statistical analysis.

The research findings reveal that most of the Indian organisations have aligned their supply chain objectives with their business objectives. They are now on course of aligning their processes and management focus. Enhanced level of competitiveness would require Indian organisations to manage the three‐dimensional alignment of achieving the agenda set by the business strategy.

Further research work should focus on: assessing the current level of supply chain processes; identifying critical supply chain focus areas for the business; and establishing specific performance measures for continuous measurement of supply chain efficiency improvement.

This paper provides a detailed study to help supply chain managers improve supply chain efficiency through alignment of supply chain objectives with business objectives, supply chain processes with management tools and supply chain focus areas with management focus. Improved supply chain efficiency will help Indian organisations maintain competitiveness in a rapidly globalising economy.

The supply chain alignment model suggested in this paper provides a framework for realising true supply chain efficiency and competitiveness. Different organisations will align their objectives, processes and management focus as per the focal areas of their organisation depending on their capabilities and market situation. However, in every case Indian organisations need to act fast to capitalise on these opportunities to be competitive with the world market.

Aims to explore the relationships between groupware use and the knowledge management process.

The activities comprising the knowledge management process are conceptualized as: knowledge creation, knowledge maintenance, knowledge distribution, and knowledge review and revision. The data for this exploratory study were gathered through a telephone survey of managers at Fortune 1000 firm divisions. Based on the prior literature, it was expected that use of certain types of groupware and certain aspects of the knowledge management process would be significantly associated with each other.

The results of this exploratory study show that the groupware tools which enhance or support traditional aural media were significantly associated with most of the knowledge management processes we identified. However, e‐mail is the sole groupware tool that is significantly associated with knowledge distribution.

As an exploratory study, this research highlights some interesting trends in the knowledge management process, and suggests multiple lines of future research.

Many companies have adopted electronic data interchange (EDI), often with results inconsistent with the expectations of the company. In these instances, it is often the mismatch between expectations and the company’s activities undertaken to achieve the desired performance gain that fuels their dissatisfaction with EDI. This same mismatch often causes academic research into EDI and supply chain management to lose focus. This article presents a framework of EDI benefits in a supply chain management context that can be used to match a company’s EDI efforts with its desired outcomes from EDI use. The framework states that two critical factors to understanding EDI’s impact on supply chain management are the span of management control of the business process in question and whether EDI directly or indirectly influences that same business process. The proposed framework is then used to develop a research agenda for EDI and supply chain management. We suggest possible directions for research methods, measure development and hypothesis generation that can be used in future research studies.

The growing dependence on the Internet and related technologies has led to the creation of a new type of warfare, “information warfare” (infowar) which is based on attacking and infiltrating opposing information infrastructures. The chances of information infrastructures being subjected to attacks have increased correlatively with the growth of networked, multinational organizations and e‐commerce. Although challenging, it is becoming extremely important to protect and safeguard information infrastructures from any attack. Info‐war is definitely a concern for most nations due to increased susceptibility of information systems to perpetrators. Many nations have confirmed that their information systems have already been successfully penetrated, introducing a unique and potentially devastating twenty‐first century threat. Discusses the types of info war attacks, proposes a framework for identifying various zones where the info war attack could create damage to information infrastructures, and suggests some mechanisms to safeguard against the info war attacks.