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The purpose of this paper is to examine predictors of obtaining global certification (ISO 9000) in an emerging market by focusing on ownership structure and total quality management (TQM) commitment.

This paper adapts the theory of planned behavior to explain organizations that obtain global certification in an emerging market (China). Using 269 service firms at different stages of ISO 9000 certification (a proxy for goal-directed behavior/excellence by organizations), the study examines the influence of ownership structures (a proxy for perceived behavioral control) and TQM commitment (a proxy for attitude toward a behavior), using a probit model.

The results showed that ownership structures that were state-owned enterprises, privately owned enterprises and township-village enterprises (TVEs) had a lower probability of obtaining global certification. However, TQM commitment moderates the relationship between ownership structure and obtaining ISO 9000 certification for POEs and TVEs. The study found stronger results for a subsample of organizations that intended to obtain ISO 9000 certification. Among organizations without ISO 9000 certification, we examined organizations that began the learning process for ISO 9000 and those that had not, and found differences based on competitive pressures, ownership structures, and the moderating effect of TQM commitment.

Future research may consider manufacturing organizations and other countries to further validate the findings of our study.

Creating strong TQM commitment can be an effective means for POEs and TVEs to obtain ISO 9000 certification.

This study is the first to adapt the theory of planned behavior for an organization-level analysis of ISO 9000 certification, especially in the service operations setting. The study found that TQM commitment selectively moderates ownership structures in explaining the probability that an organization obtained ISO 9000 certification.

The purpose of this research is to examine how service enablers such as resource management and human resource management practices, identified in prior research as vital, influence both conformance quality and productivity performance. The paper also aims to study how the level of customer contact, a major service differentiator, could moderate the influence of such practices on performance.

Using sample data from 249 service firms in China, hierarchical a regression analyses is employed to test the research questions.

The results indicate that there are common resource management and human resource management practices that positively affect both conformance quality and productivity. Importantly, besides its direct and positive effect on conformance quality and on productivity performance, the level of customer contact was found to have a contingency effect on the relationships between resource management or human resource management practices, and conformance quality or productivity performance.

Future research should consider including other developing countries, more service industries, and a longitudinal study if possible.

Implications of the findings on theory in services and managerial practice in the context of China are offered.

The theoretical value of the research lies in identifying the factors that simultaneously affect both conformance quality and productivity (which are often seen as competing goals) in service sectors, and their dependency on the level of customer contact.

Using arguments from the knowledge-based view and resource-based view of the firm, the purpose of this paper is to propose that external knowledge (as measured by a firm’s customer orientation) and internal knowledge management (through human capital development techniques of job-related training and enhancing employee capability) together contribute to successful service delivery systems.

The hypothesized model is tested on a large sample of 249 Chinese service firms using structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analyses.

The results indicate that the knowledge management factors of customer orientation, employee capability and job-related training had a varying influence on quality and efficiency dimensions of service system performance. Also, internal knowledge facets of employee capability and job-related training had complementary effects in inducing improved performance on both quality and efficiency.

The focus on the key enablers of customer orientation, employee capability and job-related training does not represent a comprehensive set of enablers of service system performance outcomes. Also, a longitudinal examination of capabilities that influence service system performance can also be explored.

The context of service firms in multiple sectors serves as an important contribution to the emerging literature that bridges human resource management and customer orientation in service settings. Implications of the results for practice and theory development are discussed.

Logistics information technology (IT) can be a significant source of competitive advantages. Examines logistics IT practices for different industries and global regions and identifies any IT gaps between world class logistics firms and their more average (baseline) counterparts. Overall, the merchandising firms were perceived to have a lead over the manufacturing firms for most of the nine logistics IT issues probed. Among the baseline firms, the European firms seemingly outperformed the North American and Pacific Rim firms in the five‐year improvement in LIS capability, LIS resource share increase, and the adequacy of LIS in meeting the firm’s requirements. The North American firms took a significant lead in issues related to EDI, barcode, and real time communications. However, all these baseline firms probably have to look up to the world class logistics firms for excellency in major IT practice, confirming the notion that being world class does make a difference.

The purpose of this study is to present the entry drilling process of flexible printed circuit board (FPCs) and its influence on hole quality, especially hole location accuracy. Compared with the traditional PCB drilling process, the technology of drilling FPCs is facing more problems, such as hole location accuracy, smear on the hole wall surface, burned hole wall surface, etc. Moreover, the materials of FPCs are quite different from the rigid printed circuit boards (RPCs). FPCs no longer contain glass fiber cloths to reinforce resin, resulting in flexibility. Micro-hole quality is the most important issue in FPC drilling. Suggestions were given to obtain higher hole qualities and higher FPC reliability.

The entry drilling process of FPC with different kind of entry boards was observed by a high-speed camera. The hole qualities of FPC micro-drilling, especially hole location accuracy and hole entrance quality, were measured. The relationship between entry boards and hole quality was analyzed.

Significant sliding occurred when drilling FPC with using no-entry board or pure aluminum plate entry board. On the contrary, no significant sliding occurred when using LC-110 or resin-coated aluminum foil (MVC) entry boards. The type, thickness and use-pattern of entry boards influenced hole location accuracy of FPCs seriously. In addition, entry board also influenced the micro-hole entrance quality and micro-hole diameter. The entrance quality of drilling FPC with LC-110 entry board was the best. The diameter variation of drilling FPC with MVC entry board was the smallest. The hole location accuracy decreased as the thickness of entry board increased. Thus, the best use-pattern of entry board was putting a LC-110 under MVC entry board, resulting in best entrance quality and hole location accuracy.

The technology and manufacturing of FPCs in China are obviously behind. Research of FPCs micro-drilling and research data are lacking so far. Thus, it is most necessary to improve the technology level of FPCs micro-drilling in China. Researches on hole quality, especially hole location accuracy of FPCs drilling, were performed in this paper. Suggestions were given to obtain higher hole quality of FPCs.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a holistic paradigmatic lens through which the supply chain collaboration phenomena – including collaborative inventory management – can be understood and explained.

As theory‐building research, the paper explores the environmental conditions and managerial processes that promote or hinder supply chain collaboration from a variety of theoretical lenses including contingency theory, the resource‐based view of the firm, the relational view of the firm, force field analysis, constituency based theory, social dilemma theory, and resource‐advantage theory.

To demonstrate how an integrated theoretical framework can help us understand the dynamics of supply chain collaboration, the paper uses the framework to explicate the evolution and state of collaborative inventory management.

The framework can accurately depict and explain highly publicized collaborative failures and successes. It is also possible to draw from the model's core propositions to design prescriptive remedies for the challenges managers encounter as they seek to build collaborative inventory management capabilities.

Supply chain collaboration is a complex and dynamic phenomenon; however, existing management theories only describe locally observed phenomenon. As a result, it is a struggle to both explain existing “collaborative” behavior and provide prescriptions for leveraging collaboration to achieve differential supply chain performance. This holistic, integrative model delineates the path to collaborative success by exploring the connections among motivations, goals, mechanisms, resistors, and learning loops.