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Presents a case study on quick response practices in a supply chain within the Australian textiles, clothing and footwear (TCF) industry, conducted as part of a government‐led project aimed at improving the performance of the Australian TCF industry towards becoming more internationally competitive. Details of the Australian TCF Industry Quick Response Program are provided, which comprised six major activities: assessing company commitment and readiness; formulation of supply chain clusters; roundtable meetings; workshops and seminars; implementation of quick response techniques and technologies; and audits to assess improvements. The supply chain consists of Myer/Grace Brothers (retailer), Diana Ferrari (shoe manufacturer), Burrowes (shoe components supplier), and Packer Tannery (leather supplier). The activities undertaken within this supply chain are discussed and some of the key lessons learnt from this case study are highlighted.

The phenomenon of fast fashion is under‐researched academically, yet has received attention in most of the fashion and business press. Therefore, as it would seem timely, this article aims to present the findings of some exploratory research.

The concept of agile supply chains or supply chain theory is explored with reference to fast fashion requirements. The research was carried out using in‐depth interviews of key informants in the fashion industry.

The major findings of this exploratory research demonstrate a developmental process occurring in supply chain management when fast fashion comes into the equation. This research provides additional complexity on the existing model of supply chain management for the fashion industry.

This paper presents a research agenda for future exploration. There are implications for theoretical perspectives of supply chain management as well as retail operations.

This paper offers insights into the impact of fast fashion on the supply chain and the links in the process which deserve further research attention.

Quick response (QR) systems are being implemented by retail firms at an ever quickening pace throughout the USA. While dramatic changes occur throughout the retail company adopting QR strategies, it is the buyers and buyers’ assistants that are more affected by these changes than other executives in the retail firm. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions, attitudes and opinions of retail buyers toward QR. Over 200 buyers from leading department and specialty store firms that have implemented, or are beginning to implement, QR participated. In general, the findings indicated that buyers had a positive view of QR systems; felt QR would save them time but not reduce the number of buyers currently employed; and that they used technology as an integral part of their job. The study also found several significant factors describing buyers’ perceptions of QR that were related to the size of their organization.

The conclusions on the importance of corporate response timing to a crisis have remained inconsistent. Some studies suggest that active response may reduce negative impacts, whereas managers argue that issuing official response frustrates stakeholders and thus decreases the firm value. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of external media in the response timing strategy and the consequent stock market reaction.

Based on 130 corporate crises that befell publicly listed firms in China from 2007 to 2014, this paper uses the Baidu News Search Engine and Chinese Lexical Analysis System to construct the variables of the media characteristics. A structural equation model is established to test the hypotheses.

The results of this paper suggest that media coverage drives response timing after a crisis. Although an official response is a burden for firms, the timing strategy has multidimensional benefits including effectively alleviating negative effects (defined as buffering effects) and repairing the market (defined as restoring effects). Moreover, the buffering effects of response timing are stronger when completeness of response is low.

This study mainly contributes to crisis communication literature by introducing the role of media in prompting managers to make timing decisions. The findings of this study provide empirical support for the importance of timing response strategy.

This work analyses global trade and production of textiles and clothing and the organisational trends occurring in enterprises in order to enable them to face increased competition due to trade liberalisation and the communications revolution. It introduces the concept of ‘quick response’ and characterises the problems it aims to overcome. The first part covers an analysis of advanced telecommunication systems such as EDI and the methodologies of TQM, as well as the use of ‘flexible manufacturing systems’, some of which are still in an R&D phase. In the second part, product‐oriented organisational structures and flow type production systems are looked at, as well as the concepts of CIM and CIB. The need to shorten lead time and of training multifunctional personnel is stressed. This work is a result of the author's experience as a research worker in the field of engineering and management applied to textiles and clothing. He is also involved as a consultant in strategic planning and the implementation of schemes for modernising companies and sectoral industrial restructuring studies for the Commission of the European Union.

The purpose of this research is to explore supply chain management issues in the Scottish textile and clothing industry, such as company awareness of automatic replenishment (AR) systems, quick response implementation (QRI), and relationships within the supply chain.

Face‐to‐face interviews were undertaken with 33 Scottish suppliers.

Results indicate that less than a third of the companies surveyed in Scotland had implemented AR/QRI systems and that many supply chain members had not fully understood the benefits of implementing information technology (IT) to support an AR/QRI strategy. They perceive it more as a strategy for retailers than as a virtual supply chain strategy.

Since this study was limited to 33 Scottish suppliers, findings can only be used as a guide for further research into the area. The next stage of this research will be to gather more responses from UK and US suppliers of fashion garments, as well as to undertake in‐depth interviews with retail buyers in order to explore the criteria they now use for establishing supplier relationships.

The paper identifies advantages which manufacturing management could achieve: namely to improve planning, reduce stockholdings, increase production and by improved communication become a preferred supplier.

In order to survive, Scottish suppliers have to sustain competitive advantage by ensuring that they have an efficient stock management system. For manufacturers of fashion goods, speed is a priority that incurs higher production and transportation costs that can be offset against fewer mark‐downs and higher gross margins. Thus, QRI is a must for multiple fashion retailers selling “own brand” merchandise, to provide them with competitive differentiation in the high fashion end of the market. This means that suppliers need to build relationships with these retailers and implement QR systems to stay in business.

The purpose of this paper is to fabricate an ethanol sensor which has bio-friendly and eco-friendly properties compared to the commercially available ethanol sensors.

This paper describes the construction of a highly sensitive ethanol sensor with low ppm level detection at room temperature by integrating three techniques. The first deals with the formation of organic/inorganic p-n heterojunction. Second, tuning of structural parameters such as length, diameter and density of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanostructure was achieved through introduction of the Fe dopant into a pure ZnO seed layer. Furthermore, ultra-violet (UV) light photoactivation approach was used for enhancing the sensing performance of the fabricated sensors. Four different sensors were fabricated by combing the above approaches. The structural, morphological, optical and material compositions were characterized using different characterization techniques. Sensing behavior of the fabricated sensors toward ethanol was experimented at room temperature with and without UV illumination combined with stability studies. It was observed that all the fabricated sensors showed enhanced sensing performance for 10 ppm of ethanol. In specific, FNZ (Fe-doped ZnO seeded Ni-doped Zn nanorods) sensor exhibited a higher response at 2.2 and 13.5 s for 5 ppm and 100 ppm of ethanol with UV light illumination at room temperature, respectively. The photoactivated FNZ sensor showed quick response and speedy recovery at 18 and 30 s, respectively, for 100 ppm ethanol.

In this study, the authors have experimentally analyzed the effect of Fe (in ZnO seed layer and ZnO NRs) and Ni (in ZnO NRs) dopants in the room temperature sensing performance (with and without UV light) of the fabricated ethanol sensors. Important sensing parameters like sensitivity, recovery and response time of all the fabricated sensors are reported.

The Fe doped ZnO seeded Ni doped Zn nanorods (FNZ sample) showed a higher response at 2.2 s and 13.5 s for very low 5 ppm and 10 ppm of ethanol at room temperature under UV light illumination when compared to the other fabricated sensors in this paper. Similarly, this sensor also had quick response (18 s) and speedy recovery (30 s) for 100 ppm ethanol.

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize and analyze a framework that provides greater understanding toward the impact of service recovery antecedents such as role clarity, customer service orientation, employee empowerment and employee relational behavior on customer satisfaction and customer delight in the context of quick-service restaurants (QSRs).

A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 408 participants who had experienced service recovery efforts by leading QSRs on social media. The current paper draws upon the prevailing literature to test a series of research hypotheses through structural equation modeling.

The findings of the study have confirmed that antecedents of service recovery are good to describe customer satisfaction and customer delight in the setting of QSRs. Besides, the study provides an understanding on how monetary compensation moderates the relationship between customer delight and customer satisfaction.

This study carries an understanding on how frontline employees must operate in a non-conventional and innovative way to resolve customers' issues and show commitment with truthfulness to provide excellent services to make customers feel delightful.

This is a unique study to understand the role of service recovery antecedents to describe customer satisfaction and customer delight in the social media environment. In addition, the results support the possibilities of implementing prompt service recovery efforts using social media.

In the competitive business environment, retailers can obtain profit by strategic planning and delivering consumer satisfaction. Quick response (QR) is a new business strategy to maximize consumer satisfaction by implementing new technologies (e.g. barcoding, scanner). Reports on research which aimed to identify the use of quick response technologies (QRT) and to identify store attributes that are improved by QRT. A convenience sample of 32 apparel retailers participated in this survey research; 26 retailers were selected at a QR trade conference and six small individual retailers were also selected from a south‐east city. Finds that the most frequently cited store attributes that are improved by QRT were fast turnaround of goods and reduced stockouts. Both the use of QRT and improvement level of store attributes differed by store type.