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Industrial vending solutions are unique in that they represent a very specific form of vendor-managed inventory (VMI). The purpose of this paper is to investigate performance outcomes associated with industrial vending implementation, a topic that has been largely ignored by the academic community.

A survey instrument was developed from earlier work on VMI success. Structural equation modeling is used to identify relationships between three enablers (information exchange, information quality, and relationship quality), perceived vending system implementation success, and three outcomes (cost benefits, customer service benefits, and inventory benefits).

Statistical outcomes demonstrate support for the benefits arising from successful vending system implementation. This study demonstrates that industrial vending implementation success is strongly tied to the amount and quality of the information shared between the relationship partners.

Successful industrial vending implementation results in improved inventory control, increased levels of customer service, and tighter cost control. This study provides supply chain managers with current findings, which should aid them in evaluating their current and proposed vending solutions.

Although VMI has been studied in the past, little work has been conducted on industrial vending as a specific form of VMI. This is the first study to explore industrial vending from the viewpoint of VMI implementation and performance. Empirically tested study results that are grounded in transaction cost theory confirm a series of performance outcomes of industrial vending from a buyer’s perspective as well as a number of enablers for successful industrial vending implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on radio frequency identification (RFID) acceptance and examine three understudied drivers: a company's satisfaction with existing logistics technologies, its logistics technology readiness (technology optimism and technology innovativeness), and relationship hostage position. The proposed conceptual model also investigates the impacts of RFID acceptance and these three antecedents on the company's logistics performance.

Survey data were collected from the members of three professional associations in the USA. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed relationships.

According to the analysis results, a company's satisfaction with existing technology has negative impact on RFID acceptance, and technology readiness has positive impact on RFID acceptance. However, the relationship between a company's hostage position and RFID acceptance was found to be only partially significant. Also, the positive relationship between a company's RFID acceptance and its logistics performance is confirmed in this study. Furthermore, while a company's satisfaction with existing technology and technology innovativeness were found to be positively related to logistics performance, its technology optimism and hostage position were not significant related to its logistics performance.

This research confirms that a company's RFID acceptance is positively related to logistics performance. Therefore, even if a company is satisfied with its existing technologies, careful evaluation is warranted to determine if RFID as a new technology is needed to maintain the company's logistics performance in a dynamic environment. Also, this research suggests that supply chain members should be extremely cautious about the power usage toward its partners, because the authors' results show that forcing other partners to take cooperative actions may not yield the desired results.

This is first study examining RFID technology through a behavioral perspective. A new construct, RFID acceptance, was proposed, and related measurement scale was developed and tested along with its antecedents and outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to compare small and large motor carriers to determine whether small motor carriers serve a smaller, more concentrated customer base, have owners that are more involved in the customer relationship management process, and earn higher returns usually associated with niche market players.

Responses from a US sample of 153 motor carrier managers are subjected to ANOVA comparing small, medium, and large motor carriers. Scale development procedures were employed and a construct measuring owner involvement in the customer relationship management process was developed.

Small motor carriers have a more concentrated customer base, their owners are more involved in managing customer relationships, and they are paid higher rates per mile compared with large motor carriers.

This research was limited by its focus on the motor carrier industry and did not explicitly test a link between customer base concentration and owner involvement as they might engender higher rates.

This work illustrated motor carrier practices that may be of use to managers in formulating strategy. Managers may also consult the owner involvement construct items for guidance in their customer relationship management role.

This is one of the few works investigating small motor carriers. It also is one of the first works incorporating entrepreneurship into logistics research.

To analyze the impact of the adoption of just‐in‐time (JIT) production systems by different equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on the inventory profiles of their suppliers.

The research is designed to examine five financial measures of inventory management performance over the years 1994‐2004. Three specific industry sectors where OEMs have adopted and implemented JIT principles are studied. These sectors include the automotive, electronics, and aircraft industries. A one factor analysis of variance is employed to the five hypotheses and Tukey's post‐hoc test is used to interpret statistical pairwise differences between level means.

Overall, the research finds that OEM suppliers in the automotive, electronics, and aircraft sectors have shown mixed results in the impact JIT implementation has had on inventory performance measures.

The research focuses on three industrial sectors over approximately a ten year time frame that may limit its generalizability.

The processes that influence the reduction in inventory levels may be in fact more complex and strategic in nature than an OEM adopting a JIT inventory policy. In general, strategic changes within the supplier organization would have to drive process improvements that lead to inventory reductions.

The paper provides focused research in an area that has received little attention in the current literature and is very topical to all academics and business professionals interested or involved in the area of JIT systems.

The purpose of this study is to empirically test the levels of trust supply chain managers exhibit regarding online auctions. The study seeks to test the hypotheses that supply chain managers with higher levels of trust in online auctions would exhibit more familiarity with online auctions, more positive relationships with suppliers, stronger focus on cost management, a stronger focus on revenue enhancement, and greater levels of participation.

A review of the extant literature provided the basis for the development of an online pilot study that was e‐mailed to 100 supply chain managers. The results of the pilot study were used to develop an online survey instrument that was e‐mailed to 2,313 current members of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and the Institute of Supply Management. A total of 213 usable questionnaires were returned, resulting in a 9.2 percent response rate.

The data were analyzed via t‐test, MANOVA and ANOVA. The study indicated that online auction users exhibit high levels of trust in online auctions. The study also found that those with higher levels of familiarity with online auctions, with stronger positive relationships with online auction suppliers, and with stronger focus on cost management also exhibited higher levels of trust in online auctions. Contrary to expectations study findings indicate that higher levels of perceived firm profitability and of online auction participation do not lead to increased levels of trust in online auctions.

The study provides a number of important implications. First, it is important for supply chain managers to recognize the important role that trust continues to play in business relationships. Supply chain managers are advised to be cognizant of the fact that some suppliers may be reluctant to participate in online auctions because they fear participation might damage customer relationships that they have spent years cultivating. Finally, supply chain managers are advised to consider the use of online auctions in order to achieve cost management objectives.

The research makes an important contribution to the literature because it seeks to assess supply chain managers' level of trust in online auctions and how this impacts on the extent to which they participate in this exchange mechanism. An equally important contribution provided by the research is that it focuses on the level of trust in online auctions in general, whereas the preponderance of past research has focused on reverse or price descending auctions only.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of teacher’s psychological empowerment between school leadership style and teachers’ work-related outcomes.

A total of 711 teachers from 31 Estonian schools were surveyed with a questionnaire measuring four dimensions of psychological empowerment (competence, meaning, self-determination and impact), school leadership characteristics (leadership style, leader’s empowering behavior and trust in leader) and teacher’s work-related outcomes (job satisfaction and workplace attachment). AMOS path analysis was used to investigate the direct and indirect relations between the teachers’ perceptions of school leadership, their psychological empowerment and their workplace attachment and job satisfaction.

This study found that psychological empowerment (subscales meaning and impact) mediates the relationship between perceived leadership empowerment behavior and teachers’ work-related outcomes. Also, the psychological empowerment (meaning and impact) mediates the relationship between perceived leadership style and teachers’ work-related outcomes. Trust in the principal has direct and indirect effect (through psychological empowerment) on job satisfaction, whereas there only seems to be indirect effect on workplace attachment through two components of psychological empowerment.

The mediating role of psychological empowerment includes an important message for school principals – in order to empower employees it is not sufficient to merely delegate formal power and decision-making rights. To facilitate the development of psychological empowerment, it is important to provide employees with an opportunity to experience agency, to experience that their voice and opinions are taken into account (perceived impact) and the purpose and targets of the whole organization are discussed with the employees and formulated in collaboration with them (perceived meaning).

Psychological empowerment as a mediating variable has not been widely researched, especially in school environment. The results will provide important signals for school principals, where and how to find leverage to improve teachers’ job satisfaction and workplace attachment.

Charged with a daunting task of organizational analysis, the good Stanford graduate of my era dutifully turns for inspiration to Dick Scott's Organizations: Rational, Natural and Open Systems. It is not quite the Bible, but it has a far more useful index and bibliography. And, as a beginning, I often encourage my own students to consider the basic “elements of organizations” that Scott presents in the form of a simple “diamond” typology, originally attributed to Harold Leavitt (1965) and in the most recent edition (Scott & Davis, 2007) updated to reflect the work of Nadler, Tushman, and Nadler (1997). This typology directs attention to five key components of any organizational phenomenon: (1) the participants; (2) the formal structure; (3) the informal structure; (4) the technology; and (5) the environment. Considering each of these elements may shed some light on the Stanford experience.

Although employee helping behaviors have been widely examined by organizational and human resource management scholars, relatively little is known about the antecedents and consequences of help-seeking in the workplace. Seeking to fill this gap, I draw from the social and counseling psychology literatures, as well as from research in epidemiology and health sociology to first conceptualize the notion of employee help-seeking and then to identify the variables and mechanisms potentially driving such behavior in work organizations. My critical review of this literature suggests that the application of existing models of help-seeking may offer limited predictive utility when applied to the workplace unless help-seeking is conceived as the outcome of a multi-level process. That in mind, I propose a model of employee help-seeking that takes into account the potential direct and cross-level moderating effects of a variety of situational factors (e.g., the nature of the particular problem, organizational norms, support climate) that might have differential influences on help-seeking behavior depending on the particular phase of the help-seeking process examined. Following this, I focus on two sets of help-seeking outcomes, namely, the implications of employee help-seeking on individual and group performance, and the impact of help-seeking on employee well-being. The chapter concludes with a brief examination of some of the more critical issues in employee help-seeking that remain to be explored (e.g., the timing of help solicitation) as well as the methodological challenges likely to be faced by those seeking to engage in such exploration.

What contribution can the trainer make to the organisation? How can we go about assessing the level of contribution? These are two key questions that any manager may well ask. Yet, by far, most training research effort has been concerned with looking at the secondary issue of “training technology”. Nadler summed this up in the following way: