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Article
Publication date: 9 August 2022

Shima Mirzaei, Sajjad Shokouhyar and Sina Shokoohyar

This study explores the sustainable supply chain trade-offs in the electronics industry.

Abstract

Purpose

This study explores the sustainable supply chain trade-offs in the electronics industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs a social media analytics approach and analyses Twitter posts from August 2017 to December 2021. Thematic analysis is applied to discover the pattern in sustainable supply chain trade-offs based on the consumers' perceptions. In addition, a chi-square test was used to measure whether a relationship exists between product groups and sustainable supply chain perceptions.

Findings

The results indicate that environmental practices are the most frequent topic among consumers on social media. Further, although basic sustainable supply chain practices are prioritised in the environmental aspect, advanced sustainable supply chain practices take precedence over basic ones in the social dimension. The result from the chi-square independence test reveals that there is no significant relationship between different products and perceptions of consumers except for economically advanced sustainable supply chain practices.

Practical implications

The main implications of the present study are to offer a fast and efficient method to marketers and companies for discovering customer perceptions. In a way, they can identify where the quality of practices needs to improve in their supply chains to gain customer satisfaction. Additionally, the authors suggest industries declare their trade-off preferences between sustainable supply chain practices transparently.

Originality/value

The findings extend the abundance of sustainable supply chain literature by identifying the sustainable supply chain trade-offs among consumer electronics. Also, the reason for customers' dissatisfaction is provided. In the end, six propositions are presented based on the explorations.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. 34 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 February 2023

Zahra Sarmast, Sajjad Shokouhyar, Seyed Hamed Ghanadpour and Sina Shokoohyar

Warranty service plays a critical role in sustainability and service continuity and influences customer satisfaction. Considering the role of social networks in customer feedback…

Abstract

Purpose

Warranty service plays a critical role in sustainability and service continuity and influences customer satisfaction. Considering the role of social networks in customer feedback channels, one of the essential sources to examine the reflection of a product/service is social media mining. This paper aims to identify the frequent product failures through social network mining. Focusing on social media data as a comprehensive and online source to detect warranty issues reveals opportunities for improvement, such as user problems and necessities. This model will detect the causes of defects and prioritize improving components in a product-service system based on FMEA results.

Design/methodology/approach

Ontology-based methods, text mining and sentiment analysis with machine learning methods are performed on social media data to investigate product defects, symptoms and the relationship between warranty plans and customer behaviour. Also, the authors have incorporated multi-source data collection to cover all the possibilities. Then the authors promote a decision support system to help the decision-makers using the FMEA process have a more comprehensive insight through customer feedback. Finally, to validate the accuracy and reliability of the results, the authors used the operational data of a LENOVO laptop from a warranty service centre and classifier performance metrics to compare the authors’ results.

Findings

This study confirms the validity of social media data in detecting customer sentiments and discovering the most defective components and failures of the products/services. In other words, the informative threads are derived through a data preparation process and then are based on analyzing the different features of a failure (issues, symptoms, causes, components, solutions). Using social media data helps gain more accurate online information due to the limitation of warranty periods. In other words, using social media data broadens the scope of data gathering and lets in all feedback from different sources to recognize improvement opportunities.

Originality/value

This work contributes a DSS model using multi-channel social media mining through supervised machine learning for warranty-service improvement based on defect-related discovery to unravel the potential aspects of social networks analysis to predict the most vulnerable components of a product and the main causes of failures that lead to the inputs for the FMEA process and then, a cost optimization. The authors have used social media channels like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, LENOVO Forums, GitHub, Quora and XDA-Developers to gather data about the LENOVO laptop failures as a case study.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 123 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-5577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 October 2020

Masoud Ramezani Nia and Sajjad Shokouhyar

The success of e-commerce websites depends on their effective communication and influence on their users. At first glance, the users are impressed by the website design and, if…

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Abstract

Purpose

The success of e-commerce websites depends on their effective communication and influence on their users. At first glance, the users are impressed by the website design and, if inspired, they would continue their operations on the website. This paper aims to evaluate the effects of visual aesthetic of the Web pages on users’ behavior in online shopping environment. In particular, the paper aims to evaluate the elements of visual aesthetic on the organism variables (i.e. “satisfaction,” “arousal,” “perceived on-line service quality” and “trust”) and measure them on the users’ response (i.e. purchase, comparison and re-visit).

Design/methodology/approach

Using the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) framework, the authors first assessed direct and indirect effects of visual aesthetics of e-commerce websites on customer responses. Then, the Visual Aesthetics of Websites Inventory (VisAWI) method was used to examine the effects of four dimensions (i.e. craftsmanship, simplicity, diversity and colorfulness) on users’ perceived website aesthetics. To do so, DigiKala.com, a famous Iranian e-commerce website was selected and the questionnaires were distributed among its users.

Findings

The study results revealed that the website aesthetics in the S-O-R evaluation had the greatest direct impact on “perceived quality of online services,” “trust,” “satisfaction” and “arousal,” respectively. These variables also indirectly affected “shopping,” “revisit” and “comparison to similar products on other websites.” Regarding the evaluations based on the VisAWI, the component “craftsmanship” played the most central role in expressing the website aesthetics, followed by the variables “simplicity,” “diversity” and “colorfulness,” respectively.

Originality/value

Although the considerable effect of Web aesthetics on customers’ purchase behavior has been identified in previous research, it has not been accurately measured. Furthermore, studies on Web aesthetics are mostly limited to information systems’ users and do not concern consumers. Therefore, considering the increasing growth in online shopping and the significance of Web aesthetics to online consumers, investigating how consumers respond to Web aesthetics is of vital importance.

Article
Publication date: 6 January 2020

Sajjad Shokouhyar, Mohammad Reza Seddigh and Farhad Panahifar

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model to explain the impact of big data analytics capabilities (BDAC) on company’s supply chain sustainability (CSCS). The…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model to explain the impact of big data analytics capabilities (BDAC) on company’s supply chain sustainability (CSCS). The secondary objective of the study is to assess the relationship between different dimensions of supply chain sustainability and companies’ BDAC.

Design/methodology/approach

This research was carried out by conducting a survey among 234 pharmaceutical companies in Iran (a case study of Iran), using a standard questionnaire of BDAC and United Nations (UN) online self-assessment on supply chain sustainability. However, the respond of managers of 188 companies were usable in this research. Smart PLS3 was used to employ partial least squares method to examine the validity and reliability of the measurement and structural model.

Findings

The results of this study demonstrate that BDAC have a strong impact on both pharmaceutical supply chain sustainability, and the dimensions including vision, engage and internal. It is found that the relationships between BDAC and the other dimensions of supply chain sustainability including expect, scope and goals are not significant but positive.

Research limitations/implications

Research on the relationship between BDAC and CSCS, especially in the pharmaceutical supply chain, is scanty, and this gap is highlighted in developing countries and the pharmaceutical supply chain that plays a prominent role in public health. This paper discusses several important barriers to forming a sustainable supply chain and strong BDA capabilities.

Practical implications

This paper could be a guide to managers and consultants who are involved in big data analytics and sustainable development. Since UN urges companies do the online self-assessment, the results of this paper would be attractive and useful for UN global compact specialists.

Originality/value

No study has directly measured the relation between BDAC and CSCS and different dimensions of CSCS, using a comprehensive survey throughout all pharmaceutical companies in Iran. Moreover, this research assesses the different dimensions of BDA capabilities and supply chain sustainability. This paper represents the facts about situation of sustainability of pharmaceutical supply chain and BDAC in these companies, and discloses several related issues that are serious barriers to forming a sustainable supply chain and strong BDAC. In addition, this paper provided academic support for UN questionnaire about CSCS and used it in the survey.

Details

World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-5945

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 19 May 2020

Keyvan Rezghdeh and Sajjad Shokouhyar

The main purpose of the present study was to improve and develop previously proposed models for Iran telecommunication networks. It should be noted that the six-dimensional (6D…

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Abstract

Purpose

The main purpose of the present study was to improve and develop previously proposed models for Iran telecommunication networks. It should be noted that the six-dimensional (6D) sustainability model used in this study will be a useful and comprehensive model for industries. Since, the new dimension of IT along with the five well-known economic, social, environmental, technical and institutional aspects of organizations is considered to have great impacts on supply chain sustainability; the proposed framework can be practical.

Design/methodology/approach

According to the related literature review, there are two research streams in supply chain management. The first stream is exploratory research, seeking out conceptual discussions in this area. The second one is associated with mathematical models and techniques, aiming to set decision-making rules in this regard (Agrell et al., 2004). In this study, evaluation was performed using the FMEA method as an analytical technique based on the principle of pre-occurrence prevention to identify potential failure factors in sensitive systems (Mohammadfam and Kianfari, 2008).

Findings

After identifying the risks and causes of the incidence and effects and consequences of risks, preventive and risk control measures and advisory strategies were presented. Customers with 45.76% share in critical risks are threatening to maintain supply chain in these companies. During this study, it was found that 33.9% of the main source of supply chain critical risks was customers, constituting 45.76% of such risks, accompanied by organization, having a 38.88% share of critical risk generation. The study findings also revealed that 33.9% of critical risks were mainly (equally) related to economic and technical aspects of supply chain sustainability in telecommunication networks. Moreover, as a newly-introduced sixth dimension, IT represented 10.17% of critical risks threatening supply chain sustainability in such networks. Critical risks are mainly related to the economic and technical aspects (equally) with the sustainability of the telecommunication networks supply chain. Also, as a new finding and the sixth dimension, 10.17% of the critical risks that threaten the sustainability of the telecommunication networks supply chain have the information technology dimension.

Originality/value

The internet and fixed and mobile data services are provided by several private companies in Iran, which are relatively similar in terms of their supply chains. In order to manage the sustainability of Iran's telecommunication supply chain, telecommunication networks affiliated to Iran Telecommunication Company (ITC), operating in the field of data and internet services and fixed telephone were selected in 31 provinces. The intended networks were also providing an important part of the country's needs including Mobile Telecommunication Company of Iran, a subsidiary of Iran's telecommunication networks, as one of the top companies in this industry. Accordingly, all the networks studied in this study needed to be identified with regard to communication sustainability risks, since they provide management solutions to each other by segregating risks. In this study, 68 managers and 72 experts participated in different work teams of telecommunication networks.

Details

Modern Supply Chain Research and Applications, vol. 2 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2631-3871

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 October 2019

Sajjad Shokouhyar, Neda Pahlevani and Farhang Mir Mohammad Sadeghi

This paper aims to present a smart, sustainable supply chain practices structure on the basis of the relational view.

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present a smart, sustainable supply chain practices structure on the basis of the relational view.

Design/methodology/approach

A method based on fuzzy cognitive map was applied to construct a relational map to introduce and implement such relational methods. Considering this relational map as a guideline, observations into particular methods and ways of applying relational methods to attain sustainable development goals across organizations has been introduced.

Findings

Primary outcomes provided a series of relational methods for the purpose of giving advice to those organizations and their suppliers for smart, sustainable supply chain. Reliance between relational methods were examined and assessed under seven meaningful groups: economic internet of things (IoT), green internet of things, social internet of things, economic supply chain, green supply chain, social supply chain and other variables.

Practical implications

This study guides managers toward an improved perception of the connection among IoT instances and sustainable supply to modeling smart, sustainable supply chain. Managers can determine the practices that need more focus along with the practices that are less relevant. Thus, this will help managers in the decision-making process and to organize their decisions by planning and calculating the relative importance and influence of smart, sustainable practices on each other and on the company’s smart, sustainable program.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first approach that promptly examines and determines the interdependencies between relational methods and constructs a relational map for the purpose to introduce and analyze smart, sustainable supply chain.

Details

Management Research Review, vol. 43 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-8269

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 March 2019

Shirin Rezaei, Sajjad Shokouhyar and Mostafa Zandieh

Given the competitive environment and complicated relationships in supply chains in the modern era, it is important to take into account internal and external risks. In addition…

Abstract

Purpose

Given the competitive environment and complicated relationships in supply chains in the modern era, it is important to take into account internal and external risks. In addition, proper methods must be designed to evaluate these risks correctly. The purpose of this paper is to provide a suitable map based on the artificial neural network technique to assess and classify the risk levels of retailers who have interconnected rules in the downstream of the supply chain.

Design/methodology/approach

In this research, a model for risk assessment with a hexagonal grid and 2D self-organizing map was applied.

Findings

According to the results, the model used in the study can provide a basis for classification of retailers based on the specified risk levels defined by the experts and risk managers of the company. Also with the model’s visual output, managers can have a better understanding of the distribution of the risk level of retailers.

Practical implications

The proposed methodology can be adopted by managers to assess the risk of members involved in the supply chain, helping them to formulate the risk mitigation strategies based on the risk levels.

Originality/value

As a part of the risk management process, organizations can use this developed method to reduce the existing risks imposed by the members or customers on the company.

Details

Benchmarking: An International Journal, vol. 26 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-5771

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 August 2021

Sajjad Shokouhyar, Amirhosein Dehkhodaei and Bahar Amiri

Recently, reverse logistics (RL) has become more prominent due to growing environmental concerns, social responsibility, competitive advantages and high efficiency by customers…

Abstract

Purpose

Recently, reverse logistics (RL) has become more prominent due to growing environmental concerns, social responsibility, competitive advantages and high efficiency by customers because of expansion of product selection and shorter product life cycle. However, effective implementation of RL results in some direct advantages, the most important of which is winning customer satisfaction that is vital to a firm's success. Therefore, paying attention to customer feedback in supply chain (SC) and logistics processes has recently increased, so manufacturers have decided to transform their RL into customer-centric RL. Hence, this paper aims to identify the features of a mobile phone which affect consumers’ purchasing behavior and to analyze the causality and prominence relations among them that can help decision-makers, policy planners and managers of organizations to develop a framework for customer-centric RL. These features are studied based on analysis of product review sites. This paper's special focus is on social media (SM) data (Twitter) in an attempt to help the decision-making process in RL through a big data analysis approach.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper deals with identifying mobile phone features that affect consumer's mobile phone purchasing decisions. Using the DEMATEL approach and using experts' insights, a cause and effect relationship diagram was generated through which the effect of features was analyzed.

Findings

Eighteen features were categorized in terms of cause and effect, and the interrelationships of features were also analyzed. The threshold value is calculated as 0.023, and the values lower than that were eliminated to obtain the digraph. F6 (camera), F13 (price) and F5 (chip) are the most prominent features based on their prominent score. It was also found that the F5 (chip) has the highest driving power (1.228) and acts as a causal feature to influence other features.

Originality/value

The focus of this article is on SM data (Twitter), so that experts can understand the interaction between mobile phone features that affect consumer's decision on mobile phone purchasing by using the results. This study investigates the degree of influence of features on each other and categorizes the features into cause and effect groups. This study is also intended to help organizational decision-makers move toward a reverse customer SC.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 51 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 May 2021

Sayeh Bagherzadeh, Sajjad Shokouhyar, Hamed Jahani and Marianna Sigala

Research analyzing online travelers’ reviews has boomed over the past years, but it lacks efficient methodologies that can provide useful end-user value within time and budget…

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Abstract

Purpose

Research analyzing online travelers’ reviews has boomed over the past years, but it lacks efficient methodologies that can provide useful end-user value within time and budget. This study aims to contribute to the field by developing and testing a new methodology for sentiment analysis that surpasses the standard dictionary-based method by creating two hotel-specific word lexicons.

Design/methodology/approach

Big data of hotel customer reviews posted on the TripAdvisor platform were collected and appropriately prepared for conducting a binary sentiment analysis by developing a novel bag-of-words weighted approach. The latter provides a transparent and replicable procedure to prepare, create and assess lexicons for sentiment analysis. This approach resulted in two lexicons (a weighted lexicon, L1 and a manually selected lexicon, L2), which were tested and validated by applying classification accuracy metrics to the TripAdvisor big data. Two popular methodologies (a public dictionary-based method and a complex machine-learning algorithm) were used for comparing the accuracy metrics of the study’s approach for creating the two lexicons.

Findings

The results of the accuracy metrics confirmed that the study’s methodology significantly outperforms the dictionary-based method in comparison to the machine-learning algorithm method. The findings also provide evidence that the study’s methodology is generalizable for predicting users’ sentiment.

Practical implications

The study developed and validated a methodology for generating reliable lexicons that can be used for big data analysis aiming to understand and predict customers’ sentiment. The L2 hotel dictionary generated by the study provides a reliable method and a useful tool for analyzing guests’ feedback and enabling managers to understand, anticipate and re-actively respond to customers’ attitudes and changes. The study also proposed a simplified methodology for understanding the sentiment of each user, which, in turn, can be used for conducting comparisons aiming to detect and understand guests’ sentiment changes across time, as well as across users based on their profiles and experiences.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the field by proposing and testing a new methodology for conducting sentiment analysis that addresses previous methodological limitations, as well as the contextual specificities of the tourism industry. Based on the paper’s literature review, this is the first research study using a bag-of-words approach for conducting a sentiment analysis and creating a field-specific lexicon.

论可推广性的情感分析法以创建酒店字典:以TripAdvisor酒店评论为样本的大数据分析

摘要

研究目的

对于在线游客评论的研究在过去的几年中与日俱增, 但是仍缺乏有效方法能在有限的时间喝预算内提供终端用户价值。本论文开发并测试了一套情感分析的新方法, 创建两套酒店相关的词库, 此方法超越了标准词典式分析法。

研究设计/方法/途径

研究样本为TripAdvisor酒店客户评论的大数据, 通过开发崭新的有配重的词库法, 来开展两极式情感分析。这个崭新的具有配重的词库法能够呈现透明化和可复制的程序, 准备、创建、并检验情感分析的词条。这个方法用到了两种词典(有配重的词典L1和手动选择的词典L2), 本论文通过对TripAdvisor大数据进行使用词类划分精准度, 来检测和验证这两种词典。本论文采用两种热门方法(公共词典法和复杂机器学习算法)来对比词典的准确度。

研究结果

精确度对比结果证实了本论文的方法, 相较于机器学习算法, 显著地超越了以字典为基础的方法。研究结果还表明, 本论文的方法可以就预测用户情感趋势进行推广。

研究实际启示

本论文开发并验证了一项方法, 这种方法通过创建可信的词典进行大数据分析, 以判定用户情感。本论文创建的L2酒店词库对分析客人反馈是可靠有用的工具, 这个词库还能帮助酒店经理了解、预测、以及积极相应客人的态度和改变。本论文还提出了一项可以了解每个用户情感的简易方法, 这项方法可以通过对比的方式来检测和了解客人不同时间的情感变化, 以及根据其不同背景和经历的不同用户之间的变化。

研究原创性/价值

本论文提出并检测了一项新方法, 这项情感分析方法可以解决之前方法的局限并立脚于旅游行业。基于文献综述, 本论文是首篇研究, 使用词库法来进行情感分析和创建特别领域词典的方式。

Details

Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, vol. 12 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-9880

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 December 2021

Mohsen Abdoli, Mostafa Zandieh and Sajjad Shokouhyar

This study is carried out in one public and one private health-care centers based on different probabilities of patient’s no-show rate. The present study aims to determine the…

Abstract

Purpose

This study is carried out in one public and one private health-care centers based on different probabilities of patient’s no-show rate. The present study aims to determine the optimal queuing system capacity so that the expected total cost is minimized.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study an M/M/1/K queuing model is used for analytical properties of optimal queuing system capacity and appointment window so that total costs of these cases could be minimized. MATLAB software version R2014a is used to code the model.

Findings

In this paper, the optimal queuing system capacity is determined based on the changes in effective parameters, followed by a sensitivity analysis. Total cost in public center includes the costs of patient waiting time and rejection. However, the total cost in private center includes costs of physician idle time plus costs of public center. At the end, the results for public and private centers are compared to reach a final assessment.

Originality/value

Today, determining the optimal queuing system capacity is one of the most central concerns of outpatient clinics. The large capacity of the queuing system leads to an increase in the patient’s waiting-time cost, and on the other hand, a small queuing system will increase the cost of patient’s rejection. The approach suggested in this paper attempts to deal with this mentioned concern.

Details

Journal of Modelling in Management, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5664

Keywords

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