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The problems that face health service delivery across different countries are compounded by financial, political, institutional and technical deficiencies. Yet, the role of technological aspects in the procurement of health commodities and health service delivery system requires in-depth exploration. This study bridges this gap by examining the mediating effect of an integrated health commodities procurement system on the relationship between responsiveness and health service delivery.

Data for this study were collected from 274 respondents, comprising procurement staff and pharmacists using a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. A total of 28 government-owned hospitals from 6 regions in the Southern Highland of Tanzania were sampled for observation. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used for data analysis.

The results of the study revealed a positive and significant relationship between responsiveness and integrated health commodities procurement system (β = 0.572, p < 0.001). Responsiveness positively and significantly affects health service delivery (β = 0.175, p = 0.004). The results also show that integrated health commodities procurement system is positive and significantly related to health service delivery (β = 0.264, p < 0.001). Lastly, the bootstrapping confidence intervals revealed that an integrated health commodities procurement system significantly mediates the relationship between responsiveness and health service delivery.

To strengthen the health service delivery system, the study recommends enforcing internal control mechanisms and supporting policies that will monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the integrated health commodities procurement system and service practitioners' responsiveness. Moreover, health service managers should ensure that the planning, procurement and distribution of health commodities are fully and effectively integrated at each node of the health supply chain.

The study contributes to the body of knowledge which examines the efficacy of health service delivery from procurement perspective. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study that offers empirical evidence for the mediating effect of integrated health commodities procurement system on the link between responsiveness and health service delivery.

The pandemic has reinforced the need for revamping the healthcare service delivery systems around the world to meet the increased challenges of modern-day illnesses. The use of medical cyber–physical system (MCPS) in the healthcare is one of the means of transforming the landscape of the traditional healthcare service delivery system. The purpose of this study is to critically examine the impact of MCPS on the quality of healthcare service delivery.

This paper uses an evidence-based approach, the authors have conducted a systematic literature review to study the impact of MCPS on healthcare service delivery. Fifty-four articles were thematically examined to study the impact of MCPS on eight characteristics of the healthcare service delivery proposed by the world health organisation.

The study proposes support that MCPS will positively impact (1) comprehensiveness, (2) accessibility, (3) coverage, (4) continuity, (5) quality, (6) person-centredness, (7) coordination, (8) accountability and (9) efficiency dimension of the healthcare service delivery. The study further draws nine propositions to support the impact of MCPS on the healthcare service delivery.

This study can be used by stakeholders as a guide point while using MCPS in healthcare service delivery systems. Besides, healthcare managers can use this study to understand the performance of their healthcare system. This study can further be used for designing effective strategies for deploying MCPS to be effective and efficient in each of the dimensions of healthcare service delivery.

The previous studies have focussed on technology aspects of MCPS and none of them critically analysed the impact on healthcare service delivery. This is the first literature review carried out to understand the impact of MCPS on the nine dimensions of healthcare service delivery proposed by WHO. This study provides improved thematic awareness of the resulting body of knowledge, allowing the field of MCPS and healthcare service delivery to progress in a more informed and multidisciplinary manner.

The aim of this paper is to explore and empirically investigate the characteristics and contingencies of service delivery system design.

Informed by the service strategy triad, a single embedded case study was designed to explore empirical data on four target markets, four service concepts, and on the design characteristics of the corresponding four service delivery systems. Data were collected in a market‐leading organisation in the business‐to‐business sector within the power industry. The service delivery systems comprise processes that sell electricity contracts and processes that bill against those contracts.

First, the findings indicate what design characteristics are contingent upon the degree of customisation of the service concept. The authors show how this contingency has implications for the extents of employee skills, employee discretion, task routineness, automation, and for front office (FO)‐back office (BO) configurations. Second, the authors challenge the consensus that low customer‐contact processes are designed for the purpose of efficiency. Third, the findings contradict Metters and Vargas who state that it is not possible to have different FO‐BO configurations in a single organisation.

While there are major interactions between the four service delivery systems supporting each individual service concept, this paper does not examine the trade‐offs between the various possible designs of these service delivery systems.

The paper emphasises the importance of considering the complexity of the service offering, the customer relationship strategy, and of taking a process‐orientation to address service delivery system design.

This paper extends current understanding of service delivery system design characteristics and contingencies. The authors show how design characteristics are contingent on the service concept. Research propositions are formulated to emphasise this contingency. Additionally, we report findings which challenge existing FO‐BO design theory.

The objective of this work is to empirically investigate the design of a service delivery system that supports the provision of modular service logistics offerings.

An in-depth single-case study relying on interview data and extensive documentary evidence is carried out in the business-to-business (B2B) logistics sector. Three main analytical techniques are used to make sense of the qualitative data: thematic analysis, process mapping and the application of modular operators.

A modular service delivery system comprises three types of processes that collectively deliver modular offerings. The platform consists of core processes that enable the collection, transport and delivery of physical items for all offerings (modular and non-modular). Dedicated modular processes are mandatory and exclusive to individual modular offerings. Optional modular processes are shared across several modular offerings. Interfaces regulate physical (e.g. parcels or parts) and information (e.g. booking data) inputs provided by the customer in order to control the interdependencies within these different process types.

The identification of three process types and their interdependencies provides detailed insights into how managers can design modular logistics services that benefit from economies of scale and meet increasingly variable customer requirements. The importance of well-designed interfaces among the customers, the service offering and the service delivery system is highlighted.

This study extends previous modularity studies in service logistics. It is the first study to apply modular operators to determine the presence of modularity in the service delivery system and to establish the role of different process types in enabling modularity in the service delivery system.

The aim of this paper is to investigate how the distinction between contact and non‐contact activities influences the design of service delivery systems and to identify key design decisions for structuring front office and back office work.

Building on current literature, the paper identifies three design decisions and associated performance trade‐offs. The design decisions regard the degree of customer contact in the process, the decoupling of activities and the grouping of employees. The design decisions and the trade‐offs are empirically validated in five case studies of 15 service delivery systems in the financial services sector.

Distinguishing between the three design decisions is more suitable for describing today's practices than traditional front office – back office thinking. For each design decision a trade‐off was observed consisting of several design considerations. However, the trade‐offs do not involve the weighing of one set of performance objectives against another, as the design choices contribute to the same objectives, yet in different ways.

This study concentrated on a limited number of cases in the financial services sector. The contents of the trade‐offs should be tested on a larger scale and in different industries. In order to develop design guidelines, future research should also examine the impact of contingency factors, such as the service being delivered and strategic priorities.

The three design decisions and the trade‐offs improve understanding of the impact of customer contact on a service organisation and provide support for designing service delivery systems in practice.

Technologies for the delivery of financial services, such as ATMs, home banking and other self‐service media, are having a profound impact on the design of retail banks' delivery systems. The results of an empirical study based on a probability sample survey of 117 US retail banks, in which the channels of delivery for typical banking products are investigated, are presented. Several of the basic assumptions of a conceptual framework depicting the relationships between service contents characteristics and service delivery channels are tested. Specifically, this article considers how banking services (transactions and enquiries) generally vary according to the type of delivery channel emphasised by the bank for its target market (industrialisation level) and according to the number (span) of delivery channels available to the customer. It also shows the relationship between these two key factors in delivery system design, industrialisation and span.

The Fred Meyer Charitable Trust, Division of Library and Information Resources for the Northwest, has funded five research projects that will demonstrate the potential of various techniques and new technologies to facilitate communications and resource sharing in the Northwest. The experience and information derived from these projects will be of value to all libraries and information centers, not just those conducting the research. The techniques and technologies being evaluated include: simultaneous remote searching, which uses inexpensive terminals and modems; a mini‐computer‐based union list and resource sharing network (INFONET); networks using facsimile machines; networks that transmit documents that have been optically scanned into bit‐map image files; and use of optical character recognition equipment to capture ASCII machine‐readable information that can be broadcast by television stations to user‐sites. Contributors of reports are: Verl Anderson, Linda Brander, Millard F. Johnson, Jr., Bruce Morton, and Steve Smith. Summary observations are provided by Joseph R. Matthews.

This paper presents an overview of past and present research projects associated with electronic document delivery. The paper briefly outlines the Follet Report and introduces the UK's Electronics Libraries Programme, including the recently funded Focused Investigation of Document Delivery (FIDDO) project at Loughborough University. Four research areas have been identified as follows: resource sharing projects; network communication projects; electronic scanning projects and electronic document delivery systems. Conclusions highlight the major impact that technological developments are currently having on this area, the need for librarians to reassess their role in the information chain, and the need for delivery systems capable of handling different formats and a wider coverage of material to satisfy requests.

This research aims to explore the interactions of stakeholders in online food delivery (OFD) platforms, including restaurants, the delivery system and the platform, and the effect on total sales. In order to comprehensively analyze the service of stakeholders, the authors adopted the time duration which provides a unified metric for assessing service performance.

The authors used panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model analysis to verify the interactions among restaurants, the delivery system, and the platform itself, and to assess their effects on the sales. Data were collected from one of the biggest OFD service platforms in China – Eleme.com.

First, the findings confirmed that the service performance of restaurants, the delivery system and the platform itself influence one another. There is a bidirectional causality between food preparation time (FPT) and actual delivery time (ACDT), as well as between FPT and advance arrival time (ADAT), ACDT and ADAT. Second, the service performance of restaurants, the delivery system, and the platform itself all positively affect sales, thus demonstrating unidirectional causality.

The current research is a pioneering empirical study, as it confirms the dynamic interactions between participants in OFD platforms and the dynamic influence of their respective service performances on sales. The findings of this research have a number of implications for the management and operation of online food ordering and delivery platforms.

This research explores how to design service delivery systems to facilitate a customer experience that enables the realisation of prevention-oriented goals.

Case-based research is undertaken to inform the design of service delivery systems for prevention-oriented consumption goals. Data from multiple informants, from both the provider and customer perspective, in two in-depth case studies, provide empirical insights.

Drawing on customer and provider perspectives, a model of service design for prevention-oriented goals is presented. The model is informed through the identification of service delivery system characteristics (facility layout, staff service orientation, facility appearance and staff presence/appearance) and perceived experience quality dimensions (control, duration, privacy and reliability impressions) that contribute to the fulfilment of prevention-oriented consumption goals.

The research affirms that it is critical for organisations to comprehend the goals they want their service delivery systems to enable in the customer experience. Specific attention should be given to the design of facility layout, staff-service orientation, facility appearance, staff presence/appearance to positively impact perceived quality dimensions and to facilitate the realisation of customer prevention goals.

The main research contribution lies in the articulation of the design characteristics of the service delivery system that enables a customer experience supporting the fulfilment of prevention goals. The empirical study draws on both customer and organisational perspectives to identify prevention-oriented goals, and corresponding experience quality dimensions, to inform service delivery system design.