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This study proposes targeted modernization of the Department of Defense (DoD's) Joint Forces Ammunition Logistics information system by implementing the optimized innovative information technology open architecture design and integrating Radio Frequency Identification Device data technologies and real-time optimization and control mechanisms as the critical technology components of the solution. The innovative information technology, which pursues the focused logistics, will be deployed in 36 months at the estimated cost of $568 million in constant dollars. We estimate that the Systems, Applications, Products (SAP)-based enterprise integration solution that the Army currently pursues will cost another $1.5 billion through the year 2014; however, it is unlikely to deliver the intended technical capabilities.

Many studies have found that Lean practices provide better performance in a stable business environment. However, there is limited information on how Lean practices influence performance gains (defined in this paper as improvement and sustenance of performance) in an uncertain (complex and dynamic) environment. This study aims to investigate how the implementation of Lean helps to sustain performance in such context.

The study draws on an in-depth investigation of two capital goods manufacturing engineer-to-order (ETO) cases, in which performance sustenance is discussed in relation to the extent, locus and extensiveness of implemented Lean practice bundles.

Findings indicate that a higher extent of Lean practices’ implementation, covering both shop floor and transactional processes, increases the possibility of performance sustenance in ETO. Furthermore, a coherent approach in the pre-, during- and post-implementation phases of the Lean change process is required to foster performance sustenance. Lean practices in ETO are modified to suit context change from repetitive manufacturing.

This study proposes performance sustenance as a performance measure in a highly uncertain context, such as ETO, as a single reference cannot effectively measure performance improvements over diverse orders. From this perspective, appropriate Lean implementation contributes towards building capabilities for flexibly and proactively managing uncertain circumstances.

Even companies operating in highly uncertain (complex and dynamic) contexts may benefit from significant performance gains, thanks to the Lean implementation. This can be achieved by a balanced implementation of practices at shop floor and transactional processes, and their mindful customisations.

The study compares Lean implementation in ETO with that of high-volume–low-variety systems established in the literature. It qualitatively discusses how Lean implementation as an overarching effort both in shop floor and transactional processes leads to better sustenance of achieved performance improvements in shop floor under high uncertainty.

The purpose of this paper is to present business process point analysis (BPPA), a technique to measure business functional process size, based on function point analysis (FPA), and using business process model and notation (BPMN). This paper also discusses the assessment results of BPPA compared with FPA.

Two experimental studies with participants from academia and industry were conducted. The following aspects in the experimental studies were focused: similarity, application easiness, feasibility, and application benefits. The purpose of the experiment was to assess BPPA comparing with FPA as the BPPA design followed the FPA pattern.

Experimental results showed that both academia and industry groups highly rated similarity and application benefits for BPPA compared with FPA. However, only participants from industry highly rated BPPA for application easiness and feasibility. The results also showed that participants’ previous experiences did not influence their ratings on BPPA.

BPPA helps project managers to measure functional process size of business process management projects. As BPPA is derived from FPA, its mechanism is easily recognizable by project managers who are used to FPA. These results also show that both techniques are in most cases considered rather similar.

The purpose of this study is to understand the antecedents that influence supply chain coordination in the pharmaceutical supply chain using the transaction cost analysis framework.

Data from 156 retail pharmacies on their relationship with the pharmaceutical wholesalers are used to test the hypotheses.

The findings of this paper show the importance of antecedents that are based on the transactional cost theory, such as asset specificity and environmental uncertainty. These antecedents impact the supply chain process coordination at different levels – transactional, operational and strategic.

Future research may investigate additional antecedents using other theoretical lenses.

Pharmaceutical wholesalers are dependent on pharmaceutical manufacturers for the supply of products and face intense competition that results in lower profit margins. Given that the pharmaceutical industry is strictly regulated, the wholesaler facilitates regulatory compliance of the manufacturers in the distribution process by coordinating with them. But the wholesalers do also face a constant threat from the manufacturers, who could potentially bypass the wholesalers (disintermediation) and go directly to the pharmacies. To counterbalance the dependence, the wholesalers strive to achieve loyalty with the retail pharmacies. Through supply chain coordination, the wholesalers achieve efficiency in procurement for the pharmacies, thus reducing cost and improving their competitive advantage.

Supply chain coordination in the pharmaceutical supply chain improves the safety and security of the pharmaceutical distribution system.

This paper contributes to the supply chain coordination stream of literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to develop the three levels of process coordination in the pharmaceutical supply chain context. This paper shows how process coordination can be achieved between the dyad without vertical integration.

Over the past two decades, technology-facilitated communication between brand and consumer has become common. One way in which technology can be used to build brand relationships in the online environment is by using brand avatars. This study considers social aspects of brand avatar communication, with the aim of determining if including an element of “socialness” adds to the impact of the brand avatar.

Specifically, the authors test three outcome variables core to building strong consumer relationships through experimental design comparing an avatar's communication style (transactional vs social) while considering the potential covariate of motivational orientation.

Overall, multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) results indicate that social functions provided by the brand avatar are more likely to facilitate the consumer–brand relationship (CBR) process than transactional functions. This study provides managerial support for using an avatar with social communication capabilities.

As social interaction becomes more expected by consumers in the current media landscape, understanding how to meet those demands on a large scale, through brand avatars, is valuable.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between leadership styles, psychological capital and job engagement.

Data were collected among knowledge workers working no less than 1 year in three high-tech enterprises in Henan Province, China. The investigation was conducted with the cooperation from the human resource departments of the selected enterprises from August to October 2014. To minimize potential common method bias, the authors adopted a cross-lagged design with a time gap of four months. The statistical methods included descriptive statistics, structural equation modeling (SEM) and bootstrap analysis.

The results showed: leadership styles significantly influenced employees’ psychological capital and work engagement; specifically, transformational and transactional leadership positively predicted employees’ psychological capital and work engagement; compared with transactional leadership, transformational leadership had stronger predictive power to employees’ psychological capital and work engagement; employees’ psychological capital positively predicted their work engagement; and employees’ psychological capital acts as partial mediator between leadership styles and employees’ work engagement.

Although a body of studies have shown that leadership is an important factor influencing employees’ work attitude and outcomes, it is only in recent years that the effect mechanism of leadership becomes a hot subject in organizational behavior and management fields. As for leadership styles, in general, most research concerned transformational leadership, rather than transactional leadership and only a little of research compared the effects of transformational leadership and transactional leadership on employees’ work outcomes. In terms of outcomes of leadership, as noted earlier, the previous research mainly explored job performance, job satisfaction, innovation behavior, job burnout and so on. Regarding the effect of leadership styles on employees’ work engagement, in spite of more and more supportive evidence of the link between transformational leadership and work engagement, few studies examined the relationship between transactional leadership and work engagement. What’s more, to the best of our knowledge, till now, no empirical research has explored the internal mechanism of this effect from the perspective of psychological capital. Therefore, the present study is a breakthrough for the direct model of leadership styles and employees’ engagement, theoretically bridges the research gap and contributes to the existing literature by presenting a new picture of leadership behavior effect mechanism.

Despite the fact that much has been published about Six Sigma in the business and academic press and on the Internet in recent years, there is still confusion among many people, particularly those who work in the transactional and service environments, about the nature of Six Sigma. It is true that Six Sigma like other process improvement programs before was first applied to manufacturing processes; however, many corporations including General Electric and sony have successfully applied Six Sigma to their transactional and service processes as well. Six Sigma is used by many companies not only to improve the quality of their products and services but also to achieve quantifiable financial results, improve management style and communication, and achieve customer and employee satisfaction. Whether in manufacturing on non‐manufacturing environments, the application of Six Sigma differs from organisation to organisation. Although there are many common elements between these applications, however, special care must be taken when customizing Six Sigma to suite the organisation’s needs. In this paper, the author provides some practical and useful guidelines for Six Sigma deployment. This paper is not about the use of numerous statistical tools and techniques that can be found in a typical Six Sigma toolbox. The main emphasis has been placed both on the concept and the implementation of Six Sigma, particularly within the non‐manufacturing areas of business.

IMP researchers have shown interest in how innovations result from interaction among companies, while, and in parallel, there has been an increased focus on open innovation (OI) during the past decade. OI depicts how companies source, spin-out, and collaborate on innovation. This paper describes and discusses whether and how IMP and OI researchers acknowledge and build on each other’s work; and whether and how ideas provided by IMP and OI, respectively, create a fit to expand the exchange of knowledge between IMP and OI.

The paper is based on a citation analysis focussing on whether the OI literature refers to IMP research, and whether or not the IMP literature refers to OI research. The paper also compares OI and IMP to discover potentials for knowledge exchange between them through discussing similarities, complementarities, and contradictions.

The paper points out that while IMP researchers have started to show interest in OI, OI research does not refer to IMP. As such, OI research remains more company-centric in its discussions. IMP provides tools and models to capture the OI phenomenon specifically related to collaborative OI, while OI offers interesting thought for the capture of transaction-based innovation processes and their management.

The paper contributes to previous research through linking together OI and IMP research. This is important for several reasons, including the ability to enhance knowledge in each domain, critically discuss and relate various research domains and their underpinnings, and expand ideas developed in one research domain to another.

The purpose of this paper is to establish the influence that relationship variables have on construction supply chains. The objective is to show where thoughtful use of relationship marketing (RM) techniques can benefit construction supply chains.

A questionnaire developed from a focus group outcome and literature concerning RM was used to extract information about commitment, trust and satisfaction in upstream and downstream construction supply chain relationships. A cohort of 898 construction industry managers developed from several comprehensive sample frames responded to the questionnaire. Data was analysed using exploratory and non‐parametric confirmatory statistical techniques, including Spearman's ρ non‐parametric correlation matrix, Kruskal‐Wallis test, Mann‐Whitney U test and principal axis factor analysis.

The results indicate that construction actors differentiate between relationship and traditional marketing factors in their supply chain activities. It is shown they engender specific RM techniques in their construction project environment.

RM has the potential to provide organisations with significant supply chain benefits, particularly long‐term value to clients. Benefit may manifest from commitment, trust and satisfaction. These three variables are all fundamental to supply chain activities.

The paper uses a RM knowledge base to develop an increased understanding of supply chain benefit variables. The value of the paper is that it enables construction stakeholders with the tools to develop long‐term relationships in their heterogeneous construction environment.