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Important evaluation criteria as they are perceived by quality managers in American and US‐based Japanese firms are examined. For this study, three different groups of companies contained within four industries were considered. They included American firms using a traditional approach to manufacturing management, Japanese firms operating in the United States, and American firms attempting a Japanese approach to manufacturing management. This study identified price, on‐time delivery, and the supplier′s product quality as the three major criteria for evaluating vendors. The attitudes of quality managers concerning the importance of these variables were counter to the impressions portrayed in the academic and managerial press. Also differing from the literature was how much the managers in these different types of firms linked the evaluation criteria and overall organisational performance.

Most companies with incoming raw materials in bulk form receive test results from the vendor. The receiving department either does not test the material for acceptance at all, or duplicates the testing done by the vendor. A joint quality programme is presented between the vendor and the buyer that will reduce inspection costs and improve the quality and consistency. The vendor in this plan will practise process control and forward the results to the receiving department of the buyer. The buyer will exercise a multi‐level skip‐lot sampling plan to accept or reject incoming lots, based on the comparison of the vendor′s test data with its own test results. Detailed information for full implementation of this plan is provided.

A major transformation in retail logistics over the few years is backed by enormous improvements in internet technologies. It is now easy for e-retailers to entertain delivery progression, or consumers can share use-experience with future customers and thereby reducing information asymmetry. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of different signals on consumer behavior in the presence of information asymmetry, in the context of online group buying (OGB) markets in China.

Based on the lemon market theory (LMT) and signaling theory, the study develops a research model of the OGB consumers’ context in China, which is validated using data from an online survey. A total of 528 responses are used for data analysis applying structural equation modeling technique.

The findings of the study show that perceived vendor quality (PVQ) and perceived product quality (PPQ) have significantly positive effects on intention to purchase from OGB websites. PVQ is associated with perceived reputation and perceived trustworthiness (PT) of vendor, and the determinants of PPQ are quality assurance information of products, and information about mer-chants. Further, PT has a mediating effect, while asymmetry of information has a moderating effect.

The research model is valid as a generic OGB model that can be investigated in other contexts to understand the generalizability of the findings. Future research is needed to incorporate additional relevant factors (e.g. price, advertising activity/investments) that may help increase the acceptability of the model to a wide range of e-commerce contexts. Two of the control variables (gender and prior internet experience) were found to be significant; this could be further examined in future studies to determine the relative impact on each causal relationship.

Whereas prior studies in the domain of consumer service proposed different signaling mechanisms that were believed to eliminate information asymmetry from a market, the study sheds light on the effectiveness of the signals in the OGB context. This is a unique effort that applies and extends LMT and signaling theory in OGB context by theorizing the associated dimensions and their causal effects.

The information technology (IT) industry has been continuously expanding. This has resulted in promoting outsourcing of work by clients to vendors. Most of the published research has focussed on when clients should start outsourcing, what to outsource, criteria for vendor selection, etc., however the vendor side of the relationship has been mostly ignored. The purpose of this paper is to delve deep into the vendors’ side and what aspects a vendor needs to consider in order to maintain a good relationship with the clients.

The research design of the paper is to use literature survey to define the components of the client vendor relationship (CVR), identify the parameters impacting the relationship, establish correlation between the independent variables and the dependent variable; subsequently to propose a framework for the CVR.

The findings have been that – communication, technical value addition, knowledge sharing and client vendor adaptability are vital to any outsourcing engagement and if the vendor is able to get good knowledge transfer of the application at hand and the business domain, it can perform better. Vendors, which proactively resolve issues, ensure stable deliveries before time and identify improvements in the software outside the work assigned maintain better relationship. Further a vendor must be adaptable to clients, cultural, time zone differences, should provide a good project manager and be ready to change tools, resources as per client needs. As long as the vendor is able to ensure the above, the stability of the client country and need for information security is not as important to vendors.

The study has limitations as it focusses on the vendors’ side and is inclined toward Indian vendors’ perspectives. Future research can include client as well and can be conducted for a different geography.

The research work is original and adds value to the IT service outsourcing industry by identifying the parameters which need to be monitored for a sustainable CVR.

The purpose of this study is to determine the criteria used by members of the textile and apparel chain to select overseas vendors. Of specific interest is the value (if any) of ISO 9000 registration, i.e. whether Canadian apparel buyers are influenced by such registration, and whether there are determinants of how buyers respond to registration when selecting vendors.

A list of 16 criteria used by textile and apparel buyers to select overseas vendors was generated based on the literature, in‐depth interviews, and content analysis of a major industry publication. The criteria were tested for importance by use of a survey of representatives of the textile‐apparel supply chain in Canada.

Criteria relating to a vendor's flexibility and responsiveness were most important. Registration to a quality program such as ISO 9000 was not considered important nor did it seem to give an overseas vendor a business advantage over its domestic non‐registered counterpart. Two factors, category of apparel firm and the firm's use of quality programs, were potential determinants of favorable responses to registration.

This study furthers the understanding of importer behavior and overseas vendor selection criteria as well as the importance of ISO 9000 registration to buyers in the soft goods industries.

Lawler (2001) posits that social exchanges create a sense of shared responsibility for outcome success. The purpose of this study is to apply this framework to the vendor/frontline employee/customer triad to examine the underlying role of emotions in how frontline employees’ evaluations of vendors and customers trigger and temper brand advocacy efforts, respectively.

With cross-sectional data from 168 frontline employees working at a leading national retailer of electronic goods, path analysis is used to evaluate the hypotheses.

Frontline employees’ relationship quality with the vendor and perceptions of vendors’ product quality positively influence brand advocacy. Also, customers’ brand affinity and recommendation preference both demonstrate a significant, negative curvilinear relationship with brand advocacy.

Frontline employees’ emotion-laden evaluations of vendors and customer influence brand advocacy in different ways. Vendor relationship quality and brand quality perceptions “trigger” brand advocacy. However, customer’s affinity toward a vendor’s brand and willingness to seek recommendations “temper” brand advocacy. Specifically, brand advocacy effort is low when customers possess very low and very high affinity toward a focal brand – moderate affinity spurs high advocacy; likewise, advocacy is low when customers demonstrate very low and very high interest in seeking the frontline employees’ opinion – moderate interest spurs high advocacy. Although ideal to examine vendor and customer emotional exchanges, using only frontline employee data from a technology-selling retailer may constrain generalizability.

Frontline employee training programs should emphasize the customer’s role in the transaction to increase perceptions of shared responsibility, as a means to create a favorable emotional experience, and accentuate timing strategies on when to pursue heightened or diminished emotionally charged brand advocacy efforts.

This study contributes to the frontline employee behavior literature by viewing shared responsibility in transactions as a source of emotional value, explaining variance in frontline employee brand advocacy through relationship and product quality dimensions, and uncovering curvilinear effects for customers’ brand affinity and recommendation preference in elucidating brand advocacy.

This paper aims to investigate the effects of vendor – client relationship on organizational success in the hospitality industry. The relationship between vendors and clients regarding information technology outsourcing does not always go in harmony. In the viewpoint of hospitality practitioners, information technology (IT) providers do not necessarily abide by the given promises stated on contracts, all the time. The service flows, which are mostly generated by the lack of quality relationship between vendors and clients directly affect hotels’ organizational performance.

Data were collected by an online survey and analyzed using multivariable statistics (path analysis) to determine the effects of service quality and relationship quality on outsourcing success, and its effect on organizational performance. Data from 102 valid responses received from ten different countries, representing 230 hotels in total were analyzed.

Service quality and relationship quality, which are two dimensions of outsourcing relationships, were found to be positively related to outsourcing success (r = 0.60 and 0.70, p < 0.01, respectively) and intangible organizational performance (r = 0.20, p < 0.05; 0.26 and 0.27, p < 0.01, respectively).

The research was designed to investigate the IT outsourcing service receiver’s (client) perspective. The IT service provider’s (vendor) perspective is disregarded. Disturbance results are very high (i.e. more than 0.95). This may well be the case that certain facets of the outsourcing success construct are not adequately represented by the chosen indicators. Research results may reveal an idea about the research subject, in general, but may not be generalized to the whole industry due to its sampling size. Finally, the survey was conducted online, and all online research restrictions were applicable to this research such as receiving very limited response rates.

The results of this research provide important information for practitioners in the hospitality industry and IT service providers. Relationship quality between vendor and client was observed to be the most determinant factor in IT outsourcing success.

The proposed model may well serve as a framework for further examining mediating and possible moderating variables.

There is limited research in the previous literature investigating the relationship between information technology vendor and client, in terms of service quality and relationship quality in hospitality industry. This paper may serve to fill in this gap.

This study will attempt to focus on how vendors serve operators, as operator service quality starts with vendor’s technology infrastructure and service quality. The purpose of this study is to exhibit the most important vendor service quality items and dimensions for the operators in the telecommunications industry.

A total of 268 employees from various age groups, cities, job levels and departments participated in the survey.

Expected service quality results indicated that operators need high service quality. When telecommunication needs of subscribers are taken into account, it is normal for operators to expect high service quality from vendors. Results also reveal that being dependable and providing continuous support are critical for the telecommunications industry. Perceived service quality results demonstrate that customer expectations failed to be satisfied. In this study conducted in the telecommunications market, the expectations of operator employees regarding vendors is shaped under two dimensions. These dimensions are employee and service center features and provider timeliness and accuracy. When Topsis method was used to determine the most important vendor characteristics, timeliness and trust were identified as the top two criteria.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to put forth the most important vendor service quality items and dimensions for the operators in the telecommunications industry.

The determination of quality costs on a production line is discussed. An approach to quality costs analysis is developed and illustrated employing a particular production line. This line which is devoted to the assembly and testing of an advanced computer system is fully described. A diagrammatic model of the production line is presented which displays points on the line at which quality costs can arise and the nature of these costs. A quality cost model for this line incorporating prevention, appraisal and failure cost elements is presented and their estimation discussed. It is argued that the modelling concept developed can provide a general framework for the isolation of quality costs.

In the last 15 years, online sales of second-hand products have grown substantially due to changes in the economy, increasing interest in sustainability and the new opportunities offered by the alternative markets. However, little is known about the antecedents of customer retention in this particular online market. To this effect, the aim of this research is to bring new insights about what retains shoppers and creates loyal behaviour in this market by presenting a loyalty model based on expectancy-value theory and building on Olsen's satisfaction-loyalty model.

To achieve the above-mentioned purpose, a survey comprised of 507 respondents who had purchased second-hand products via an online platform during 2020 was used to test the model.

The results validate both the satisfaction-loyalty model and the mediator role of the fulfilment of expectations between perceived quality and satisfaction. The results also indicate that customer fulfilment of expectations depends only on the perception of product quality. Perceived product quality was also the dimension that most influenced satisfaction, followed by perceived vendor quality. Last, the dimensions that contributed most to loyal behaviour were satisfaction with the vendor and with the website.

The originality of this research lies in the validation of the unique satisfaction-loyalty model for online second-hand purchases. The value of this research is that it adds knowledge about effective strategies for platform owners and sellers to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty in online second-hand markets.