The impact of reverse logistics process coordination on third party relationship quality: A moderated mediation model for multichannel retailers in the fashion industry

Multichannel retailing is a widely adopted strategy in the fashion industry. Companies in this industry find it a source of competitive advantage to invest in reverse logistics infrastructure. However, limited empirical studies investigate the enablers of the relationship quality between the retailers and their reverse logistics service providers. This study quantifies the impact of reverse logistics process coordination between retailers and logistics service providers on relationship quality. Moreover, it tests the mediating role of reverse logistics service quality and the moderating role of conflict frequency in this relationship. Data were collected through a survey using a purposive sample of 241 retail store managers from the fashion retail industry of Pakistan. For this purpose, a self-administered questionnaire was developed using a five-point Likert Scale to gauge the responses. Conditional process analysis was used to evaluate the moderated mediation model. The findings showed a significant positive impact of reverse logistics process coordination on the relationship quality with a logistics service provider, a significant positive mediation effect of reverse logistics service quality, and a significant moderation effect of conflict frequency on the indirect relationship. However, conflict frequency, contrary to the hypothesis in the study, strengthened the indirect relationship. Furthermore, the moderation effect of conflict frequency on the direct relationship was insignificant. This study will help managers better understand the best practices leading to effective management of reverse logistics processes, particularly product returns.     

Market response to syndicated loan announcements from high-profile failed and acquiring banks during the global financial crisis

Previous studies that have examined the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on syndicated loans have ignored potential differences between lending banks by explicitly or implicitly aggregating all lenders together and focusing on borrower characteristics. One must jointly consider both borrower and lender to fully understand the complex role of the syndicate during this period. We consider the identity of the lender, with a focus on five major US banks that failed and their five corresponding acquirers. Our results highlight the distinct roles of investment and commercial banks and facilitate an understanding of relationship and transactional-based lending.     

Enhancing relationships in e-tail: Role of relationship quality and duration

This research deals with antecedents and outcomes of relationship quality in e-tail. SMART-PLS analysis of survey data from India (n = 644) showed that perceived value, e-service quality, interaction, discounts and transaction related factors were found to have a positive effect on relationship quality (RQ). RQ mediates the relationship between these antecedents and self-brand connect and loyalty. Support for serial mediation was found with RQ and self-brand connect preceding loyalty formation. Relationship duration positively moderated the effect of RQ on self-brand connect. RQ was conceptualized as a formative second order factor. E-tailers may invest in antecedents of RQ and they may devise strategies to increase the duration of relationships.     

探地雷达在公路改扩建工程检测中的应用

公路改扩建工程在广东省正处于快速发展时期,如何准确得到路面病害情况,是旧路处治方案制定面临的主要问题.依托开阳高速改扩建工程,采用三维探地雷达对旧路进行病害检测,得到道路表面及内部的病害分布情况,并分别与人工徒步调查路况及开挖后内部实际情况进行比对.结果表明:当三维探地雷达检测采样间距设置为2.0 cm、驻波时间设置为0.6 ms、时窗设置为85 ns时,可达到较好的检测精准度;三维探地雷达可实现对路面结构内部不同深度位置的裂缝病害进行探测,精确识别3 mm宽裂缝,并了解裂缝的发展方向及性质.     

New employee orientation,role-related stressors and conflict at work: Consequences for work attitudes and performance of hospitality employees

Combining role theory with theories on hindrance stressors and intragroup conflict, we develop a model of the attitudinal and behavioral consequences of new employee orientation in hospitality organizations. We test hypotheses about main and mediated effects in this model, using data from a sample of 156 recently hired hospitality interns and applying a longitudinal approach, with data collection shortly after organizational entry and several months later. Results suggest that employee orientation is negatively related to two hindrance stressors: role ambiguity and role conflict. Role ambiguity predicts a range of attitudinal outcomes and the relationship is partially mediated by relationship conflict. In addition, role ambiguity is negatively related to task performance. Role conflict predicts hospitality employees’ job attitudes and this relationship is fully mediated by relationship conflict. We discuss important theoretical and practical implications of these findings for human resource management in hospitality firms.     

Environmental Actions and Consumer Participation: Which Impacts on Brand Relationship? The Multiple Realities of the Hospitality Sector

This paper focuses on the complex causal relationships between consumers’ attitude towards environmental actions, their participation in the hospitality supply and their brand relationship from different perspectives. These relationships are modelled by using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) on a sample of hotels. The findings show that for each kind of participation, attitude of consumer regarding environmental actions appears to be a necessary condition. Various paths are identified to explain consumer brand relationship in budget and luxury hotels. The models have a good predictive validity and provide useful recommendations in the understanding of consumer behaviors.     

Disruption,dissolution and reconstruction: A dialectical view on inter-organizational relationship development

This paper contributes to research on inter-organizational relationship dynamics by applying a dialectical approach. We analyze a situation where the relationship parties have divergent understandings of business exchange, and use a longitudinal, in-depth single case study method to investigate their interaction process. The case study focuses on the relationship between a customer and a supplier in the ferrochrome industry, using the acquisition of the supplier as the trigger of the relationship change process. The paper contributes to studies on relationship dynamics by showing how dynamics of inter-organizational relationships may result from struggles when parties’ interests and goals do not align with existing relationship arrangements. In particular, we focus on the process of (re)construction of the relationship and its linkage to the structural properties of the relationship.     

“Going natural”: Black women’s identity project shifts in hair care practices

Hair care, a seemingly mundane consumption practice, is packed with sociocultural meanings and constitutes an important realm of identity work for consumers. Drawing upon existing literature on consumer identity projects, this paper investigates the experiences of urban, Black women in Kenya as they disengage from the normative practice of altering their natural hair texture using chemical straighteners (a practice that conforms to Eurocentric beauty ideals of straight, flowing hair), and adopt the non-normative hair care practice of “going natural,” in which they embrace their natural hair texture and hairstyles. This paper traces the historical, sociocultural, and political events that underpin the normative ideology associated with the identity marker of natural Black hair, and how this ideology influences the women’s “going natural” experience. Findings reveal tensions that emerge in the women’s identity project disengagement and reconstruction process, and how the women navigate their position as they reimagine their embodied identity quest.     

技术型企业过往绩效对团队创新行为的影响：关系冲突的中介效应

基于IMOI模型，引入具备动态特征的“过往绩效”概念，利用长三角地区101个项目导向型研发团队问卷数据，依据社会信息处理理论和归因理论探讨过往绩效对团队创新行为的影响效果与内在机制。结果发现，过往绩效与团队创新行为显著正相关，关系冲突在过往绩效影响创新行为路径中起部分中介作用，并且关系冲突的中介机制在中国“人情”文化背景下能得到更好的解释；进一步，团队内部的恶意归因倾向在这一过程中发挥着调节作用。研究结果有助于从新视角探索技术型团队创新行为诱发机制，对双创背景下技术型企业创新管理实践具有一定参考意义。     

Resolving post-formation challenges in shared IJVs: The impact of shared IJV structure on inter-partner relationships

The “50/50”, or the shared management international joint venture (shared IJV) remains a popular and yet challenging control structure to govern IJVs. The purpose of this study is to understand the post-formation management of shared IJVs, specifically the relationship between shared structure, relational conditions and management of post-formation challenges. Our evidence is based on 26 in-depth interviews across four cases of shared IJVs between British multinationals and Asian companies. Our findings indicate that the highly integrative nature of shared IJVs, including high operational interdependence and shared decision-making, encourages partners to work closely together, communicate frequently and intensely and exchange personnel. Although share management can lead to inter-partner conflicts, the equal investment and mutual responsibility partly provides partners with motivation and opportunities to learn about each other, to better implement the control structure, to build trust, and to commit to the venture and partner. These relational conditions facilitated the successful management of post-formation challenges such as diversity related conflicts and macro volatility.