The impact of adopting customization policy and sustainability for improving consumer service in a dual-channel retailing

In recent decades sustainability and dual-route retailing have been adopted by many big industries. Companies are now bound to maintain such strategies that fulfill the sustainable goals developed by the United Nations. Industries face a huge penalty if carbon emissions exceed a certain boundary. Moreover, factories should maintain sufficient flow in retail chains and product quality. This paper demonstrates 3-pillar sustainability in dual channel retailing, empowering firms to integrate the financial-economic pillar with the non-financial (environmental, social, and ethical) pillar. The core product is made available through the traditional channel and customized products are through online channels. The model is enabling the customers with customization provisions where they can influence the products. Thus, as a novel approach, the article incorporates a presumed threshold limit on the product's (standard and customized) selling price difference. Due to customization, a new product is developed which needs extensive quality checks. The study introduces an investment in checking the quality of the customized product which reduces the probability of customization defects exponentially. Additionally, current research adapts the carbon emission cost, penalties charged to a firm for overshooting the limit, and social costs in a smart supply chain. It also exemplifies that production is directly proportional to financial investments in meeting sustainability objectives. The numerical analysis reflects that as production increases, penalty costs decrease at a significant rate but after reaching optimal production penalty cost again starts to increase. It is observed that the downfall of penalty is 20% more for the single-channel than dual. Adaptation of the customization policy makes the retailing strategy more cost-effective. The model exemplifies that it is more economical to adopt dual-channel retailing compared to single-channel as there is approximately a 14.0625% reduction in total cost in dual-channel retailing. Moreover, an 80% improved quality is observed with a financial investment, which improves consumer satisfaction.     

Is online-to-offline customer care support essential for consumer service?

Customer satisfaction is the main pillar for convenient and profitable retailing. The retail sector continuously tried to develop new strategies to improve consumer satisfaction. It is impossible to provide each service directly to the consumer by the retailer. In this direction, the retailer establishes customer care to provide the best service to consumers. Consumer care can provide promotional or prevention services, increasing the consumer's satisfaction level. This study is developed to show the impact of retailers' customer care service for an offline-to-online retailing strategy. The demand is consumer support, advertisement, and selling price dependent. For maintaining consumer service, some free home delivery policies are offered, when consumers ordered more than a certain percentage of the amount. Finally, the total profit of this O2O retailing system is calculated by the classical optimization technique. Some special cases are discussed in the numerical section to prove the impact of customer care services. Numerical results prove that customer care support enhances the profit by 48.20%, whereas investment in the advertisement and home delivery strategy helps the retail industry to earn 44.80% and 16.74% more profit, respectively. Finally, from this study, it is clear that customer care activities are essential to increase the profit of the retailing sector.     

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.     

基于区块链技术的建筑材料供应链质量数据安全共享方法

传统方法在建筑材料供应链质量数据安全共享中应用效果不佳，不仅数据误码率比较高，而且数据共享时延比较长，无法达到预期的数据安全共享效果。为此提出基于区块链技术的建筑材料供应链质量数据安全共享方法。利用区块链技术对建筑材料供应链质量数据属性加密，建立建筑材料供应链质量数据安全共享链，整合建筑材料供应链质量数据加密、解密程序，通过对用户身份验证实现对质量数据安全共享，以此完成基于区块链技术的建筑材料供应链质量数据安全共享。实验证明，设计方法的数据误码率在1%以内，数据共享时延在1s以内，具有良好的数据安全共享效果。     

基于CiteSpace 的创新链研究综述

运用CiteSpace软件，以1995—2022年中国知网（CNKI）核心期刊和中文社会科学引文索引（CSSCI）期刊为数据源，从热点关键词、发文作者、发文机构以及突现词方面对创新链相关领域文献进行可视化分析。研究发现：有关创新链的研究角度大概可以分为产业、技术、区域、模式和价值链5个方面；从发文特征来看，发文量最多的是张杰，群体内相较于群体间合作较多；从研究机构分布来看，机构间的合作比较分散，且合作大多发生在一个国家或地区；从未来演进趋势来看，文献近期表现为国家政策主导。     

基于SD模型的装配式建筑供应链脆弱性研究

装配式建筑供应链的运作存在很多不确定性。为提高供应链管理效率，促进建筑业的发展，运用供应链运作参考(SCOR)模型对装配式建筑供应链脆弱因子进行识别，将装配式供应链系统划分为6个子系统；通过系统动力学（SD）模型对供应链脆弱性进行仿真。结果表明，装配制造流程是脆弱性最大的子系统，整个供应链的脆弱性随着建筑项目的推进而增大。     

中国农药施用与农业经济增长脱钩状态：时空特征与影响因素

[目的]明确农药施用与农业经济增长关联状态及其影响因素,为实现"控药减害增收"的目标提供借鉴。[方法]基于2005—2015年数据利用脱钩理论和对数平均分解指数法分解进行分析。[结果]中国农业经济增长伴生大量农药施用,仅少数省域表现出农药施用和农业经济增长扩张绝对脱钩的理想状态,东北西北部分省域农业经济增长则以更大幅度的农药投入增长为代价。中西部地区劳动力规模和技术进步效应是推动农药施用与农业经济增长脱钩的因素;东部地区种植规模变化、劳动力规模和技术进步因素均是推动农药施用和农业经济增长脱钩的因素;东北地区仅劳动力规模效应成为推动脱钩的力量。[结论]推动农药施用与农业经济增长脱钩需要强化农业科技的创新与普及,完善农业生产过程中的技术支撑,推动农业病虫害监测预警,加大对环境友好型低污染农药和肥料的推广度;构建农户施药的多重约束机制,完善农业病虫灾害保险减少农户对生产过程的风险感知,发挥农业合作社对农户施药行为的规制作用,完善产品分级认证和安全准入制度;通过农地合理流转和农业机械化等方式集约利用农业生产资源;因地制宜推动农药施用与农业经济增长脱钩,结合区域资源优势和农业发展阶段有针对性地设计对策措施。     

Employee workplace spirituality and pro-environmental behavior in the hotel industry

Pro-environmental behaviors in the workplace are less investigated than those in the public and private spheres. With this in mind, and through the values framework of workplace spirituality (WPS), synthesizing the theories of connectedness and organizational citizenship, the current study proposed a theoretical model to gauge the influence of WPS, a relatively new area of inquiry in organizational research and a neglected field in tourism and hospitality, on hotel employees’ organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE). In this framework, the emerging concept of connectedness to nature (CNS) – a strong cognitive and affective predictor of pro-environmental behavior – was depicted as a mediator, and the construct of environmental awareness (EA) was deemed a moderator. The intended model received support through empirical testing, and results confirmed that WPS is significantly associated with employees’ OCBE, and CNS indirectly affects the relationship between WPS and OCBE, while EA functions as a booster. The theoretical and practical implications of the study were discussed, and a series of contributory managerial implications were described accordingly.     

Flow Signals: Evidence from Patent and Alliance Portfolios in the US Biopharmaceutical Industry

Integrating signalling theory and the portfolio diversity literature, we theorize that diversity in a firm's patent and alliance portfolios sends contrasting flow signals impacting its market value in a nuanced way. Diversity in an alliance portfolio mediates the patent portfolio diversity – market value relationship by suppressing the negative effect of patent portfolio diversity creating an overall positive effect. We test our mediation model on a longitudinal set of 225 US biopharmaceutical firms that were awarded 17,078 patents and participated in 37,744 alliances between 1990 and 2006. Our theory and findings contribute three novel insights. First, we demonstrate the value of a temporal lens in explaining why diversity in a firm's patent and alliance portfolios send flow signals that establish expectations among market observers and have performance implications. Second, establishing that patent and alliance portfolio diversity are temporally sequenced provides compelling evidence for the value of studying multiple types of portfolios, their temporal relationships and effects on firm outcomes. Third, since diversity in a firm's portfolios can send contrasting flow signals conditioned on the cognitive demands and proximity involved in interpreting the signals, firms that do not maintain a ‘signalling fit’ with market observers increase the probability of unintentional negative signalling effects.