Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics

Leela Rani; Sanal Kumar Velayudhan

2008 Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics

doi: 10.1108/13555850810890048

Purpose – This study aims to examine empirically how consumers' attitude towards retail stores gets affected by situational, consumer, store and product characteristic variables when they face out‐of‐stock situations. Design/methodology/approach – Survey method for data collection was used. Data were collected from a sample of 1,207 retail customers in India's unorganized retail sector across five product categories in Varanasi, India. Findings – Results showed that six of the independent variables considered, namely, shopping attitude of respondent, store loyalty (SL), perceived store prices, store distance, shopping frequency, and brand loyalty (in order of importance of impact) significantly influenced consumers' attitude towards retail store in out‐of‐stock. Research limitations/implications – Data were collected only for five product categories and for unorganized retail setting because of which results and findings are not generalizeable to beyond these boundaries. Practical implications – Implications of this for retailers and future research are discussed. Originality/value – Since attitudes towards retail outlets are very important in determining future SL and subsequent profitability, understanding of consumer store attitudes in negative events like stockout is importantly for retailers. The paper provides crucial insights to retailers by identifying independent variables that must be considered while designing their operations.

Guo Huan; Roger Brooksbank; David Taylor; Patrycia Babbis

2008 Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics

doi: 10.1108/13555850810890057

Purpose – This article aims to examine the extent to which Western World “textbook” strategic marketing is being practised within Chinese manufacturing companies as well as its contribution to competitive success. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected by means of a web‐based survey. A total of 89 usable questionnaires were received from Chinese manufacturing firms employing at least 50 people. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS. Findings – The results confirm that, on the whole, the basic strategic marketing practices which are typically advocated in the mainstream Western academic and prescriptive literature are being widely practised within Chinese manufacturing companies. The results also show the higher performing firms are clearly differentiated from their lower performing counterparts by doing more and better marketing. Research limitations/implications – Because of the relatively low response rate, one limitation is the extent to which the sample is representative of the population under scrutiny. Also, in spite of the questionnaire being back translated, some misunderstanding of the questions cannot be ruled out. Originality/value – The paper confirms that Western strategic marketing practices are clearly associated with the higher performing Chinese manufacturing companies.

Mark Anthony Farrell; Edward Oczkowski; Radwan Kharabsheh

2008 Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics

doi: 10.1108/13555850810890066

Purpose – Despite failure rates of around 30 per cent, international joint ventures (IJVs) continue to grow. It is argued that IJVs provide a platform for organisational learning, which facilitates organisational performance. Intuitively, IJVs that are learning oriented should have a positive impact upon organisational performance. However, it is unclear as to whether a firm in an IJV should focus more on being learning oriented, or market oriented. The paper aims to address this question. Design/methodology/approach – A survey of 168 senior managers involved in IJVs in Malaysia. Data were analysed using two‐stage least squares estimators for latent variable models. Findings – Results suggest that for IJVs, a market orientation has a more positive impact on organisational performance than a learning orientation. The non‐linear relationship between market orientation and performance suggest that larger gains in performance are achieved by firms who have low initial levels of market orientation. Thus, in the absence of one or the other, it is preferable for a firm in an IJV to have a strong market orientation. Practical implications – For managers of IJVs, the study would suggest that firms should concentrate on improving their organisations' overall level of market orientation if they are to improve the level of business performance. Originality/value – This paper is the first to examine the relative effects of a market orientation and a learning orientation in the context of IJVs.

Chee‐Cheng Chen

2008 Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics

doi: 10.1108/13555850810890075

Purpose – This paper aims to propose a customer‐oriented, objective‐based model for evaluating the performance of logistics service providers (LSPs). Design/methodology/approach – The study develops an appropriate customer‐oriented, objective‐based measurement model for LSPs on conceptual grounds. The paper illustrates the application in the form of a case study of a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer. Findings – Satisfactory results are obtained in demonstrating the application of the model. Compared with the previous model used by the case company, the new model produced sensitive, accurate, and effective manufacturing performance rating results for different achievement levels. Practical implications – The proposed LSP performance‐rating model can be applied by a variety of manufacturers to assess all kinds of LSPs in various industries. The proposed model can assist manufacturers in selecting the best LSP and integrating LSP capabilities to develop an appropriate quality‐and‐profit improvement program using customer‐specific requirements. Originality/value – This paper proposes an original model to solve the problem of multiple measurements in assessing an LSP, taking into account the total cost of logistics (including net price, delivery, quality, service, and so on).

Pichet Kunadhamraks; Shinya Hanaoka

2008 Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics

doi: 10.1108/13555850810890084

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the logistics performance of intermodal freight transportation, a reasonably innovative methodology, to Thailand. Design/methodology/approach – Fuzzy set techniques are applied to assess the meaning of logistics performance within the decision process of freight operators. The fuzzy‐analytical hierarchy process is applied to identify the relative significance among the attributes in the hierarchy framework levels. Consequently, the fuzzy‐multi‐criteria analysis is used to assess decision makers' perception of the logistics performance via proper assignment of numerical scores. The subjective judgments for hierarchical attributes are transformed into fuzzy degrees of score. Findings – Results show a summary of performance indices for different levels in the hierarchy framework. The results demonstrate that the lack of coordination among modes limit the attractiveness of intermodal system. In addition, the methodology is proposed to examine changing variables regarding modal shift and challenge the truck dominance in Thailand. Research limitations/implications – The proposed framework is only a starting point for integrating the views of logistics operators in the analytical processes. This study did not include several external social costs such as accidents, congestion, and environmental costs. Practical implications – The methodology provides an approach lead to the index values for assessment and comparative analysis. The strengths and limitations of each alternative were benchmarked relative to a set of hierarchical attributes. Sensitivity analyses of significant variables are performed to examine the impact on changed costs and services levels. The model can entail use of corresponding parameters to improve a logistics system. Originality/value – The performance measurement is formulated from the modal choice perspective with a human decision problem. The use of logistics performance base indicators has been linked to the intermodal transport system. This study extends the newly developed methodological framework to evaluate the logistics performance of intermodal transportation.

Siddharth Varma; Subhash Wadhwa; S.G. Deshmukh

2008 Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics

doi: 10.1108/13555850810890093

Purpose – Performance evaluation in supply chain management (SCM) is not a straightforward task. This becomes even more complicated while evaluating a process industry supply chain because of its inherently different characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a method to evaluate the performance of one such process supply chain, namely the petroleum industry supply chain. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a combination of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and balanced scorecard (BSC) for evaluating performance of the petroleum supply chain. The choice of factors determining supply chain performance under the four perspectives of BSC has been validated using opinion from subject matter experts (SMEs). In order to determine relative importance of criteria opinion of SMEs has been collected in the form of pairwise comparisons. Using these comparisons, the AHP technique has been applied to determine the relative weights of various perspectives as well as the factors under each perspective. Findings – The importance of four perspectives with respect to petroleum supply chain performance in descending order of importance comes out as: customer, financial, internal business process, innovation and learning. Within these perspectives, the following factors seem to be most important respectively: purity of product, market share, steady supply of raw material and use of information technology. Practical implications – Most research work has focused on discrete part manufacturing supply chains. Process industry supply chains deserve a different treatment due to their inherently different characteristics. The methodology suggested in this paper tries to include these characteristics and can help in comparing performance of supply chains of different petroleum companies. Originality/value – The value of this paper lies in the unique approach towards determining the performance of process industry supply chains. By using BSC, non‐financial factors have also been taken into account. Opinion of SMEs has been quantified using the AHP technique thus converting qualitative data to quantitative data.