Katerina Pramatari

RFID‐enabled traceability in the food supply chain

Purpose – This paper aims to study the main requirements of traceability and examine how the technology of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology can address these requirements. It further seeks to outline both an information data model and a system architecture that will make traceability feasible and easily deployable across a supply chain.Design/methodology/approach – The design research approach is followed, associating traceability requirements to a proposed system design.Findings – The technological approach used has great implications in relation to the cost associated with a traceability system and the ease of its deployment.Research limitations/implications – Validation of the proposed information data model and system architecture is required through practical deployment in different settings.Practical implications – The paper provides practitioners with insight on how RFID technology can meet traceability requirements and what technological approach is more appropriate.Originality/val...

Collaborative supply chain practices and evolving technological approaches

Purpose – This paper aims to give an overview of supply chain collaboration practices and the way the underlying enabling technologies have evolved, from the classical EDI approach, to web‐based and RFID‐enabled collaboration.Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses alternative technological approaches and the role they play in supporting collaboration. The research presented in this paper is empirical in nature, based on three different case studies from the grocery retail sector depicting different aspects of implementing supply chain collaboration practices.Findings – From the examination of these cases, interesting lessons are derived regarding the suitability and criticality of the technological approach used to support collaboration, especially regarding the use of a centralized web‐platform as compared to the classical EDI approach and to a decentralized solution based on web services.Research limitations/implications – Research is limited to the specific case studies and further validatio...

Consumer-Retailer Emotional Attachment: Some Antecedents and the Moderating Role of Attachment Anxiety

Brands enjoy significant benefits with emersion in emotionally strong relationships. These benefits include positively biased brands perceptions, devaluation of alternatives, true brand loyalty, and positive word-of-mouth communication, among others. The present study investigates the phenomenon of emotional attachment in the consumer-brand dyad and in the context of in-store grocery retailing. Specifically the study investigates the next set of questions. Is brand emotional attachment an important strategic goal for grocery retailers? In which strategic assets should the retailer invest in order to build emotional connections with its customers? Does context matter with respect to personality characteristics? Rooted in the theoretical framework of brand attachment, adult attachment, and place attachment literatures, the present study investigates service brand emotional attachment determinants, consequences, and the moderating effects of relationship anxiety. Results identify brand trust, employees trust, interpersonal likeability, enjoyment, brand self-expressiveness, place dependence, and place identity as significant predictors of consumer-brand emotional attachment. Emotional attachment is itself in turn a strong predictor of behavioral loyalty, while relationship anxiety appears to multiply the effects of emotional attachment on behavioral loyalty.

The impact of replenishment parameters and information sharing on the bullwhip effect: A computational study

Demand variability amplification across the supply chain, known as the bullwhip effect, results in serious inefficiencies across the chain. Managers are expected to minimize this phenomenon in their chain in order to reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction by making critical decisions on replenishment policy. We study how specific replenishment parameters affect order variability amplification, product fill rates and inventory levels across the chain. Furthermore, we study how demand information sharing can help towards reducing order oscillations and inventory levels in upper nodes of a supply chain. A two-stage supply chain consisting of a warehouse and stores that face customer demand is modeled. Real demand data are used as the underlying customer demand during the experiments.

Collaborative performance measurement in supply chain

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the challenges when developing a common performance measurement system (PMS) in the context of a collaborative supply chain.Design/methodology/approach – The paper utilizes qualitative and quantitative data from a case study. The qualitative data refer to the assessment of collaborative performance measures based on interviews with experts, while the quantitative data demonstrate the use of two performance measures in a collaborative supply chain network.Findings – The development of a collaborative PMS is a challenging task. Through the systematic study of two significant performance measures for a supply chain, it was found that the one could not be supported due to reliability restrictions, while the other requires the development of a complex information system. Based on these, a discussion of specific challenges follows.Research limitations/implications – The paper has the general case study limitations.Practical implications – Companies operati...

Consumer acceptance of RFID-enabled services: a model of multiple attitudes, perceived system characteristics and individual traits

The introduction of emerging technologies in retailing and their infusion in the service encounter necessitates research to better understand consumer attitudes towards the usage of technology in service delivery systems. The capability of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to automatically and uniquely identify products makes this technology promising as an enabler of innovative consumer services. However there is limited research on how consumers perceive the RFID-enabled service systems. The authors develop and empirically test a model that focuses on consumer attitudes towards technology-based services. Based on the pre-prototype user acceptance framework and using RFID as a focal technology, the proposed model includes a hierarchy of three distinct consumer attitudes: towards the general service concept, towards the general technology-based service application and towards the RFID-enabled service. Perceived system characteristics as well as personality traits are included in the model. The partial least squares method of structural equation modelling is used to analyse 575 questionnaires collected in two consumer surveys in Greece (n=173) and Ireland (N=402). The results of the study show that consumer attitude towards RFID-enabled services in retailing can be modelled as a confluence of multiple attitudes. The results also indicate that perceived system-related factors – such as performance and effort expectancy – as well as individual traits – such as technology anxiety and information privacy concern – affect consumer attitude towards technology-based and RFID-enabled services, respectively.

A cost-benefit evaluation framework of an electronic-based traceability system.

Purpose – The concept of “traceability as a strategy and mandatory initiative” has replaced that of “traceability as a cost of a business or as a voluntary responsibility”. This implies that the introduction of a traceability system should be perceived and positioned as a catalyst for better business practices. However, despite these benefits, a traceability system is also investment‐worthy. Hence, the value of investment in a traceability system constitutes a matter of considerable concern and debate for both practitioners and academics alike. This paper seeks to present a cost‐benefit evaluation applied in a natural mineral water company regarding the pilot deployment of an electronic‐based traceability system.Design/methodology/approach – This is a case based study.Findings – Based on the experience described previously, a high‐level framework is generated that any organisation can refer to as a proper guideline in order to demonstrate how the costs and benefits can be compared for overall evaluation o...

The moderating role of customer–technology contact on attitude towards technology-based services

Previous studies in information systems research and service marketing treat customer behaviour towards technology-based services (TBS) homogeneously. However, recent studies recognize that users have different attitude towards different technologies even if these technologies used to support the same service. Drawing on literature from service marketing (i.e. customer contact theory), information systems (unified theory of technology acceptance), and organizational behaviour (task complexity theory), this study proposes a construct that classifies TBS according to the level of customer–technology interaction they require, namely the customer–technology contact (CTC). The moderating effect of this construct on the relationship between individual characteristics – that is technology readiness and attitude towards TBS – is examined through an empirical study. Technology-based retail services scenarios, with different levels of technology contact, are presented to supermarket shoppers (n=600). Results show that CTC, as a unique service attribute, moderates the effect of personality traits to customers’ attitude. The current study introduces this new service attribute that is applicable to ubiquitous computing services, application and design.

OR and the management of electronic services

This review paper is meant to provide some insight to the relation between operations research and the management of electronic services. We use the term electronic services, within the broader e-business context, to refer to any service that is delivered to the customer via electronic means, mainly the Internet as a new channel to communicate with customers, but also through mobile and other digital communications. During the last years we have experienced an explosion in the development of electronic services, which is creating abundant opportunities for operations research (OR) applications, required to empower several types of technology-mediated interactions, exploit the large-scale digital data sources, and automate the recurring operational decisions. In this paper we summarise the various aspects in which operations research may support the management of electronic services, taking into account the different characteristics of alternative electronic media, such as the Internet, mobile communications, interactive television etc.

Supporting real-time supply chain decisions based on RFID data streams

While RFID technology has been widely praised for its ability to streamline supply chain processes, little attention has been given to its unique data capturing characteristics to support real-time decision making. Being able to efficiently perform complex real-time analysis on top of RFID event streams is a key challenge for modern applications. This provides management with a novel data analysis mechanism to allow better, tactical, on time, well-informed decisions. The two main issues in RFID data management (RFDM) concern expressibility (how to simply and concisely express stream queries) and performance (how to efficiently evaluate stream queries). In this paper we claim that a spreadsheet-like query model, where formulation is done in a column-wise fashion, can express intuitively a large class of useful and practical RFDM queries. We propose a simple SQL extension to do that and show how these queries can be evaluated efficiently. We finally discuss a prototype called COSTES (COntinuous SpreadsheeT-likE computations), which implements our SQL extensions and evaluation algorithms. Presentation takes place within the context of two representative RFID applications, namely shelf availability and in-store sales promotions.