Kathryn A. Marley

In Search of Stakeholder Salience: Exploring Corporate Social and Sustainability Reports

This research draws on the stakeholder salience framework to explore more deeply the web of business–stakeholder relationships that characterize the Fortune Global 100’s corporate social responsibility and sustainability reports. By better understanding stakeholder salience, defined as the power, legitimacy, and urgency attributed to stakeholders in these corporate reports, this research enables business leaders and scholars to further their recognition and comprehension of the characteristics of the critical stakeholder relationships that link business’s social and sustainability performance with its economic performance—the triple bottom line. Despite the predictions of this research, nationality was not found to be a differentiating factor of stakeholder salience, whereas industry membership, in one of two instances, was found to differentiate stakeholder salience in the corporate reports. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Mitigating supply chain disruptions – a normal accident perspective

Purpose – Existing supply chain literature provides examples of countermeasures that firms can adopt to mitigate abnormal or catastrophic supply chain disruptions. However, none address reducing interactive complexity prior to adopting countermeasures to mitigate everyday or normal supply chain disruptions. Most mitigation strategies focus on adding capabilities or resources to protect an organization. Here, the authors aim to consider an alternative strategy of examining current processes to determine whether processes can be simplified by using the normal accident theory and its constructs of interactive complexity and coupling as a theoretical basis. Design/methodology/approach – The authors develop a model based on the normal accident theory and use logistic regression to test their propositions in the context of a steel processing plant and its customers. Findings – The findings show the importance of reducing interactive complexity to mitigate supply chain disruptions. However, high inventory is not...

Eye on the Gemba: Using Student-Created Videos and the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy to Teach Lean Management

Developing exercises that lead students to use higher order thinking skills is a challenge for faculty in any discipline. An excellent way to approach this problem is to use the Revised Blooms Taxonomy as a guide. In the taxonomy, the highest level of learning is to create. The author describes an assignment that builds on the use of lecture, tests, and games represented in different levels in the taxonomy by giving students the opportunity to develop, revise, and create videos illustrating lean terms. This enables students to understand these terms better, which will help them when they are in the gemba, or workplace, solving real problems.

A Century of the EOQ

When Ford W. Harris published his short three-page article developing the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) model in 1913, he likely did not foresee that it would still be discussed and used 100 years later. Harris’ EOQ model was one of the first applications of mathematical modeling to guide managers in making business decisions, and it has spawned thousands of related studies over the past century that have built on its major foundations and insights. In this chapter we present a short history of the EOQ model by discussing the model itself, some practical issues about implementing the model, and major extensions to the basic model grouped by the dominant foci of each subsequent decade.

The Evolution of Quick Response Programs

In companies’ constant quest to find ways to maintain or improve customer service levels while simultaneously reducing their investment in inventory, apparel companies in the mid-1980s focused on the problem of long lead times between product design and availability in retail stores. They developed the strategy of quick response (QR) to shorten this lead time and to create a supply chain that was more responsive to customers’ demand for fashion items. In this chapter we define QR programs, discuss the origins of these programs in the apparel industry, and compare QR with subsequently developed methods of inventory control widely used across industries.

Online Social Network Adoption: A Cross-Cultural Study

ABSTRACT This research explores the extent to which users across cultures adopt the technology of online social networks (OSNs) in order to promote or support a social cause. By surveying graduate-level university students at institutions in the United States, China and India, this research builds on prior work in technology acceptance to model and explain how three elements of the task domain – the cultural aspects of the user, the social nature of the technology, and the social nature of the task – combine to influence the constructs and relationships within a modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) framework as well as the behavior that flows from it. This study contributes to our understanding of technology adoption by showing how OSNs are adopted by users across cultures in promoting and supporting social causes.

A longitudinal study of the zone of tolerance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use a longitudinal analysis of the zone of tolerance to reconcile the growing divide between the acceptance of the theoretical model and the lack of empirical support for it.Design/methodology/approach – A combination of simple linear regression and piece‐wise regression is used on a data set of 699 observations of a training program from the telecommunications industry.Findings – This study demonstrates that the zone of tolerance model is a significantly better predictor of changes in customer satisfaction than the traditional linear model. Furthermore, the study supports early zone of tolerance propositions regarding the effect of negative quality perceptions.Research limitations/implications – The findings of this study resolve the apparent disconnect between the acceptance of the zone of tolerance theory and the lack of empirical research support for it.Practical implications – By demonstrating that customers are willing to accept some heterogeneity in service...

Comparing Textbook Coverage of Lean Management to Academic Research and Industry Practitioner Perceptions

Within operations management courses, most instructors choose to devote classroom time to teaching the topic of lean management. However, because the amount of time available for instructors to devote to this topic varies considerably, there is a great deal of latitude on which specific lean tools and techniques should be discussed. The authors reflect on this issue by considering the most important practices of lean from the perspective of three stakeholders: academic research, textbook authors, and industry professionals. Based on the comparison, the authors develop a list of recommendations to help instructors who are teaching lean at the undergraduate level.