Paul Ghijsen

Public procurement and EU tendering directives – explaining non‐compliance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to categorising explanations of non‐compliance of EU tendering directives and to report on a survey study to the impact of these reasons on compliance with the directives.Design/methodology/approach – A literature review resulted in a conceptual model and related hypotheses, pointing at four potential reasons for (non‐)compliance: the purchasers familiarity with the rules, the perceived inefficiency, organisational incentives to comply, and the expected resistance and readiness of suppliers to take action in case of non‐compliance. The paper uses data from a survey among 147 responding purchasing professionals of the Dutch Ministry of Defence.Findings – The empirical findings indicate that both purchasers familiarity with the rules and organisational incentives have a positive, statistically significant impact on compliance. Nor the alleged inefficiency of the directives, nor the expected supplier resistance seem to influence the compliance w...

The added value of web innovation for customer satisfaction

Purpose – Recent studies have explored the effects of e‐service quality on satisfaction and loyalty of online customers by extending and supplementing traditional service quality frameworks. This research proposes a combination of traditional service quality and e‐service quality frameworks. The central question focuses on how to assess the added value of the web as a service innovation for a traditional service. The setting of the study is a traditional‐style barbeque delivery service with a recently installed advanced web‐initiated order entry facility now used by a majority of the customers.Design/methodology/approach – An empirical, survey‐based cross‐sectional study on web‐initiated customer experiences of an in‐home catering service, involving barbeque food items and cooking equipment.Findings – Findings indicate that adding an innovative e‐channel to a traditional business process does not automatically translate to a higher customer satisfaction. Only limited significant effects were found from on...

Capital, Labour, Materials and Additional R&D Investment in Japan: The Issue of Double-Counting

R&D components are investigated in dynamic factor demand models, using a pooled data set. Models where information on R&D is (double or ) wrongly counted and (once or) correctly counted are compared by GMM estimates, (non-)nested GMM tests and residual analyses. The results indicate that R&D contributes significantly to the explanation of capital, labour, energy and materials demand in the Japanese manufacturing industry. A double counting of R&D is even preferred to not incorporating R&D as a separate production factor. Furthermore, R&D turns out to be a heterogeneous production factor with production potentials differing among its components.

Explaining Non‐Compliance with European Union Procurement Directives: A Multidisciplinary Perspective

Since their adoption in the 1970s, compliance with European Union (EU) procurement directives has been problematic. Many studies have reported on the effectiveness of the directives, mostly in terms of the impact on the openness of public procurement and the impact on cross-border trade. However, research on the explanation (or the lack) of compliance with EU directives is limited. This article identifies the directives which are most sensitive to non-compliance. A multidisciplinary model for explaining compliance is presented, drawing from criminal theory, economics, social psychology and public purchasing. The impact on compliance is quantified, using survey data from purchasing professionals of the Dutch Ministry of Defence. The results indicate that both the expected gains of compliance and the organizational pressure have a positive impact on compliance. In contrast, no support is found for the effect of certainty and severity of sanctions and the perceived resistance of suppliers in case of non-compliance.

High Performance Organizations Framework as a Predictor of Firm Performance in the Insurance Industry in Ghana

Changes in the business environment in general and in emerging countries, in particular, challenges business organizations to rethink new ways of managing performance in order to survive. This research applied an HPO framework to find out the extent to which it explains performance in the insurance industry in Ghana. The study adopted a quantitative deductive approach and analyzed the link between the HPO framework and firm performance using multiple regression. The findings revealed that three out of the five HPO factors, namely continuous improvement and renewal, and workforce quality and long-term orientation have positive influences on firm performance. The findings have useful implications for managers of companies in emerging countries.

Supply chain flexibility: A systematic literature review and identification of directions for future research

The conceptualization of flexibility in organizations historically emerged from three views which relate to economic, to organizational and to manufacturing perspectives. Despite the growing number of publications about supply chain flexibility in the area of supply chain management, there is a lack of consensus on how to define and to conceptualize supply chain flexibility from a management point of view. The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive overview of the literature on the supply chain flexibility perspective and contributes to our understanding of the current state of research and its future development.,The research methodology used is the systematic literature review. In total 92 articles were selected from databases of well-known journal publishers in the field of economics, business studies and management sciences as well as grey literature to cover the topic of supply chain flexibility.,A limited number of studies in the field of supply chain flexibility apply theories and define the term supply chain flexibility. Instead they focus on a particular part or dimension of the supply chain. Based on the analysis, a distinction is made between flexibility in the supply chain and supply chain flexibility. Based on the function and characteristics of the supply chain, the authors selected 30 flexibility dimensions that cover supply chain flexibility by concentrating on the different business areas involved.,The results support researchers and practitioners by identifying relevant trends and gaps in the field of supply chain flexibility.,The authors review the dimensions and aspects of supply chain flexibility that are currently taken into account in the literature. In this way, the authors provide an overarching perspective on the flexibility literature relating to supply chains.

Knowledge management and organisational performance: the mediating role of the HPO framework

This study focuses on the mediating role of the HPO framework between knowledge management and organisational performance in an emerging market. A cross-sectional survey was used to obtain data from 186 managers from the insurance industry. With the use of SmartPLS, the results of the study revealed that KM acquisition enablers and KM dissemination demonstrated direct relationships with organisational performance. The HPO factors of long-term orientation, continuous improvement and renewal as well as workforce quality demonstrated mediation between KM dimensions and organisational performance thereby suggesting a synergy for a model of high performance organisations. Since managers are confronted with the challenge of ensuring that their organisations become HPOs, this study provides insight into which indicators contribute to enhancing organisational performance and can be promoted to optimise HPOs. The study is one of a few studies that combine the HPO framework with KM to develop a model for HPOs in an emerging market context.

Waiting in multi-stage services: an exploration across service industries

This field study explores the relative importance of waiting time perception with waits before, during and following the actual service delivery in three multi-stage services. Data were collected in various service settings, i.e., in restaurants, assessment and dental services in the Netherlands. Structural equation modelling is used to analyse the data. Results imply that in restaurant services, the service-entry wait has the largest influence on service evaluation, in the assessment services the service-exit wait is predominant and in the dental services, the in-service wait is the most important wait. Researchers and practitioners are suggested to apply a stage approach when considering waiting time satisfaction in their work. This study is one of the first to empirically explore the effect of service waits in multiple succeeding services stages outside restaurant services.

How Power Differences Affect Interfirm Learning, and What To Do About It

We report the findings of a study conducted among 172 European buyers in manufacturing regarding their relationship with their trading partners. Particularly, the focus is on whether and how asymme...