Shashank Rao

Supply chain risks: a review and typology

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the growing literature examining supply chain risk management (SCRM) and to develop a typology of risks in the supply chain.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws its insights and conclusions from a review of the literature on supply chain risk, and a synthesis of the broader domain of risk management.Findings – While the literature on SCRM is growing, the literature lacks an organized structure for the sources of supply chain risk. The current paper bridges this gap by synthesizing the diverse literature into a typology of risk sources, consisting of environmental factors, industry factors, organizational factors, problem‐specific factors, and decision‐maker related factors.Practical implications – The paper devises a typology that can be used by managers to measure and assess the vulnerabilities of their company and supply chain. The typology also provides avenues for future research that further guides practitioners in the management of their supp...

The alignment of information systems with organizational objectives and strategies in health care

PURPOSE The alignment of information systems with organizational objectives and strategies is a key, contemporary challenge to organizations in general and the health care industry in particular. Researchers and managers alike believe that the selection of new information systems to support objectives and strategies focuses the organization on accomplishing its objectives and realizing the value of the investments in the systems. The purpose of this study was to help understand alignment in health care so that health care information systems planners can better achieve it. METHODS Structured interviews with 15 top information systems managers in health care organizations of various sizes and types inquired about organizational objectives and strategies, the process for choosing new information systems to support those objectives and strategies, and the concomitant facilitating and hindering managerial actions and organizational characteristics. RESULTS In addition to identifying and elucidating specific objectives, strategies, processes for choosing new systems, and facilitating and hindering actions and characteristics, the study used the data to characterize a generalized process of alignment in health care organizations. CONCLUSIONS The study contributes by confirming that alignment is a significant issue in health care organizations, and that such organizations make deliberate efforts to achieve it. The study further contributes by providing tables of actions and characteristics that managers might use as checklists in current and future alignment efforts as well as in generally cultivating broad support for alignment. Finally, it contributes by suggesting future study of alignments predictors and effects in health care organizations.

Parameters for Software Piracy Research

Advances in Internet and other digital technologies have opened up new channels and methods for online business. They have also led to a situation where the same channels can be abused and misused. One of these forms of technology abuse, which is becoming increasingly prevalent these days, is the piracy of digital content. This article introduces a relatively comprehensive and unified theoretical framework for studying and understanding a major aspect of digital piracy: namely, software piracy. Based on Routine Activities Theory, Rational Choice Theory, and guardianship concepts, the framework identifies key parameters that can affect the incidence of software piracy. We apply the framework in conducting a systematic examination of 75 articles dealing with software piracy. The examination reveals that a considerable number of parameters have received little or no attention from software-piracy researchers. In addition to suggesting research opportunities, the framework furnishes a systematic approach for structuring the design of future research studies in the realm of software piracy. The insights furnished by this article contribute to future investigations of the software-piracy phenomenon that are needed to avert the economic and social damage caused by software piracy.

On the measurement and benchmarking of research impact among active logistics scholars

Purpose – Scholarly interest in carrying out impactful research continues to remain high. Yet, given that citations of scholarly work can never decrease with time, traditional measures of research impact (such as raw counts of citations) unwittingly discriminate against early career researchers and also make it hard to identify future high impact scholars. In the current study, the paper compares several commonly used measures of research impact to identify one that best normalizes for the effect of career stage. The measure thus applies equally across most career stages, providing a usable impact benchmark for logistics scholars irrespective of seniority level. The paper also aims to present benchmarks on that metric to help logistics scholars identify their research impact vis-a-vis their peers. Design/methodology/approach – Bibliometric data on the research of 702 logistics scholars were collected and analyzed by dividing the scholars into different cohorts based on seniority. Comparisons of different ...

Return Time Leniency in Online Retail: A Signaling Theory Perspective on Buying Outcomes

Merchandise return policies (MRPs) have long been an important area of interest for operations and supply chain management researchers, who have identified some key advantages and disadvantages of offering comprehensive and convenient return policies. However, there is a lack of rigorous scholarship on one key dimension of MRPs—return time leniency. Understood as the amount of time that buyers have within which to return purchased items, return time leniency is often considered one of the leading indicators of a retailers MRP friendliness. In the current study, we extend prior work on MRPs by introducing a signaling theory perspective to return time leniency. This allows us to develop a more nuanced interpretation of the underlying economics associated with extending the window of time during which returns are accepted. We do so by positioning our study in a retail context where such issues are highly important to consumers—online retail.

Seller-induced scarcity and price-leadership: Impact on product returns in the internet retail supply chain

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the interaction between inventory availability (scarcity) and pricing levels (price-leadership (PL)), and its effect on product returns in the internet retail supply chain. Specifically, this paper investigates how supply chain managers can use inventory (seller-induced scarcity) and pricing (PL) levers to control product returns. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical data of sales and product returns from an internet retailer is analyzed to identify the scale of the effect that product scarcity and PL has on product returns. These factors are considered in developing a sales-return process model which is used with empirical data in a simulation study. The study evaluates changes in product returns for different policy settings related to PL and inventory levels. Findings of the simulation study are validated using statistical analysis of empirical data. Findings – PL and seller-induced product scarcity affect the rate of product returns; however, the s...

The Non-Monotonic Relationship between Hospitals Operating FSEDs and Market and Financial Outcomes

Traditionally emergency rooms (ERs) were an integral part of many acute care hospitals, and were seen as serving a distinct need for emergency care. In addition, they often served as a key referral...