Dr. Santanu Mandal

The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of supply chain relationships on supply chain (SC) resilience through empirically exploring the effects of trust, communication, commitment and cooperation on SC resilience and its further impact on supply chain performance. We employed a cross-sectional survey through online mode for collecting perceptual responses from supply chain professionals. Using 155 completed responses, the study further analysed using SmartPLS to validate the proposed relationships. Findings suggest communication and cooperation as dominant enablers of SC resilience in the integrated model that explored the inter-relationships also among the proposed relational attributes. Also, SC resilience has positive performance implications. Alternate models were suggested to further explore the inter-play between communication, trust, commitment and cooperation and how the same influences the SC resilience. The study is the first to consider the inter-relationships among the relational attributes and how the same as a whole influences SC resilience. © 2018, © 2018 International Management Institute, New Delh

Website usability has received decent empirical attention in recent academic literature. However, there are various website characteristics that might still influence the usability of websites. In this empirical exploration, we propose three such characteristics: speed with which websites respond to customer requests (i.e., website agility); the capability of websites to restore its operations in the face of a disruption (i.e., website resilience) and the capability of websites to retain the interests of customers and keep them engaged interactively (i.e., website attractiveness) as enablers of website usability based on dynamic capability extension of resource-based view. Further, we argue that website usability will influence electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) for those websites. We also explore if there is any influence of website agility and resilience on website attractiveness. Using customers as target respondents who have used websites mainly for travel and tourism purposes, we test for the proposed relationships through collecting survey data based on face-to-face interview. Partial least squares analysis of 285 survey responses suggests website agility attractiveness and resilience to be dominant enablers for website usability and website usability positively influences e-WOM

Purpose Health-care supply chains must focus on efficient deployment of resources for ensuring optimal supply chain performance. With efficient supply chain (SC) performance, health-care entities would be able to address their patients’ requirements with great speed. This is the essence of health-care agility. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to focus on developing health-care agility through human capital, that is, innovative idea generation capabilities and specialised knowledge possessed by the firm employees. Because information technology (IT) capabilities play a dominant role in information exchange crucial to supply chain operations; the study considered the moderating role of three IT capabilities, viz. outside-in, spanning and inside-out IT capabilities on human capital and health-care SC performance association, and on health-care supply chain performance and health-care agility association. Design/methodology/approach Because the constructs used in the study mainly deals with issues specifically related to hospitals and their associated supply chains, the study collected perceptual responses from senior hospital managers. Perceptual responses were received through face-to-face interviews with 212 hospital managers working in different hospitals. The collected responses were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Findings Findings suggests positive influences of human capital on health-care SC performance and health-care agility. Furthermore, health-care SC performance was also found to result in enhanced health-care agility. The study further revealed positive moderation of outside-in, spanning and inside-out IT capabilities on human capital and health-care SC performance association and on health-care SC performance and health-care agility association. Originality/value The study addressed the importance of human capital in providing faster services to patients (i.e. agility) in health-care supply chains through improved SC performance. Furthermore, the study addressed the importance of different IT capabilities that enhance the importance of human capital in providing efficient and faster services through efficient SC performance.

The purpose of this paper is to comprehend the causes and outcomes of smart phone application retention. To address this question, the authors propose a construct called app attachment and establish antecedents and consequences of the same. This study conceptualizes attachment with smart phone application as app attachment from a brand attachment perspective. Accordingly, app attachment is viewed as a two-dimensional construct composing of two measurement constructs namely app-self connection and app-prominence. Based on insights from information technology literature and marketing perspectives, antecedents, and consequents of app attachment are identified. Structural equation modeling was used for confirming the relationship of app attachment with proposed antecedents and consequences. On the managerial front, this paper explicates various strategies that a manager should adopt to improve app retention amongst its targeted users.