Large Chain Research Articles

How social interaction can prevent interpersonal conflict from inducing turnover intentions and diminishing championing behaviour

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to draw from conservation of resources theory to examine how employees’ experience of resource-draining interpersonal conflict might diminish the likelihood that they engage in championing behaviour. Its specific focus is on the mediating effect of their motivation to leave the organization and the moderating effect of their peer-oriented social interaction in this connection.Design/methodology/approachThe research hypotheses are empirically assessed with quantitative survey data gathered from 632 employees who work in a large Mexican-based pharmacy chain. The statistical analyses involved an application of the Process macro, which enabled concurrent estimations of the direct, mediating and moderating effects predicted by the proposed conceptual framework.FindingsEmotion-based tensions in co-worker relationships decrease employees’ propensity to mobilize support for innovative ideas, because employees make plans to abandon their jobs. This mediating role of turnover intentions is mitigated when employees maintain close social relationships with their co-workers.Practical implicationsFor organizational practitioners, this study identifies a core explanation (i.e. employees want to quit the company) for why frustrations with emotion-based quarrels can lead to a reluctance to promote novel ideas – ideas that otherwise could add to organizational effectiveness. It also highlights how this harmful process can be avoided if employees maintain good, informal relationships with their colleagues.Originality/valueFor organizational scholars, this study explicates why and when employees’ experience of interpersonal conflict translates into complacent work behaviours, in the form of tarnished idea championing. It also identifies informal peer relationships as critical contingency factors that disrupt this negative dynamic.

On-Demand Delivery from Stores: Dynamic Dispatching and Routing with Random Demand

Problem definition: On-demand delivery has become increasingly popular around the world. Motivated by a large grocery chain store who offers fast on-demand delivery services, we model and solve a stochastic dynamic driver dispatching and routing problem for last-mile delivery systems where on-time performance is the main target. The system operator needs to dispatch a set of drivers and specify their delivery routes facing random demand that arrives over a fixed number of periods. The resulting stochastic dynamic program is challenging to solve because of the curse of dimensionality. Methodology/results: We propose a novel structured approximation framework to approximate the value function via a parametrized dispatching and routing policy. We analyze the structural properties of the approximation framework and establish its performance guarantee under large-demand scenarios. We then develop efficient exact algorithms for the approximation problem based on Benders decomposition and column generation, which deliver verifiably optimal solutions within minutes. Managerial implications: The evaluation results on a real-world data set show that our framework outperforms the current policy of the company by 36.53% on average in terms of delivery time. We also perform several policy experiments to understand the value of dynamic dispatching and routing with varying fleet sizes and dispatch frequencies. Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72222011 and 72171112], China Association for Science and Technology [Grant 2019QNRC001], and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [Grant RGPIN-2022-04950]. Supplemental Material: The online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.1171 .

The influence of corporate social responsibility appeals (CSRAs) on product sales: Which appeal types perform better?

This paper examines product-package Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) messages called Corporate Social Responsibility Appeals (CSRAs) that directly convey CSR messages to shoppers on product packages. Using a multi-source dataset of more than 10 million transactions from a large grocery chain, this paper first presents a typology consisting of seven CSRA types that provide buyers functional or symbolic benefits and examines their effects on product sales. Second, the paper presents the analysis of the moderating effects of store-generated promotions (price promotions and feature advertisements) and product types (virtue and vice) on the effects of functional and symbolic CSRAs and seven CSRAs on weekly sales. Results show that functional CSRAs perform better than symbolic CSRAs and that price promotions strengthen the sales of functional CSRAs. Featured advertising was also found to positively influence the sales of Functional CSRAs, but is found to have no impact on Symbolic CSRAs. Finally, the results show that Functional CSRAs are a better strategy for virtue products than Symbolic CSRAs. This paper concludes with managerial implications, theoretical contributions, and additional findings regarding price elasticity, sales trajectory, and sales performance across product categories.

Judicial Independence and Domestic Supply Chain: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment

How to effectively break down market segmentation and build a sustainable and unified domestic market has become critical to achieving high-quality development in the Chinese economy nowadays. This study examines the effects and mechanisms of improved judicial independence on the development of larger and more sustainable domestic supply chains, using a sample of Chinese enterprises from 2011 to 2016 and a quasi-natural experiment of local judicial reforms. We find that, after the establishment of local circuit courts, the distribution distance of a firm’s supply chain increases significantly. The mechanism analysis suggests that the increase in distribution distance in the domestic supply chain is due to the breakdown of market segmentation resulting from the reduction in local judicial protectionism and the improvement in the quality of local justice after the establishment of circuit courts. Further tests show that the impact of improved judicial independence on the domestic supply chain is most pronounced among small and manufacturing non-state-owned enterprises and those from less competitive industries. Overall, the findings of this paper provide important insights into developing large and sustainable supply chains via breaking down market segmentation, thereby promoting long-term economic growth.

A New Hybrid Multi-Objective Scheduling Model for Hierarchical Hub and Flexible Flow Shop Problems

In general, customers are looking to receive their orders in the fastest time possible and to make purchases at a reasonable price. Consequently, the importance of having an optimal delivery time is increasingly evident these days. One of the structures that can meet the demand for large supply chains with numerous orders is the hierarchical integrated hub structure. Such a structure improves efficiency and reduces chain costs. To make logistics more cost-effective, hub-and-spoke networks are necessary as a means to achieve economies of scale. Many hub network design models only consider hub type but do not take into account the hub scale measured using freight volume. This paper proposes a multi-objective scheduling model for hierarchical hub structures (HHS), which is layered from top to bottom. In the third layer, the central hub takes factory products from decentralized hubs and sends them to other decentralized hubs to which customers are connected. In the second layer, non-central hubs are responsible for receiving products from the factory and transferring them to central hubs. These hubs are also responsible for receiving products from central hubs and sending them to customers. Lastly, the first layer contains factories responsible for producing products and providing for their customers. The factory uses the flexible flow-shop platform and structure to produce its products. The model’s objective is to minimize transportation and production costs as well as product arrival times. To validate and evaluate the model, small instances have been solved and analyzed in detail with the weighted sum and ε-constraint method. Consequently, based on the mean ideal distance (MID) metric, two methods were compared for the designed instances.

Marketing Analysis of JDE Peet's in Chinese Coffee Market

With the continuous improvement of the income level of Chinese residents and the popularity of coffee culture among Chinese consumers, the annual coffee consumption in the Chinese market continues to rise. More and more coffee brands are entering the market, intensifying market competition. Large chain brands, represented by Starbucks, have gradually occupied an absolute leading position in the fierce market competition. JDE Peet's is the father of Starbucks, but it is a new player in the Chinese market. Therefore, this paper is guided by the research results of the coffee industry in the world and the Chinese market, adopts the SWOT analysis method and analyzes the company's financial data to analyze Peet's business status, existing problems, internal and external environment, and its own advantages and disadvantages in the Chinese market. Through analysis, it is found that although Peet's has gradually opened up the consumer market in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai in China, the market is still too narrow, and there is no strong competitiveness, and there are still a series of brand positioning that is not accurate and clear. In the face of strong Starbucks and Luckin Coffee, it is obviously impossible to win in the market competition. Therefore, JDE Peet's doesn't currently have big investment value.

Servant leadership, ideology-based culture and job outcomes: A multi-level investigation among hospitality workers

Although previous research has linked leadership, culture and work behaviors, scholars and practitioners lack an understanding of how servant leadership affects employees’ work meaningfulness, diversity-valuing behavior and community citizenship behavior by fostering an ideology-based culture within the hospitality sector. This study addressed these gaps by conducting a multi-level time-lagged field study among full-time employees and their supervisors (310 employees nested in 70 supervisors) working in a large hotel chain in Pakistan. The study examined the direct and indirect effects of supervisory-level servant leadership on individual-level meaningfulness, individual-level community citizenship behavior, and group-level diversity-valuing behavior through group-level ideology-based culture. The findings revealed that supervisors’ servant leadership style was positively related to ideology-based culture within each group. In addition, ideology-based culture was positively related to group’s diversity-valuing behavior as well as each member’s meaningfulness and community citizenship behavior. Finally, servant leadership had a positive indirect effect on all outcomes through ideology-based culture.

Being a product consumer during the COVID-19 pandemic: profile of the Polish consumer in the organic dairy market

PurposeThe purpose of this paper was to determine the profile of dairy product consumers in the organic market.Design/methodology/approachThe study was based on a survey questionnaire developed by the author and administered to a total of 1,108 respondents. The statistical analysis (including descriptive statistics, the analysis of the discriminative function and the Chi2 test was performed with the use of Statistica 13.1 PL. The respondents’ gender was the factor behind the differences in how they behaved.FindingsThe consumers indicated the channels they rely upon to find information on organic dairy products; in addition to trusting the opinions of their family members and experts, they also use web platforms. Further, they specified their preferred locations for buying favorite products during the pandemic: specialized organic food shops, large distribution chains and online stores.Practical implicationsThese outcomes will help in identifying target consumer segments and information channels for specific information and advertising messages. They also form an important resource for developing some potential strategies which the supply chain stakeholders could implement to promote organic consumption of dairy products.Originality/valueThis study identifies consumers’ preferred dairy products; motives for purchasing organic dairy products; barriers that consumers believe exist in the market; sources of knowledge about products purchased by consumers; and consumers’ preferred channels for purchasing organic dairy products. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study of dairy product consumers in the organic market in Poland.

Efficacy of supermarket and web-based interventions for improving dietary quality: a randomized, controlled trial

Dietary interventions may best be delivered at supermarkets, which offer convenience, accessibility, full food inventories and, increasingly, in-store registered dietitians, online shopping and delivery services. In collaboration with a large retail supermarket chain, we conducted a multisite supermarket and web-based intervention targeting nutrition trial (no. NCT03895580), randomizing participants (n = 247 (139 women and 108 men)) 2:2:1 to two levels of dietary education (Strategy 1 and Strategy 2) or an enhanced control group that included educational components beyond the routine standard of care. Both Strategies 1 and 2 included individualized, in-person, dietitian-led, purchasing data-guided interventions. Strategy 2 also included online tools for shopping, home delivery, selection of healthier purchases, meal planning and healthy recipes. The primary endpoint was change in dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) score (a measure of adherence to the DASH diet) from baseline to 3 months. The primary endpoint was met because, at 3 months, the DASH score increased by 4.7 more for the combined Strategy 1 and Strategy 2 groups than for the control group (95% confidence interval (CI) (0.9, 8.5), P = 0.02). In a prespecified hierarchical test, at 3 months, DASH score increased by 3.8 more for the Strategy 2 group than for the Strategy 1 group (95% CI (0.8, 6.9), P = 0.01). This trial demonstrates the efficacy of data-guided, supermarket-based, dietary interventions and modern online shopping tools in improving dietary quality in a free-living, community-based population. The trial also demonstrates the opportunity for academic investigators to collaborate with retailers to design and rigorously test comprehensive healthcare interventions.

Robots in retail: Rolling out the Whiz

Robots are increasingly being employed in retail settings to accomplish a wide variety of tasks. In the years ahead, it is expected that most retailers will employ robots in some capacity and that these robots will alter the role of employees and change the nature of customer experience. However, since this revolution is in its early stages, scholarship in this domain is largely forward looking in nature and focused on the future rather than the present. Our research seeks to enrich and extend this literature by examining a recent robot deployment (i.e., the Whiz) across a large Japanese retail chain (i.e., Daiei). Specifically, we report an interview with executives from both Daiei as well as Softbank Robotics (the manufacturer of the Whiz). This interview touches upon a number of interesting topics including, how this robot is currently being deployed, how employees and customers are responding to this robot, and how it impacts store operations and retailer performance. We then reflect upon this interview to offer a set of future research directions. Our article is also accompanied by a commentary by Guha and Grewal (2022, in this issue) that offers additional insights into robots in retail.

Rozwój sieci handlowej Dino na tle przemian w detalicznym handlu spożywczym w Polsce po 1989 roku

The last three decades have seen significant changes in grocery retailing. These have been the result of a number of factors, most notably the influx of investment into Poland by foreign food chains, and the spread of self-service sales. The emergence of large and medium format chain shops changed both the forms of trade, consumer habits, as well as the appearance and development of suburbs. The article in part one shows the process of change in grocery retailing after 1989. The second part shows the beginnings and development of the Dino chain. Supermarkets of this chain were mainly established in small towns and smaller centres, offering a limited range of products for a specific customer group. Built over two decades, the Dino chain is one of the largest employers, with more than 2,000 outlets. In 2020, it entered the top ten of the country's largest grocery chains due to its market share and sales revenues.

Scheduling vegetable sales to supermarkets in Europe: The tomato case

This article analyzes the temporal programming of sales for a horticultural marketing company, e.g. a cooperative. The empirical study references the European tomato market, where most of the production is sold through the retail channel dominated by large distribution chains. We study the marketing schedule for an individual company, or even a prominent farmer, using a modified Markowitz model, assuming that his decisions do not affect the balance of market prices. As a result, this model can manage risk and improve decision-making. The data also provide information on the risk borne by marketers depending on their sales calendar, which often depends on their geographic location.

Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness, Antibiotics Prescription Errors and Dispensing Patterns by Community Pharmacists in Saudi Arabia

BackgroundAntibiotic overuse and misuse have greatly facilitated the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that took a strategic approach, beginning with the prohibition of over-the-counter antibiotic dispensing, followed by the implementation of antimicrobial stewardship programs and various educational and awareness governmental activities and plans. However, the status of antibiotic prescriptions and dispensing in Saudi community pharmacies is still unclear. As a result, this study investigates community pharmacists' antibiotic dispensing practices and their knowledge of their role in fighting AMR, in addition to the status of antibiotic prescribing errors by physicians. MethodThis is an online-based survey study of 671 participants distributed among community pharmacists of large pharmacy chains throughout the Saudi Arabia. ResultA number of 671 community pharmacists were participated in total, with a response rate of 96.57% (648 responses). The majority of community pharmacists (67%) had a long experience (>5 years) in this field. An antibiotic prescribing error was prevalent, with a mean of 3.32 per month in each pharmacy. Dentists (36.7%) and general practitioners (28.7%) were the most prescribers associated with antibiotic prescription errors. Most community pharmacists had a generally good practice of dispensing antibiotics, accounting for 71.5% of daily antibiotic dispensing. However, more than one-third of those pharmacists (35.2%) agreed on dispensing topical antibiotics without a prescription, based on their evaluation of the case presented in the pharmacy, as the majority of community pharmacists demonstrated a significant understanding of AMR. ConclusionThe current study demonstrated that there is a good antibiotic dispensing practice in the community pharmacies in Saudi Arabia, in addition to a substantial understanding of the community pharmacist’s vital role in fighting AMR. This study could inform decision-makers on antibiotic usage in Saudi community pharmacies to improve the current inappropriate antibiotic use and dispensing situation and, thus, control AMR spread in Saudi Arabia.

Research on Enterprise Financial Information Management System Based on Large Data Technology and Block Chain Fusion

In recent years, the rapid development of big data and cloud computing has had a profound impact on the integration of accounting and management accounting. In the Internet era, enterprises' financial information is more transparent and open. For modern enterprises' needs of financial management system informationization, the enterprise financial management information system based on big data scenarios is designed and implemented. The system is designed based on the philosophy of software engineering, and the functions to be implemented are selected rationally by investigating the requirements of the financial management work system of the enterprise. The system is implemented based on B/S architecture, and the design of database follows the relevant specifications in software engineering. The system can enable fine management of enterprise financial data, reduce enterprise operation cost, and thus improve the comprehensive efficiency of enterprise business.

Fuel oil from plastic waste

PLASTIC is a revolutionary invention which brought many changes in industrial & daily activities. But in more recent times it has resulted in a major problem due to the increasing usage of landfills which has led to increased pollution due to its high degradation time & and no established disposal method with minimal environmental impact. As the generation of plastic waste is increasing day by day, many engineering processes have been found to convert them to alternative fuels. Pyrolysis is the most useful and prominent method as it has a wide range of uses and helps in the reduction of the large amount of plastic waste. Pyrolysis is a process which converts the large hydrocarbon chains present to smaller hydrocarbon chains by heating the plastics at high temperature (350–400 °C), the products obtained are fuel oil and non-condensable fractions. The fuel oil can be used for heating purposes and non-condensable fractions to reduce air pollution. Polythene, Polypropylene are used as they are pure hydrocarbons and burnt cleanly. These fuels are used as industrial feedstock in many industries like petroleum refineries, alkene production etc.We are now considering plastic as a waste product but upon reprocessing and application of new technologies can yield many valuable products which can lead us to a sustainable and healthy environment in future.

Halamphora minima (Catenulaceae, Bacillariophyta), new brackish diatom species from the mudflat in Hampyeong Bay, Korea

The diversity of benthic diatoms living in the tidal flats is thought to be very high but has been somewhat marginalized from our main concern. We propose a new species, Halamphora minima sp. nov. isolated as monoclonal cultures from a tidal mudflat based on light and scanning electron microscopy and molecular analysis. This species is the smallest known species of the genus Halamphora to date. Other main characteristics that distinguish this species are the biseriate separated by strongly developed costa for the majority of the valve face, and density of dorsal striae. Phylogenetic analysis of the chloroplast ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase large chain gene showed that H. minima seems to be related to H. foramina, H. sydowii and H. tumida, but the phylogenetic location of H. minima was not clear due to the low bootstrap.

Readiness of community pharmacies to implement an opioid safety intervention

BackgroundWe report on efforts to measure readiness to adopt opioid safety initiatives in community pharmacies within 2 large chains. Previous studies identified lack of knowledge, confidence, or enthusiasm in addressing harm reduction efforts. We implemented an intervention that provided training to improve opioid safety. The goal was to increase naloxone prescribing and nonprescription syringe sales, reduce stigma, and decrease opioid overdoses among patients and customers. ObjectivesTo assess pharmacy readiness for intervention delivery, by characterizing pharmacy culture around opioid safety; describing current practices and challenges interacting with patients and customers on naloxone, nonprescription syringe sales, and buprenorphine; and determining pharmacy defined goals for implementing the intervention. MethodsThe sample included pharmacy managers and staff pharmacists from 2 large chains who completed a brief phone interview. Interviews consisted of Likert-scale and open-ended, theoretically driven questions. Questions focused on workplace culture, patient engagement, naloxone and buprenorphine prescribing, nonprescription syringe sales, and intervention goals. Coding categories for the open-ended questions were derived using a thematic review of responses. ResultsA total of 163 respondents described both workplace culture and how they encourage patient opioid safety as including public health awareness, patient engagement, and naloxone prescribing. Sale of nonprescription syringes exhibited high variability: no sales barriers (53.9%), sales with barriers (21.5%), and no sales (20.9%). Half of pharmacists (50.3%) interacted with buprenorphine prescribers outside of medication fills. Most respondents (68.7%) endorsed being ready to promote the intervention. Pharmacists named goals in adopting the intervention of wanting more knowledge and educational materials, talking points with patients, and best practices for offering naloxone. ConclusionCommunity pharmacists, before implementation, described awareness of and receptiveness to opioid safety initiatives, with substantial barriers around nonprescription syringe sales. Assessed knowledge level, culture, and identified barriers that emerged in the readiness assessments can be used to tailor future pharmacy-specific programming.

Grocery Purchase Changes Were Associated With A North Carolina COVID-19 Food Assistance Incentive Program.

Many low-income Americans experience food insecurity, which may have been exacerbated by economic instability during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In this study we assessed the impact of Healthy Helping, a short-term fruit and vegetable incentive program aimed at alleviating food insecurity and improving diet quality for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants, on grocery purchases, using transaction data from a large supermarket chain in North Carolina. We compared Healthy Helping participants' purchases of key food groups before and during the program with purchases by control shoppers participating in federal food assistance programs during the same period. Healthy Helping enrollment was associated with a $26.95 increase in monthly spending on fruit, vegetables, nuts, and legumes-an increase of 2.5 grams of fiber per 1,000 kilocalories purchased-and other shifts in the composition of food purchases, relative to control shoppers. These findings suggest that the program increased healthy food purchases while also increasing dollar sales at participating retailers. On average, participants did not use the full benefit; future research should explore factors associated with non- or underuse of benefits, to inform program design and outreach.

A Tale of 2 Countries: Implementation of the Cold Chain Equipment Optimization Platform in Guinea and Kenya.

In 2016, the Gavi Cold Chain Equipment Optimization Platform (CCEOP) was approved and launched in recognition of the fact that functional cold chain equipment (CCE) is essential to strengthening vaccine supply chains and ultimately achieving Gavi's immunization equity and coverage goals. Through CCEOP, Gavi committed to investing US$250 million between 2016 and 2021 to commission CCE in more than 63,000 facilities to upgrade and expand their CCE footprint while stimulating the market to provide affordable, technologically advanced, and accessible equipment. We present case studies from Guinea and Kenya, both of which received CCEOP support, that highlight 2 ways for countries to prioritize investments and implement activities through a large funding and support mechanism. The studies explore the different ways that each country implemented CCEOP and consider how aspects of leadership and technical capacity influence country priorities and results. They also uncover key lessons on sustainability of a large immunization supply chain effort. The experiences of Guinea and Kenya can help other countries embarking on similarly large health system interventions, especially related to supply chain strengthening and immunization programs. In particular, these experiences offer important lessons in leadership, processes and systems, country ownership, technical capacity, and sustainability.

Introduction: Material Transfer—Intellectual Transfer: Salman Schocken’s Collections

Salman Schocken (Margonin, Poznań, 1877 – Pontresina, Switzerland, 1959) was the owner of a large chain of department stores in Germany and an active Zionist, but his name is first and foremost tied to the history of the Jewish book. As the founder of the Schocken Verlag in Berlin (1931–1938), he was one of the prominent Jewish publishers in the first half of the twentieth century, and continued his work with publishing houses in Jerusalem (later moving to Tel Aviv) and New York. As Volker Dahm’s trailblazing research has shown, Schocken held a central position in the renaissance of Jewish culture in Germany between the wars, and an important role in the renewal of modern Hebrew literature. The ‘Bücherei des Schocken-Verlages’ series, published between 1933 and 1938, remains a monument to German-Jewish cultural life between the world wars. Salman Schocken was an extraordinary collector of books, manuscripts, and art, too. His private interest and knowledge as a connoisseur of German as well as Hebrew books directed some of his activities as a publisher—and vice versa: he bought rare books and manuscripts in order to make them available to research through editions and scholarly studies. For Schocken, both his work as a publisher and his collection of Hebrew books and manuscripts formed part of his Zionism, and the attempt to reconnect dispersed fragments of Jewish culture. His successful chain of department stores in Germany allowed Schocken to purchase German as well as Hebrew and Yiddish books and manuscripts on a large scale during the economically turbulent years of the Weimar Republic, when many private collections were dissolved. Even after 1933, Schocken continued to enlarge and consolidate his collections. He became increasingly aware of the necessity to rescue and to preserve Jewish cultural assets from the National Socialist regime. While his publishing house was liquidated in 1938/1939 and Schocken’s department stores were sold to a German syndicate of banks for a price far below their actual value, Schocken managed to transfer his private collections to Jerusalem, as well as most of the publishing house’s stocks. The transfer was a practical move, and yet it can be considered a symbolic act of salvage, too. Schocken commissioned the architect Erich Mendelsohn (1887–1953) to design a functional, modern library in Jerusalem to house his collections.