Product Quality Competitiveness Research Articles

The Role of Customer Loyalty on Customer Retention in Retail Companies

Retail can be seen from two sides, namely traditional retail such as grocery stores and community businesses, most of which do not use professional management and modern retail which can be seen as stores with professional management. Emerging competition makes companies have to carefully set strategies and manage companies so that companies are able to remain competitive and survive. Maintaining customer loyalty is one of the company's strategies to survive with the existing competitive conditions. This research uses a qualitative descriptive method, which describes the data collected and analyzed. The subject of this research is the role of consumer loyalty on customer retention in retail companies using literature review of secondary data. Based on the results of the study, it can be explained that the role of consumer loyalty on customer retention in retail companies that are developing in the form of department stores in Indonesia, namely with this loyalty, a retail company can compete with other retail businesses. Loyalty definitely has an impact on customer retention, and consumers choose retail businesses for their daily needs. Similar forms of competition between modern retail companies include segmented market competition, service system competition, price competition, product quality competition and so on.

Demand prediction and sharing strategy in resilient maritime transportation: Considering price and quality competition

Due to the impact of the trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic, the freight demand fluctuated dramatically: the maritime market has undergone a transformation from “one container is difficult to obtain”, “one cabin is difficult to obtain” to “empty container pile port”. Additionally, the international shipping prices soared first, but the international shipping price have then fluctuated back from the high, and gradually entered a reasonable range. Faced with these fluctuating situations and fierce competition, liners have been leveraging big data analysis technology to predict and share demand information to maintain a resilient transportation system. Targeting a duopoly market structure, this study considers the price and product quality competition environment and studies liners' prediction and sharing strategies of demand information. By establishing a game model to compare three scenarios, namely no demand information prediction, unilateral demand information prediction without sharing, and unilateral demand information prediction and sharing, this study analyzes the impacts of important factors such as market competition intensity and information accuracy on the expected returns of liners and consumer surplus. The research shows that: (1) Whether a liner company invests in predicting the demand information depends on the accuracy of the demand prediction information. When the accuracy of demand prediction information is high enough, liners invest in demand information prediction, resulting in a “win-win” situation in the maritime market. (2) Liners' sharing of demand prediction information reduces the intensity of maritime market competition, which leads to a “satisfactory win-win” situation where the expected returns of both parties increase, with the party sharing the demand information enjoying a greater increase. (3) Unilateral investment in demand information prediction may increase the consumer surplus, but sharing demand information will reduce consumer surplus.

Enhancing competitiveness through technology transfer and product quality: the mediation and moderation effects of location and asset value

The direct effects of technology transfer and innovation on the productivity and competitiveness of economies and businesses are well established. However, research is yet to establish the explanatory variables and the boundary conditions within which these relationships exist. This study examines the extent to which product quality mediates the relationship between technology transfer and competitiveness of small-scale agricultural businesses (SSABs). Moreover, the study explores the extent to which the geographical location moderates the technology transfer–business competitiveness relationship, including whether asset value moderates the product quality–competitiveness relationship. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 400 SSAB owners and managers in the Free State and Mashonaland Central Provinces of South Africa and Zimbabwe, respectively. Of the 400 questionnaires distributed, 268 usable questionnaires (67%) were returned for analysis. The results suggest that product quality partially mediated the relationship between technology transfer and competitiveness of SSABs. The results demonstrate further that the relationship between product quality and competitiveness was moderated by asset value such that at low levels of product quality, SSABs with larger asset values became more competitive than those with smaller asset values. However, as product quality increased, SSABs with smaller asset values became increasingly competitive until the competitive advantage of those with larger asset values was eliminated. SSABs in South Africa reported higher product quality and competitiveness than those in Zimbabwe. The relationship between the location in which the SSAB was situated and competitiveness was direct, and location did not moderate the relationship between technology transfer and competitiveness. The study illuminates the critical importance of product quality for SSABs, especially those with small asset values. It also demonstrates that while technology transfer may influence the competitiveness of SSABs directly, the influence of quality products cannot be underestimated. The study is one-of-a-kind that simultaneously considers explanatory and moderated effects of technology transfer–competitiveness nexus in SSABs, in the context of South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Quality competition and worker training

AbstractWe examine the relationship between firm‐sponsored training and product quality competition within a model of worker–firm bargaining. We develop a quality‐adjusted monopolistically competitive setting in which firms invest in training to an extent that reflects: (i) the costs of training, (ii) the extent to which training increases product quality, and (iii) the extent to which product quality increases final product demand. We identify the conditions under which greater sensitivity between product demand and quality results in greater firm‐sponsored training.

Research on identification and prevention of supply chain financial risk of small and medium-sized energy enterprises based on the ISM-MICMAC model

It is very important to identify the main influencing factors of supply chain finance risk of small and medium-sized energy enterprises, analyze its action mechanism, and build the influencing factor system for this enterprise's supply chain finance risk management. First, based on the status of SMEs, financing assets, and supply chain operation, this paper analyzes the influencing factors of supply chain financial risk; This paper uses the interpretative structural model (ISM) method to establish the interaction between 17 risk factors, and finally uses the cross-influence matrix multiplication (MICMAC) analysis to classify these risk variables. Finally, the results showed that: Small and medium-sized enterprise operation ability, profitability, development ability, supply chain production performance, accounts receivable characteristics, product quality competitiveness of the driving power is low, and strong dependence power, which is an important cause of supply chain finance risk; Enterprise scale, innovation ability, credit quality, debt paying ability and supply chain cooperation degree have strong driving power and weak dependence power, which are the most fundamental factors that constitute supply chain financial risk.

Energizing Comparative Environmental Politics and Comparative Political Economy

Energizing Comparative Environmental Politics and Comparative Political Economy

The Effect of the Coupling of Business Strategy and HRM on Firm Performance: Focus on Longitudinal Analysis

This study examines the longitudinal effect of the coupling of business strategy-HRM on product quality competitiveness, and sales account. This study assume that coupling of strategy-HRM means high external fit on business strategy and HRM. The research model consists of two hypotheses. Specifically, the first hypothesis is that the slope of strategy-HRM coupling has a positive effect on the slope of product quality. The second hypothesis is that the slope of product quality competitiveness has a positive significant effect on the slope of sales account. Data were extracted from the Korea Labor Institute’s Workplace Panel Survey (WPS) from 2005 to 2015 (in six waves), and the analysis used 683 companies that are common respondents of the six-wave surveys. Latent growth curve model was employed to test the hypotheses. The results of the research are summarized as follows. First, the slope of coupling of business strategy-HRM had a positively significant effect on the slope of product quality. Second, the slope of product quality had a positive and significant effect on the slope of sales account. Finally, it was confirmed that the strong coupling of business strategy and HRM has a critical factor of organizational performance.

The Research on Product Quality Competitiveness Based on Innovation

There is tight relation between innovation and quality competitiveness which is discussed in this paper. Nowadays we attach importance to improving product quality under the international economic integration situation. In this paper we present and discuss the innovation how to enhance quality competiveness of new products. Then it is analyzed how innovation has effect on product quality competitiveness and how the contribution rate is calculated making use of mathematical tools. At the same time, the necessity and feasibility of sifting innovation is also explained according to the product-forming process. To sum up according to the study on product quality competitiveness based on innovation, it should be greatly practical, strategic and economic significance for enterprises to set up a system of product innovation management oriented quality.

Quality as a Dimension of Competition in the Fluid Milk Industry

EVEN though conventional economic theory has historically emphasized price competition and price output analysis, competition is now generally viewed as a joint resultant of product,' price and promotion. It is also consistent with our normative ideas about market performance that physical product quality should be an important aspect of the product dimension of competition. However, the importance and implications of physical product quality as a dimension of competition may vary tremendously among industries. In the fluid milk industry, physical product quality has traditionally been emphasized as an important competitive element. This is especially true for the distribution of fluid milk through retail food stores where the prices and services offered to consumers are often identical among brands. It is this segment of the industry that is given particular attention in this paper. Economic theory indicates that the intensity of product quality competition in the fluid milk industry, in spite of its traditional emphasis, should be limited. Limiting factors include the lack of natural opportunities for quality competition because of the relatively invisible nature of milk quality and the magnitude of institutional arrangements, as health department regulations, which place restrictions on the use of any natural opportunities that might exist. As a result, the primary opportunity for physical quality variability in the industry would seem to be in the area of vertical quality differences as contrasted to horizontal and/or innovational differences.2 That is, any physical quality differences among fluid milk brands would likely be caused by differences in quality attributes which are capable of objective measurement and laboratory testing. Examples of these attributes include keeping quality and specific nutrient content. Abbott, however, suggests that horizontal and innovational differences, not vertical differences, offer the greatest possibilities for in-