Hamidreza Panjehfouladgaran

Purpose: The rise of the Internet has facilitated the emergence of sustainable consumption, enabling consumers to easily purchase second-hand products through online platforms. Research on branded second-hand online shopping is limited, and as a cross-cultural study, this research investigates the circumstances under which customers buy branded second-hand products in an online environment via websites and apps. Design/methodology/approach: Fuzzy TOPSIS was applied to a set of factors by seven marketing professors to rank the most crucial variables associated with branded second-hand online shopping behavior (Study 1). Moreover, to explore customers’ perspectives on the extracted factors, this study employed a survey approach with a sample of 261 Malaysian participants (Study 2) and 317 French participants (Study 3) who had experience with branded second-hand online shopping. Covariance-based structural equation modeling was utilized to assess the measurement, structural, and rival models. Findings: The results of Study 1 identified the need for uniqueness, price, brand involvement, brand nostalgia, and eco-consciousness as the primary variables influencing branded second-hand online shopping behavior. The findings from Study 2 and Study 3 indicate that price, eco-consciousness, and brand involvement are the key factors contributing to branded second-hand online shopping behavior in both Malaysian and French samples. Research limitations/implications: The findings also suggest that the need for uniqueness and brand nostalgia is not relevant to branded second-hand online shopping in either cultural setting. Multi-group analysis reveals no significant differences across gender groups in both samples. The low price of branded second-hand products is more important for Malaysian online shoppers than their French counterparts. Interestingly, the choice of platform (apps vs. websites) indicates that French app users are more committed to brands, while French website users are more eco-conscious. Originality/value: Research on branded second-hand online shopping is scarce, and as a cross-cultural study, this research showed under what circumstances customers purchase branded second-hand products in online environments through websites and apps.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has affected higher education institutions worldwide as they had to switch from face-to-face to online teaching almost overnight. This abrupt change made a huge impact on teaching, learning, and particularly, student engagement. This paper focuses on online social presence as an element of student engagement, which represents how students feel under synchronous online teaching. A survey was conducted among 244 first-year students to evaluate the impact of online social interaction, online collaboration, online contact with staff, online engagement, and online active learning on online social presence. Structural equation modeling was used to test and evaluate these multivariate relationships. Our study illustrates that all variables have a significant positive relationship with online social presence. In particular, online social interaction and online collaboration show a more powerful relationship with student online social presence. Thus, digital technologies should be adopted in a way that encourages students to actively interact with their peers.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a major disruption to higher education as face-to-face teaching had to shift to distance teaching overnight. In this paper, we describe the adaptation of an operations management undergraduate core module, taught to first-year students, from face-to-face delivery to emergency online delivery. In our online version, we used a mix of traditional and flipped classroom techniques. We adopted a “live” online lecture, where students were encouraged to interact with their instructors and ask questions, and flipped live online tutorials, where students and instructors discussed case studies. In addition, we used a web-based simulation game as a learning and assessment tool. After the simulation game was complete, we assessed our students using a reflective group presentation regarding the decisions they made throughout the game. Based on student feedback, the curriculum design and the module adaptations that we adopted for its emergency online delivery can be considered successful. In particular, students were satisfied with the module quality and structure. Following our experience from adapting our face-to-face module for emergency online delivery, we provide a framework for switching to emergency online teaching along with some useful insights and recommendations to operations management educators.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of adopting lean manufacturing principles on operational efficiency by eliminating seven major lean wastes (or Muda) in a Malaysian stationery manufacturer. Much of the research on lean considers its application to larger organisations with stable demand patterns. This research examines a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) with a volatile demand pattern. A process activity mapping (PAM) methodology was utilized to identify the potential for waste elimination. PAM is a visual tool that considers every step in a production process. Value-added and non-value-added activities are therefore examined to understand hidden wastes and their sources. The results revealed that the adopted lean principles significantly reduce the waiting times. This time reduction resulted in savings (reduction of cycle time) and to a certain extent, can be a crucial driver in continuous improvement sustainability in the production process. The study focuses on a single case study and provides a springboard for further research. Future studies examining the results across a broader sample of organisations would develop the findings further. The extant literature cites mixed success for lean implementation programmes. The results demonstrate that lean is still recognised as a powerful approach to improving operations in SMEs. This paper reflects on the application of lean in a real case study showing the impact of lean on operational performance of an SME.

Purpose: Reverse logistics (RL), an inseparable aspect of supply chain management, returns used products to recovery processes with the aim of reducing waste generation. Enterprises, however, seem reluctant to apply RL due to various types of risks which are perceived as posing an economic threat to businesses. This paper draws on a synthesis of supply chain and risk management literature to identify and cluster RL risk factors and to recommend risk mitigation strategies for reducing the negative impact of risks on RL implementation.Design/methodology/approach: The authors identify and cluster risk factors in RL by using risk management theory. Experts in RL and supply chain risk management validated the risk factors via a questionnaire. An unsupervised data mining method, self-organising map, is utilised to cluster RL risk factors into homogeneous categories.Findings: A total of 41 risk factors in the context of RL were identified and clustered into three different groups: strategic, tactical and operational. Risk mitigation strategies are recommended to mitigate the RL risk factors by drawing on supply chain risk management approaches.Originality/value: This paper studies risks in RL and recommends risk management strategies to control and mitigate risk factors to implement RL successfully.

Reverse logistics (RL) is one of the manufacturing methods applied to recover used products; and return them back to the process of consumption in terms of decreasing wastes and landfills. Recovered products which are the outcomes of the RL are competing with new products in the market. This competition motivates RL companies to understand about critical success factors (CSFs). Critical success factors may help RL companies to identify the strengths and stimulate customers to buy recovered products. CSFs are identified in limited researches but classification of CSFs in RL is still unexplored. In this paper, identified CSFs are classified by importance-performance analysis (IPA) in four quadrants. The importance level of the CSFs was collected based on the previous research by Panjehfouladgaran et al. (in press) and performance level by a checklist in a RL company. The results indicate that transportation, culture, organisational strategy, top management commitment and logistics network design are critical success factors that must be focused for the organisational goals achievements in RL organisations.

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Companies are trying to increase their market share due to globalisation in recent years. Various types of products and customers faced different challenges for companies to achieve market share. Hence, to accomplish this goal, successful companies have to concentrate on the efficiency and effectiveness of their activities. Supply chain involves all activities that fulfil customers' demands and transfer materials through downstream into upstream of the chain. Since, the supply chain creates value for customers and companies simultaneously, monitoring supply chain activities is essential. Numerous performance measurement systems and frameworks in the supply chain have been developed in recent years. This paper discusses on the development of a framework for measuring qualitative metrics in supply chain. Qualitative metrics in supply chain management were identified and then experts selected the most common metrics between them. Fuzzy logic controller was applied to translate verbal expression into numerical variables. Finally, a framework was programmed in the MATLAB® software for easy utilisation and evaluation of the qualitative performances in the supply chain.

Environmental issues and governmental regulations have pushed companies to be more environmentally conscious and socially responsible. Sustainable production plays an important role in the global markets and companies practicing sustainable manufacturing processes for protecting the environment can increase their competitiveness. Reverse logistics is one of the sustainable approaches, which returns back used product from point of consumption to the point of origin due to recovery and product reuse. The identification of critical success factors for reverse logistics is essential to facilitate reverse logistics organization in implementing it. In this work, critical success factors (CSFs) in reverse logistics were identified based on the critical success factors in supply chain management. A survey was conducted among reverse logistics experts to identify the factors. Then, the factors were ranked by TOPSIS, showed that transportation as the most important factor followed by process planning and resource efficiency. However, innovation was the lowest ranked.