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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe an emergent supply chain management system that supports a sustainable values based organization (VBO) using a structuration theory‐based framework.Design/methodology/approachA case study of a sustainable beef cooperative employing a structuration theory framework provides insights into sustainable supply chain management models.FindingsThe supply chain design and management afford the key to the VBO's success. In order to attain the necessary price premium, the unique product attributes acquired through the natural beef production process must be sustained along the entire supply chain and communicated to the end customer. Structuration theory is useful in understanding supply chain management in VBOs.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper has implications for studying VBOs, particularly those prioritizing sustainability values. The descriptive model presented is useful in settings where organizational structure and the supply chain are needed to support sustainable products and processes and whose success is facilitated by establishing strategic partners, especially those that make possible economies of scale. The study is limited to one, privately owned firm, operating in a specialty industry sector.Practical implicationsThe paper has implications for those entities with an identified values set that endows the product with unique characteristics that must be conveyed to their end consumer in order to command a price premium and/or differentiate the product from a commodity. The case study provides an example of how a unique product as well as a facilitating organizational structure and supply chain emerge out of the application of a set of core values.Originality/valueLittle previous research focuses on implications of supply chain management in VBOs. In addition, the paper contributes to both the supply chain management and sustainability literature by relating supply chain management to a more comprehensive sustainability agenda including social, environmental, and long‐term economic sustainability and by a theoretically based structuring.

ABSTRACTExperience design, an approach to create emotional connection with guests or customers through careful planning of tangible and intangible service elements, has gained popularity in many hospitality and retail businesses. With ever‐increasing competition, service providers seek to develop loyalty by aggressively designing, continuously innovating, and managing their customer experiences. This article explores the relationship between different service elements designed to create enhanced experience and customer loyalty. In addition, it looks at emotional responses as mediating factors between the physical and relational elements and loyalty behaviors. A model is proposed and tested with a VIP hospitality tent for an internationally renowned touring circus. Results of the study indicate that while a few design elements directly affect loyalty behavior, the relationship between most design elements and loyalty behavior is strongly mediated by eliciting certain types of emotional behavior. This connection has implications for the focus of service managers' efforts in different environments.

Service managers face the problem of simultaneously developing and implementing both capacity and demand management strategies. Often they must chose between marketing options, for shifting or increasing demand, or operations management options such as adding additional capacity via more equipment or employees. The interaction of these two functional area strategies can have surprising, unintended, and often detrimental outcomes from a profit perspective. This article looks at the outcomes of various combinations of these decisions in a service network, a service with multiple activities within one site. We develop and apply an integrative model for determining the profit-maximizing capacity management strategy for a service network. We implement the model by combining a conjoint analysis-based optimal product design model from marketing with a simulation model investigating capacity and demand management strategies from operations management. We tested the model using data from an actual service network, a ski resort. Our results indicated that queue information signage was the most effective strategy for improving profitability. We also found that a decision that management believed would increase revenues—changing the customer class mix—actually decreased profitability substantially.

AbstractService designers predict market share and sales for their new designs by estimating consumer utilities. The service's technical features (for example, overnight parcel delivery), its price, and the nature of consumer interactions with the service delivery system influence those utilities. Price and the service's technical features are usually quite objective and readily ascertained by the consumer. However, consumer perceptions about their interactions with the service delivery system are usually far more subjective. Furthermore, service designers can only hope to influence those perceptions indirectly through their decisions about nonlinear processes such as employee recruiting, training, and scheduling policies. Like the service's technical features, these process choices affect quality perceptions, market share, revenues, costs, and profits.We propose a heuristic for the NP‐hard service design problem that integrates realistic service delivery cost models with conjoint analysis. The resulting seller's utility function links expected profits to the intensity of a service's influential attributes and also reveals an ideal setting or level for each service attribute. In tests with simulated service design problems, our proposed configurations compare quite favorably with the designs suggested by other normative service design heuristics.