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Purpose
Despite significant investment in e-procurement by many organisations, perceived failings in the quality of such technologies and of the support provided to use them – termed here e-procurement quality – continue to generate resistance from internal customers who must assimilate e-procurement into their daily routines. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of e-procurement quality from an internal customer perspective and to develop, refine, and validate construct measures.


Design/methodology/approach
Research was undertaken in the UK and the Netherlands incorporating a literature review, a qualitative study with 58 interviews, a quantitative study with 274 survey respondents, and a replication study with 154 survey respondents.


Findings
Analysis reveals that e-procurement quality comprises five universally applicable dimensions: processing, content, usability, professionalism, and training. A sixth dimension, specification, appears to be applicable, but context specific.


Originality/value
The study represents one of the most extensive investigations of e-procurement quality to date and is the first to examine its underlying dimensional structure. The multi-item scales developed and validated using a mixed-methods process are suitable for theory building and testing, as well as providing useful diagnostic value to practitioners.

PurposeThe aim of this review and of the papers in this special issue is to critically examine different approaches to teaching operations management (OM) in order to provoke and stimulate educators within the discipline.Design/methodology/approachThe papers within this special issue include empirical assessments of a problem‐based learning enterprise resource planning (ERP) simulation; a computer‐based learning tool for material requirements planning (MRP); a simulation of assembly operations; an operations strategy innovation game; an extension of the production dice game; an experiential teaching method in different class settings; and problem‐based assessment methods in OM. A variety of data are used to support these empirical studies, including survey, interview, and observational data.FindingsThe papers within the special issue support the argument that OM is well‐suited to more applied methods of teaching focusing on the application of subject knowledge to real‐life situations through a variety of techniques.Practical implicationsIt is hoped that this review and the papers within this special issue act to stimulate educators to re‐evaluate their approaches to teaching OM and encourage them to consider adopting experiential teaching methods, business simulations, role‐plays, group exercises, live cases, and virtual learning environments, instead of, or in addition to, the more conventional lectures that typically dominate many OM modules around the world.Originality/valueA special issue on teaching OM appears timely given the significant changes to both the university landscape and to the nature of the discipline that we have witnessed over the last quarter of a century.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report on research into the impact of two sequential dimensions of strategic purchasing – purchasing recognition and purchasing involvement – on the development and deployment of dynamic capabilities. The authors also examine how such dynamic capabilities impact on both cost and innovation performance, and how their effects differ for service as opposed to manufacturing firms.Design/methodology/approachThe authors test hypotheses using structural equation modeling of survey data from 309 manufacturing and service firms.FindingsFrom a dynamic capability perspective, the analysis supports the positive relationships between purchasing recognition, purchasing involvement, and dynamic capability in the form of knowledge scanning. The authors also find support for the positive impact of knowledge scanning on both cost and innovation performance. From a contingency perspective, data supports hypothesized differences caused by industry, whereby service-based firms experience stronger positive linkages in our model than manufacturing-based firms. Finally, emerging from the data, the authors explore a re-enforcing effect from cost performance to purchasing involvement, something that is in line with the dynamic capabilities perspective but not typically addressed in operations management (OM) research.Originality/valueThe research offers a number of theoretical and managerial contributions, including being one of a relative few examples of empirical assessment of dynamic capability development and deployment; examining the enablers of dynamic capability in addition to the more commonly addressed performance effect; assessing the contingency effect of firm type for dynamic capabilities; and uncovering a return (re-enforcing) effect between performance and enablers of dynamic capabilities.

Purpose
Despite the widespread organisational adoption of e-procurement systems, we continue to witness disappointing performance outcomes from their implementation. This can be explained largely by the failure of many organisations to translate the initial adoption decision, made at an organisational level, into individual-level acceptance of e-procurement by an organisation's employees. The purpose of this paper is to examine the key antecedents of the technology acceptance model (TAM) for employees expected to use e-procurement systems in their day-to-day activities.


Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors apply and extend the TAM to examine the factors that influence the acceptance of e-procurement by individual employees. The authors' focus is on the potential role of user-perceived e-procurement quality dimensions as the antecedents to the TAM's cognitive mechanisms of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The structural equation model uses the survey data collected from 139 e-procurement users at a university in the Netherlands.


Findings
The results confirm the core TAM relationships within an e-procurement context. Extending the TAM model to explore the antecedents, the authors find that the e-procurement quality dimensions of processing, usability, and professionalism impact the levels of individual employee e-procurement acceptance. Interestingly, the system-level dimensions (processing and usability) appear to play a greater role than the support dimensions (professionalism) in these cognitive mechanisms.


Practical implications
The findings indicate that the need for e-procurement training and on-going support may be lessened by initial effective design covering system navigation and system usability and by ensuring that an e-procurement system has expedient information and product flows between the buyer and supplier.


Originality/value
To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to explore the TAM and, more critically, its antecedents within an e-procurement context. It is also the first to empirically validate this extended model. Finally, by shifting the focus from the more typical organisational-level adoption to an individual employee acceptance unit of analysis, the authors provide a better understanding of how organisations can gain the most from investments in e-procurement and other similar e-supply chain management technologies.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the preferences of students towards different teaching methods and the perceived effectiveness of experiential teaching methods in different operations management (OM) modules.Design/methodology/approachStudent perceptions of different teaching methods and various aspects of an experiential teaching method, in the form of a business simulation game, are examined using survey data from 274 respondents in four small post‐experience and two large pre‐experience OM modules.FindingsThe paper's analysis suggests that traditional and experiential teaching methods are both popular with OM students, whilst independent teaching methods are less well liked. Analysis also shows that students on both kinds of OM modules perceive most aspects of the experiential teaching method used in this study (The Operations Game) very positively.Research limitations/implicationsThis research study was confined to a particular type of experiential teaching method – a business simulation game. There is a need for further research to investigate the perceived effectiveness of other experiential teaching methods, such as role‐plays and live cases. Furthermore, the paper does not examine the use of experiential teaching methods that do not require the physical presence of students.Practical implicationsFor OM educators, the paper clarifies how they might incorporate experiential teaching methods in different class settings. Whilst experiential teaching methods are typically used for small post‐experience modules, these data indicate that the method can also be used on larger pre‐experience modules with great success. The paper also notes a number of challenges involved in using experiential teaching methods on both kinds of module.Originality/valueThis is the first known study to directly examine the perceived effectiveness of an experiential teaching method in both small post‐experience and larger pre‐experience OM modules.

PurposeWhilst e‐procurement has significant potential to reduce the purchasing costs of an organisation, the realisation of these savings requires user compliance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which user‐perceived e‐procurement quality (EPQ) (operationalised through the dimensions of professionalism, processing, training, specification, content, and usability) influences both system and contract compliance.Design/methodology/approachUser perceptions of EPQ were examined in four UK organisations using survey data from 274 respondents.FindingsStrong evidence was found of a positive relationship between user‐perceived EPQ and both system and contract compliance. System compliance was most strongly influenced by professionalism and content dimensions, whilst contract compliance was most strongly influenced by processing, specification, and content dimensions.Research limitations/implicationsData were collected from e‐procurement users in four organisations, which may limit the extent to which findings can be generalised.Practical implicationsUser perceptions of e‐procurement provision significantly influence system and contract adoption. Practitioners should pay attention to management of different dimensions of perceived quality as they may have different effects on both contract and system compliance.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to empirically assess the relationship between user‐perceived EPQ and compliance. Its findings challenge the assumption that the monopolistic dynamics common within internal services, such as e‐procurement provision, are sufficient to ensure compliance. Dissatisfied individuals invariably find ways to circumvent mandatory systems and contracts.

PurposeThis paper seeks to present a teaching tool (the Innovation Game) which aims to demonstrate the challenges of developing an effective innovation strategy in the context of new product development. The goal of the game is to enable participants to experience how strategic and operational choices made in relation to innovation strategy are interrelated and how these choices can impact on new product development success. Specifically the paper aims to explore the impact of choices made in relation to capability accumulation, capacity management and product‐portfolio management.Design/methodology/approachAfter presenting the learning objectives for the game with the support of relevant literature, the paper describes the design of the game and the context in which it was played. The paper reviews feedback (learning outcomes) from formal reflective post‐game sessions with participants. This feedback indicates that the learning objectives have been satisfied.FindingsThrough experiential learning and reflective practice participants learn, for example, that: capabilities need to match the intended strategy; investing in production capacity can be leveraged to aid negotiations with competitors, or it can be used as a bully tactic; and, it sometimes is better to be an R&D "follower" rather than a "leader". The participants also learn that the alignment of operational and strategic choices is necessary in order to leverage success in developing new products but that the actions and strategies of competitors have a direct impact also and need to be considered carefully.Research limitations/implicationsThe teaching tool adopts a participative game playing and reflective learning approach to introduce into class some of the real‐life competitive dynamics of managing new product development and decision making normally confined to the boardroom. While it is argued that the game demonstrates the challenges of developing successful strategy, the game is set in a static context in which certain external contingencies are not accounted for.Originality/valueDemonstration of the importance of strategy to new product development is particularly difficult because of the longitudinal nature of product development and the tacit nature of the decision making process which often transpires long after projects are completed. The paper posits that the value of the Innovation Game is in reflecting on it as a practical, interactive tool that helps participants appreciate the challenges inherent in strategic and operational decision making related to innovation strategy and new product development success.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to respond to calls for in‐depth studies of production and operations management (OM) teaching by providing an analysis of the relative effectiveness of a continuous problem‐based assessment and a traditional final exam assessment in OM.Design/methodology/approachAn undergraduate OM module is used to assess how well a problem‐based assessment method performs against a more traditional final exam in terms of impact on student learning, student classification and feasibility. Quantitative data on student performance, feedback and satisfaction are used.FindingsThe analysis shows that the problem‐based assessment provides a better learning experience for the students, but is a worse classificatory of student results than the conventional exam. In terms of feasibility, problem‐based assessment can be a cost‐effective assessment method.Research limitations/implicationsThis study analyses the assessment method used on one module for nine years; to increase the generalizability of the findings further research is needed with different modules and contexts.Practical implicationsThis paper gives guidance to OM educators on how to improve assessment methods to achieve both improved learning effects as well as an accurate classification of student performance.Originality/valueThis study extends the literature on problem‐based learning to assessments and provides an empirical analysis of one such method. This study also provides detailed analysis of different assessment methods in OM based on longitudinal data.

PurposeThis paper aims to build upon the debate in the service quality literature regarding both the theoretical and practical effectiveness of expectations data in the measurement of internal service quality (ISQ). Gap‐based and perceptions‐only approaches to measuring ISQ are tested and their respective benefits and limitations evaluated.Design/methodology/approachThe internal service context used in this study is the provision of e‐procurement software, training, and user support in four organisations. The two approaches are evaluated in terms of reliability and validity, as well as pragmatic aspects of survey administration.FindingsThe various tests carried out indicate that both the gap‐measure and perceptions‐only measure are reliable and valid, the latter being the marginally higher performer. Both approaches were found to have benefits and limitations, and so the empirical study, combined with contributions from the literature, generates some understanding of the internal service context in which the two approaches might be appropriate.Research limitations/implicationsThe survey was based on an internal e‐procurement service; as such, the variables and dimensions selected to measure ISQ in this context inevitably limit the scope of the research.Practical implicationsFor operations managers, the paper clarifies the basis on which they might choose between the two approaches to ISQ measurement.Originality/valueThis study is the first to directly test and compare the relative merits of these two approaches to ISQ measurement. The paper also offers insights as to the operational contexts in which each approach might be appropriate.

PurposeThe paper seeks to analyze the evolution of competitive advantage using both "classic" and "extended" resource‐based theory (RBT). The aim is to examine the different ways in which "classic" and "extended" resource‐based advantage develops and how they might combine to create long‐term advantage.Design/methodology/approachA single case study method is used to examine the process by which competitive advantage has accumulated over a 50‐year period at Food Services Group Inc., a highly successful food service company based on the West Coast of the USA with an annual growth rate currently running at 10 percent.FindingsPreliminary conclusions suggest support for the sequential, iterative, and slow‐cycle development model associated with proprietary bounded resources and, the strategic resource‐rigidity paradox. The work also highlights preliminary evidence for a faster cycle development process possible with inter‐firm resources associated with extended resource‐based theory (ERBT) and, long‐run sustainable advantage requiring synchronization and integration of both bounded and relational resources.Originality/valueThis is the first rich empirical study of the way competitive advantage evolves using both RBT and ERBT. The research provides insights into how organizations can combine both classic and extended resources in seeking to establish competitive advantage. It illustrates how unbounded external resources, such as the role of suppliers engaged in new product development, can create an initial advantage for firms who then build on this by investing in bounded resources such as specific skills within their organization.

PurposeThis paper investigates the stalled adoption of a supplier park at Bridgend Engine Plant in the UK. It starts from the position that not all firms can or should implement the same set of practices.Design/methodology/approachCritical incident technique and semi‐structured interviews over five years were used to understand the influence of institutional and strategic choices during the implementation of a supplier park. A conceptual framework was developed to incorporate practices broadly associated with parks, i.e. improving supply stability, supply coordination, redefining the OEM/supplier boundary and enhancing interaction between co‐located firms.FindingsThe findings demonstrate a limited implementation of supply practices at Bridgend with only one component supplier brought onto the site. The original plan was to create a supplier park that would "grow" to an industrial park, creating an automotive sector in the area. However, a combination of operational, processual, and contextual factors have conspired against the plan.Research limitations/implicationsThe combination of a broad range of theoretical and practical elements means there are associated discussions that could be more fully explored. Condensing the interview notes has resulted in the researchers' own interpretation of events becoming a significant reality filter. Whilst single case studies raise inevitable concerns over comparability, our focus is on theoretical generalizability through richness of empirical data.Originality/valueAs firms continue to use best practice as a core ingredient of strategy, researchers must respond with robust theoretical concepts explaining adoption and implementation. This paper integrates disparate perspectives across multiple levels in order to build a richer and more believable picture of a stalled initiative. Three key conclusions can be drawn: the contingent nature of "bundles of practice" implications of political ambiguity over the efficiency argument and the effect of isomorphic or bandwagon responses by firms.

Purpose: This paper investigates the stalled adoption of a supplier park at Bridgend Engine Plant in the UK. It starts from the position that not all firms can or should implement the same set of practices. Design/methodology/approach: Critical incident technique and semi-structured interviews over five years were used to understand the influence of institutional and strategic choices during the implementation of a supplier park. A conceptual framework was developed to incorporate practices broadly associated with parks, i.e. improving supply stability, supply coordination, redefining the OEM/supplier boundary and enhancing interaction between co-located firms. Findings: The findings demonstrate a limited implementation of supply practices at Bridgend with only one component supplier brought onto the site. The original plan was to create a supplier park that would "grow" to an industrial park, creating an automotive sector in the area. However, a combination of operational, processual, and contextual factors have conspired against the plan. Research limitations/implications: The combination of a broad range of theoretical and practical elements means there are associated discussions that could be more fully explored. Condensing the interview notes has resulted in the researchers' own interpretation of events becoming a significant reality filter. Whilst single case studies raise inevitable concerns over comparability, our focus is on theoretical generalizability through richness of empirical data. Originality/value: As firms continue to use best practice as a core ingredient of strategy, researchers must respond with robust theoretical concepts explaining adoption and implementation. This paper integrates disparate perspectives across multiple levels in order to build a richer and more believable picture of a stalled initiative. Three key conclusions can be drawn: the contingent nature of "bundles of practice" implications of political ambiguity over the efficiency argument and the effect of isomorphic or bandwagon responses by firms. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.