... capabilities give them a competitive edge for delivering what customers want. However, often customers are not a homogeneous group requiring the same physical products and services. From a manufacturer's perspective, this demands that the issue of customer and supplier attractiveness should be considered. How...

...Mikko Kärkkäinen; Timo Ala‐Risku; Jan Holmström A broad product assortment is usually valued highly by customers. However, holding a great number of product variants in inventory increases the costs of a supplier. It is possible to reduce need for warehousing with direct deliveries from...

...Göran Svensson The topic of this research focuses simultaneously on the perceived trust of companies towards suppliers and customers in supply chains. Initially, it is assumed that lean, responsive, and agile supply chains require satisfactory or high levels of perceived trust of companies towards...

...Pieter J.A. Nagel; Willem W. Cilliers In recognising the need to research the concept of customer satisfaction the study aims to develop a strategic approach to measuring a customer′s satisfaction with a particular enterprise. The study is an attempt to (1) develop an overall concept of customer...

...Norman E. Marr The term, customer service, covers all aspects of the transaction between the supplier and the customer, and includes elements of all major functional areas of a company. Customer service is detailed and customer priorities are identified with regard to seven types of retail outlets...

...Douglas M. Lambert; Arun Sharma Evidence suggests that the recent interest in competitive strategy and competitive positioning,while good in itself, has resulted in the management of many firms placing too much emphasis on competitive performance and too little emphasis on customer expectations...

... limits between the firm and its customers. Quality is achieved through the successful creation of form, possession, time, place, and quantity utilities for the firm′s products. Control must be implemented in order to ensure that these utilities are created to meet the standards and tolerance limits...

...Graham C. Stevens Common to all manufacturing companies is the need to control the flow of material from suppliers, through the value adding processes and distribution channels, to customers. The supply chain is the connected series of activities which is concerned with planning, co‐ordinating...

...Larissa S. Kyj; Myroslaw J. Kyj Oligopolistic markets typically revert to some form of non‐price competition in order to differentiate their goods and services. Customer services that are associated with tangible product offerings present an opportunity for firms attempting to differentiate...