a b s t r a c tFacing uncertain environments, firms have strived to achieve greater supply chain collaboration to leverage the resources and knowledge of their suppliers and customers. The objective of the study is to uncover the nature of supply chain collaboration and explore its impact on firm performance based on a paradigm of collaborative advantage. Reliable and valid instruments of these constructs were developed through rigorous empirical analysis. Data were collected through a Web survey of U.S. manufacturing firms in various industries. The statistical methods used include confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (i.e., LISREL). The results indicate that supply chain collaboration improves collaborative advantage and indeed has a bottom-line influence on firm performance, and collaborative advantage is an intermediate variable that enables supply chain partners to achieve synergies and create superior performance. A further analysis of the moderation effect of firm size reveals that collaborative advantage completely mediates the relationship between supply chain collaboration and firm performance for small firms while it partially mediates the relationship for medium and large firms.

Fast and dramatic changes in customer expectations, competition, and technology are creating an increasingly uncertain environment. To respond, manufacturers are seeking to enhance flexibility across the value chain. Manufacturing flexibility, a critical dimension of value chain flexibility, is the ability to produce a variety of products in the quantities that customers demand while maintaining high performance. It is strategically important for enhancing competitive position and winning customer orders.This research organizes literature on manufacturing flexibility and classifies it according to competence and capability theory. It describes a framework to explore the relationships among flexible competence (machine, labor, material handling, and routing flexibilities), flexible capability (volume flexibility and mix flexibility), and customer satisfaction. It develops valid and reliable instruments to measure the sub-dimensions of manufacturing flexibility, and it applies structural equation modeling to a large-scale sample (n = 273). The results indicate strong, positive, and direct relationships between flexible manufacturing competence and volume flexibility and between flexible manufacturing competence and mix flexibility. Volume flexibility and mix flexibility have strong, positive, and direct relationships with customer satisfaction.

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Purpose -To identify what constitutes web site quality or what makes a web site effective. Design/methodology/approach -This article examines and integrates four sets of factors that capture e-commerce web site quality using an IS success model: system quality, information quality, service quality, and attractiveness. A questionnaire survey was conducted to verify the measures of web site quality. Based on TAM, a framework is also developed relating web site quality to customers' beliefs (perceived usefulness and ease of use), attitudes (preferences for the site), and intentions (to revisit the site). Findings -A set of instruments of web site quality has been developed and empirically validated by factor analysis.Research limitations/implications -The research is based on a sample of students browsing several book web sites and they may not sense the web site quality across different B2C commercial web sites such as music, computer, travel, clothes and flowers. Data in these domains should be collected in any future research to examine further the measures developed here. Practical implications -Guidelines for web interface design are proposed. Originality/value -This paper fulfils the identification of web site quality and the development and validation of its measures and offers a framework and practical guidelines for e-commerce managers and web designers.

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While managers and researchers agree that the fuzzy front end of new product development (NPD) is critical for project success, the meaning of the term``front-end fuzziness'' remains vague. It is often used broadly to refer to both the exogenous causes and the internal consequences of fuzziness. This imprecise language makes it difficult for managers to separate cause and effect and thus identify specific prescriptive remedies for`f uzziness'' problems. The vagueness of the concept and the lack of a framework for defining``front-end fuzziness'' also impede empirical research efforts. Building upon uncertainty theory, we define front-end fuzziness in terms of environmental uncertainties. Front-end fuzziness has consequences for a project's team vision. It reduces the team's sense of shared purpose and causes unclear project targets and priorities. Describes how foundation elements of a firm's overall product development program can help project teams cope with front-end fuzziness.

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