Medical devices play an increasingly significant role in the delivery of health care today. However, persistent quality problems with medical devices and the associated recalls present potential health risks to patients and personnel using these devices. This study addresses three key issues in this regard. First, it empirically assesses the financial implications of medical device recalls to understand if these consequences are severe enough to deter firms from introducing potentially hazardous medical devices into the market, as can be inferred from the literature. Second, the study considers a cross section of medical device manufacturers to examine the effect of firm characteristics on the costs of poor quality. Third, in an attempt to explore the sources of recalls, this study investigates firm characteristics that are likely to be associated with device recalls. The econometric analyses in the study are based on data from manufacturers in the medical device industry over a four-year period (2002-2005). Contrary to our expectations, the findings of the study indicate that at an aggregate level, the market penalties for medical device recalls are not significant, i.e., at the aggregate level, the costs of poor quality are not severe. Furthermore, we find that the magnitude of financial consequences of device recalls is affected by the product scope, sales, growth prospects, and the capital structure of a firm. In our analyses exploring the sources of device recalls, we find that firms with a research and development focus, developing broader product portfolios, have a higher likelihood of device recalls. Also, we find that the likelihood of recalls decreases with prior recall experience, indicating the presence of learning. Implications of the study findings, limitations, and directions for future research are identified. This paper was accepted by Sampath Rajagopalan, operations and supply chain management.medical device, recalls, quality, econometric analyses, performance, learning

This paper focuses on the proverbial ''last mile'' of the retail supply chain -i.e., delivering products to the end-customerand highlights the need for recognizing product type differences in configuring order fulfillment processes in electronic business-to-customer (B2C) transactions. The following two questions serve as the motivation for the study: Do customer expectations of order fulfillment processes vary across product types? Should the product type matter in configuring order fulfillment processes? From the studies in the marketing literature, we infer that customer satisfaction assessments are based on customer expectations of order fulfillment processes, and that these expectations systematically vary across the three product types: convenience goods (e.g., groceries, home and office supplies), shopping goods (e.g., ready-to-wear men, women, and kids' apparel), and specialty goods (e.g., desktop and notebook computers, and wedding dresses). In particular, we posit that ceteris paribus, customer satisfaction with order fulfillment will decrease moving along a continuum of product types, from convenience goods to specialty goods. The empirical analysis for this study is based on data collected on dimensions of customer satisfaction with order fulfillment from a sample of 256 firms engaged in electronic B2C transactions. Firms included in our study sample are such that their products can be classified into only one of three product types: convenience, shopping, or specialty goods. In essence, each firm in the study sample is a proxy for one of three product types. The results of the empirical analysis indicate that, on average, customers tend to have higher satisfaction levels with the order fulfillment process of convenience and shopping goods than with the order fulfillment process of specialty goods. We discuss the managerial implications of our results, contributions of the paper to the literature, limitations, and directions for future research. #

a b s t r a c tThis paper investigates the customization of the online purchase process in electronic retailing. We conceptualize customization relevant to the two constituent sub-processes in the online purchase process: (i) decision customization-the customization of the information content delivered to customers to help them in the decision-making sub-process; and (ii) transaction customization-the customization of the purchase transaction sub-process for each customer. We draw on and synthesize the theoretical perspectives of Website Usability, Technology Acceptance Model, and Transaction Costs, to triangulate and deduce hypotheses linking customization of the online purchase process in electronic retailing and customer satisfaction. The hypotheses are tested by analyzing: (i) primary data on customization of the online purchase process collected from an online field study involving a direct observation and content analysis of the websites of 422 retailers; and (ii) secondary data on customer satisfaction with the online purchase process for the same set of 422 electronic retailers collected from a publicly available data source. The research method used for the empirical analysis is Multivariate Analyses of Covariance (MANCOVA). The results indicate that decision customization that provides choice assistance by way of personalized product recommendations is positively associated with customer satisfaction with the decision-making sub-process; and transaction customization, oriented towards making the transaction sub-process personal, convenient, and interactive is positively associated with customer satisfaction with the purchase transaction sub-process. Additionally, the results indicate that both decision customization and transaction customization are associated with overall customer satisfaction with the online purchase process of electronic retailers. The contributions, managerial implications, and limitations of the study, and directions for future research are discussed.