Purpose -In an era of downsizing and financial cutbacks, the operational efficiency of third party logistics providers (3PLs) dictates their competitiveness and/or survival. In an effort to help 3PLs enhance productivity and price leverage in the increasingly competitive third party logistics market, this paper aims to develop a meaningful set of financial benchmarks that will dictate best practices. In particular, the paper proposes a data envelopment analysis (DEA) that is proven to be useful for measuring the operational efficiency of various profit or non-profit organizations. Design/methodology/approach -Using the examples of major 3PLs in the USA, this paper is the first to illustrate the usefulness of DEA for measuring the competitiveness of third party logistics services. The proposed DEA model also helps 3PLs identify potential sources of inefficiency and provide useful hindsight for the continuous improvement of operational efficiency. Furthermore, the proposed DEA model not only helps 3PLs establish detailed policy guidelines in prioritizing the use of financial resources, but also helps them evaluate the effects of financial investment on the profitability of 3PLs. Findings -DEA study finds that the strength of 3PL service performances and the breadth of diverse 3PL services is somewhat correlated to the longterm financial strength of 3PLs. Originality/value -The main contribution of this paper includes the novel application of DEA to the performance measurement of 3PLS. The proposed DEA model not only helps 3PLS establish detailed policy guidelines in prioritizing the use of financial resources, but also helps them evaluate the effects of financial investment on the profitability of 3PLS.

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Purpose -This paper aims to develop a balanced scorecard for measuring the comparative efficiency of Korean luxury hotels and then set the benchmark of performance standards for Korean luxury hotels in the increasingly competitive hotel industry. It also aims to identify the root causes of inefficiencies and then propose ways to improve the competitiveness of Korean luxury hotels. Design/methodology/approach -This paper proposes data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure the comparative efficiency of six luxury hotel chains in Korea, relative to prior periods and their key competitors. In particular, this paper develops the Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR) model that is designed to derive weights without being fixed in advance. Also, the results of the CCR model with constant returns to scale were compared to those of the Banker, Charnes and Cooper (BCC) model with decreasing returns to scale. Findings -The paper finds that the declining efficiency within some Korean luxury hotels coincides with more aggressive government crackdowns on bad bank loans in the wake of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) financial crisis and the slow adaptation of some hotels into ongoing hotel industry restructuring. The deep discount in hotel room rates did not necessarily lead to increased room occupancy. The revenue increase is not significantly correlated with the enhanced profitability of Korean luxury hotels. The Korean hotel industry reached the stage of market maturity and therefore the mere expansion of the hotel capacity would not necessarily enhance the hotel's profitability. Originality/value -This paper uncovers the financial weaknesses and strengths of the Korean luxury hotels and identifies challenges and opportunities for the Korean hotel industry. In addition, it helps Korean hotels formulate the future survival strategies by providing the detailed picture of where they stand in terms of competitiveness. This paper is one of the first attempts to utilise DEA to develop performance measures for hotels under the balanced scorecard framework. The proposed DEA can be easily modified or extended to similar settings in other hotels such as budget hotels or other countries such as USA and Japan.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the repurchase intention of a customer and his/her perception of various aspects of an e-tailer’s product return process, such as leniency, fairness and quality of the return process. Design/methodology/approach This research focuses on these aspects through the expectation disconfirmation theoretical lens, looking at the relationship between expectations shaped by the product return policy and the repurchase intention. This research collects data using a survey approach and analyzes it using structural equation modeling. Findings It was found that perceived return policy leniency, perceived fairness of the return experience and perceived quality of the return experience are important and supporting factors that influence a customer’s intention to be a return customer to e-tailers. Perceived leniency was found to not only be the most influential factor for return purchase intention but it also significantly impacted the perceived fairness and the quality of the return process. As a result, perceived leniency of the return policy had a “halo” effect on the other factors. Practical implications This suggests that the majority of an e-tailer’s effort should be expended determining a return policy and experience that is widely perceived as lenient as this will overall improve customer perception of the return process and increase repurchase intention. Originality/value This research extends research on lenient policy within the growing e-tailer sector by examining the return experience of the customer and subsequent repurchase intention based on multiple factors.

Whether organizational change is adaptive or disruptive has been an issue among organization researchers. This paper examines the eect of organizational change on organizational failure and compares the result to previous ®ndings. To increase comparability, we replicated Delacroix and Swaminathan's (1991) format of the California wine industry study using Missouri wine industry data. Event history analysis is used to cover time-varying variables and censoring problems. Following an organizational ecology perspective, our result supports the ®nding that organizational change is not related to organizational failure.