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The technology evolution compels retail networks to introduce unique business models to retain customers and to gain a competitive advantage. Customer reviews available through social media need to be taken into account by retail networks to design a model with unique service operations and marketing approaches that will improve loyalty by adding value to customers. Furthermore, the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer spending behaviour is very weak and needs further investigation. Hence our study attempts to understand how retail network leverage the potential of social media reviews along with unique service operations to satisfy customers. The study analyses the nexus of: a brand, promotional offers, service operations; and their interaction through social media reviews on customer satisfaction levels. Design/methodology/approach: We develop a conceptual model for the social media era. We combine the idea of loyalty-based and value based models of Chatterjee (2013). We employed a survey questionnaire method to elicit opinions of retail customer satisfaction based on social media reviews, service operations and marketing efforts. We derive measures of our model from existing literature and expert opinion. Originality/value: Our empirical evidence based on customer experience would be helpful for companies in integrating their operations and marketing efforts enabling them to convert different segment of customers such as 'free riders (higher satisfaction and low profitability)' and 'vulnerable customers (Low satisfaction and higher profitability)' into 'star customers (higher satisfaction and high profitability) '. Through a considered approach: combining social media reviews, marketing and operations, businesses will be better-placed to survive in the ultra-competitive social media-influenced era.

In the past few decades several supply chain management initiatives such as Vendor Managed Inventory, Continuous Replenishment and Collaborative Planning Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) have been proposed in literature to improve the performance of supply chains. But, identifying the benefits of collaboration is still a big challenge for many supply chains. Confusion around the optimum number of partners, investment in collaboration and duration of partnership are some of the barriers of healthy collaborative arrangements. To evolve competitive supply chain collaboration (SCC), all SC processes need to be assessed from time to time for evaluating the performance. In a growing field, performance measurement is highly indispensable in order to make continuous improvement; in a new field, it is equally important to check the performance to test conduciveness of SCC. In this research, collaborative performance measurement will act as a testing tool to identify conducive environment to collaborate, by the way of pinpointing areas requiring improvements before initializing collaboration. We use actual industrial data and simulation to help managerial decision-making on the number of collaborating partners, the level of investments and the involvement in supply chain processes. This approach will help the supply chains to obtain maximum benefit of collaborative relationships. The use of simulation for understanding the performance of SCC is relatively a new approach and this can be used by companies that are interested in collaboration without having to invest a huge sum of money in establishing the actual collaboration.

Research into the application of Value Stream Mapping (VSM) as a tool to enhance the environmental sustainability performance of operations has been confined to a handful of studies only. Research on this green lean research stream is therefore limited, especially when compared to the vast amount of scholarly research focused on the 'traditional' VSM tool. To complement and support the narrow body of knowledge on the application of VSM as tools to improve environmental performance and enhance the effectiveness of its application, this paper proposes an approach, based on the Deming's PDCA improvement cycle, to systematically implement and conduct Environmental-VSM (E-VSM) studies. The implementation of the proposed method is reported through an action research-based case study conducted in a helical rolling process of one of the mining consumables business units of an international diversified mining and materials multinational company. The results of the case study indicate that the proposed DMAIC-based approach to E-VSM can be an effective alternative to improve the green performance of operations. Besides the proposal of this approach, its testing, and expanding the body of knowledge in the green lean field, the paper also contributes by providing a guiding reference for operations managers who may wish to undertake similar improvement projects. Finally, this paper also intends to contribute by inspiring researchers and practitioners to broaden the study of the under-researched field which explores the application of VSM for environmental sustainability enhancement.

Role of collaboration in green supply chains in the UK: An exploratory study on suppliers, logistics and retailers perspectivesMany companies around the world have started to realise that working alone will not be sufficient in their move towards a greener supply chain (SC). More specifically, recent UK government regulations on implementing strict CO2 reduction encourage SC operators to work collaboratively, in production and logistics or other operations, to achieve their green objectives. In this research, we look at some underlying factors of SC collaboration, focussing on suppliers, logistics and retailers, for the purpose of improving the environmental sustainability of companies' SCs. To facilitate our study, we conduct case studies in two overseas supplier companies with the aim of providing a better understanding of how green issues imposed by European and UK customers influence the companies' actions to meet agreed environmental goals. Based on the initial analysis of the case studies, we develop a conceptual framework which indicates that SC collaboration plays an important role in ensuring companies achieve environmental sustainability of their SCs. Subsequently, staff in middle-management and related roles in sixteen companies operating in the UK are interviewed. This allows us to understand their business practices in terms of SC collaboration with their suppliers and buyers to achieve the goal of CO2 reduction. Finally, drawing upon the information from company reports and websites, a number of UK leading retailers' actions to reduce CO2 emissions are investigated. We develop a conceptual framework of SC collaboration for environmental sustainability to help companies improve their level of collaboration between suppliers and buyers in terms of meeting their environmental objectives. The proposed framework will serve as a base model for the companies using or considering SC collaboration to achieve their environmental agendas, in line with governmental green regulatory requirements.