Showing papers in "International journal of engineering business management in 2013"
TL;DR: In this paper, forecasting methods are compared with the aim of linking approaches to the market features for fashion industry, where demand uncertainty, lack of historical data and seasonal trends usually coexist.
Abstract: Forecasting demand is a crucial issue for driving efficient operations management plans. This is especially the case in the fashion industry, where demand uncertainty, lack of historical data and seasonal trends usually coexist. Many approaches to this issue have been proposed in the literature over the past few decades. In this paper, forecasting methods are compared with the aim of linking approaches to the market features.
110 citations
TL;DR: This paper contributes to development of theoretical information value based on a classification scheme that does not consider operational factors and concentrates on valuing information in terms of its type, organizational level and the extent of its effects.
Abstract: The aim of information lifecycle management is to develop a cost-effective strategy for maintaining information assets, balancing the cost of maintaining information against business value. This paper contributes to development of theoretical information value based on a classification scheme that does not consider operational factors (e.g., storage, access). It concentrates on valuing information in terms of its type, organizational level and the extent of its effects. An information flow model provides the foundation for such categorisation.
95 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of Online Brand Communities (OBCs) dynamics on brand equity were analyzed in the context of the luxury fashion industry and eight spontaneous OBCs of the fashion industry.
Abstract: Quoting the fashion genius Coco Chanel: “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” This is even more true today than it was back then. Indeed, Web 2.0 technologies have made luxury fashion more accessible to everyone. Nowadays, consumers can instantly access a wide variety of fashion goods on the Internet and share brand experiences with other consumers. In this scenario, Online Brand Communities (OBCs) allow fashion customers to communicate with each other without any restrictions of time and place. For this reason, OBCs are viewed by fashion marketers as powerful instruments to influence customers' purchasing behaviour. The aim of the current study is to analyse the effects of OBC dynamics on brand equity. The proposed research model is applied to eight spontaneous OBCs of the luxury fashion industry.
70 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a comparison between the fast Fourier transform algorithm and another two techniques based on moving average and exponential smoothing was carried out on a set of 4-year historical sales data of a medium to large-sized Italian fashion company, which operates in the women's textiles apparel and clothing sectors.
Abstract: In the fashion industry, demand forecasting is particularly complex: companies operate with a large variety of short lifecycle products, deeply influenced by seasonal sales, promotional events, weather conditions, advertising and marketing campaigns, on top of festivities and socio-economic factors. At the same time, shelf-out-of-stock phenomena must be avoided at all costs. Given the strong seasonal nature of the products that characterize the fashion sector, this paper aims to highlight how the Fourier method can represent an easy and more effective forecasting method compared to other widespread heuristics normally used. For this purpose, a comparison between the fast Fourier transform algorithm and another two techniques based on moving average and exponential smoothing was carried out on a set of 4- year historical sales data of a €60+ million turnover medium- to large-sized Italian fashion company, which operates in the women's textiles apparel and clothing sectors. The entire analysis was performed on a common spreadsheet, in order to demonstrate that accurate results exploiting advanced numerical computation techniques can be carried out without necessarily using expensive software.
59 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the results of a fashion manufacturing line re-layout were compared by analysing the current situation with the solutions provided by a home-made company design, both through a systematic layout planning approach and a broader lean reengineering activity.
Abstract: The layout re-arrangement of fashion production lines realizing many small batches is rarely deployed according to well-known engineering procedures. In fact, it would often appear too complex to call a plant engineer for the proper layout design of such small production lines. Rather, it is preferred to apply empirical methodologies when considering, generally, factory know-how, general business needs, safety requirements, and so on. In the present work, the results of a fashion manufacturing line re-layout were compared by analysing the current situation with the solutions provided by a ʺhomemadeʺ company design, both through a systematic layout planning approach and a broader lean reengineering activity. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of each solution, the different alternatives were compared with the help of a discrete event simulator, analysing productivity, transportation times and costs. The result of the case study showed a slight advantage with the lean approach in considering such efficiency indicators. In addition, the lean production methods allowed the designers to identify some inefficiencies that other approaches could not see, since the latter did not focus on production in a holistic way.
58 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the structure of the logistic maturity model (LMM) in detail and show the possible improvements that can be achieved by using this model in terms of the identification of the most appropriate actions to be taken in order to increase the performance of the logistics processes in industrial companies.
Abstract: This paper describes the structure of the logistic maturity model (LMM) in detail and shows the possible improvements that can be achieved by using this model in terms of the identification of the most appropriate actions to be taken in order to increase the performance of the logistics processes in industrial companies. The paper also gives an example of the LMM's application to a famous Italian female fashion firm, which decided to use the model as a guideline for the optimization of its supply chain. Relying on a 5-level maturity staircase, specific achievement indicators as well as key performance indicators and best practices are defined and related to each logistics area/process/sub-process, allowing any user to easily and rapidly understand the more critical logistical issues in terms of process immaturity.
57 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a swarm-based optimization method, namely, the bees algorithm is proposed in dealing with the multi-objective supply chain model to find the optimum configuration of a given supply chain problem which minimizes the total cost and the total lead-time.
Abstract: A supply chain is a complex network which involves the products, services and information flows between suppliers and customers. A typical supply chain is composed of different levels, hence, there is a need to optimize the supply chain by finding the optimum configuration of the network in order to get a good compromise between the multi-objectives such as cost minimization and lead-time minimization. There are several multi-objective optimization methods which have been applied to find the optimum solutions set based on the Pareto front line. In this study, a swarm-based optimization method, namely, the bees algorithm is proposed in dealing with the multi-objective supply chain model tofind the optimum configuration of a given supply chain problem which minimizes the total cost and the total lead-time. The supply chain problem utilized in this study is taken from literature and several experiments have been conducted in order to show the performance of the proposed model; in addition, the results have been compared to those achieved by the ant colony optimization method. The results show that the proposed bees algorithm is able to achieve better Pareto solutions for the supply chain problem.
57 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated how companies in the fashion industry organize, plan and perform their New Product Development process (NPD) through an empirical study carried out by the authors with the support of the GeCo Observatory.
Abstract: This paper investigates how companies in the fashion industry organize, plan and perform their New Product Development process (NPD). The results have been achieved through an empirical study carried out by the authors with the support of the GeCo Observatory, an Italian research initiative launched in 2012. This paper shows the details of eight selected case studies from the Italian fashion industry.
50 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a multi-criteria methodological approach for evaluating the performance of the fashion industry based on the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and the Analytic Network Process (ANP) is proposed.
Abstract: In the current phase of globalization, the fashion industry is an important sector where firm strategies are frequently oriented towards product personalization - more than product customization - with a reduced price. The fashion industry relates to the ability to provide customized products or services through flexible processes in high volume and at a reasonably low cost, which are currently key variables for the fashion supply chain. Performance concepts - which usually refer to three pillars, i.e., economic, environmental and social ones - are new paradigms in this industrial sector, namely "sustainable" mass customization. This paper proposes a multi-criteria methodological approach for evaluating the performance of the fashion industry based on the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and the Analytic Network Process (ANP), called 'MAB' - Multi-criteria Assessment Balanced Scorecard. Firstly, key performance indicators (KPIs) are evaluated in order to assess the performance level of a typical fashion industry. The development of an index system and methods is aimed to form a set of useful tools for policy-makers to facilitate the transformation of an industrial development mode and support the performance of the fashion industry.
48 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the optimal trade-off between reducing inventory and decreasing the frequency of production/replenishment orders allows a great cut-back in operativeness of the system.
Abstract: Each productive system manager knows that finding the optimal trade-off between reducing inventory and decreasing the frequency of production/replenishment orders allows a great cut-back in operati
43 citations
TL;DR: This paper presents a possible operations research-oriented solution to provide a tangible reduction of the overall required warehousing space, thereby translating the storage location assignment problem (SLAP) into a vertex colouring problem (VCP).
Abstract: Given the increasingly significant impact of an efficient product-location strategy on warehouses' performance from a service level and operational costs perspective, this paper presents a possible operations research-oriented solution to provide a tangible reduction of the overall required warehousing space, thereby translating the storage location assignment problem (SLAP) into a vertex colouring problem (VCP). Developing the topic of their previous work on the development of an effective multi-product slot- code optimization heuristic, the authors focused on finding a cost-effective way to solve the SLAP through a mathematical-optimization approach. The formulation validation on a real industrial case showed its high optimization potential, and benchmarking simulations displayed performances significantly close to the best theoretical case. Indeed, the optimized value results were definitively close to the SLAP lower bound calculated assuming a randomized storage policy which, distinct from the developed solution, must inevitably be supported by warehouse management system software. On the contrary, the proposed methodology relies upon a dedicated storage policy, which is easily implementable by companies of all sizes without the need for investing in expensive IT tools.
TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of demand seasonality on the bullwhip effect and inventory stability in a four-echelon supply chain that adopts a base stock ordering policy with a moving average method was investigated.
Abstract: The bullwhip effect is defined as the distortion of demand information as one moves upstream in the supply chain, causing severe inefficiencies in the whole supply chain. Although extensive research has been conducted to study the causes of the bullwhip effect and seek mitigation solutions with respect to several demand processes, less attention has been devoted to the impact of seasonal demand in multi-echelon supply chains. This paper considers a simulation approach to study the effect of demand seasonality on the bullwhip effect and inventory stability in a four-echelon supply chain that adopts a base stock ordering policy with a moving average method. The results show that high seasonality levels reduce the bullwhip effect ratio, inventory variance ratio, and average fill rate to a great extent; especially when the demand noise is low. In contrast, all the performance measures become less sensitive to the seasonality level when the noise is high. This performance indicates that using the ratios to measure seasonal supply chain dynamics is misleading, and that it is better to directly use the variance (without dividing by the demand variance) as the estimates for the bullwhip effect and inventory performance. The results also show that the supply chain performances are highly sensitive to forecasting and safety stock parameters, regardless of the seasonality level. Furthermore, the impact of information sharing quantification shows that all the performance measures are improved regardless of demand seasonality. With information sharing, the bullwhip effect and inventory variance ratios are consistent with average fill rate results.
TL;DR: A methodological framework based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process approach, which can be regarded as a holistic approach able to assist decision makers in their Knowledge Management System selection process, is provided.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to provide a methodological framework which could support managers in the selection of Knowledge Management Systems. The framework is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process approach. Several aspects should draw the attention of an organization's upper level of management seeking to implement a Knowledge Management System and many specific issues have to be considered. As such, the framework has been built by making use of an ad-hoc hierarchical structure, where each singular specificity is described and compared, second-order criteria are studied and analysed, and optional decisions are highlighted and evaluated. This methodological framework offers a good applicability to different business contexts, since its hierarchical arrangement suits most of the needs of numerous organizations. Consequently, it can be regarded as a holistic approach able to assist decision makers in their Knowledge Management System selection process.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze the opportunity to exclude or include non-consistent respondents in market analysis, addressing the following question: should a nonconsistent potential customer be excluded from the analysis due to his inconsistency or should he be included because, after all, he is still a potential consumer?
Abstract: The success of a New Product Development (NPD) process strongly depends on the deep comprehension of market needs and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been commonly used to find weights for customers' preferences. AHP best practices suggest that low-consistency respondents should be considered untrustworthy; however, in some NPD cases - such as the one presented here - this stake can be extremely big. This paper deals with the usage of AHP methodology to define the weights of customer needs connected to the NPD process of a typical impulse buying good, a snack. The aim of the paper is to analyse in a critical way the opportunity to exclude or include non-consistent respondents in market analysis, addressing the following question: should a non-consistent potential customer be excluded from the analysis due to his inconsistency or should he be included because, after all, he is still a potential consumer? The chosen methodological approach focuses on evaluating the compatibility of weight vectors among different subsets of respondents, filtered according to their consistency level. Results surprisingly show that weights do not significantly change when non-consistent respondents are excluded.
TL;DR: In the modern globalized world, innovation is a basic prerequisite for economic development and the preservation of competitiveness However, there is still no generally accepted definition of innovation or the innovation process; individual authors use their own definitions, often formed from different concepts as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the modern globalized world, innovation is a basic prerequisite for economic development and the preservation of competitiveness However, there is still no generally accepted definition of innovation or the innovation process; individual authors use their own definitions, often formed from different concepts This paper compares these definitions using methods of analysis and synthesis, constructing its own conceptual framework of the innovation process reflecting the key characteristics that are identical or similar in many of the compared definitions When constructing a new definition and model, it is necessary to bear in mind that innovation is not an isolated activity but rather an entire process or even sequence of processes With true innovation, every partial process must be successfully completed This process as a whole becomes the starting point for further research, measurement and the management control of innovation performance under the postdoc research project “Innovation Process Perfo
TL;DR: In this article, a literature review of the mathematical models for supply chain design is proposed based on the study and analysis of publications of the last twelve years from the most widespread international journal about operations management and logistics.
Abstract: In this paper, a literature review of the mathematical models for supply chain design is proposed. The research is based on the study and analysis of publications of the last twelve years from the most widespread international journal about operations management and logistics. The aim of the work lies in identifying tendencies in the literature and related open issues about the strategic decisions, economic parameters, constraints and model features considered in the strategic planning and design of supply chains. After a description of the review methodology, comparison parameters and paper exhaustiveness, some guidelines are given in order to support future works in this field.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a model able to support coordinated strategic choices continually made by supply chain actors, achieving the full optimisation of Merchandise & Replenishment Planning phases, identifying the right replenishment quantities and periods.
Abstract: The integration among different companies functions, collaborative planning and the elaboration of focused distribution plans are critical to the success of each kind of company working in the complex retail sector. In this contest, the present work proposes the description of a model able to support coordinated strategic choices continually made by Supply Chain (SC) actors. The final objective is achievement of the full optimisation of Merchandise & Replenishment Planning phases, identifying the right replenishment quantities and periods. To test the proposed model's effectiveness, it was applied to an important Italian fashion company in the complex field of fast-fashion, a sector in which promptness is a main competitive leverage and, therefore, the planning cannot exclude the time variable. The passage from a total push strategy, currently used by the company, to a push-pull one, suggested by the model, allowed us not only to estimate a reduction in goods quantities to purchase at the beginning of a sales period (with considerable economic savings), but also elaborate a focused replenishment plan that permits reduction and optimisation of departures from network warehouses to Points of Sale (POS).
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the most prominent drivers of brand equity from a consumer-based point of view, and present a new approach for measuring brand equity, which can be applied regardless of the brand sector and is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process.
Abstract: In this paper we investigate the most prominent drivers of brand equity, from a consumer- based point of view. We present a new approach for measuring brand equity, which can be applied regardless of the brand sector and is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process. This approach has the main advantage of allowing for comparisons to be made between non-directly measurable elements and also has the advantage of enabling the ranking of intangible criteria, such as consumers' feelings or purchase intentions. We focus on the fashion industry, since we believe in the higher value of our approach when applied to brands which offer products with less tangible characteristics. Thanks to a case study - which involved about 250 interviewees - we succeed in finding and prioritizing the elements which can have an impact on the brand value. We also provide a global ranking for three apparel brands: Gap, H&M and Zara. The results from our model are consistent with other popular ratings and can be extremely useful for brand managers.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the importance of materials management for healthcare systems because it influences clinical and financial outcomes, before selecting, adapting and implementing leading or optimized practices, and how to select, adapt and implement leading practices.
Abstract: Materials management is an important issue for healthcare systems because it influences clinical and financial outcomes. Before selecting, adapting and implementing leading or optimized practices, ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented the effect of an optimal rather than a uniform item allocation in one-block picking warehouses, both with and without the use of a simple picking heuristic.
Abstract: This work presents the effect, in terms of travel distance and material handling time reductions, of an optimal rather than a uniform item allocation in one-block picking warehouses, both with and without the use of a simple picking heuristic. Since developing efficient product-location strategies represents a critical issue in Operations Management, due to the impact on warehouse performance in terms of both service level and operation costs, this paper focuses on an effective quantification of obtainable travel time reductions, obtaining a significant result for manufacturing companies aiming to determine the most appropriate material handling resource configuration. Building on previous work on the effect of slot-code optimization on travel times in single/dual command cycles, the authors broaden the scope to include the most general picking case, thus widening the range of applicability and realising former suggestions for future research.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore whether IT practitioners with different job functions, education levels, education areas of specialization, certifications and experience levels have different perceptions of IT governance effectiveness in their organization.
Abstract: Information Technology (IT) governance has risen in importance in recent years, driven by various trends in IT development. With rapid growth in the country and the globalization of the IT sector, there is growing interest in IT governance in Malaysia. This study aims to explore whether IT practitioners with different job functions, education levels, education areas of specialization, certifications and experience levels have different perceptions of IT governance effectiveness in their organization. The results reveal differences in perceived IT governance effectiveness between different job function groups, but not between groups with different education levels, certification or experience levels. The findings for education area of specialization are not conclusive. The findings of this study will help IT managers to identify areas of focus to maximize effectiveness of IT governance initiatives through their IT staff. The implications of the findings are discussed at the end of the paper.
TL;DR: In this article, a model based on the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach is used to analyse a dataset of small and medium-sized Italian enterprises, expressed by a system of simultaneous equations and is solved through regression analysis.
Abstract: In this paper we investigate the possible relationships among some optimization techniques used in Operations Management and the performance of SMEs that operate in the manufacturing sector. A model based on the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach is used to analyse a dataset of small and medium-sized Italian enterprises. The model is expressed by a system of simultaneous equations and is solved through regression analysis. Taking advantage of the contributions presented previously, we focus our research on the Italian economy, highlighting the importance of Operations Management practices, which are relevant drivers of these firms' performances.
TL;DR: In this paper, the results of a survey aiming to develop a framework for SIP success factors to enhance the likelihood of success in the provision of SIPs in Malaysia are analyzed.
Abstract: In the context of construction management, Social Infrastructure Projects (SIPs) have long been overlooked. However, SIPs are one of the main criteria for enhancing economic productivity. This paper analyses the results of a survey aiming to develop a framework for SIP success factors to enhance the likelihood of success in the provision of SIPs in Malaysia. The principal component analysis reduces a set of 41 project success factors to six dimensions based on the idea of the project life cycle, i.e., the preconstruction factor, the construction factor and post- construction factor, and three internal factors: the organizational factor, the information management factor, and the change management factor. Understanding these success factors could be crucial in managing SIPs, since it will allow project stakeholders to take precautionary steps to identify foreseeable problems and areas for improvement. This will increase the success rate of the project and could even help avoid problems completely.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluate the effectiveness of the arrangement of bucket brigades (BBs) for an assembly line of luxury handbags, showing the advantages of BBs in terms of flexibility, the reduction of work in the process and the ability to handle small anomalies.
Abstract: One of the most challenging issues in manual assembly lines is to achieve the best balance of workloads. There are many analytic approaches to solve this problem, but they are often neglected, since they are time-consuming and require high level engineering skills. Fashion bags packaging lines must comply with a number of different products with low production volumes, while the organization of the line is often under the mere responsibility of the foreman, who balances workloads in an empirical way. The aim of this work is to evaluate the effectiveness of the arrangement of bucket brigades (BBs) for an assembly line of luxury handbags. To do this, it was decided to perform a testing activity in a company producing fashion handbags in order to compare the self-made design with the BBs and with a simple assembly line balancing problem algorithm. The originality of this research lies in the fact that there are no studies in the literature on BBs applied to the packaging of highly variable small batches. The results were excellent, showing the advantages of BBs in terms of flexibility, the reduction of work in the process and the ability to handle small anomalies.
TL;DR: In this article, a DEA-based method is proposed to evaluate the performance of dealerships taking into account both their market share performances and their efficiency, and applied to a multinational automotive company considering its Italian dealer network.
Abstract: The competitive nature of the contemporary business scenario requires productivity-driven organizations to be aware of the efficiency level of their dealers. The recent economic and financial crisis has highlighted the need for effective evaluation methods going beyond the limits of traditional performance assessment methodologies in the retail industry. The automotive industry is no exception to this logic. In this sector, traditional methods are often based only on market share performances, ignoring the key role of input-output ratios on the overall productivity of the parent company. Following this lead, in this paper we propose a method to evaluate the performance of dealerships taking into account both their market share performances and their efficiency. In order to assess dealership efficiency we use the DEA technique, and apply the proposed methodology to a multinational automotive company considering its Italian dealer network.
TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of human capital, information and communication technology (ICT) and foreign direct investment (FDI) on GDP was investigated in 20 OECD and 24 non-OECD countries in 2007.
Abstract: This paper investigates the impact that human capital, information and communication technology (ICT) and foreign direct investment (FDI) have on GDP. Cross- sectional data from a set of 20 OECD and 24 non-OECD countries in 2007 are analysed employing data envelopment analysis (DEA) and classification and regression tree (CART) techniques. The paper illustrates that the level and quality of access to ICT infrastructures plays an important role in determining a country's level of technical efficiency. The paper also indicates the presence of a catch-up process, led by technological innovation, on the part of emerging countries.
TL;DR: A systematic and holistic RFID implementation framework which has been validated by both users and experts is presented, which outlines the important tasks to be performed in each step of the implementation process.
Abstract: There are an increasing number of organizations planning to implement Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems to enhance their competitiveness. Due to the novelty of the technology, many managerial challenges exist in determining and planning for the implementation of such systems. These challenges often lead to wasted efforts and resources, as well as to failed implementations. This paper presents a systematic and holistic RFID implementation framework which has been validated by both users and experts. The framework outlines the important tasks to be performed in each step of the implementation process. To enable practitioners to make informed go/no-go decisions, essential considerations of implementation are also discussed in this paper. Furthermore, the critical success factors for the deployment of such systems are also elaborated.
TL;DR: In this paper, a conceptual model aiming to support management in evaluating and prioritizing their intellectual capital competitive core competences is presented, which is empirically applied in the Technology Transfer Unit of the Italian national agency for new technologies, energy and economic development.
Abstract: Since the rise of the knowledge-based economy, many worldwide companies have begun to deal with different frameworks to manage and evaluate the performance of intellectual capital, especially in the area of knowledge management services. This paper presents a novel conceptual model aiming to support management in evaluating and prioritizing their intellectual capital competitive core competences. Based on the analytic hierarchy process, the model analyses interdependences among intellectual capital elements and determines the impacts of core competences on organizational performance. To validate the model, it is empirically applied in the Technology Transfer Unit of the Italian national agency for new technologies, energy and economic development.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse longitudinally the development of purchasing strategies in the automotive industry during the last 20 years, focusing on outsourcing and purchasing strategies developed within long-lasting buyer-supplier relationships.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyse longitudinally the development of purchasing strategies in the automotive industry during the last 20 years. The amplitude of the business cycle during this time frame has been very high and includes periods of financial/automotive crisis as well as high sales and demand. Our empirical data is primarily drawn from a 1990-2010 longitudinal case study of the relationship between automaker Volvo Personal Cars and Autoliv, a supplier of seat belts and airbags, complemented with secondary data framing the development of the industry level. The theoretical focus is on outsourcing and purchasing strategies developed within long-lasting buyer-supplier relationships; theoretical pillars are found in transaction-cost theories and the resource-based view of the firm. Based on the longitudinal case study, our analysis pinpoints the importance of intimate cooperation between customer and supplier in areas close to the core values and core competences of the buyer (that is, the automaker). From an industry-level perspective, the winners in the automobile industry from 2010 and onwards have been and will be those who can organize long-term collaboration partnerships between the automakers, their suppliers, and the political stakeholders, and who can outsource a large part of the technical development to the suppliers in areas also close to the core competences. The automakers must accept that their suppliers have competing automakers as their customers and search for synergies in their product portfolio. Theoretically, there is a need for conceptual development through deeper studies of the firm's relational capability and its implications.