Title: Assessment of upstream service quality of supply chain

Authors: Juhi Kamakoty; Nagendra Sohani

Addresses: Acropolis Faculty of Management and Research, Indore Bypass Road, Mangliya Square, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, 452010, India ' Mechanical Engineering Department, Institute of Engineering and Technology, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Khandwa Road Indore, Madhya Pradesh, 452017, India

Abstract: A basic supply chain consists of a focal firm with upstream and downstream business partners. Upstream refers to the suppliers of a focal firm and downstream refers to the immediate customers of focal firm in a supply chain. In this paper attempt has been made to measure the service quality delivered by the upstream supply chain partner from the focal firm's perspective. Six factors of upstream service quality have been identified. It is seen that approachability, personal interaction, competency, credibility, deliverables and communication are important for upstream members to deliver quality to their subsequent business partner. The uniqueness of this research is that the scale may be used to measure the service quality delivered by any upstream supply chain partner with respect to it is subsequent partner.

Keywords: upstream supply chains; downstream supply chains; service quality; focal firms; suppliers; upstream service quality; supplier-focal firm dyad; supply chain management; SCM; approachability; personal interaction; competency; credibility; deliverables; communication.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2015.072739

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2015 Vol.22 No.4, pp.455 - 468

Received: 21 Apr 2014
Accepted: 19 Jul 2014
Published online: 28 Oct 2015 *

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