COVID-19 No Match for the Forces of Global Trade: It Is Too Early to Declare the End of the Current Era of Globalization

COVID-19 is not only causing worldwide economic decline, it is also feeding the world-view of those who favor more isolationist policies. While de-globalization captures more than trade, economic integration is at its core. In this article, the not-so-well-known operational underpinnings of trade globalization are explored. The basic reasons why international trade has skyrocketed in the recent past point to our economic future as well

History of Offshoring Knowledge Services

The offshoring of knowledge services has become the stuff of newspaper headlines and U.S. presidential debates. Here, we view the antecedents of the current state of affairs. In the 1980s services offshoring was a trivial portion of the economy, but the seeds of today’s situation were planted then. A combination of U.S. government neglect, foreign government activism, a culture change among business people concerning service processes, technological advances, and cultural relationships among countries have created the specific services offshoring configuration of today

Managing Across or Within a Culture? Comparing Hotel Workers From China and Taiwan Using Hofstede’s Scales

Potential cultural differences between China and Taiwan are explored using Hofstede’s Values Survey Module (VSM94). The focus is on workers in hotels that cater to Western visitors. Hofstede’s VSM was administered to hotel workers in Tainan, Taiwan, and Shanghai, China.  A comparison shows worker attitudes to be, in general, highly similar.  Differences, however, on some scales, especially Power Distance, indicate that different managerial styles will be successful in the two countries. Qualitative data from industry stakeholders corroborate and elaborate on our findings

New Issues and Opportunities in Service Design Research

In an era of intense high-speed competition, offering to the marketplace a sustainable and profitable value proposition that effectively leverages a firm’s financial, human, and operational resources is critical to both established and emerging businesses. To complicate matters further, in emerging industries such as e-services, customers often do not know what they want or need, consequently limiting a the company’s ability to engineer market-winning product–service solutions. While companies develop their own strategies to compete effectively in the “new” new economy, this competitive environment offers many opportunities to scholars interest in studying services. For example, should an enterprise merely try to adapt to the e-services marketplace? Should it keep juggling with the endless list of alternative service offerings? Or should it strive to shape the future of the business environment within which it operates by offering innovative product–service bundles

Research Opportunities in Service Process Design

This paper presents an overview of the new issues and research opportunities related to four service operations design topics—the design of retail and e-tail service processes, design of service processes involving waiting lines and workforce staffing, service design for manufacturing, and re-engineering service processes. All four topics are motivated by new technologies (particularly web-based technologies) and require a multi-disciplinary approach to research. For each topic, the paper presents an overview of the topic, the relevant frameworks, and a discussion of the research opportunities

The Effect of Employee and Customer Religious Beliefs on Business Operating Decisions

Business operating decisions and procedures can differ depending on the religious beliefs of either employees or customers. We provide examples of religion affecting operations in the topical areas of location, layout, shift scheduling, and operational compliance, among others. These issues are especially salient for global corporations extending operations overseas utilizing expatriate management

COVID-19 No Match for the Forces of Global Trade: It Is Too Early to Declare the End of the Current Era of Globalization

COVID-19 is not only causing worldwide economic decline, it is also feeding the world-view of those who favor more isolationist policies. While de-globalization captures more than trade, economic integration is at its core. In this article, the not-so-well-known operational underpinnings of trade globalization are explored. The basic reasons why international trade has skyrocketed in the recent past point to our economic future as well