Innovation in material technologies is induced by the co-evolution with technologies in other industries. This paper empirically analyzes the dynamism in material innovation in Japan’s nonferrous metal industry in the early 2000s. A case study was made on development of GaN substrate for laser application. GaN substrate is a key material for large capacity storage devices like Blu-ray system. However, it had not been developed for a long time, until Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.(SEI), one of the leading firms in Japan’s nonferrous metal industry, released in 2003. R&D on GaN substrate was undertaken with the help of joint researches with electronics device firms. In this paper, an empirical analysis focused on patent applications filed by SEI, demonstrates that an inter-technology spillover (technology spillovers between different types of technologies) induces intra-technology spillovers (technology spillovers within the same type of technology) after a joint research, that a co-evolutionary structure of external and internal technologies is implanted into a firm, and that those technologies can be integrated in the firm. Thus, co-evolution of technologies can continuously co-evolve even after joint researches closed, changing its style from inter-technology to intra-technology spillovers.
 

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) means individual behaviors that are beneficial to the organization but not directly recognized by the formal reward system. Though there are research studies that provide the domain of OCB and its effects on the organizational performance but they have varied viewpoints and are inadequate. The present paper is an effort towards this direction. The main objective of the paper is to build ground for analyzing the impact of OCB on various organizational performance measures through various propositions based on antecedents and consequences of organizational citizenship behavior. The authors have described the antecedents of OCB from comprehensive perspective, which include role clarity, leadership, organizational commitment, organizational justice and individual traits. The impact of these antecedents is correlated with five organizational performance parameters namely reduced turnover, reduced absenteeism, employee satisfaction and loyalty, consumer satisfaction and consumer loyalty. The paper also emphasised the need to asses the influence of age, gender and experience on OCB, which have been the main lacunae in the existing literature on OCB. Moreover, the present paper proposed an endeavor to incorporate three dimensions viz: age, gender and experience to assess their influence on OCB.
 

The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between customer satisfaction levels and the frequency of complaints in business-to-business services using longitudinal research. More specifically, the objective is to study whether the correlation between customer satisfaction levels and frequency of complaints varies at different levels of customer satisfaction. This study employs 19 quarterly data points from an ongoing customer satisfaction program done between 1999 and 2004. The questionnaires included questions regarding the overall level of satisfaction. The study examined both articulated complaints voiced by customers, and unarticulated, or latent complaints. The low scores on key questions were used to identify unarticulated complaints. Examples of these questions are willingness to recommend, met expectations, and likelihood to renew. The findings indicate that the correlation between customer satisfaction and complaints appears to vary at different levels of customer satisfaction, and also that the relationship between customer satisfaction and complaints is not linear. Both the customer satisfaction levels and the frequency of complaints appear to approach a certain limit asymptotically. These results have both managerial and theoretical implications for customer satisfaction and complaint handling for Business-to-Business services.
 

The present paper attempts to find out the forecasted passenger traffic movement of Lufthansa Airlines on quarterly basis at a global level by employing four forecasting methods namely moving average, exponential smoothing, Holt’s model and Winter’s model with the help of published data pertaining to passenger traffic movement of Lufthansa Airlines. The study has also found out the forecasting errors of all the four methods through Absolute error (AE), Mean squared error (MSE), Mean absolute deviation (MAD) and Mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and carried out the comparative analyses of the above forecasting methods in the light of the available data. The findings reveal that the forecasting errors are the least in case of Winter’s model. Further the forecasted values suggested by Winter’s model more closely resemble the observed data of passenger traffic movement of Lufthansa Airlines. This provides a valuable insight to the top management as regards formulation of suitable strategies for addressing the varying demand of passenger traffic movement. Few strategies in respect of both demand side and supply side options have been suggested with a view to improving the overall supply chain profit of Lufthansa Airlines.
 

The global environmental consequences of CO2 discharge resulting from energy use are causing mounting concern regarding the sustainability of our future development. This is not only the case in industrialized countries but also in industrializing countries, particularly China and India, pursuing sustainable development.

Historically, Japan has shifted its industrial structure from primary industry to manufacturing industry and to service industry while endeavoring to improve energy efficiency in primary industry and manufacturing industry. Thus, Japan has been able to achieve notable energy efficiency improvement and, thereby, despite many handicaps, maintain sustainable economic development.

However, if we carefully examine Japan’s energy consumption structure by sector, we note that contrary to its strategic goal of realizing reduced energy dependency, the energy consumption inducement in the service industry which Japan has been targeting has been dramatically increasing. Indeed, contrary to primary and secondary industries, Japan’s unit energy consumption inducement in the service industry is significantly higher than that of China. This paradox can be attributed to the indigenous propensity of the service industry to be active in inter-sector technology spillover.

This paper, on the basis of a comparative empirical analysis of technology spillover dynamism in the service industry of Japan and China over the last decade by means of input-output analysis, attempts to demonstrate the foregoing hypothetical view.
 

The purpose of this study is to measure the operational efficiency of retail stores in Chandigarh-Tricity and to investigate if any relationship can be established between the efficiency and the size of the stores. The data collected from retailers and customers across Chandigarh Tricity (Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali) during 2006 – 2008 was analyzed using an operations research – based method, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), as this method was appropriate to study efficiency of operations. The findings suggest that the percentage of the retail stores operating efficiently in Chandigarh tricity is very low. Also, no significant relationship was demonstrated between the efficiency score and size of retail stores. The study has great significance for the retailers as it provides the important parameters to measure efficiency of retailers which in turn are of utmost importance to any retailer to make future strategies. The research study was conducted in 200 retail outlets in Chandigarh Tricity. This sample might not portray an accurate representation of the organized retail scenario in the Tricity. Input and output variables were carefully chosen for the study, but they may/ may not accurately reflect the retail firm's goals, objectives and sales situation. Variables such as profits and margins could also be beneficial for analysis and may be considered for future research.
 

The purpose of this paper is to examine the level of internal market orientation (IMO) from internal suppliers’ perspective, particularly with regard to two behavioural components, viz., intelligence dissemination and responsiveness. The study is primarily based on first hand information gathered from 37 internal suppliers of Jammu & Kashmir Bank. All the 27 branches and 4 offices of J&K bank in Jammu city were contacted for extracting requisite information from the internal suppliers. Thus, the study made use of census method for gathering required data. Internal suppliers’ continuous emphasis on internal market orientation results into organisational commitment and job satisfaction among internal customers. Further, there exists no significant difference between the means of length of service and educational qualification. The study is limited to only two dimensions of IMO. Moreover, the study is confined to a private sector bank. Internal suppliers should attach due significance to the components of IMO, as these have significant impact on internal customers satisfaction. The study provides both theoretical and managerial implications of the findings and thus, the research findings will be of immense help to the bankers, academicians and policymakers.