asif muzaffar - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by asif muzaffar

Information System approach for manufacturing system involves systematic computerization of all t... more Information System approach for manufacturing system involves systematic computerization of all the manufacturing process integrating computer aided manufacturing. Three levels are modeled using system dynamics approach. The need analysis using system dynamics identifies level of automation, level of flexibility and level of integration as the key factors for policy making. Some important issues concerning these decisions are also discussed which give insight to the management for effective decision making during the planning and design phases.

Operations Management Research, Feb 16, 2021

Sustainability challenges are getting lot of attention in manufacturing sector and they usually r... more Sustainability challenges are getting lot of attention in manufacturing sector and they usually require the use of institutional pressures. Firms in turn, respond to these pressures by instituting assessment and collaboration mechanisms for their suppliers who hold pivotal roles in their supply chains. This paper investigates the effectiveness of coercive pressures and mimetic pressures in implementing supplier assessment and supplier collaboration mechanisms by the firms. This research also uncovers the inter-relationship of the two mechanisms in the presence of these pressures. Data were collected from 97 manufacturing firms that outsource their supplies to different organizations across the world. Structural Equation Modelling is employed through the use of Smart-PLS. The results show a fully mediated relationship of coercive pressures with supplier collaboration through supplier assessment. This paper suggests important managerial implications for firms addressing supplier mechanisms for environmental purposes. This paper contributes to the existing literature of Institutional Theory within the domain of greening suppliers.

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2014

This paper addresses two problems: 1) comparison of newsvendor's ordering policies for high margi... more This paper addresses two problems: 1) comparison of newsvendor's ordering policies for high margin fashion products with and without demand knowledge under his risk profile. Generally, a buyer is considered conservative when he has an estimate about demand mean and variance and he orders aggressively when he has demand knowledge. We compare these ordering policies under buyer risk profile for high margin products. For highly perishable and trendsetters lack of information is not detrimental. Newsvendor of such product can forego demand information because fast changing trend may not allow him to gather reliable demand forecast. 2) Our second model encompasses an incentive contract based on two incentive schemes for fashion items that is essentially design-win and specifically supply chain coordinated as well. For highly trendy products, manufacturer reserves more capacity at the time of negotiation or retailer orders less because of risk profile. Manufacturer offers buyer/retailer incentive to order more before demand is actually realised. Manufacturer can find a wholesale price that divides supply chain profits proportionally. For a game theoretic environment, we examine contract numerically and find that contract efficiency depends on wholesale price and demand variability.

International Journal of Supply Chain Management, Mar 30, 2013

In this new era of Supply chain coordination contracts are offered and accepted according to the ... more In this new era of Supply chain coordination contracts are offered and accepted according to the varying need and specification of the industry and business in discussion. The contract variations arise according to the circumstances and adaptability by both manufacturer and retailer. An important challenge faced by the contracts being offered is the adaptability and robustness when demand observed is different from the forecast. Because of stochastic and uncertain demand, retailer faces lost sales and eventually loses revenue within the same horizon. This paper discusses a back up quantity contract for a single season in which retailer orders for one-shot inventory ordering. Manufacturer retains some part of the ordered inventory as backup and provides the units at first stage. If stock at retailer lags behind the demand, he gets the backup quantity otherwise he pays some agreed upon nominal price to manufacturer in case that inventory is not at all required. We assumed the case of single manufacturer and single retailer. If units are not required, the risk of holding inventory lies with manufacturer and salvaged at zero. The strategy is suitable for businesses having short seasonal products and high demand variability. We used Monte Carlo simulation for analyzing lost sales and supply chain profit scenario and used worst case distribution and normal distribution to validate the Pareto improving contractual relationship.

Rairo-operations Research, May 1, 2021

In automobile and household appliances, the manufacturer's decision to offer retailer rebates to ... more In automobile and household appliances, the manufacturer's decision to offer retailer rebates to retailers or delayed incentives directly to end customers is very important. Under game theoretic environment, we show that delayed incentive is an important tool not only for price discrimination but it also provides more flexibility to the manufacturer. We differentiate the impact of delayed incentives and retailer rebates. We draw implications for optimal rebate strategies for both retailer rebates and delayed incentives. We also discuss delayed incentives in the form coupons that give more control to the manufacturer, whereas retailer rebates require retailer's participation. Analysis and numerical insights show that the manufacturer prefers better observance of retail price. We provide a decision rule to the manufacturer on how to select the rebate type based on customer heterogeneity.

Sustainable Production and Consumption, Oct 1, 2021

Abstract Sustainability has become an integral part of today's business environment and decis... more Abstract Sustainability has become an integral part of today's business environment and decision-making processes. At all levels of the organizational structure, awareness of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices is now a priority. This paper investigates the potential relationships among environmental sustainability, innovation capacity, and stakeholder relationships of business organizations in the context of SSCM. A mixed methods approach is proposed and designed to understand and assess these complex relationships. Data were collected from 57 firms in Pakistan. The results show that organizational innovation and supplier relations are significant enablers of sustainable practices. Moreover, cluster analysis depicts that service industry lags the production industry in adopting sustainable practices. The analysis of the proposed model also reveals that the role of supply chains in Pakistan towards achieving credible environmental sustainability is still at its infancy and that supplier relationships and organizational innovation are the predecessors of environmental sustainability.

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management

PurposeThis study aims to understand customer equity and loyalty using augmented reality (AR) and... more PurposeThis study aims to understand customer equity and loyalty using augmented reality (AR) and employee services in a physical retail environment. The current study investigated how customers’ experiences with AR-based and employee service affect their satisfaction, equity and loyalty.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual framework was developed by reviewing AR and employee services literature. The Smart PLS-SEM technique was used to test the responses of 620 Chinese respondents empirically.FindingsThe findings provided valuable insights into AR and employee services in a physical retail environment. Customers are more inclined to use AR services in the current business climate.Research limitations/implicationsThis study’s sample was drawn from a single city, with a total of 620 respondents, which may not be a complete representation of China as a whole. As a result, the results may not be generalizable to a single city.Practical implicationsRetail brand managers should emphasi...

Current Issues in Tourism

Based upon Asker’s renowned conceptual framework of brand equity, this study is employing Linear ... more Based upon Asker’s renowned conceptual framework of brand equity, this study is employing Linear Regression analysis to investigate the causal relationships amongst all the dimensions of brand equity and recurrent purchase decision of females for imported beauty care products. In this study, responses of 211 actual customers from Pakistan have been used based upon Purposive sampling technique. Research findings demonstrates, Brand Quality, Brand Loyalty and Brand Association are the significant dimensions while having recurrent purchase decision about any imported beauty care product whereas Brand Awareness has found weaker support for the same. Significantly, this study is important for all worldwide manufacturers of beauty care products whose products are available in local market of Pakistan and it can appear as a source of female consumers ’ insight about brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand association and brand quality which they may keep in mind while selecting their importa...

This paper focuses on evaluating industrial performance of business graduates on the basis of fou... more This paper focuses on evaluating industrial performance of business graduates on the basis of four performance dimensions namely knowledge, skills, abilities, personality through their attributes. It also uncovers the gap between performances standards desired by managers and the actual ones exhibited by the business graduates. Questionnaire was served to managers from different industries to get their views about various performance dimensions and their factors. Subsequently, they were asked to evaluate the actual performance of their employees by rating them over 5 points Likert scale. This evaluation is then used to identify the gap in desired and the exhibited performance. It has been found that managers consider knowledge as the most important dimension while conscientiousness as the most significant factor for performance. However, most of the business graduates are not meeting the industry requirements proving a significant gap between desired and actual performance of busine...

International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2018

Asia Pacific Management Review, 2018

Operational Research, 2017

This article investigates a two-level supply chain consisting of a single manufacturer and a reta... more This article investigates a two-level supply chain consisting of a single manufacturer and a retailer. The retailer’s ordering patterns are highly influenced by his risk preferences. We discuss ordering policies when the manufacturer has limited demand information and propose a production-commitment contract, which mitigates double marginalization under imperfect information. Demand distribution is private information of the retailer and the manufacturer only assumes an educated guess about the mean and variance. Production-commitment contract is an attractive option for make-to-stock scenarios where quantity is confirmed after the demand is realized. We show that lack of information may not have an adverse effect. We also prove analytically that informational advantage may not necessarily be a supply chain advantage and also provide numerical insights for a win-win situation.

Quality Technology & Quantitative Management, 2016

Abstract In this paper, we study a price discovery algorithm for searching the optimal price for ... more Abstract In this paper, we study a price discovery algorithm for searching the optimal price for a service with price-sensitive demand. The customer’s response to price is unknown and the customer arrival process follows an arbitrary point process. This algorithm is suitable for new services with no prior knowledge or historical data available. Furthermore, there is no information about objective function as well. We take on a simulation study and discuss the sensitivity and robustness of this procedure with respect to different arrival processes and customer response functions and also provide the comparative statics with simple price learning algorithm. We prove that price discovery algorithm is a better convergent as it reduces stochastic error at each step. The main focus of this research is to provide some guidance for the selection of sample sizes based on the test significance and the measure of its power when actual mean and variance for revenue are unknown.

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2013

For Pakistani firms to remain competitive in the 21st century, they have to embrace and excel in ... more For Pakistani firms to remain competitive in the 21st century, they have to embrace and excel in practices that have brought considerable competitive advantages to firms in the developed world. Among these practices world class manufacturing (WCM), Lean management and just-in-time (JIT), just to name a few, have played a considerable role. A systematic approach needs to be devised to assess the level of adoption of these practices. In this piece of research we will limit our observations to Lean management practices. It is the objective of this research to gauge the level of adoption of Lean management practices in the manufacturing sector in Pakistan and more specifically to the textile industry.

Sistemas y Telemática, 2014

Sindh University Research Journal, 2014

Microfinance has always been a debated and documented word as it was considered to alleviate pove... more Microfinance has always been a debated and documented word as it was considered to alleviate poverty. Since its inception, the main objective of microfinance organization was to maximize outreach for the poor people. Unfortunately in Pakistan these organizations have not been meeting their targets for the last few years. This paper has identified factors that influence microfinance organizations and how experts of microfinance banks and microfinance institutions have rated those factors. Interviews were conducted for identification of factors of microfinance which were rated through fuzzy aggregations technique. Results showed that all factors scored from 1 to 3 except non-commercial funding pattern for microfinance banks because commercially oriented organizations mostly relied upon commercial banks. Governance was the most important factor for both streams because it helped them to tackle their problems.

This study aimed to explore the consumption pattern of Beauty Care products based upon selection,... more This study aimed to explore the consumption pattern of Beauty Care products based upon selection, use and satisfaction among females in Pakistan. This study lead towards females post purchase satisfaction and repurchase of their selected products, being brand loyal with the same product. Data was collected from 23 female respondents through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with maximum suitable probing to extract variables appearing under research problem. These variables included, purpose to use beauty care products, psychological aspects behind use of these products, user experience with the product, brand consciousness, value for price and media role in modeling purchase intentions and switching off from one product to another in case of dis-satisfaction or become referral in case of satisfaction. Collected data was analyzed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Social implications of this research gave a comprehensive idea about specified features of commonly ado...

Rairo-operations Research, 2021

In automobile and household appliances, the manufacturer’s decision to offer retailer rebates to ... more In automobile and household appliances, the manufacturer’s decision to offer retailer rebates to retailers or delayed incentives directly to end customers is very important. Under game theoretic environment, we show that delayed incentive is an important tool not only for price discrimination but it also provides more flexibility to the manufacturer. We differentiate the impact of delayed incentives and retailer rebates. We draw implications for optimal rebate strategies for both retailer rebates and delayed incentives. We also discuss delayed incentives in the form coupons that give more control to the manufacturer, whereas retailer rebates require retailer’s participation. Analysis and numerical insights show that the manufacturer prefers better observance of retail price. We provide a decision rule to the manufacturer on how to select the rebate type based on customer heterogeneity.