The quest for e-fulfillment quality in supply chain

Recent supply chain literature are mainly concentrated on the quality of conventional supply chain information systems, the study on the e-fulWllment has not been visibly noticeable. This paper uses factor analysis to determine four e-fulWllment success factors: information quality, service quality, system quality, and work performance quality. Later, this paper uses discriminant analysis method to identify the key e-fulWllment practices that the high satisfaction group would emphasize more than the low satisfaction group. A critical analysis of areas that require the improvement is also discussed. Introduction Supply chain is a management philosophy that links all logistics activities of parties involved into a single entity so that production cycles of client orders can be delivered in a short life span. An effective way for linking all logistics activities together is to implement an integrated supply chain information system. Laudon and Laudon (2004) discussed the basic structure and system components of an integrated supply chain information system. Vakharia (2001) pointed out that the adoption of e-business technologies has been the main focus point to the development of supply chain information systems. Frohlich (2002) veriWed that an e-based integrated information system has a positive effect on the supply chain performance. The applications of an e-based supply chain system have played a signiWcant role in the fast-changing business environment in the Asia PaciWc region. In Hong Kong, where state of economy has gradually merged with the Pearl River Delta region in mainland China, the local government has propelled the idea of setting an e-based logistics center that includes the development of a supercomputer platform that aids fast e-business exchanges among trading partners in the region. This logistic center serves the role of third parties logistics, and that e-fulWllment system is the basic platform for their e-based information system. In practice, an e-fulWllment system operates differently than a conventional e-based supply chain information system in that the third party logistics Wrms are fully responsible for the design, development, implementation and service supports of the system. Thus, the study of e-fulWllment quality has played an important role in the supply chain performance. The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.em eraldinsight.com/res earchregister www.em eraldinsight .com/0265-671X .htm The quest for e-fulWllment quality