武汉大学质量发展战略研究院
学术动态
2011年第1期（总第120期）
武汉大学质量发展战略研究院编 2011年1月15日
2011年1月12日上午，我院在樱顶老外文楼主办了第二届“产品召回与质量安全”国际研讨会暨2011年第1期（总第103期）“珞珈质量双周学术论坛”。来至香港中文大学、复旦大学、重庆大学、南开大学、天津大学和武汉大学的国内外学者，相聚在武大质量院，围绕产品召回问题进行了深入讨论。现将本次论坛内容整理如下：
“产品召回与质量安全”国际研讨会（之一）
报告题目：How should company deal with product recalls: a service recovery perspective
报告人： Xiande ZHAO, Haiju HU, Steven NG
Centre for Supply Chain Management & Logistics
Li & Fung Institute of Supply Chain Management & Logistics
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Institute for Supply Chain Integration and Service Innovation
South China University of Technology
What is product recall？An action by a manufacturer or distributor to remove a product from the market because it may cause health/safety problems or possible death．Every month, CPSC in US announced around 30+ recalls and safety alters；Every month, AQSIQ Defective Product Administrative Center(国家质检总局缺陷产品管理中心) announced around 20 recalls for automobiles.
Product-harm crises are among a firm’s worst nightmares (Heerde et al., 2007).Direct costs are replacing the recalled product,paying for damages incurred in use,Loss in sales (Bright Dairy sales drop by 20% in one month in “Melamine Event” ).Indirect costs as follows:damage to brand name,reduced trust in the manufacturer,negative effects on unaffected brands of the same manufacturer (Toyota) ,increased sensitivity to rival firms' marketing activities,bankruptcy (Sanlu).
Defects will always happen.Bounded rationality leads to imperfect design like unfamiliar or immature technology,inadequate inspection techniques,production process.The most important for companies is to find an effective method to reduce negative effects and recover rapidly when defects happen.What is Company’s decision in recalls?Companies usually have two decisions when facing recalls.Proactiveness, that is, when to recall.If the company announces the recall right after the recognition of the defects, it will be a proactive recall.If the company tries to issue a delayed recall, it will be a passive recall.
How much to compensate the affected consumers?What ar customers’ expectations in service recovery?One is Procedure fairness.Customers expect fairness in terms of policies, rules and timeliness of the process.In recalls, consumers will perceive the procedure as more fair, when the company is proactive in recall than it is passive.
Another is outcome fairness.Outcomes or compensations match the level of their dissatisfaction.In recalls, consumers will endow the outcome fairness to the company, if compensation match the loss caused by the product defect.
Here are two research questions.How does pro-activeness of the recall influence consumer’s perceived social legitimacy and repurchase intention?How does compensation influence consumer’s perceived social legitimacy and repurchase intention?How do pro-activeness and compensation interact with each other in influencing consumer’s social legitimacy and repurchase intention?
The hypotheses is consumers will support the companies that can meet their fairness expectations.H1a: consumers will perceive the company that is proactive in recalls as more legitimate than that is passive in recalls.H1b: consumers will have higher repurchase intention from companies that is proactive in recalls than that is passive.H2a: consumers will perceive the company which compensates them more as more legitimate than that compensates them less.H2b:consumers will have higher repurchase intention from companies which compensates them more than that compensate them less.
Fairness Heuristic theory.People use procedural fairness information to make inferences about their relationship with the other party –in particular, how much to trust the other party (Lind,2001).When trust in the exchange partner is high, people’s support is less influenced by outcome favorability, relative to when trust is low (Brockner, 2002).H3a: Recall pro-activeness and compensation have significant interactive effect on perceived social legitimacy..H3b: Recall pro-activeness and compensation have significant interactive effects on repurchase intention.
Social legitimacy theorycorporations exist in a state of dependency upon their environments and, hence, can only survive to the extent that they can convince their social environment that their use of exchange power is rightful and proper (Hearit, 1995).When consumers perceive an organization as more socially legitimate, they are more likely to make purchase from them.H4a: Perceived social legitimacy will mediate the effect of recall pro-activeness on repurchase intention.H4b: Perceived social legitimacy will mediate the effect of compensation on repurchase intention.
Growing area of interest, modeled after behavioral economics.Often labeled as Behavioral Operations.Advantages are high degree of internal control – re subjects, settings etc,,relatively easy access to data collection.Internet and communication technologies make it possible to do at a distance.Allows cross-cultural or cross-country comparisons.
Disadvantages are External validity – laboratory environment may limit applicability.Use of students is convenient, but should be considered a baseline – ideally contact practicing managers
Imagine that you were a consumer of ABC group, a company which produced orange juice. You had been drinking its orange juice for several years and loved it very much.
Yesterday, ABC announced that it would recall 300,000 bottles of orange juice produced in December, 2009 (Production Code: 091206-01). The company reported that the additive used in these products was tainted in the company’s production process and the end products could lead to health problems.
Manipulations
ABC officially recalled the tainted products ,ffered to cover the medical expenses of physical check-up and the associated treatments.Low compensation: no additional compensation was provided to the affected customers.High compensation: offered a refund which is 5 times of the purchase price
A trusted media source reported that ABC had just found the defect through internal inspection and decided to recall the product immediately Passive recall:they didn’t recall the products until they were ordered by the government to do so.
Procedure:Questionnaires were administered to participants in a classroom.Before starting the experiment, the experimenter explained that it is a study about consumer behavior and the result of this experiment would be used for academic research only,after indicating their willingness, each participant received a half-page instruction of this experiment, and one-page questionnaire on demographic information, and the whole scenarios and questionnaires
Implications:both procedure (recall strategy) and outcome (compensation) have significant effect on consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral reactions as expected by the service recovery perspective.Outcome (compensation) plays an more important role in change consumers’ behavioral reaction(purchase intention).Procedural fairness(recall strategy) is more important in consumers’ attitudinal reaction (perceived organizational legitimacy).When companies doing good in procedure(proactive in recall), consumer cares less about the outcome (compensation), that is, their purchase intention and perceived organizational legitimacy will not change as the compensation.When companies doing bad (passive in ), consumer cares more about the outcome (compensation), that is, their purchase intention and perceived organizational legitimacy both will increase if compensate them more.Procedure(recall strategy) only have indirect effect on purchase intention .Outcome (compensation) have both direct and indirect effect on purchase intention.
报告题目：先进制造技术质量管理与企业绩效的关系
报告人：龙勇 重庆大学经管学院教授
首先注意质量管理与企业绩效的关系，先进制造技术主要是一种调节效应。
我们先讲概念模型。第一个是，质量管理自身的绩效与技术有关。麦肯锡对167家日本、欧洲和美国的企业进行了一项跟踪调查，以考察质量对企业经营成败的影响。调查结果表明，这些企业的质量管理水平可分为检验级、保证级、预防级、完美级等四个等级，分别对应着明显的管理特征和质量绩效水平。技术在其中的作用呈现逐渐增强的趋势，检验级主要应用检验技术，保证级使用基于数据的分析技术，预防级大量使用质量设计的方法和技术，在完美级中质量与可靠性工程技术最大程度地被应用。都不可能离开企业运营环节中的制造技术的支持，如设计技术(如CAD等)、制造技术(如CAM等)以及各种管理技术(如办公自动化等)。制造技术高级化使质量管理技术走向现代化，当制造系统逐步向柔性化、自动化、集成化方向发展的时候，作为体现质量功能的重要方式，质量控制自动化也就顺理成章地成为CIMS(计算机集成制造系统)的一个重要组成部分。Dow等(1999)早已把先进制造系统划入了质量管理活动的范畴，对质量管理活动的度量指标中包括了先进制造系统和JIT原理应用，这也在很大程度上说明了质量管理中技术因素的重要。
考虑样本条件（小于200）和研究目的（便于处理调节效应），采用基于偏最小二乘法的潜变量路径分析的方法，而未采用SEM方法；使用的软件是SmartPLS(Ringle等, 2005)。以重庆市制造企业为样本对象。一是上门拜访企业，与企业负责人或质量相关部门负责人面谈并填写问卷；二是通过重庆大学经济与工商管理学院发放问卷；三是通过重庆市高新区产业发展局发放问卷。共发出问卷697份，实际可用问卷153份，回复率为22%。采取Likert7分评分法。
调查方式中，I为面谈，II为通过学校发放，III为通过政府机构发放；其它包括纺织制衣、非金属矿物制品、金属制品、木材家具、橡胶塑料、烟草、造纸及纸制品、文教体育用品等；其它包括一般职员、员工或该值缺失；其它为该值缺失。
我们对AMT在质量管理与企业绩效间作用进行初步分析。考虑两个问题：一是不同“级别”的质量管理中AMT的差异，二是同一个“级别”的质量管理中AMT的构成。
F检验显著表明在所有类别中先进制造技术的实施程度存在着显著的差异。在实时控制和柔性方面，领先级和成长级无差异，两者显著优于起始级。而在计算机技术应用和信息处理能力上，三个级别间两两差异显著。这说明随着企业质量管理水平的提升，先进制造技术的应用水平也保持着显著的成长态势。
组内的分析表明，在质量管理的起始级阶段，先进制造技术的水平在四个主要指标上都很低，但不存在显著差异，在领先级阶段，应用水平都处于较好的状态且同样不存在显著的不同。而在质量管理的成长级阶段，计算机技术的应用情况处于最低的水平。
有两个方面的归纳：随着质量管理水平的提升，AMT由刚开始的普遍应用程度不高，到随后实施控制、柔性和信息处理能力不断增强，但计算机技术的应用还有待增强，到最后先进制造技术的各项指标表现都得到提高。暗示随着AMT应用程度的提高，其对质量管理活动的影响逐渐增强，并带来了产品质量和企业绩效的改善。
我们有如下的研究假设，其中考虑直接作用的是：假设1：先进制造技术对企业的质量管理活动存在显著的正向影响；假设2：先进制造技术对企业的质量水平存在显著的正向影响；假设3：先进制造技术对企业的总体绩效存在显著的正向影响；假设4：企业的质量管理活动对质量水平存在显著的正向影响；假设5：企业的质量管理活动对总体绩效存在显著的正向影响；假设6：企业的质量水平对企业总体绩效存在显著的正向影响。考虑调节作用的是：假设7：先进制造技术对质量管理活动与质量的关系具有显著的调节作用；假设8：先进制造技术对质量管理活动与总体绩效的关系具有显著的调节作用；假设9：先进制造技术显著对质量与总体绩效的关系具有显著的调节作用。综合作用的是：假设10：在不同的质量管理水平下，先进制造技术对质量管理的影响及对质量管理和绩效的调节作用存在不同，并且随着质量管理水平的提升保持了逐渐增强的态势。实证结果考虑两方面：一是AMT对质量管理与企业绩效总体关系的调节作用；二是AMT对质量管理与企业绩效分量关系的调节作用。
AMT对质量管理活动的影响为0.556，且达到显著水平，假设一得到支持。而AMT对质量和总体绩效的影响并不显著，其值分别为0.117和0.084，假设二与假设三未得到支持。这表明AMT对质量和总体绩效的影响是间接的，质量管理活动在其中起到了传递的作用。无论是单独研究质量管理活动与质量和绩效，还是考虑AMT的作用，质量管理活动对产品和总体绩效均存在显著的关系。同样，产品质量也能对企业总体绩效产生显著的正向影响。由此，假设四、五、六得到支持。而在AMT的调节效果方面，所有的调节作用均不显著，这说明从总体质量管理活动的角度，AMT对质量管理和绩效的影响之体现在直接的影响方面。由此，假设七、八、九未获支持。
先进制造技术对高层支持、员工参与、供应商关系、客户、流程管理的路径系数分别是0.377、0.312、0.171、0.191、0.243，且至少都在5%的水平上显著。而对产品设计的影响仅为0.139，未达显著水平。 AMT的调节作用主要体现在对员工参与和质量的关系上。AMT显著地调节了员工参与和质量之间的影响，并且是显著的减少。其含义在于，AMT应用程度越高，员工对质量的影响反而越小。AMT对质量管理活动的影响在起始级和成长级中均显著，而到了领先级企业中则不存在显著作用。
报告题目：Product Recall Research From Consumer Perspective
报告人：Xiucheng Fan Tingting Zhao
Fudan University
Conceptualization of Product Recalls.Product Recalls refer to which companies make, whether compelled by the law or spontaneously, when there are potential risks for consumers. (Mowen1981)Product recall can bring great harm to consumers.By the end of September 2008, more than 53,000 infants and young children were found to have been sickened due to consumption of melamine-laced dairy products.
Research Gaps:most of the research focus on the moderators and mediators of consumers’ reaction to product recall, the antecedents need to be shed more light on.The mechanism of how consumer process negative information (product recall) is not clear.
Product Recalls Through Consumer Perspective: Consumer negative information processing mechanism.(Antecedents) Consumer ethics position and gain & loss perceptionas moderatorsto affect judgments on product recall.( Mediators) Social media as an Institutional supplement to protect consumer rights when product recall occurs.( Based on Qualitative study).
Phenomenon: consumers have different judgments on the same product recall event.. Research Question:How does consumer ethics position and gain & loss perception affect their judgment on product recall?Even when people with apparently similar characteristics were making judgments about the same person, they still managed to sometimes reach opposite conclusions concerning the other’s moral worth (Sharp, 1898) Individual variations in approaches should be taking into account two basic factors.
Loss Aversion:In economics and decision theory, loss aversion refers to people's tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains. Some studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains.When product recall occurs, consumer should face with the tradeoff between their gain (compensation) and loss (time, money, health).
We hypothesize that consumer ethics position and gain & loss perception have an interaction effect on their judgment on product recall, and then affect WOM communication and future purchase intention.
Background: The Characteristics of China as an emerging market.,Regulations and laws are incomplete.Imperfect market.The activities of companies is not that friendly. Under such circumstance, Chinese consumers stay in a weak position comparing to government and companies.Media is the main source for consumers to obtain information related to product recall.But in the age of mass media, consumers differ in their opportunities to obtain information since they have unequal access to reach mass media.
The knowledge-gap hypothesis theory suggests that each new medium increases the gap between the information rich and information poor, because of differences in access to the medium, and control over its use, among other factors.As the infusion of mass media information into a social system increases, segments of the population with higher socioeconomic status tend to acquire this information at a faster rate than the lower status segments, so that the gap in knowledge between these segments tends to increase rather than decrease.
Consumer protection can be defined broadly or narrowly. A narrow definition relates the need for consumer protection to the risk that in markets that are less than perfectly competitive, consumers may be mislead or cheated, for example because they lack bargaining power or are ill-informed about the nature of the product or their purchase options. A broader definition identifies a consumer protection issue when, given consumer preferences as regards quality, consumers are unable to purchase goods at the least possible price, after allowing for transaction costs (Hadfield, Howse & Trebilcock, 1997, p. 368).
The conventional understanding of an empowered consumer is someone who has access to information and competition. All three partners in the marketplace have historically held this perception: government, industry and consumers, even consumer educators.
In the past decade, the number of internet users in China has grown from millions to billions. According to the statistics of CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) till June in 2010, the number of internet users is 4.2 billion, among them 2.77 billion people are mobile internet users. Internet penetration enlarged rapidly not only in urban cities, but also in rural areas.The emerging of social media has tremendously changed the mode that consumer obtain information.
Social Media satisfies consumers’ need to be heard, provide them with a platform to reach more people than ever before and it enables consumers to advocate for and promote the brands and topics they feel strongly about. Growing media and Internet penetration is playing a significant role in changing how China’s consumers see the world. They are no longer passively receiving the advertising information from traditional media. Every day, millions of Chinese consumers converse in online communities, discussion boards, blogs and social networks. They turn to the Internet to share opinions, advice, grievances and recommendations. Through social media, every consumer has the possibility to be the center of communication. Once they announce the information, actually the information is into mass consumers’view.
As the world becomes more complex, people turn to media to make sense of what’s happening. The more a person relies on media for information, the more that person is influenced by media.Those information resources can be categorized as the ability to create and gather, process, and disseminate information.According to Baran and Davis (2009), "media systems dependency theory assumes that the more a person depends on having his or her needs met by media use, the more important will be the role that media play in the person’s life, and therefore the more influence those media will have on the person" .
Research Question:What the mechanism of consumer negative information processing? Information processing theory explains consumer behavior in terms of cognitive operations. Unlike previous theories, it is not limited to postulating subjective states (traits, attitudes, etc.) as causes of behavior.Behavior is a consequence of not only what people think about but how they think about it.According to the information processing view, incoming information is represented more or less faithfully in active memory. This information may stimulate the activation (called retrieval) of object-relevant thoughts that have been processed earlier.
