Publication Date

Fall 11-12-2018

Description

Purpose: This study examines service level agreements (SLAs) in the retail industry and uses empirical data to draw conclusions on relationships between SLA parameters and retailer financial performance. Design/methodology/approach: Based on prior SLA theories, hypotheses about the impacts of SLA confidentiality, choice of chargeback mechanisms, and chargeback penalty on retailer inventory turnover are tested. Findings: Retailer inventory turnover could vary by the level of SLA confidentiality, and the variation of retailer inventory turnovers could be explained by chargeback penalty. Research limitations/implications – The research findings may not be readily applicable to SLAs outside of the retail industry. Also, most conclusions were drawn from publicly available SLAs. Practical implications: The significant relationships between SLA parameters and retailer inventory turnover imply that a retailer could improve its financial performance by leveraging its SLA design. Originality/value: Not only does this study contribute to the understanding of retail SLA design in practice, but it also extends prior theories by investigating the implications of SLA design on retailer inventory turnover.

Journal

The International Journal of Logistics Management

Volume

29

Issue

4

First Page

1325

Last Page

1345

Department

College of Management

Publisher Statement

This author accepted manuscript is deposited under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC) licence. This means that anyone may distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes, subject to full attribution. If you wish to use this manuscript for commercial purposes, please contact permissions@emerald.com.

DOI

10.1108/IJLM-09-2016-0205

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