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The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale for measuring perceived service quality for public hospitals from the user's (patient's) perspective. The objective is to measure perceived service quality of public hospitals.

Standard scale development research procedure recommended by experts was followed. First, literature review of studies to measure service quality was undertaken. Later, Delphi method (two iterations) was used. Interviews were conducted of experts and customers for understanding and generating items for perceived service quality for public hospitals. A survey was then undertaken first for development of the scale and later for validation purpose.

A reliable and valid scale called public hospital service quality (PubHosQual) is developed to measure the five dimensions of hospital service quality: admission, medical service, overall service, discharge process, and social responsibility.

Since, this study was conducted in India only, the generalizability of the PubHosQual scale has to be tested in other countries.

The proposed scale PubHosQual in this study could be used as a diagnostic tool to identity areas where specific improvements are needed, and to pinpoint aspects of the hospital's services that require modification. The paper is an attempt to develop an instrument to incorporate the “voice of the customer.”

Most relevant studies about perceived service quality for public hospitals either do not have stable factor structure or are relying on generic SERVQUAL scale to measure service quality. The new scale fills the gap of absence of a validated scale to measure perceived service quality for public hospitals.

The existing literature on venture capitalists’ (VCs’) exits provides insufficient evidence regarding factors affecting the exit decision. This study aims to identify these factors and examine how VC firms do ranking or prioritize these factors.

The study is based on primary data. The qualitative analysis was done to develop the survey instrument. Fuzzy analytical hierarchical process, which is a popular method of multi-criteria decision modeling, is used to identify or rank the determinants of exit strategy by venture capital firms in India.

Broadly, eight determinants of exit strategy are ranked by VCs. A total of 33 statements describe these eight determinants. The results are analyzed on the basis of four measures of VCs’ profile, i.e. age of VC firm, number of start-ups in portfolios, type of investment and amount of investment.

The survey instrument needs to be validated with a larger sample size and other financial backers than VCs.

The study has direct managerial implication for VC firms as it provides useful information regarding the determinants of exit strategy by VC firms in India. These findings can provide necessary information to other financial backers too, viz., angel investors, banks, non-banking financial institutions and other individual and syndicated set-ups providing funding to start-ups.

The current research is unique as no prior study has explored the determinants of VCs exit strategy and prioritizing these determinants.

The present study analyzes the research articles linking quality management practices (QMP) and quality of work life (QWL). The investigation leads toward the formulation of the hypothesis and developing a conceptual framework of QMP and QWL.

The study uses a systematic literature review to explore the relationship between QMP and QWL using the Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, Eric, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and Google Scholar database and identifies critical factors of QMP and QWL using Pareto analysis. Further study proposes a conceptual framework of articles linking QMP and QWL.

A thorough review of the literature identifies three different categories of research articles: “factor identification” articles, “QMP implementation” articles, “scale development” articles, and “influence of QMP on various organizational and employees-related factors” articles. Many studies have attempted to study the relationship and influence of QMP on employee-related factors but not by considering them holistically, thus, underlining the significant gap in the QMP and HRM literature.

To review the literature on QMP and QWL, only a handful of databases were reviewed. Further, the proposed conceptual model is based on the QMP and QWL/HRM literature review, and it is not empirically validated. Further research can be considered to test and validate the proposed conceptual framework empirically.

This study highlights a gap in the existing research studies and an incomplete consideration of employees' aspects of QWL. Researchers and organizations are advised to adopt a broader view while assessing QMP implementation's influence on employees.

This study uses a systematic literature review and Pareto analysis to find the critical factors of QMP and QWL, thus providing a new research avenue for researchers, quality experts and human resource managers to consider all the aspects of employees, that is, QWL of employees, to understand the influence of QMP on employees to achieve firm success.

The base of the pyramid (BOP) is characterized by deep and wide poverty, which dampens market exchanges, or making/selling and buying/consuming activities. The purpose of this paper is to address the specific issue of how national culture distinguishes BOP markets in terms of exchange activities, and the broad issue of how market exchanges can grow and flourish by accounting for comparative differences across BOP markets.

The study design is a conceptual framework drawn from the extant BOP literature and several theories such as Amartya Sen’s theory on poverty, and Anthony Bebbington’s concepts of human capital. The framework specifies research propositions for future empirical examination.

The conceptual framework proposes that BOP poverty lowers or inhibits market exchanges but is countered by several factors: national culture (performance orientation), non-traditional assets (creative and social capitals), and transformative technologies (mobile telephony). Assuming these factors vary by BOP setting, greater performance orientation alongside higher social capital, creative capital, and mobile telephony directly and/or interactively increase market exchange activities.

Among research implications are the application of other culture theories to the BOP market exchange issue, and the need to examine the role of government and other non-traditional capitals in exchanges.

Managerial implications include the targeting and selection of BOP markets and development of marketing tactics that leverage cultural, nontraditional, and technological assets.

This paper explores how to counter the negative effects of BOP poverty on market exchanges by leveraging the distinctives and variations among BOP markets.

The purpose of this paper is to employ an integrated approach of interpretive ranking process (IRP) and system dynamics (SD) for modelling the key risk factors for a typical construction project.

The risk parameters and performance measures applicable in the construction industry have been identified through extensive literature review and discussions with experts from the construction industry. Based on the literature review, a questionnaire was designed and 64 responses were considered. The list of 20 risk parameters and 32 performance measures relevant for a construction industry is reduced to five risk factors and five performance measure factors using factor analysis. IRP modelling is employed to examine the contextual relationships among risk factors and to rank them with respect to performance measure factors. Subsequently, the results of IRP model were utilised as inputs to SD analysis. The SD analysis is conducted for two models, namely, risk factor model and risk variable model to understand the impact of interventions offered by project management team on risk reduction and mitigation.

The developed IRP model shows that the risk factor dimension “construction management” has a high likeliness to occur during the construction phase.

The research demonstrates an application of proposed approach for a typical construction environment and hence the results cannot be generalised.

This research addresses real life complexities in construction project by modelling critical risk factors using an integrate approach of IRP and SD. The proposed approach would facilitate project managers to devise appropriate risk mitigation strategies for a construction project.

Inefficiency dilemmas in project governance are caused by various risks arising from the characteristic of construction supply chain projects, such as poor project performance, conflicts between stakeholders and cost overrun. This research aims to establish a fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) model to analyze construction supply chain risk factors. Corresponding risk mitigation strategies are provided to facilitate the improvement performance of ongoing construction supply chain projects.

A literature review is utilized to reveal the deficiencies of construction supply chain risk management. Thus, a total of five hundred (500) questionnaires are distributed to construction professionals, and four hundred and thirty-five (435) questionnaires are recovered to obtain the evaluation data of construction professionals on critical risk factors. Additionally, the FSE is used to analyze and rank the significance of critical risk factors. Finally, this research discusses nine critical risk factors with high weight in the model, and explains the reason for the significance of critical risk factors in the construction supply chain.

The questionnaire results show that the thirty-one (31) identified critical risk factors are verified by related practitioners (government departments, universities and research institutions, owners, construction units, financial institutions, design units, consulting firms). Thirty-one (31) identified critical risk factors are divided into common risks, risks from contractors and risks from owners. The most significant factors in the three categories, respectively, are “political risks,” “owner's unprofessional” approach and “cash flow.” Managing these risks can facilitate the development of the construction supply chain.

This paper expands the research perspective of construction supply chain risk management and complements the risks in the construction supply chain. For practitioners, the research result provides some corresponding measures to deal with these risks. For researchers, the research result provides the direction of construction supply chain risk treatment.