Dr. Vitaly B Brazhkin

Research on multi-attempt online assessments is sparse and inconclusive and lacks the voice of students. To help bridge the gap, this paper analyzes student survey data across multiple supply chain management classes. The results show that students prefer three attempts on quantitative assessments. The preferences do not depend on age, gender or GPA. Other findings indicate that students favor concrete feedback over abstract. Rather than have the correct answer given away, students prefer the type of feedback that allows them to solve the problem on their own. This study helps pave the way to better understanding of effectiveness of and student satisfaction with different assessment settings of online assessments of quantitative assignments.

This study addresses order-picking routing optimization in a wide aisle of a mechanized warehouse. Efficiencies of the three popular heuristic policies (return, traversal, and Z-pick) are compared for different pick densities. A modified Z-pick policy with a flexible string length is proposed to increase its efficiency and accommodate lift-truck movement. The simulation-based results show that all three policies are not significantly different in the pick density region of 10–15 percent. The traversal policy performs better at pick densities below the region of indifference, while the return policy outperforms the others at higher pick densities. However, the Z-pick provides a viable universal alternative across all tested pick densities.

Supply chain management students are introduced to a variety of modeling concepts. Yet learning facility location and capacity allocation modeling to the level of application and mastery proves difficult for the typical undergraduate business student. Spreadsheets facilitate the teaching of optimization modeling; however, providing feedback to students on spreadsheet assignments is an onerous and time-consuming task for instructors. In this teaching brief, a set of learning management system (LMS)-integrated spreadsheet exercises is presented which helps students learn spreadsheet modeling for the capacitated plant location problem. These exercises are also designed to reduce the instructor's grading burden while providing timely feedback and assessment of student performance. The effectiveness of the exercises is demonstrated by assessment data gathered from the LMS as well as postmodule student survey results.

This paper explores obstacles to doing business related to the logistics industry in the emerging Russian market, ways of dealing with these obstacles and the role of culture in problem definitions and solutions. The paper is based on the case of a German logistics services provider entering and operating in the Russian market. Data were obtained from interviews of top managers of its Russian subsidiary and analyzed using qualitative research methods. Findings show that the firm treats difficult logistics problems in Russia as business opportunities and applies its traditional strengths reflecting its national and organizational culture to overcome the obstacles and problems. However, the firm must rethink its business strategy and step out of its traditional cultural comfort zone to deal with specific obstacles explained by “high power distance” and other dimensions of the Russian national culture.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the respondents' fraud phenomenon in online panel surveys, delineate data quality issues from surveys of broad and narrow populations, alert fellow researchers about higher incidence of respondents' fraud in online panel surveys of narrow populations, such as logistics professionals and recommend ways to protect the quality of data received from such surveys.
Design/methodology/approach
This general review paper has two parts, namely, descriptive and instructional. The current state of online survey and panel data use in supply chain research is examined first through a survey method literature review. Then, a more focused understanding of the phenomenon of fraud in surveys is provided through an analysis of online panel industry literature and psychological academic literature. Common survey design and data cleaning recommendations are critically assessed for their applicability to narrow populations. A survey of warehouse professionals is used to illustrate fraud detection techniques and glean additional, supply chain specific data protection recommendations.
Findings
Surveys of narrow populations, such as those typically targeted by supply chain researchers, are much more prone to respondents' fraud. To protect and clean survey data, supply chain researchers need to use many measures that are different from those commonly recommended in methodological survey literature.
Originality/value
This paper can greatly benefit researchers in several ways. It provides a comprehensive review and analysis of respondents' fraud in online surveys, an issue poorly understood and rarely addressed in academic research. Drawing from literature from several fields, this paper, for the first time in literature, offers a systematic set of recommendations for narrow population surveys by clearly contrasting them with general population surveys.

Multiround business simulation games have been gaining popularity in higher education. However, certain aspects of experiential learning of individual students in the game remain unaddressed in research literature. Team assessments, such as team papers, appear a common, “natural” choice given the team‐based nature of the games but may potentially mask individual learning outcomes. In this study we use a qualitative method to glean from individual students’ papers a deeper understanding of the process of learning of individual students in a team‐based, multiround business simulation game. Our findings indicate that individual and timely assessments are necessary to identify cases of not meeting the expected individual learning outcomes for the instructor's corrective intervention. This study contributes to the understanding of the process and outcomes of student learning in a multiround business simulation game, methods of teaching a supply chain and operations class with a simulation, and methods for better aligning course goals and assessments.

The warehousing industry is extremely important to businesses and the economy as a whole, and while there is a great deal of literature exploring individual operations within warehouses, such as warehouse layout and design, order picking, etc., there is very little literature exploring warehouse operations from a systems approach. This study uses the Theory of Constraints (TOC) to develop a focused resource management approach to increasing warehouse capacity and throughput, and thus overall warehouse performance, in an environment of limited warehouse resources. While TOC was originally developed for reducing operational bottlenecks in manufacturing, it has allowed companies in other industries, such as banking, health care, and the military, to save millions of dollars. However, the use of TOC has been limited to case studies and individual situations, which typically are not generalizable. Since the basic steps of TOC are iterative in nature and were not designed for survey research, modifications to the original theory are necessary in order to provide insight into industry-wide problems. This study further develops TOC's logistics paradigm and modifies it for use with survey data, which was collected from a sample of warehouse managers. Additionally, it provides a process for identifying potentially constrained key warehouse resources, which served as a foundation of this study. The findings of the study confirm that TOC's methods of focused resource capacity management and goods flow scheduling coordination with supply chain partners can be an important approach for warehouse managers to use in overcoming resource capacity constraints to increase warehouse performance.