Title: Investigating links between low-level inventory practices and business performance

Authors: Dimitris Folinas; Thomas A. Fotiadis

Addresses: Department of Logistics, TEI of Central Macedonia, Greece ' Department of Production Management Engineering, Demokritos University of Thrace, Greece

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of low-level inventory practices on financial performance in the Greek manufacturing industry by examining past literature reviews and empirical evidences of a primary research. To enhance research reliability, consistency, and validity of the quantitative research a systematic (step-by-step) research design is created to ensure quality in the data collection techniques, data analyses and interpretation, and the links between the literature reviews and the results investigated. The results of this study suggest that there is not a strong link among low-level inventories management practices and financial-based performance indicators even if the manufacturing companies have remarkably applied these practices during the last years. Therefore, it is proved that the examined investigation must be viewed from more business dimensions (such as sales and marketing).

Keywords: inventory management; low-level inventory; financial performance; business performance; manufacturing industry; firm performance; Greece; sales; marketing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLSM.2016.077285

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2016 Vol.24 No.4, pp.517 - 532

Received: 08 May 2015
Accepted: 08 Jun 2015
Published online: 26 Jun 2016 *

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