Supportive Leadership Style and Supply Chain Performance of Retail SMEs in Rivers State of Nigeria

This study examined the effect of supportive leadership style on supply chain performance of retail SMEs in Rivers State of Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design and quantitative method to allow for descriptive and inferential analysis. The population for the study was 377 registered SMEs in Rivers State of Nigeria. The convenience simple technique was used to select one respondent each from the 377 retail SMEs studied. The convenience sampling of respondents was used to ensure that those employees found at their workplaces were the ones used for the study. Subsequently, 377 copies of questionnaire were distributed to 377 employees crosswise the identified retail SMEs. Of the 377 respondents contacted, 258 contributed to the study, resulting to a response rate of 68 The 258 respondents produced a total of 249 working response deposit. Data were subjected to correlation and regression analysis using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS Version 22.0). The study’s findings showed that, the influence of supportive leadership style on order fulfillment was statistically positive and significant at 0.05 significant level. This implies that a well packaged supportive leadership style can increase the chance of boosting order fulfillment in retail supply chain. The study therefore, concludes that, there is a positive and significant influence of supportive leadership style on supply chain performance of retail SMEs in Rivers State of Nigeria, and recommends that, managers who are driven by the desire to achieve efficiency in operation should emphasis more on exhibiting added supportive leadership style in their organizations to boost order fulfillment to enhance supply chain performance.

Study of Hot Formability of High Nitrogen Martensitic Stainless Steel

Alloying high-chromium steels with Nitrogen leads to increase in strength, fatigue life and corrosion resistance, but reduce ductility and could induce cracks formation during forging. In order to address these problems, the hot working response of a high Nitrogen martensitic stainless steel (Fe-16.2%Cr-1.1%Mo-0.33%N-0.34%C) has been investigated by means of hot torsion tests up to rupture, in the temperature and strain rate ranges of 900-1200°C and 0.005-5 s-1 respectively. The peak stresses of the flow curves were related to strain rate (e&) and temperature (T) by the well known sinh equation. The ductility and the safe working conditions were presented in terms of processing map. The microstructure of the steel in the quenched state after deformation was analyzed by means of optical microscopy; the differences in term of morphology and distribution of the various constituents were discussed.