Order Condition

What it measures

Order condition refers to customers' perceptions of the physical state of goods upon delivery, specifically the absence of damage resulting from handling, storage, or transit. The construct reflects the extent to which products are received in an undamaged state regardless of whether they originate from depot or direct-vendor shipment and irrespective of the mode of transport used. Within the LSQ process model, order condition is an order-receipt dimension that feeds into both discrepancy handling perceptions and timeliness assessments.

Response format

5-point Likert-like scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree)

Scale items

• Material received from DLA depots is undamaged.
• Material received direct from vendors is undamaged.
• Damage rarely occurs as a result of the transport mode or carrier.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

CR = .84–.86 across four customer segments; AVE = 65%–67%. Items reference 'DLA' (Defense Logistics Agency) and require wording adaptation for other logistics service provider contexts, as noted by the authors. Validated via multisample CFA demonstrating measurement invariance across four DLA customer segments: general merchandise (n = 1,765), textiles and clothing (n = 446), electronics (n = 530), and construction supplies (n = 215). All psychometric values are composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) — Cronbach's α not reported.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Mentzer, J. T., Flint, D. J., & Hult, G. T. M. (2001). Logistics service quality as a segment-customized process. Journal of Marketing, 65(4), 82–104.

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