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This article shows how companies can circumvent competition legislation by developing new informal ways of cooperation. We focus on the case of the Nordic pulp and paper industry which was particularly eager to set up cartels. Scholars analysing this sector can utilise exceptionally rich sources that reveal how industrialists reacted to the introduction and development of European competition policies. The article shows that companies defended their collusive practices by making them less transparent and more informal than before, a change that did not automatically lessen their effectiveness. Tougher competition policies also encouraged industrialists to create new giant companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of integrated transport and logistics systems for sustainable global trade. It highlights recent disruptions to global supply chains caused by events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and trade wars, which have led to the need for supply chain reconfiguration and increased resilience. The article also emphasizes the role of decarbonization and digitalization in shaping the functions and roles of international transportation and logistics. It presents three research papers that explore various challenges and opportunities in transport and logistics integration, including inland terminal location selection, international logistics policies, and the optimization of air-rail freight transportation. The article concludes by suggesting future research directions, including the incorporation of decarbonization indicators and the use of IoT and big data for real-time modeling of greenhouse gas emissions. [Extracted from the article]

This paper aims to address in-depth the state of the art of current literature relating to digital supply chain management. A set of 100 papers deduced from the most relevant scientific databases from 2005 to 2020 has been analyzed and synthesised. The analysis and evaluation of these papers have enabled identifying the difference between traditional and digital supply chains, the emerging technologies' impact on supply chain performance, and the current state of digital supply chain management using the SWOT matrix. Besides, it provides a holonic roadmap framework for future study. This work's originality lies in the holonic architecture considering the digital supply chain's hierarchy multiscale and multilevel (business strategies). This holonic architecture supports supply chain performance under the industry 4.0 ecosystem by considering strategic, tactical, and operational strategies. Therefore, the developed framework helps to enable the necessary transition towards the achievement of digital supply chain performance based on the holonic architecture. The proposed study is beneficial for both practitioners and academics as it describes the critical aspects of the supply chain transformation and represents a solid background that outlines the necessity of incorporating a strategical viewpoint for digital supply chains adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between Multi-National Enterprises' (MNEs) accounting practices, corporate governance and business strategy, including internationalisation strategy and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) His research explores issues related to auditor independence, the audit market, fair value accounting, determinants of executive compensation and regulation of executive pay, foreign IPOs and intangibles. Gilad co-edited Routledge Companion to Fair Value and Financial Accounting, 2 SP nd sp Edition, 2018 and co-authored "Applying IFRS Standards", 4 SP th sp Edition, Wiley (2016). [Extracted from the article]

In other words, a firm's business model is mainly determined by its innovation capability and to develop a value network. However, in recent years, more and more entrepreneurial companies from emerging markets, particularly those from the Asia Pacific region have displayed novel, heterogeneous paths and forms of value creation in creating business models. Effects of organizational innovation and technological innovation capabilities on firm performance: evidence from firms in China's Pearl River Delta, Asia Pacific Business Review. doi: 10.1080/13602381.2019.1592339. [Extracted from the article]

From a theoretical perspective, a number of concepts, approaches and/or paradigms have been related to CE, such as cradle-to-cradle, sustainability, industrial ecology, blue economy, circular business models, closed loop value chain, green supply chain and closed loop supply chain to name a few. The paper by Batista et al. (2019) 'Circular supply chains in emerging economies - a comparative study of packaging recovery ecosystems in China and Brazil' proposes a circular supply chain framework to derive insights from specific packaging recovery supply chain ecosystems. In terms of scope circular supply chains extend the boundaries of closed-loop supply chains by taking into account post-production stewardship to include forward feeding flows (open loops) into alternative supply chains. We realise that the preferred approach to implementing circular economy principles on production systems is supply chain management-based models, in particular, closed-loop supply chain management. [Extracted from the article]

The article focuses on the call for papers focused on the International Studies of Management & Organization Diversification Strategy of Firms in Emerging Economies for the April 30, 2014. It offers information on Sanjoy Sircar, professor with the research interests including corporate finance, corporate strategy and business valuation. It offers information on the developed market enterprises (DME).

Due to the ever-changing dynamics of today's global market place, it is necessary to examine upcoming future trends that may impact businesses. Supply chains are a valuable component of all business planning, and hence, they must be continuously monitored. This paper reflects on the views and contributions of various authors writing on the crucial issue of managing supply chains. Specifically, topics such as relationship quality, performance, integration, responsiveness, risk management strategies, agility, and incentive systems in supply chains are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 shock resulted in a large number of people becoming newly poor in Bangladesh, for whom recovery was slow and difficult. In response, BRAC implemented a nationwide program – credit, business planning support, and mentoring – targeting the economic recovery of the new poor. This paper estimates its impact using a mixed method and finds that the program had a significant positive effect on employment, income, and assets, indicating a faster economic recovery of program participants. The learnings from this program can have major policy implications for future disaster responses targeting livelihood recovery, specifically during the time-sensitive transitory phase from relief to long-term development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first of them, Mariana Giovanna Andrade-Rojas, Abhishek Kathuria, and Benn R. Konsynski empirically study the role of the firm's information-management capability in the company's performance. Analyzing the longitudinal empirics of a long-term collaboration network and the data reflecting the firms' information-management capability, the authors tease out their differential effects on the competition networks in which the firms participate. A CIO must be enabled to actualize an alignment of the corporate strategy and the firm's IT posture, which, in many cases directly affects the firm's strategy itself. [Extracted from the article]

Industrial symbiosis (IS) is a key for implementing circular economy. Through IS, wastes produced by one company are used as inputs by other companies. The operations of IS suffers from uncertainty barriers since wastes are not produced upon demand but emerge as secondary outputs. Such an uncertainty, triggered by waste supply-demand quantity mismatch, influences IS business dynamics. Accordingly, companies have difficulty to foresee potential costs and benefits of implementing IS. The paper adopts an enterprise input-output model providing a cost–benefit analysis of IS integrated to an agent-based model to simulate how companies share the total economic benefits stemming from IS. The proposed model allows to explore the space of cooperation, defined as the operationally favourable conditions to operate IS in an economically win-win manner. This approach, as a decision-support tool, allows the user to understand whether the IS relationship is created and how should the cost-sharing policy be. The proposed model is applied to a numerical example. Findings show that cost-sharing strategies are dramatically affected by waste supply-demand mismatch and by the relationship between saved and additional costs to run IS. Apart from methodological and theoretical contributions, the paper proposes managerial and practical implications for business strategy development in IS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A brief history of performance measurement systems If we look back to the history and origins of management accounting, Johnson's ([17]) work explains how management accounting tools evolved to enable trade and the development of both vertically integrated and diverse manufacturing firms. It is widely recognised that performance measurement systems (PMS) are important for the management of a factory, business enterprise or public sector organisation. The next major development in management accounting coincides with companies trying to progress from managing a single (although multi-operation) production plant to the management of multiple plants as occurred at E. I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Company (Johnson [15]). Chandler ([8]) argues that when companies such as du Pont, Sears Roebuck and General Motors diversified after the First World War, they discovered that sophisticated management accounting systems were fundamental to the coordination of multi-divisional organisations. [Extracted from the article]

This paper investigates the transformation of research and development (R&D) in a world-leading Taiwanese bicycle manufacturing firm, the Giant Company, over the last four decades. A dynamic capabilities framework is proposed that focuses on seizing corporate strategy (business model and internationalisation) and on reconfiguring the organisation of R&D (structure and capability development). A longitudinal methodology is applied to examine the Giant Company by tracking its history from its establishment to the present (1972–2016). Interviews with the chief technology officer (CTO) and top managers as well as internal documentation are used to analyse the case. The results indicate that a fine alignment between the seizing corporate strategy and reconfiguring the organisation of R&D successfully transformed the Giant Company from an engineering-based organisation (1972–1987) to a development-based organisation (1987–1999) and then to a research-based organisation (2000 onwards). The paper concludes that the R&D transformation can be wider and more cyclically integrated with corporate strategy through the dynamic capabilities approach. Theoretical and managerial implications are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is home to some of the world's most original, resilient, and remarkable companies. The singular challenges and opportunities of the continent's economic environment have given rise to idiosyncratic strategies and business models. However, there is a notable absence of studies on African companies. While there are numerous noteworthy companies in Africa, there are few as relevant, successful, and influential as the Dangote Group. This paper aims to add to the limited literature in the area by analyzing the business model and strategic choices of Dangote Cement, the Group's flagship business and one of Africa's industrial giants. In particular, it explores its corporate diversification and vertical integration strategies, which are at the core of its success. This article is based on 7 interviews with internal and external Dangote stakeholders and a detailed questionnaire completed by the Strategy Department of the firm, together with public data of the company. While the topics of diversification and integration have been studied in multiple contexts, this article provides an original perspective by applying existing research and management thinking to the specific business environment of Africa. This paper explores how and why Dangote Cement diversifies and how it identifies and integrates the advantages and disadvantages of its strategic choices. We believe it provides an original perspective that furthers our limited collective understanding of and research on strategic practices in Africa, the world's last business academic frontier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been particularly challenged by the Covid pandemic, the climate crisis, war and political tensions including the fuel price crisis. Strategic responses to crisis including cost-cutting as retrenchment in the short run, debt financing to preserve the status quo and exit. However, perhaps the most positive is to innovate for renewal. The paper considers how working with an approach to futures and foresight learning, three different SMEs during the Covid pandemic and beyond formed action learning groups and were able to find future opportunities from which innovation ideas for action in the present could be undertaken. The paper considers the meaning of innovation including what Revans saw as an 'Innovation Paradox' as a gap between invention and innovation. In SMEs, the importance of informal innovation and an innovation orientation are identified. The meaning futures and foresight learning is considered and the focus on the identification of new opportunities for products and services, delivered by a process of action learning. Findings from three SMEs are presented from meetings that took place during 2021 to 2022, when Covid restrictions were partly in place. They show how each programme begins with opportunity questions for the future which then lead to ideas after a consideration of trends and patterns. Further methods of futures thinking are presented which allow further ideas to be developed for innovation. In each case, ideas are selected for business planning after approval. Discussion of the findings considers the importance of futures and foresight learning combined with action learning for SMEs to become more strategic, future-oriented and creative in seeking opportunities for innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous growth of information and technology has resulted in considerable changes in the retailing environment, with a restriction on brick-and-mortar retailing and a push toward online retailing. The purpose of this study is to map the available literature on e-tailing in order to forecast where the field might be headed in the coming years and to identify the key features that contribute to e-tailing businesses. The paper employs an integrative review methodology and bibliometric method as a computational tool, and selected Web of Science and SCOPUS database(s), to identify the most productive research disciplines and countries that conduct the majority of e-tailing research. The study examines major themes such as consumer behavior and perception, technology and media, pricing strategies, channel integration, cognitive impact, business strategies, and models, and channel strategies to provide a comprehensive framework of e-tailing. This is the first study to present a thorough picture of e-tailing by identifying topics, research evolution, annual publishing trends, and the most relevant journals. The study offers future research areas in the form of thematic propositions and advocates greater research into upcoming trends such as voice assistants, chatbots, AI, and direct-to- consumer markets while adding relevant concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to identify and analyse the factors that influence offshore location decisions from an institutional theory perspective. In the years, emerging economies have shown great growth potential and have attracted significant foreign direct investment, especially from companies willing to set up operations. Despite such a seemingly favourable trade environment, not all companies that entered an emerging economy have been successful. Thus, there is a need to understand the factors that influence the success of any offshore location decision. It is also important to understand the relative importance of these factors, in order to develop novel insights useful to practitioners. There is a lack of literature addressing this issue, which this study aims to fill. We conducted a multi-case analysis with examples of European companies entering India. The findings indicate that successful companies employed locally focused business strategies that enabled them to acquire important relationships and knowledge, and also to adapt to formal institutions, including governmental and regulatory procedures. It was found that, irrespective of size, disregarding collaborative strategies was the main reason for exiting India. These findings are highly relevant for managers and policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent thought provoking paper affirms that in practice, the trade-offs model is not used. In this study, we reanalyse the data based on a more complete understanding of Skinner's model. Our results indicate that while there may be some evidence of firms that are capable of achieving high performance across a number of manufacturing capabilities in that investigation, there is also plenty of evidence generally consistent with the core tenet of the trade-offs model. We also emphasise that more practical and definitive statements about Skinner's model must necessarily involve detailed studies of market leading firms, or, individual product/services. Opportunities to move forward on the topic of strategic tradeoffs are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global and complex supply chains are being increasingly exposed to the disruptions caused by disasters occurring in any part of the world. As a result, the business firms are facing a challenge to design resilient supply chains which could avoid or at least minimise the effect of disruptions caused by natural or manmade disasters. Procurement being one of the initial supply chain activity ensures undisrupted supply of raw material. In global business operations, especially in global sourcing, any disaster is likely to effect the entire supply chain. Therefore, the procurement planning of a business organisation must consider the disaster resilience aspect. The paper proposes disaster resilient procurement framework. The framework involves resilient supplier selection process as a proactive approach to disaster resilient supply chain. The paper also proposes two mathematical models for disaster resilient procurement for both proactive and reactive situations. In proactive situation, the model preferably allocates orders to disaster resilient suppliers. However, in disruptions, the proposed reactive model considers disruptions and reallocate orders to minimise penalties incurred on any shortages. Hence, the proposed framework aims to achieve operational excellence by minimising the risk/effect of disruptions and cost at the same time which is also demonstrated using different case scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapidly changing market requirements and shorter product lifecycles demand assembly systems that are able to cope with frequently changing resources, resource capabilities and product specifications. This paper presents a multi-agent framework that can adapt an assembly system in order to cope with such changes. The focus of this work is on the ability to plug resources (such as PLCs) into and out of the system, and dynamically aggregate resource capabilities to form more complex ones as resources are plugged in. In addition, an implementation of the framework on an industrial assembly system is discussed, and some insights are provided into some of the key features that product specification languages ought to have to be useful in real world assembly systems, and into the added value of using the proposed framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing strategy is an essential aspect of production and operations management discipline. It plays a crucial role in the success of business strategy by configuring manufacturing decisions effectively to achieve the firm's competitive advantage in the marketplace. From the advent of the manufacturing strategy concept, it has advanced immensely through the contribution of researchers in scholarly outlets. This paper provides an evolutionary overview of the literature on the manufacturing strategy domain to provide the scientific landscape of existing studies for exploring the progression of the domain over five decades. In this study, 1034 articles published from 1969-2021 are selected, reviewed, and analysed. We critically explored the evolution in the publication trend, usage of keywords, and identified the prominent themes of manufacturing strategy. Based on the thematic analysis of literature, a systemic manufacturing strategy formulation framework is proposed. Further, we determined the critical strategies considered in the manufacturing domain and mapped their evolution according to the industrial revolutions. This study provides significant contributions to the progression of the manufacturing strategy domain by recommending future research opportunities identified through the literature analysis. The practitioners and policymakers can utilise the proposed systemic manufacturing strategy framework to formulate the strategy at their firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass Customization is a generic business strategy for organizational excellence and organizations striving for competitive advantage are incorporating MC into their business model. Though research has been done to identify enablers of mass customization, there has been an associated degree of study in conceptual papers while theory-building articles are less in number. Also, less study has been done in the Indian market scenario. The literature show that organizations are apprehensive of their technological potentials and are not taking initiative to transform themselves from conventional mass manufacturing companies to mass customization for emerging market needs. As a response to this research gap, a systematic literature review is conducted on enablers for MC and Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (TISM) and MICMAC analysis is used to develop a framework that illustrates how enablers are placed at different levels and how a particular enabler influences the other or getting influenced. Supporting this insight, a theory for accomplishing mass customization in manufacturing units is established. The theory is verified from experts by structured questionnaire from three Indian manufacturing companies where Mass customization is being practiced. This paper renders a summary of the methodology and specifies its validation in three case study companies. Practices are suggested to reinforce the attainment of mass customization in organizations aspiring to implement mass customization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) are widely used to guide place-based innovation policy. However, there is little analysis of the institutional frameworks necessary for implementing multi-actor entrepreneurial discovery processes. This paper explores the evolution of institutions in the Basque Country region over a four-year period. It conceptualizes two levels of institutions: the overall architecture established to pursue an S3; and the micro-processes that emerge to particularize and valorize priorities. The paper highlights lessons relating to the experimentalism of S3, monitoring and evaluation, the engagement of small and medium-sized enterprises and civil society actors, and mechanisms for amplifying the voice of regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of using the EFQM model in Czech companies on business success. The study is based on primary data collected from top managers of selected 477 Czech private companies which are incorporated and located in the Czech Republic. Primary data were collected by the method of oral questioning. The companies under research were selected with the method of non-probability purposive sampling, or more precisely by assumption and occasional selection. The research was carried out in the Czech Republic between October 2018 and January 2019. The relationships are analyzed using relevant regression techniques. From the results generated by research methodology, the EFQM model has a very important weight and plays a key role in the strategic planning of the company. This fact is confirmed by the high direct effect, as well as by the high indirect effect between both variables. These results indicate that the using of the EFQM model constitutes a key piece in the strategic planning of the company to achieve of business success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of business model (BM) management and its relationship to the theory of constraints (TOC). Coman and Ronen (Coman, A. and Ronen,B., 2007. Managing strategic and tactical constraints in the hi-tech industry. International Journal of Production Research, 38(7), 1631-1639) have extended TOC methodology to include the alignment of the organisation's competencies with the business arena's strategic constraints. The aim of this paper is to take TOC one step further and to combine it with the business models theory. Business models have become important value creators due to the proliferation of new and innovative business models (i.e. new ways of creating value). New firms with new business models are threatening and replacing established companies and conventional ways of doing business. Among these are the music, publishing, books, retail, airline and many other industries. This paper argues that in the wake of the World Wide Web, contract manufacturing and globalisation it not enough to manage the firms (internal, external or strategic) constraints. In addition, the management of the firm's BM as a potential constraint is a key factor in the modern management theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an effort to achieve sustainable operations, green supply chain management has become an important area for firms to concentrate on due to its inherent involvement with all the processes that provide foundations to successful business. Modelling methodologies of product supply chain environmental assessment are usually guided by the principles of life cycle assessment (LCA). However, a review of the extant literature suggests that LCA techniques suffer from a wide range of limitations that prevent a wider application in real-world contexts; hence, they need to be incorporated within decision support frameworks to aid environmental sustainability strategies. Thus, this paper contributes in understanding and overcoming the dichotomy between LCA model development and the emerging practical implementation to inform carbon emissions mitigation strategies within supply chains. Therefore, the paper provides both theoretical insights and a practical application to inform the process of adopting a decision support framework based on a LCA methodology in a real-world scenario. The supply chain of a product from the steel industry is considered to evaluate its environmental impact and carbon ‘hotspots’. The study helps understanding how operational strategies geared towards environmental sustainability can be informed using knowledge and information generated from supply chain environmental assessments, and for highlighting inherent challenges in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper critically interrogates Elon Musk's celebrity image through an analysis of Musk's appearance in the podcast The Joe Rogan's Experience. It shows that the billionaire's public persona is a constitutive part of his corporate strategy, and introduces the concept of 'celebrity management' to theorise how the affordances of celebrity can be mobilised to create conditions for a company to operate. Combining celebrity studies with critical political economy, Musk's stardom is situated in the context of financialised capitalism, addressing the systemic contradictions contained (and artificially solved) in his image, while also demonstrating that it is tactically deployed to further financialised logics of his companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply chain agility (SCA) has emerged as an important capability to remain competitive in this era of business uncertainty and turbulence. This study aims to gain knowledge of the current state of research on SCA, specifically to have conceptual clarity and synthesise future research avenues. To achieve these goals, we have carried out a systematic review of 118 research papers on SCA published from 1999 to 2016. The findings suggest that the domain has witnessed steady growth since its inception, but little consensus has been observed around its definition and boundaries. To counter these definitional ambiguities, we have presented a comprehensive definition of SCA. The paper further discusses SCA along three thematic categories: the first considers SCA from the strategic perspective, the second considers SCA as a capability and focuses on its enablers and the third explores the impact of SCA on performance. Finally, towards the conclusion, a holistic framework summarising the findings is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Mexico's relationship with the World Cup, from 1930 to 2018. Though a regular competitor, having missed very few final tournaments, Mexico failed to deliver remarkable results. The country is mostly known as a two-time host of World Cups, with a third experience scheduled for 2026. The paper delineates two periods in the history of Mexico's attendance to World Cups: 1930–1990 and 1990 to nowadays. The first was best summarized by disappointing defeats, administrative chaos, and precarious football style. The second is described by an uninterrupted string of qualifications systematically stumbling in the round of 16. Mexico's successful bids for hosting World Cup came because of a long-term strategy encompassing business interests, government support and capacity of permeating the inner circles of decision-making within FIFA. Mexico is perceived by most Central-North American and Caribbean rivals as an arrogant team and any victory against them is appreciated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous economic development is a critical area of focus for many communities globally. Indigenous social enterprises play an important role in enhancing economic development by providing employment opportunities for Indigenous community members. Thus, understanding the factors that impact employment of Indigenous staff by Indigenous enterprises has important social and economic implications. This study examines the relationship between high commitment human resource management (HC-HRM) practices of Australian Indigenous social enterprises and their employment of Indigenous staff. Specifically, the paper contends with the research question how does the utilisation of HC-HRM by Indigenous enterprises shape the Indigenous employment outcomes of enterprises? Working with research partner Supply Nation, Australia's Indigenous Minority Supplier Diversity Council, a survey of Indigenous social enterprises was conducted about their HRM practices in relationship to leader risk propensity and business strategy pertaining to cultural product/services. A key result of the study is that the use of HC-HRM practices helps increase Indigenous employment outcomes. In addition, the relationship between HC-HRM and Indigenous employment outcomes is moderated by both the enterprise's business strategy and the leaders' risk propensity. These findings provide important insight into how Indigenous social enterprises can be best managed to create social and economic benefits in Indigenous communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows how auditor-general's offices (AGO) use strategic planning to legitimize value-for-money (VFM) audits. The transformation of VFM audit practice through these planning processes (corporate plan, annual plan and annual report) involves several key actions by AGOs, including the development of VFM audit methodologies and cultivating relationships with the wider audit environment. IMPACT This paper extends the existing international understanding about how value-for-money (VFM) audit/performance audit was added to the audit portfolio of the auditor-general's office (AGO) in a specific country context. VFM audit is unique to AGOs, but its operationalization is different from AGO to AGO. AGOs can use the technical competence of VFM audit to stand out from private sector accounting firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maneuvering through the stormy seas of digital transformation: The impact of empowering leadership on the AI readiness of enterprises. This advocates for the alignment of business and IT strategies and is concerned with how an organisation's business model can be redesigned using digital technologies for the enhancement of customer value propositions. Digital transformation exposes enterprises to the need to alter business strategies and adopt technological advancements, such as artificial intelligence (AI). Old-style CRM is being modernised into SCRM, and one of the key responsibilities in this new marketing and business environment is customer engagement (CE). [Extracted from the article]

Considering the existing methodologies' hysteresis and cost of the human factors and ergonomics (HF/E) integration in the design phase, this paper attempts to develop a time-saving, less expensive and standard approach for designers to integrate the HF/E from the early design phase. In this study, the HF/E information is embodied by a user manual, which will be continuously improved with the refinement of design. A Function-Task-Behaviour framework is proposed to restate the design process, which involves three steps: (1) Functional specification involves function definition and decomposition according to initial user manual and other requirements; (2) Embodiment refers to conducting task definition and planning to achieve the intended function. SysML is used for task definition and PERT method is applied for task planning; (3) Detailed design refers to the interactions analysis between user's behaviour and product's behaviour in the work area. A case study is shown at the end of this paper to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed method in integrating the HF/E from the early design phase to improve the final performance of both product and user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses several reports published within issue on topics including need for a marketing view of competition; consumer research; and Resource-Advantage Theory.

Environmental scanning is one of the cornerstones of strategic marketing. A plethora of normative literature argues that it plays a key role in bringing information about the external environment to the attention of decision-markers in order that they can make better informed decisions. This literature also provides a rich source of ideas about how to go about environmental scanning, particularly dealing with the collection of data and the various techniques that can be used to analyse that data. Yet, empirical findings point strongly to the view that the low deeds of environmental scanning practice, diverge in some important respects from the high-minded prescriptions of the normative literature. Various explanations can be put forward for this. This paper considers those explanations. Specifically it explores the assumptions and premises about the constructs of organization and environment which inform the strategic marketing literature. It argues the case for alternative images of organization and environment. And on the basis of this, proposes the concept of writerly environment scanning, embedding environmental scanning in broader political and cultural processes both within and without the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How should we think about the well-being and associated economic development of areas that are not subject to market pressures for growth? What is the economy of a small town outside such demand pressures like? And what should be the role of local planning in such a context? The paper explores these questions through a case study of Shildon, County Durham in England. It explores the diverse economy of the town, including aspects of the Foundational Economy and the central role of civil society, through an analysis of local planning for business premises, new housebuilding and culture-led regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between business strategy and sustainability of Chinese SMEs and how the environmental uncertainty may affect this relationship. It analyses the impact of active and passive business strategies on firms' sustainability and tests the potential moderating role of economic policy uncertainty in this relationship. The empirical analysis is performed by employing fixed-effect and GMM estimations on data collected from 937 Chinese A-share non-financial companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2010 to 2021. The results show that the high-risk active business strategy of innovation and new market development is associated with greater business sustainability, and this relationship is stronger for SMEs than for non-SMEs in China. Moreover, higher economic policy uncertainty strengthens the positive relationship between active business strategy and firm sustainability, implying that in periods of higher environmental uncertainty firms which pursue active business strategy achieve greater business sustainability. These findings are useful for devising business strategy and can assist in formulating policy initiatives seeking to ensure sustainable development of SMEs in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers evidence that the context might influence a university student's start-up process differently, depending on the category of activities and regions. Specifically, it explores the influence of university and national contexts while considering the different categories of the start-up process. Our approach divides the start-up process into three categories (Business planning, Interaction with the external environment, and Financing), four context definitions (University, Industry-technological, Institutional-policy, and Cultural), and three regions (European Union, Latin America, and Asian-African). We drew on the primary dataset of the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS) project that contains 7,628 nascent entrepreneurs from 21 countries, which we complemented with a set of international indexes from the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index, the Global Entrepreneurship Index, and the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness project. Generally speaking, the University context positively influences the start-up activities of students in Europe and Asia-Africa. The Industry and technological context and the Institutional and policy context play a relevant role (sometimes positive or negative) depending on the activity and region. Finally, the Cultural context presents mixed results too, and its influence varies (positively and negatively) depending on the kind of start-up activities and the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an increasingly competitive environment, many hotels have implemented sustainable practices and have actively involved the guests in the generation of unique experiences through the value co-creation process. In this sense, this paper aims at analysing the impact of 'green' practices and value co-creation on hotel image, guest trust, satisfaction, and loyalty, and to assess the moderating role of culture, conceived as related to guest nationality. To test the model, a quantitative method based on a sample of 611 guests from Spain and Colombia was used. Our results indicated that there are significant differences based on the guests´ nationality regarding the effects of value co-creation and image on trust, image on satisfaction, and satisfaction on loyalty. These findings will allow hotel management to have a better understanding of tourists when designing their corporate strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers some of the changes in thinking and the resulting paradigm shifts which have influenced the nature of business since theInternational Journal of Production Researchwas first published in 1961, and which have significantly transformed the productivity of industry and the quality of its goods and services. Rather than speculating on the likely paradigm shifts over the next 50 years, the paper considers some of the current social and economic pressures which are likely to contribute to future changes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Distributed scheduling (DS) is an approach that enables local decision makers to create schedules that consider local objectives and constraints within the boundaries of the overall system objectives. Local decisions from different parts of the system are then integrated through coordination and communication mechanisms. Distributed scheduling attracts the interest of many researchers from a variety of disciplines, such as computer science, economics, manufacturing, and service operations management. One reason is that the problems faced in this area include issues ranging from information architectures, to negotiation mechanisms, to the design of scheduling algorithms. In this paper, we provide a survey and a critical analysis of the literature on distributed scheduling. While we propose a comprehensive taxonomy that accounts for many factors related to distributed scheduling, we also analyse the body of research in which the scheduling aspect is rigorously discussed. The focus of this paper is to review the studies that concern scheduling algorithms in a distributed architecture, not, for example, protocol languages or database architectures. The contribution of this paper is twofold: to unify the literature within our scope under a common terminology and to determine the critical design factors unique to distributed scheduling and in relation to centralised scheduling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As has been widely acknowledged, Keith's (1960) paper that heralded the coming of the marketing revolution at Pillsbury has achieved seminal status within the marketing literature. Its historical narrative, on the other hand, has been repeatedly challenged: some doubt whether the marketing concept emerged as late as the 1950s and 1960s. Commensurate with this view, a variety of papers have documented key associated ideas such as customer centricity far earlier in the historical record, from the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries respectively. The purpose of this paper is to contest Keith's own claims regarding the marketing practices adopted during the so-called 'marketing' and 'marketing control' eras. Drawing from the FBI file kept on the activities of The Pillsbury Company, this paper documents the participation of Pillsbury in anti-competitive practices that started in 1958, just two years prior to the publication of Keith's important article, and concluded in the mid 1960s, with Pillsbury being charged and fined for their involvement with a price-fixing cartel. By revealing a parallel narrative to that presented by Keith, this paper thus revises our understanding of an important contribution to marketing thought, as well as highlighting the occasionally legally problematic nature of interfirm cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Founded in 2005, Renren was a popular and leading Chinese social media network, especially among college students. However, after reaching its heyday in 2011, user growth dwindled and advertisers fled. By 2018, Renren morphed from a social network to a secondhand car sale business. This paper reconstructs the history of Renren and documents its failed transformation from a social network to a platform. Grounded in platform studies and a political economy theoretical framework, this paper traces Renren's platform evolution from two perspectives: first, from an end user's point of view, it examines how Renren's user interface registered and mirrored shifting corporate strategies and platformisation processes writ large; second, given Renren's status as a privately-owned, publicly-traded and for-profit business entity, the paper examines how Renren pursued different strategies in search of a viable business model and later on in managing shareholder value and profitability. Ultimately, this paper presents the rise and fall of Renren first and foremost as a platform historiography project. It then discusses Renren's demise by looking retrospectively at changing interface design, business strategies, and financialisation against the broader dynamics and shifting sociocultural uses of the commercial Chinese internet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been widely recognized that platforms utilize their editorial capacity to transform the industries they intermediate. In this paper, we examine the intermediary role of the leading audio streaming platform – Spotify – on the recorded music industry. Spotify is often called the 'new radio' for the influence it has on breaking songs and artists, and for the role it plays in music discovery and consumption. Our purpose is to determine whether Spotify is leveling the playing field or entrenching hierarchies between major labels and independent labels. We attempt to answer this question through a longitudinal analysis of content owners (major labels or 'indies') and formats (albums, tracks, or playlists) promoted by Spotify through its global Twitter account: @Spotify. As a carefully curated venue for corporate speech @Spotify provides a window into continuities and changes in Spotify's corporate strategy. By using @Spotify as a proxy through which to track patterns of promotion between the years 2012 and 2018, this paper offers a novel empirical examination of how Spotify is shaping the consumption of music, and in turn the structure of the recording industry. In doing so, we provide evidence for speculating about the future of the recorded music industry in a platform era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's digital economy, web-based integration of the enterprises to form an e-supply chain is a critical weapon for orchestrating the whole supply chain towards competitiveness. This paper intends to discuss the requirements for forming an e-supply chain from different perspectives, such as integration with the legacy systems, timing and prior presence of ERP (enterprise resources planning) systems, BPR (business process re-engineering) needs of internal and external business processes and business intelligence/decision support needs. A look at technical knowledge and structure to construct an e-supply chain is provided. Challenges involved in forming an e-supply chain are also briefly mentioned as a separate section in this paper. During the study, requirements are gathered by making a review of recent literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses finite-capacity planning (or medium-term scheduling) issues in a flexible flow line such as a semiconductor fabrication (Fab), liquid crystal display (LCD) Fab, or printed circuit board (PCB) Fab. In such a flexible flow line, medium-term schedules such as release schedules and output schedules are critical to achieving the goal of full-capacity and on-time production. However, existing finite-capacity planning methods do not adequately reflect the actual capacity profiles of the Fab. This paper presents capacity-filtering algorithms for generating a finite-capacity loading-profile from an infinite-capacity loading-profile at a processing stage in a Fab. In addition, two types of finite-capacity planning problems are described, and ways to use the algorithms in solving these problems presented. Performance analyses using a real-life case study show that the proposed method is superior to existing methods. It is postulated that the results presented can be used as a building block for obtaining medium-term schedules for the entire Fab. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most important planning and operational issues in manufacturing systems, production scheduling generally deals with allocating a set of resources over time to perform a set of tasks. Recently, control theoretic approaches based on nonlinear dynamics of continuous variables have been proposed to solve production scheduling problems as an alternative to traditional production scheduling methods that deal with decision-making components in discrete nature. The major goal of this paper is to improve predictability and performance of an existing scheduling model that employs the control theoretic approach, called distributed arrival time controller (DATC), to manage arrival times of parts using an integral controller. In this paper, we first review and investigate unique dynamic characteristics of the DATC in regards to convergence and chattering of arrival times. We then propose a new arrival time controller for the DATC that can improve predictability and performance in production scheduling. We call the new mechanism the double integral arrival-time controller (DIAC). We analyse unique characteristics of the DIAC such as oscillatory trajectory of arrival times, their oscillation frequency, and sequence visiting mechanism. In addition, we compare scheduling performance of the DIAC to the existing DATC model through computational experiments. The results show that the proposed system can be used as a mathematical and simulation model for designing adaptable manufacturing systems in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the various proposed models for practically developing a circular economy system, industrial symbiosis (IS) is one of the most promising. This paper aims at better understanding the extent to which regional industrial symbiosis practices have been internalized in companies and, second, at identifying the most important barriers that impede a company from the adoption of such practices at regional level. The research is grounded on original data collected using a questionnaire. The results allowed the division of firms into four clusters corresponding to different levels of adoption: (i) the perfectly symbiont companies that undertake all the proposed industrial symbiosis practices; (ii) the non-adopters that are low in terms of IS activities; (iii) the resource savers that focus on the use of by-products or waste from other companies; and the (iv) outbound activity optimizers that concentrate on the sale of their by-products and waste to other companies. Moreover, the results contributed to the identification of regulatory constraints and high investment costs and difficulties in finding financing as significant causes that hinder companies in the adoption of regional industrial symbiosis practices, while networking and logistic barriers appear not to be relevant. To overcome these barriers and to promote the adoption of IS at regional level, supporting the transition towards the circular paradigm, several political and managerial suggestions are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are some issues which have to be addressed when designing an automated guided vehicles system (AGVS) such as flow-path layout, traffic management, the number and the location of pick-up and delivery points, vehicle routing and so on. One of the AGVS guide path configurations discussed in the previous researches includes a single-loop which is the subject of this paper. Many researchers have worked on the subject of finding the shortest single loop in a given block layout. This problem has been already proved to be NP-complete. Finding the location of pick-up/drop-off (P/D) stations on a given loop is what is typically done, but locating the loop and the P/D stations simultaneously is actually more realistic. In this paper, a genetic algorithm (GA) has been developed to determine these two simultaneously. The algorithm only reproduces the feasible solutions. The objective is to minimize the total traveled distance. A from-to chart and a block layout are the inputs and a unidirectional loop including its corresponding direction and along with the locations of the P/D stations on the loop are the outputs. To show the efficiency of the algorithm, the associated results for some sample problems have been compared with the results generated by LINGO for the equivalent mixed integer programming (MIP) problem. Computational results show the efficiency of the algorithm in solving relatively large size problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]