Search results

This empirical study explores the profound impact of management functions on the productivity of yard cargo handling equipment within container terminals.

By closely examining crucial management aspects such as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, a comprehensive managerial behavior framework was developed through focus group studies (FGS) and focal interviews. These qualitative methods were complemented by the distribution of questionnaires to practitioners in Vietnam. To validate the concept of management functions and analyze their influence on effective management practices for equipment efficiency, a structural equation model (SEM) technique was employed using partial least-squares estimation (PLS).

The findings of this study demonstrate that planning (PL), organizing (OR), and controlling (CT) significantly contribute to the productivity of yard cargo handling equipment, while leading (LD) does not exhibit a direct positive impact.

Theoretically, this study contributes by providing clarity to the definition, purpose, and value of management functions in the field of cargo handling equipment management. Furthermore, these research findings offer valuable insights to terminal operators and managers, enabling them to optimize their management strategies and enhance productivity levels, ultimately resulting in improved operational outcomes.

Management and risk techniques within industries have been studied from various disciplines in nondefense-affiliated industries. Given the assumption that these techniques, strategies and mitigations used in one industry apply to other similar industries, this paper examines the defense industry for risk assessment. We characterize interactions for onward application to risk identification in the defense industry.

This research employs a systems theory approach to the characterization of industry interactions, using three dimensions including environment, boundaries and relationships. It develops a framework for identifying relationship types within system-of-systems (SoS) environments by analyzing the features of interactions that occur in such environments.

The study’s findings show that different systems environments within the defense industry SoS exhibit different interaction characteristics and hence display different relationship patterns, which can indicate potential vulnerabilities.

By employing interaction as a means for evaluating potential risks, this research emphasizes the role played by relationship factors in reducing perceived risks and simultaneously increasing trust.

This paper intends to develop an initial snapshot of the relationship status of the Swedish defense industry in light of the global consolidation in this industry, which is a relevant contextual contribution.

Despite the abundance of small-scale farms in the USA and their importance for both rural economic development and food availability, the extensive research on small business management and entrepreneurship has mostly neglected the agricultural context, leaving many of these farms' business challenges unexplored. The authors focus on informing a specific decision faced by small farm managers: selling directly to consumers (i.e. farmer's markets) versus selling through aggregators. By collecting historical data and a series of interviews with industry experts, the authors employ simulation methodology to offer a framework that advises how small-scale farmers can allocate their product across these two channels to increase revenue in a given season. The results, which are relevant for operations management, small business management and entrepreneurship literature, can help small-scale farmers improve their performance and compete against their larger counterparts.

The authors rely on historical and interview data from key industry players (an aggregator and a small farm manager) to design a simulation analysis that determines which factors influence season-long farm revenue performance under varying strategies of channel allocation and commodity production.

The model suggests that farm managers should plan to evenly split their production between the two distribution channels, but if an even split is not possible, they should plan to keep a larger percentage in the nonaggregator (farmers' market/direct) channel. Further, the authors find that farmers can benefit significantly from a strong aggregator channel customer base, which suggests that farmers should promote and advertise the aggregator channel even if they only use it for a limited amount of their product.

The authors integrate small business management and operations management literature to study a widely understudied context and present practical implications for the performance of small-scale farms.

The maritime industry, a linchpin of global trade, has embarked on a transformative journey catalysed by the relentless advance of digitalisation. There is a discernible gap in the literature concerning the specific consequences of digitalisation within the maritime sector. This research aims to examine the current body of literature on the influence of digitalisation in human resource development (HRD) on the competitive advantage of organisations and its potential within the maritime industry.

This research paper conducts a comprehensive bibliometric analysis.

The findings of this research explore the literature landscape encompassing digitalisation in HRD, its influence on HR operations, learning and development, performance management, employee experience, and strategic alignment within maritime organisations.

This research provides valuable recommendations for maritime organisations and HRD practitioners seeking to leverage digitalisation to gain a competitive edge. Thus, the maritime industry can adopt digital HRD practices to streamline operations, improve performance, and align HR strategies with broader organisational goals.

This paper aims to explore how the time and temporal aspects are managed in a financial accounting outsourcing (FAO) transition process in an international interorganizational context. As a research outcome, the authors identify management interventions of both the service provider (SP) and the outsourcing company (OC) at both the corporate and operational levels.

The framework by Huy (2001a, 2001b) was used to analyze the qualitative data, which draw on observations, participation in 32 official meetings during the outsourcing process, informal discussions with key actors from the SP and the OC, and archival data of a single case company.

The authors illustrate how the time and temporal aspects of planned accelerated change are managed through management interventions during the FAO transition process. All four ideal intervention types (commanding, engineering, teaching and socializing) were used sequentially but also jointly to complement one another. The pacing was mostly rapid, owing to strong commanding interventions initiating almost every stage. When analyzing the FAO transition process, the authors identified four stages: contact, contract, convergence and control. Moreover, the authors focused on the role of the operational-level managers and accounting specialists of both organizations. The findings indicate that management interventions vary with the management level.

This study contributes to the interorganizational control literature by considering the time and temporal aspects in planned organizational change and the role of operational-level managers in managing large-scale changes.

Just transition is a fundamental concept for supply chain management but neither discipline pays attention to the other and little is known about how supply chains can be orchestrated as socioecological systems to manage these transitions. Building from a wide range of just transition examples, this paper explores just transition to understand how to move beyond instrumental supply chain practices to supply chains functioning in harmony with the planet and its people.

Building from a systematic review of 72 papers, the paper identifies just transition examples while interpreting them through the theoretical lens of supply chain management, providing valuable insights to help research and practice understand how to achieve low-carbon economies through supply chain management in environmentally and socially just ways.

The paper defines, elaborates, and extends the just transition construct by developing a transition taxonomy with two key dimensions. The purpose dimension (profit or shared outcomes) and the governance dimension (government-/industry-led versus civil society-involved), generating four transition archetypes. Most transitions projects are framed around the Euro- and US-centric, capitalist standards of development, leading to coloniality as well as economic and cultural depletion of communities. Framing just transition in accordance with context-specific plural values, the paper provides an alternative perspective to the extractive transition concept. This can guide supply chain management to decarbonise economies and societies by considering the rights of nature, communities and individuals.

Introducing just transition into the supply chain management domain, this paper unifies the various conceptualisations of just transition into a holistic understanding, providing a new foundation for supply chain management research.

This conceptual work examines how, in times of post-COVID-19 paradigm shift, the employee performance management (PM) process can help multinational corporations (MNCs) strengthen their talent management and, at the same time, meet their future needs.

We take a conceptual approach and present our perspective on what we see as the most critical trends shaping PM and talent management. Contingency theory and Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA) theory provide a sound theoretical framework for understanding and responding to the complex and rapidly changing business context post-COVID-19.

Drawing on these theories, we create a framework providing a means of understanding why and how MNCs can maintain talent and, at the same time, develop new talent through the PM process.

Importantly, our study emphasizes the critical role that project management and talent management techniques play for both practitioners and scholars. In order to gain and sustain a competitive edge in the ever-changing VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) landscape, these processes necessitate ongoing reassessment and adaptation. As Plato eloquently stated, “Our Need Will Be the Real Creator,” encapsulating our vision for the proactive and dynamic nature of effective project management and talent management practices.

The study establishes the benefits of an agile and flexible PM approach to help develop talent and pave the way for future research in this increasingly critical area

This study aims to find the main contributions from lean office (LO) that can be applied to the project management field, correlating these two areas toward an improvement in project management performance.

This paper uses a systematic literature review as a methodological approach to find the main potential contributions from LO that can be applied to project management.

This study has selected the 13 most cited potential contributions from LO and its level of occurrence in a systematic literature review (SLR).

This study explores theoretical aspects of LO benefits on project management, and further empirical studies are needed to determine the risks and benefits of the concept listed here.

The practical implications are that the most cited potential contribution from LO to the project management and those can be used as a guidance for project managers.

This article highlights the potential contributions from LO to project management field, which is novelty in the face of the existent literature.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how process management (PM) can support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in pursuing sustained competitive advantage. For this purpose, a dynamic capabilities (DC) lens was used.

A narrative literature review and a multiple case study with an action research approach at two road freight transport companies were used.

PM provides structure and system thinking to support the development of competitive advantage. Concerning PM, management of knowledge, management style and process orientation are key factors for the generation of competitive advantage for SMEs.

This study contributes to PM literature by studying its support for and implementation at SMEs. Furthermore, the study contributes to the literature on DC by providing concrete examples of activities linked to such capabilities.

This study contributes to practitioners by providing examples of implementing PM and identifying competitive advantage, connected with PM elements.

This study has social and environmental implications for the quality of life of the Swedish people.

This paper contributes to clarifying the connection between the research fields of quality management and DC to explore how PM can support SMEs in pursuing sustained competitive advantage.

Using intersectionality and introducing newer developments from critical cross-cultural management studies, this paper aims to discuss how diversity is applicable to changing cultural contexts.

The paper is a conceptual paper built upon relevant empirical research findings from critical cross-cultural management studies.

By applying intersectionality as a conceptual lens, this paper underscores the practical and conceptual limitations of the business case for diversity, in particular in a culturally diverse international business (IB) setting. Introducing newer developments from critical cross-cultural management studies, the authors identify the need to investigate and manage diversity across distinct categories, and as intersecting with culture, context and power.

This paper builds on previous empirical research in critical cross-cultural management studies using intersectionality as a conceptual lens and draws implications for diversity management in an IB setting from there. The authors add to the critique of the business case by showing its failures of identifying and, consequently, managing diversity, equality/equity and inclusion (DEI) in IB settings.

Organizations (e.g. MNEs) are enabled to clearly see the limitations of the business case and provided with a conceptual lens for addressing DEI issues in a more contextualized and intersectional manner.

This paper introduces intersectionality, as discussed and applied in critical cross-cultural management studies, as a conceptual lens for outlining the limitations of the business case for diversity and for promoting DEI in an IB setting in more complicated, realistic and relevant ways.