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Describes how an LP‐based one‐dimensional packing algorithm can be used to minimise costs in three different multiple‐vehicle shipment planning problems. The three applications considered are: (1) shipping industrial trucks by container when weight is the dominant constraint; (2) shipping automotive parts in racks by truck when volume is the dominant constraint; and (3) shipping large rolls of paper in railcars of varying size with incentive rates when volume is the dominant constraint.

THERE have been many articles published from time to time referring to the Official Air Ministry data for the conversion of observed test bench powers and boost of supercharged engines to corrected powers and boosts at altitude.

Through this research study, the authors found that digital thread has made significant progress in the life cycle management of the US Air Force. The authors hope that by reviewing similar studies in the aerospace field, the meaning of digital thread can be summarized and applied to a wider range of fields. In addition, theoretically, the definition of digital twin and digital thread are not unified. The authors hope that the comparison of digital thread and digital twin will better enable scholars to distinguish between the two concepts. Besides, the authors are also looking forward that more people will realize the significance of digital thread and carry out future research.

Complete research about digital thread and the relevant concept of the digital twin is conducted. First, by searching in Google Scholar with the keyword “digital thread”, the authors filter results and save literature with high relevance to digital thread. The authors also track these papers’ references for more paper of digital thread and digital twin. After removing the duplicate and low-relevance literature, 72 digital thread-related literature studies are saved and further analyzed from the perspective of time development, application field and research directions.

Digital thread application in industries other than the aviation manufacturing industry is still relatively few, and the research on the application of digital thread in real industrial scenarios is mainly at the stage of framework design and design-side decision optimization. In addition, the digital thread needs a new management mechanism and organizational structure to realize landing. The new management mechanism and the process can adapt to the whole life cycle management process based on the digital thread, manage the data security and data update, and promote the digital thread to play a better effect on the organizational management.

Based on a review of digital thread, future research directions and usage suggestions are given. The fault diagnosis of high-speed train bogie as an example shows the effectiveness of the method and also partially demonstrates the advantages and effects brought by the digital thread connecting the data models at various stages.

This paper first investigates and analyzes the theoretical connotation and research progress of digital thread and gives a complete definition of digital thread from the perspective of the combination of digital thread and digital twins. Next, the research process of digital thread is reviewed, and the application fields, research directions and achievements in recent years are summarized. Finally, taking the fault diagnosis of high-speed train bogie as an example partially demonstrates the advantages and effects brought by the digital thread connecting the data models at various stages.

Previous studies on employee turnover did not explore the contextual differences of emerging markets such as Vietnam. As Vietnam is a fast-growing new tiger economy with a high inflow of foreign direct investment, contextual analysis needs to be conducted to handle rising HR issues in the region. The current study aims to analyze paths to employee turnover intention through an integrated model covering factors on individual, team, and organizational levels to understand the contextual difference in the Vietnam F&B service industry.

A mixed method was used based on quantitative and qualitative data from three organizations. For the quantitative analysis, a path model was developed and analyzed by SEM-PLS (Smart PLS) based on a sample size of 354. For the qualitative analysis, 32 semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore the contextual understanding in the regional context.

Although the current study confirms that the paths among the three levels show the turnover factors developed in the previous study still applicable to the Vietnam context, the strengths and relationships among the team and individual levels imply that the Vietnamese context created a unique HRM environment forming different paths to reach employee turnover decisions.

The findings contributed to the literature on employee turnover by developing an integrated model of employee turnover encompassing the three levels, suggesting the different local contexts formed unique paths to employee turnover decisions.

Technology has influenced the implementation of electronic records management systems (ERMS) in government agencies. The high incidence of poor service delivery in government agencies is a key factor that has put pressure on the government to implement ERMS. Despite the potential benefits of implementing ERMS, the adoption and use of these programs has been slow and some systems have failed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to assess how Tlokweng land board (TLB) implemented its electronic records management program using Kotter’s model and awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement change model.

The study adopted a pragmatic paradigm and used a case study research design to collect data at TLB. The research made use of mixed methods approach to collect data using questionnaires, interviews and document reviews. Purposeful sampling was used to solicit data from 53 participants in the land board.

The findings of the study revealed that communication has been used as the most effective tool for managing change at TLB. However, TLB has not yet managed to reinforce the change implemented because of the lack of adequate training and motivation of change champions. Moreover, the change management team has little training on the change management framework produced by the Ministry of Lands and Housing.

The study was limited to one land board in Botswana. Therefore, the findings may not be generalized to all land boards.

This is the first study to be conducted in Botswana that has assessed change management practices in the implementation of records management systems. This study therefore recommends adoption of the change management lens/framework by a records professional when implementing ERMS.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the institutional threshold effects of foreign aid on foreign direct investment (FDI).

This paper develops a theoretical model from an extended Solow model that introduces the conductive effect of institutions in an aid recipient country towards the capacity of attracting FDI. This study evidences threshold effects with the most recent panel threshold models that consider endogeneity issues. The data on economic institutions and foreign aid are decomposed into disaggregated level to reveal the detailed threshold pattern. Several sample subsets are used for a heterogeneity analysis.

Conducting empirical research on a sample of 62 countries during the period 2003–2016, this study finds robust evidence of the existence of an institutional threshold in the aid–FDI nexus which a country must attain to reap the full attraction of FDI by foreign aid providing financial resources. Furthermore, foreign aid tends to promote FDI in institutions characterized by a right-sized government, a strengthened legal system and an appropriate regulatory environment. On the other hand, aid may crowd out FDI. The results are robust to regional combinations and a subset of low and lower-middle-income countries. In addition, this study finds that aid targeted at social infrastructure and services has a positive effect regardless of institutional threshold.

This paper contributes to the literature by introducing a non-linear and discontinuous effect of aid on FDI, i.e. a threshold effect, highlighting the relevance of legal systems and regulations and the possibility of a crowding-out effect on FDI for specific institutional regimes. The thresholds provide a guide for donor countries to ensure aid effectiveness at the risk of being counterproductive and for recipient countries to better assess the institutional dimensions that need to be improved.

The aim of the paper is to analyze whether performance measures and their factors for microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Muslim countries are significantly different from those in their non-Muslim counterparts, central to the Islamic scholars' argument that religious and cultural norms in Muslim countries may drive the preference of Islamic microfinance over conventional microfinance.

Using a cross-sectional dataset of 2,138 firm-years for 754 different MFIs across 83 countries, 33 Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) member Muslim countries and 50 non-member countries, we analyzed the MFI performance based on three sets of measures: outreach, loan recovery and profitability and overall financial performance measures, with respect to two sets of explanatory variables, namely, country-specific and firm-level variables.

Results show that country gross domestic product size is positively related with profitability, and the percentage of women borrowers is also significant in driving loan recovery and firm profitability in the OIC sample, but they are otherwise not significant for the rest of the world sample.

This study contributes to the understanding of the core argument in the motivation of Islamic MFIs, which is whether cultural and religious factors are important for MFI success in Muslim countries.

This study introduces a variable that measures the difference between a country's independence year and their OIC membership year as a proxy for the “country religious inclination” of a Muslim country. Results suggest that countries with delayed membership in OIC show lower inclination to popular Islamic beliefs and higher market penetration of conventional microfinance outreach. Positive relationships among a country's religious inclination and loan loss ratios and loan provisions are also consistent with the moral hazard hypothesis that few religious communities may be more prone to default.

The effectiveness of foreign aid, specifically, the role it plays in promoting growth in developing countries, is one of the most debated issues in the field of economics. Despite the enormous resources channeled to developing countries over the past decades, only limited tangible results can be observed. The literature on aid effectiveness is vast. Yet, the results are inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of economic aid provided by the USA on Egyptian economic growth before the Egyptian Revolution in 2011, more precisely, Mubarak’s era.

The paper uses a vector autoregressive (VAR) model and Granger causality test to answer the question of whether the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been conductive to growth in Egypt over the period of 1981 to 2010.

The results reveal that USAID has no impact on the Egyptian economic growth.

The recommendations put forward by this paper are measures that Egyptian policymakers can undertake to increase aid effectiveness. These measures include the reduction of corruption, more active participation in delivering aid, greater accountability for aid outcomes and coordination of the activities of aid agencies.

The current literature has not made any connection between foreign aid and entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if foreign aid influences entrepreneurial activities in a recipient country.

Using system generalized method of moments (Blundell and Bond, 1998) estimators with a panel of 38 recipient countries during 2005–2014, the author tests for 33 measures of entrepreneurial activities.

This paper finds that aggregate aid tends to only boost necessity-driven early-stage entrepreneurship and benefit low-income entrepreneurs. Aid to infrastructure promotes entrepreneurship driven by both opportunity and necessity motivations. It also incentivizes competition with homogeneous products. Additionally, evidence suggests that both aggregate aid and infrastructural aid discourage adoption of state-of-the-art technologies, raise business failure rate and are associated more with necessity-driven early-stage entrepreneurial activities for females.

This is the first research examining “aid and entrepreneurship” relation.