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In the recent dynamic market, supply chain disruptions are rapidly increasing with varied customer demand, technological changes, uncertain pandemic events etc. To overcome the unexpected disruptions, supply chain of each business should be resilient and pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC) is no exception. Motivated by the challenges and unexpected pandemic disruptions, this paper aims to examine the performance indicators (PIs) of the resilient PSC and to predict the resilience level for a certain time period in the context of Bangladesh.

The aim of this paper presents a structured framework based on the Delphi method, fuzzy DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) and system dynamics (SD). The proposed methodology was validated using expert's inputs from the relevant field in Bangladesh. This study reveals the influential relationships of indicators and resilience level using fuzzy DEMATEL and SD to improve the resiliency.

Findings revealed that “Supply chain risk orientation”, “Visibility”, “Flexibility”, “Agility in supply chain” and “Collaboration” are the top five influential performance indicators for resilient PSC. The cause and effect relationship found that “IT capability”, “Flexibility”, “Supply chain network design”, “Resource availability”, “Supply chain risk orientation” and “Velocity” were in cause category which play a vital role for establishing resilient supply chain. SD approach has developed a model for predicting the resilience level of the supply chain.

This work is one of the initial contributions in the literature that has targeted on the identification and analysis of the significant PIs and predicting the resilience level of the PSC.

Information-facilitated product recovery system (IFPRS) has captivated industry attention and has developed into a matter of consideration among the researchers because of enhanced climate concerns, jurisdictive logics and societal liabilities. Although IFPRS implementation has become an essential aspect in manufacturing industries functional in the developed nations, still, limited consideration has been given in the literature to analyze the issues to IFPRS implementation for a circular economy (CE) in emerging and developing nations. Therefore, the objective of this study is to recognize issues to implementing IFPRS for a CE in context of select manufacturing industries in India.

In this study, 24 potential issues are established from the literature and from suggestions from the experts. The issues are clubbed under five different perspectives of technical, government, organization, policy and knowledge. Further, fuzzy VIKOR technique is applied on the results obtained to prioritize the identified issues. A sensitivity analysis has been carried out to check the robustness of the framework.

The present study shows that lack of skills and expertise in IFPRS implementation for a CE (I2), deficient capital to implement a CE in IFPRS (I₉), inadequate in adopting recent IT technology (I₁₈), feasibility of IFPRS employment for a CE (I₆) and no efficient training and program to CE adoption (I₂₁) are the top five potential issues in implementing IFPRS practices for a CE in Indian manufacturing industries.

In literature, limited study has been observed on determining issues to implementation of IFPRS for a CE. A more systematic method and statistical confirmation is necessary to establish further new confronting issues. This study is limited to Indian manufacturing industries.

The main contribution of this study includes identification of issues and later prioritizing them to reflect their severity. This would help the industry practitioners to formulate strategies for handling the issues conveniently.

This study aims to empirically explore e-banking service quality and its impact on the e-banking loyalty through a mediating impact of e-banking satisfaction. The account holders of three domestic systemically important banks of Pakistan were surveyed during COVID-19 to examine the electronic services provided by these banks.

The data was collected through an adapted questionnaire by using emails and messaging applications. The database of a local marketing company in Pakistan was used, and 976 responses were included in the analysis. The structured equation modeling was used to test the propositions of study.

The findings delineate that reliability and website design proved to increase e-banking loyalty, particularly during COVID-19. The link between e-banking privacy and security and e-banking loyalty was proved as fully mediated by e-banking satisfaction; however, indirect effect of the reliability and website design with e-banking loyalty was partially mediated.

In strategic planning of e-banking mechanisms and the associated consumer behavior, the results of this study can be helpful for policymakers. In case of similar epidemics and natural calamities, consumers may depict similar behavior as shown during the lockdown and social distancing during COVID-19; hence, the study can help regulatory bodies in preparing their safety roadmap.

The mediating effect of e-banking satisfaction between privacy & Security and e-banking loyalty implies that customer give importance to secure e-banking platforms. There can be a variation in their loyalty because of privacy concerns. The application of cognitive–motivational–relational (CMR) theory in a relationship between e-banking service quality and e-banking loyalty with a mediating role of satisfaction is an emotional response to capture the behavioral changes during COVID-19. It enables researchers to understand the CMR theory concerning COVID-19 and e-banking perspective.

The purpose of this study is to identify the most vulnerable households and districts in Northwest Ethiopia and help decision-makers in developing and prioritising effective adaptive strategies and actions.

A multi-scale analytical tool and hazard-generic socio-economic indicators were developed to identify and prioritise the most vulnerable households and districts in Northwest Ethiopia. Categorical principal component analysis with 36 indicators was used to develop weights for different indicators and construct a household intrinsic vulnerability index. Data were collected through key information interviews, focus group discussions and a household survey with 1,602 randomly selected households in three districts of Northwest Ethiopia.

Drawing on intrinsic vulnerability index computation, this study highlights that low levels of education, low access to climate information and credit services, long distance travelled to fetch water and frequent food shortages are the dominant factors contributing to high levels of intrinsic vulnerability at district level, while lack of livelihood support and income diversification are the key drivers of vulnerability at household level. The findings of this study further show that the majority of households (78.01%) falls within the very high to moderately high vulnerable category. Disaggregating the data according to agro-climatic zones highlights that the prevalence of high intrinsic vulnerability is most widespread in the lowland agro-climatic zone (82.64%), followed by the highland (81.97%) and midland zones (69.40%).

From a policy intervention vantage point, addressing the drivers of vulnerability provides a reliable approach to reduce the current vulnerability level and manage potential climate change-induced risks of a system. Specifically, reliable information on inherent vulnerability will assist policymakers in developing policies and prioritising actions aimed at reducing vulnerability and assisting in the rational distribution of resources among households at a local level.

This study contributes to the existing vulnerability literature by showing how hazard-generic socio-economic indicators in the vulnerability assessment adopted by the IPCC (2014) are important to identify drives of vulnerability which ultimately may feed into a more fundamental treatment of vulnerability.

As the Chinese economy has grown rapidly and as its container throughputs has demonstrated a stark increase in recent decades, companies worldwide have developed stronger financial connections with supply chain entities in China, a huge “Production Factory” in the world. This global economic trend arouses significant attention to distinct preference of individual entities in supply chain. The primary goal of the study is to establish statistical understanding on factors of logistics service preferences of each supply chain of each supply chain entity in China, especially Shandong Province. Ultimately, the study aims i) to establish the solid framework for proper evaluation of logistics services in supply chains, ii) to enhance the preferences of logistics services as a differentiating feature on behalf of entities. The study utilizes a holistic approach in analyzing logistics service attributes which affect overall logistics entities in an effort to overcome the limitations of previous studies which failed to provide integrating viewpoint of supply chain entities. In this study, AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method is used as an analysis tool which allows an in-depth examination of the differences between factors and evaluations of customers regarding the logistics service attributes. The results clearly show distinctive service preferences for each four supply chain entities in Shandong Province of China such as 3PLs (forwarder, carrier, and warehouse), Customs (airport, seaport, and bonded area), Market channels (wholesaler, retailer, and e-retailer), and Manufacturers regarding the logistics service attributes.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the stages involved in the module development process at the Open University Malaysia (OUM), to make them “print ready,” and how this has evolved over the years with various quality assurance (QA) mechanisms in place.

The paper builds upon the 12 quality control checks in the various stages of module development from pre-development to actual development and finally to post-development process. This is in line with the QA continuous improvement process of PDCA or Plan, Do, Check and Act.

Change, through the fine-tuning of QA processes and open door communication, is the key toward achieving quality modules, and hence meeting learners’ expectations.

This paper highlights the experiences of only the Centre for Instructional Design and Technology, OUM in the development of quality learning material for the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) learners.

This paper outlines the step-by-step process in module development, from print to print-ready material, to assist the ODL universities in their mission to provide quality learning material to learners.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic generated a worldwide financial crisis by impacting several links of the supply chain, however companies can take advantage by quantitatively measuring the disruptive impacts.

This study sought to develop the failure mode and effect analysis and supply chain resilience (FMEA-SCR), a hybrid tool developed using a potential failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) applied to supply chain resilience (SCR) and taking into account the capability factors and business processes.

In order to validate, the proposed model was applied into two different organizational study cases: an university and a cooperative managing urban solid wastes with recyclable potential (MSWRP). Through the procedures described here any organization can understand and assess in a simplified way the impacts over their supply chain generated by such a crisis.

This study synthesizes three different procedures into a single method called FMEA-SCR, allowing organizations to understand and assess in a simplified way, the impacts over their supply chain generated by COVID-19. To this end, it brought together the studies developed by Rajesh and Ravi (2015) and Curkovic et al. (2015), on possible causes of disruptions in SC, the capability factors of Pettit et al. (2010) used by organizations to mitigate the effects of disruptions, besides Lambert's and Croxton (2005) business processes, thus weaving a method that allows organizations to visualize, analyze and classify the pandemic impacts over their supply chain.

The present study examines the initial working capital policy (WCP) and its evolution for newly established manufacturing firms.

Using panel data of 162 firms over a period of 10 years, the study analyses the persistence-cum-convergence in WCP over the subsequent years through descriptive analysis and difference of means test. Further, the prevalence of ß – convergence, and σ-convergence has been examined using standard least squares regression, dynamic panel analysis and the Wald test.

The results indicate that sample firms continue to follow the initial WCP in the subsequent years with a gradual convergence in the WCP. Alternatively, the firms with aggressive (conservative) WCP at the time of incorporation will continue following it. Further, the firms with aggressive initial WCP have witnessed higher growth than those with conservative initial WCP.

Findings will assist managers and practitioners to understand the dynamics of WCP over the life cycle of the firm and select appropriate WCP as certain policies lead to certain growth paths.

Though working capital management has been recognized as a critical managerial decision, limited research is available on its evolution, especially for newly established manufacturing companies in an emerging economy. Current research attempts to fill this gap and provide valuable insights for the effective management of liquidity.

The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into learners’ behavioural intention to use the video lectures as their learning material. The behavioural intention construct is measured in terms of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of video lectures. It is hoped that the findings of this study will provide feedback as to learners’ intention to use as well as guidelines on how to improve the development of video lectures as the university gears to offer more courses in the fully online mode in the near future.

A total sample of 392 questionnaires were collected for this study using technology acceptance model model. Descriptive and inferential statistics are used as the main analytical tool to study the learners’ behavioural intention to use the video lectures as their learning material. The behavioural intention construct is measured in terms of two dimensions: perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of video lectures.

In conclusion, the findings from this research study seem to suggest that OUM learners have a positive perception of video lectures with reference to the two dimensions of “ease of use” and “usefulness”, where ease of use is concerned, OUM learners rate content relevancy, appropriate language and viewing flexibility as the strongest points of video lectures. The aspects ranked lowest are technical (ability to play the video lecture smoothly from the beginning to the end) as well as objective of usage (video lectures are not rated high as revision material for exam preparation).

Future studies can be conducted pertaining to issues on the context in which learning is taking place within higher education, various definitions of video, and ways of categorising and presenting these different types, teaching “with” and “through” video from the perspective of the lecturer and the educational institution, approaches to didactically embedding and integrating video into a course that results in effective learning and the process and support needed by the (traditional) lecturer to create and deploy various types of video content.

Over the last ten years, the production of video has gone from a complicated and technical process to one easily done by the general masses. It is now possible for anyone with a mobile phone to make a video recording. The question lies on whether the students have deeper meaning of learning via video lectures and the perception of students on using video lecture as teaching tool in the open and distance learning.