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IT is impossible to obtain accurate information on the cost of aircraft corrosion to the civil airline operators and the armed services. The true cost should include aircraft washing and cleaning, the cost of inspection, the application of supplementary protectives and maintenance of the protective scheme as well as the cost of blending out corrosion damage and the replacement of parts which cannot be repaired. The removal of paint and repainting are further items which must be included in the overall corrosion costs. Estimates made by IATA in 1982 suggested that member airlines were spending the order of 200 million dollars per year on corrosion rectification or the equivalent of 8 to 20 dollars per flying hour depending on the aircraft type or operator. More recently it has been suggested that the actual cost of corrosion to the USAF is probably about one billion dollars per year.

This study aims to improve the buying experience for both customers and providers by presenting a conceptual basis which seeks to expand the usual understanding, representation, mapping and measurements of the different value and non-value stages of a customer purchase journey (CPJ).

Inspired by the precepts of lean thinking, with emphasis on the value stream mapping method, the approach is based on an in-depth analysis of a real and typical e-commerce acquisition of an electronic customised product (a mobile phone) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study demonstrates different types of consumer stages, values and wastes for the CPJ. This allowed the development of a mathematical formulation – named customer journey engineering (CJE) – from which improvements of the different categories can be identified. Exemplifying with those whose implementations require no further efforts or costs, the following results could be readily obtained in the case studied: a reduction of 96 h of non-value activities, an improvement of approximately 15% of the established index for customer satisfaction and avoidance of loss worth US$50 for the analysed customer.

The consistency and applicability of the qualitative and quantitative findings presented here should be examined further in other customer purchase scenarios, allowing enhancements of the CJE approach.

Regardless of the context in question, this investigation attempts to identify and precisely define any common universal elements, often overlooked, which constitute the structure of any CPJ and are crucial for its understanding and improvement.

Cross‐cultural studies show that most, but not all, human societies engage in warfare. Some non‐warring societies cluster as peace systems. The existence of peace systems, and non‐warring societies more generally, shows that warfare is not an inevitable feature of human social life. This article considers three peace systems in some detail: Brazil's Upper Xingu River basin tribes, Aboriginal Australians, and the European Union. A primary goal is to explore features that contribute to peace in each of the three non‐warring systems. What do these peace systems suggest about how to prevent war? Provisionally, key elements would seem to be the promotion of interdependence among the units of the peace system, creation of cross‐cutting links among them, the existence of conflict resolution procedures, and belief systems (including attitudes and values) that are anti‐war and pro‐peace.

The relationship between military expenditure and economic growth is complex. The purpose of this paper is to examine this relationship in India.

The design of this study is descriptive in the theoretical part, and quantitative in the applied one. The study uses time series approach, and Hendry General-to-Specific (GTS) modeling methodology, to examine and analyze the relationship between military expenditure and economic growth in India, during the period 1980-2016.

The study shows the following: Absence of causal relationship between military expenditure and economic growth in India, during indicated period. The continuous regional tensions facing India represent the main factor for adopting Indian military strategy and emphasizing military capabilities. India has been able to build and develop links between civilian and military sectors. The Indian military scientific and manufacturing policies have achieved self-sufficiency in some of its military needs, a strong military industrial base and high levels of military exports. India participated with developed countries in military strategic industries. Such participation contributed to the integration of civilian and military sectors. India gave rights to private sector and foreign direct investment (FDI) for manufacturing in military industries, giving full marketing rights to the Indian government. These new policies considered a great move toward deep changes for Indian military manufacturing policy.

The findings shed light on the importance of stimulating links between civilian and military sectors, particularly in the industrial sectors and scientific activities.

This study has a contribution to literature of military expenditures' economic effects. Theoretically, this study tries to fill the research gap regarding the impact of military expenditure in Indian case. Furthermore, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that examines the relationship between military expenditure and economic growth in India using Hendry general-to-specific (GTS) modeling methodology and time series approach.

The paper provides a detailed historical account of Douglass C. North's early intellectual contributions and analytical developments in pursuing a Grand Theory for why some countries are rich and others poor.

The author approaches the discussion using a theoretical and historical reconstruction based on published and unpublished materials.

The systematic, continuous and profound attempt to answer the Smithian social coordination problem shaped North's journey from being a young serious Marxist to becoming one of the founders of New Institutional Economics. In the process, he was converted in the early 1950s into a rigid neoclassical economist, being one of the leaders in promoting New Economic History. The success of the cliometric revolution exposed the frailties of the movement itself, namely, the limitations of neoclassical economic theory to explain economic growth and social change. Incorporating transaction costs, the institutional framework in which property rights and contracts are measured, defined and enforced assumes a prominent role in explaining economic performance.

In the early 1970s, North adopted a naive theory of institutions and property rights still grounded in neoclassical assumptions. Institutional and organizational analysis is modeled as a social maximizing efficient equilibrium outcome. However, the increasing tension between the neoclassical theoretical apparatus and its failure to account for contrasting political and institutional structures, diverging economic paths and social change propelled the modification of its assumptions and progressive conceptual innovation. In the later 1970s and early 1980s, North abandoned the efficiency view and gradually became more critical of the objective rationality postulate. In this intellectual movement, North's avant-garde research program contributed significantly to the creation of New Institutional Economics.

Flexible staffing arrangements have become a permanent feature of employment in many industrial societies. This article examines how employers perceive the consequences of using flexible staffing arrangements. It presents and assesses theoretically informed hypotheses on organisational situations in which negative consequences are more likely to be perceived.

This study uses data (n = 761) from a bespoke employers survey, fielded in the Netherlands in 2019. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to measure and explain employers' perception of downsides to flexible staffing arrangements.

Employers report distinct downsides to the use of flexible staffing arrangements in terms of performance, management and employee well-being. Model estimates show that employers using flexible staffing arrangements to acquire specific expertise or to follow other organisations in their sector perceive more downsides.

Empirical research on employers' perception of the disadvantageous consequences of using flexible staffing arrangements is scarce. This article highlights that this practice can discourage investments in human capital and lead to a sense of insecurity among young workers. It draws attention to the relevance of distinguishing between strategic motives when trying to understand organisational behaviour regarding non-standard forms of employment.

The purpose of this paper is to trace the evolution of dynamic capabilities theory in the primal theories of economics and strategic management. Then a comprehensive research framework is proposed to grapple with the dynamics of the contemporary global markets, incorporating the quintessential elements of the theory, i.e. absorptive capability, innovation capability and adoptive capability.

The paper is conceptual in nature. It tries to review various economic systems of the world since 1770s till the present era. It also evaluates various theories of international business against dynamic capabilities theory and thus proposes various propositions for future empirical testing.

The study has delineated various theories tracing in them the roots of dynamic capabilities. Capitalism, communism and socialism is explained to reach the present state of world economy. Various theories such as the theory of creative destruction, transaction-cost approach, resource-based view and knowledge-based view of the firm have been elaborated to identify their features and shortcomings. Finally, the contemporary theory of dynamic capabilities has been elucidated to integrate the shortcomings of the previous theories. A research framework has also been proposed to overcome the recent criticism of the dynamic capabilities theory of having under-specified constructs.

Very few studies have elaborated various economic systems and theories to trace the evolution of dynamic capabilities theory. Thus, this study is original in nature and the proposed research model is also novel which induces further empirical evidence as proposed by the authors.

This paper aims to map literature about innovation capabilities (IC) taking into consideration industrial clusters to propose a conceptual framework that synthetizes the main factors and subfactors responsible for ICs; in addition, the paper also proposes a research agenda.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was performed; academic papers were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively.

The authors provide a descriptive analysis followed by a thematic synthesis, in which we present 05 enablers and 20 critical factors (CF) of IC in clusters. The proposed framework emphasizes what needs to be done or improved to increase IC in cluster-based companies. Based on this systematic review and the framework proposed, the authors identified opportunities for future research.

The enablers and CF identified through SLR were not validated empirically. Therefore, future studies on the current topic are required to validate the framework by investigating which factors are more relevant to cluster-based companies that intend to improve their innovative performance.

The present findings have important implications for the identification of the factors and subfactors that may contribute to the development of IC, which may help managers and decision-makers in recognizing which factors are the most responsible for business innovation.

The paper identifies enablers related to the development of IC in industrial cluster and presents a research agenda. The framework represents a guideline for companies to achieve better innovation performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how “manias” in global health governance lead to health inequalities even before, during and in the aftermath of acute health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. “Manias” as used here refer to obsessive ir/rational behaviors, misguided policy/strategic choices and the exercise of power that benefit the major global health actors at the expense of stakeholders.

From post-colonial and historical perspectives, this study delineates how the major global health actors influence outcomes in global health governance and international business when they interact at the national–global level using an illustration from an emerging economy.

Power asymmetry in global health governance is constructed around the centralization of economic influence, medico-techno-scientific innovation and the geopolitical hegemony of a conglomerate of super-rich/powerful actors. They cluster these powers and resources in the core region (industrialized economies) and use them to influence the periphery (developing economies) through international NGOs, hybrid organizations, MNCs and multilateral/bilateral agreements. The power of actors to maintain manias lies in not only how they influence the periphery but also the consequences of the periphery’s “passivity” and “voluntary” renunciation of sovereignty in medical innovations and global health policies/politics.

As a quintessential feature of manias, power asymmetry makes it harder for weaker actors to actually change the institutional conditions that produce structural inequalities in global health.

This timely and multidisciplinary study calls for a novel architecture of global health governance. Thus, democratizing global health governance with sufficiently foresighted investments that prioritize equitable access by and the inclusiveness of vulnerable stakeholders will help dismantle institutionalized manias while decreasing health inequalities.

Although the governance and management of networks are deeply intertwined, there is a lack of empirical studies on how strategic networks (SNs) configure both realities for higher performance. This paper aims to analyze the array of governance and management sets adopted by high-performing SNs.

The authors bridge the research gap by using qualitative comparative analysis on the governance (decision-making process, formalization, specialization, incentives and control) and management (strategy, structure, processes and leadership) dimensions of 73 Brazilian SNs.

The authors found that high-performing SNs adopt one of two governance/management configurations. “Piloted SNs” rely on specialized working teams, have structured decision-making processes and avoid using incentives. Conversely, “atomized SNs” run on incentives and control while eschewing specialization and rigid decision-making procedures. The authors also found that both configurations adopt formal procedures and leverage all four management dimensions.

The study’s results offer pathways for SNs to increase their performance and attract new members, as well as insights into the theory of SN governance.