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The purpose of this paper is to describe the design of a radio frequency identification (RFID)‐based intra‐supply chain (intra‐SC) system to facilitate coordination and integration of supply chain functions and activities, thus eventually enhancing the overall performance of a supply chain.

The architecture of the proposed RFID‐based intra‐SC system is designed specifically for a chain made up of a fiber producer, fiber dyeing producer, yarn spinning producer, knitting and finishing producer, distributor, and a textile retailer.

Compared with the traditional approach, operational time, costs, lead time, and accuracy of inventory holding and of cycle time operations are noticeably improved.

The proposed RFID‐based intra‐SC system is implemented for trial at a distribution warehouse in Zhuhai, China. It is of benefit to the manufacturer who is able to seek obsolete stock effectively and capture real‐time data automatically.

The RFID‐based intra‐SC system is designed to overcome issues of information invisibility, which is considered a huge cost lost for obsolete stocks and ineffective intra‐SC operations in the textile industry. In this industry, the products are highly dependent on seasonal factors. Short product life cycle and high forecast errors are also critical difficulties encountered by supply chain parties. Thus, the RFID technology is suggested to be adopted in similar supply chains. In this paper, a textile manufacturing site is selected to test the proposed RFID system. Some advantages, critical issues for implementation of the RFID system, and lessons learned from the case study are shared with other interested parties.

The importance of online reviews on online hotel booking has been widely acknowledged. However, not all online reviews affect consumers equally. Compared with common online reviews, key online reviews (KORs) have a greater influence on consumers' decisions and online hotel booking. This study takes the first step to investigate the factors affecting the identification of KORs and the role of KORs in online hotel booking.

To test the research hypotheses, this study develops a crawler to obtain 551,600 online reviews of 650 hotels in ten representative large cities in China. This study first uses a binary logistic regression to identify KORs by combining review content quality and reviewer characteristics and then uses a log-regression model to investigate the role of KORs in online hotel booking.

This study mined the factors affecting the identification of KORs by analyzing review contents and reviewer characteristics. Our results revealed that KORs play a mediating role in the effects of review content and reviewer characteristics on online hotel booking.

This study focuses on KORs, which have received limited attention in research but are important to practitioners. Specifically, this study investigates the antecedents and consequences of KORs. Our results enable hotel managers to manage online reviews effectively, particularly KORs.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

The purpose of this paper is to mainly review the state-of-the-art developments in the field of hydrodynamics of offshore pipelines, identifying the key tools for analysis of pipeline free spans, their applications, their qualifying characteristics and capabilities and limitations.

These different analytical, numerical and semi-empirical tools available for predicting such hydrodynamic loads and their effects include VIVANA, PIPESIN, VIVSIM, SIMULATOR, FATFREE, amongst others. Inherent in these models are current effects, wave effects and/ or pipe–soil interactions.

Amongst these models, the most attention was given to the new VIVANA model because this model take into account the vortex-induced effects with respect to free-spanning pipelines (which have dominant effect in the span analysis in deep water) better than other semi-empirical models (such as Shear 7). Recent improvements in VIVANA include its ability to have arbitrary variation in speed and direction of current, as well as the ability for calculation of pure IL and combined IL-CF response. Improvements in fatigue assessments at free spans, i.e. pipe–soil interaction have been achieved through the combined frequency domain and non-linear time domain analysis methodology adopted. Semi-empirical models are still the de facto currently used in the design of free-spanning pipelines. However, there is need for further research on free-span hydrodynamic coefficients and on how in-line and cross-flow vibrations interact. Again, there is still the challenge due to VIV complexity in fully understanding the fluid structure interaction problem, as there is no consolidated procedure for its analysis. It has been observed that there is large scatter between the different codes adopted in the prediction of fatigue damage, as there lacks full-scale test data devoted to determination/validation of the coefficients used in the semi-empirical models. A case study of the preliminary design of a typical 48 in. pipeline has been presented in this study to demonstrate the use of the free-span analysis tool, DNV RP F105. Excel spreadsheet has been applied in the execution of formulas.

This review paper is the first of its kind to study the state-of-the-art development in pipeline free-span analysis models and demonstrate the use of analysis tool, DNV for MAFSL calculation. Hence, information obtained from this paper would be invaluable in assisting designers both in the industry and academia.

The term “Shariah compliance” states that a firm conducts business activities within the boundaries stipulated by Islamic law. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine whether a firm’s Shariah compliance helps in reducing firm-specific stock price crash risk (SPCR).

Using the data of 10,391 firm-year observations of non-financial public listed firms in Malaysia from 2001–2017, this study uses the panel data estimation technique for regression analysis. Moreover, a series of alternative estimations has been applied to check the consistency of results.

The findings reveal a significant negative impact of firms’ Shariah compliance on SPCR. The results indicate that Shariah-compliant (SC) firms are less likely to hoard bad news, ultimately reducing SPCR. The results also unveil a possible mechanism through which SC firms reduce SPCR. The findings reveal that SC firms are less likely to be involved in earnings management, which reduces the risk of a stock price crash in SC firms. It highlights the behavioral differences in financial reporting between SC firms and Shariah non-compliant (SNC) firms.

This research adds to the existing literature of Islamic capital markets from the perceptive of SPCR. The SPCR exhibits a tail risk of the stocks and is very important for risk management and investment decisions. The findings of this study will help risk-averse investors to include SC firms in their investment portfolios for risk minimization. The results also guide policymakers and regulatory bodies to rethink the monitoring mechanisms of publicly listed firms.

This study is unique, as it highlights that firms’ Shariah compliance reduces SPCR.

The paper aims to establish the relationship between leader member exchange (LMX) relationship and work role performance through the dynamic process of employee engagement. The study outlines why and how leadership is important for employee engagement and effective work role performance. Adopting a survey based research design, a sample of 198 Indian working managers at different levels including various sectors has supported our hypotheses that employee engagement mediates the relations between LMX and work role performance. It provides empirical insights about how employee engagement process influences the LMX and work role performance relationships. The results also suggest that high quality relationship of employees with their leaders is positively related to employee engagement and their work role performance.

Little previous research has investigated the relationships among strategic orientations, supply chain integration and firm performance. The purpose of this study is to advance a research model that examines the direct and indirect effects of strategic orientations via supply chain integration on firm performance in the Saudi transitional context.

This study is based on data collected from a survey using questionnaires completed by 187 top management members of Saudi firms from different sectors. To analyse the data and test the proposed hypotheses, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were conducted using the AMOS statistical analysis package.

Results show that both market orientation and supply chain integration have a significant positive direct effect on Saudi firm performance. They also reveal that supply chain integration fully mediates the effect of technology orientation on firm performance, while partially mediating the effect of market orientation on firm performance.

This study contributes to the literature by showing how SCI could serve as an organizational capability that links strategic resources to firm performance. The main limitation of this study is that it was not possible to generalize the findings. Future research perspectives were proposed to address this limitation and add new insights to the field.

The results could help decision-makers in Saudi firms choose the right strategic orientations and aid them in integrating their supply chains by sharing the necessary information and coordinating operations with key partners to enhance their firms' performance.

This study is one of the first to conduct such an investigation in the Saudi context. The study simultaneously examines the role of supply chain integration in linking strategic orientations to firm performance and fills a current research gap in such a transitional context.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships among the experiential quality (EQ) dimensions, experiential satisfaction (ES), experiential involvement (EI), host city image (HCI), experiential equity (EE), spectator affection (SA) and experiential loyalty (EL) in the sport context.

The data used in this study were based on a sample of 674 spectators from the finals of the men’s and women’s football tournaments held at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio, indicating that the proposed model fitted the data.

Findings show that the six EQ dimensions physical environment quality, outcome quality, access quality (AQ), game quality, trip quality (TQ) and security quality (SQ), EI, EE, HCI and SA positively influence ES. Also, EI moderates the relationship between HCI and EL. Moreover, EL is influenced by EI, HCI, SA and ES.

Results will assist sport management in developing and implementing market-orientated service strategies to increase the EQ dimensions, ES, EI, EE, HCI and SA in order to increase EL.

This study provides data that result in a better understanding of the relationships among the EQ dimensions, ES, EI, HCI, EE, SA and EL in the sporting context.

The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the factors influencing Indian consumers’ loyalty toward mobile phone service providers by exploring the mediating roles of commitment, corporate image and switching costs on causal relationships between customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty.

A survey of 855 Indian mobile phone users was carried out to test the hypothesized relationships using structural equation modeling. The results support most of the proposed hypotheses.

The direct linkages in the model are found to be statistically significant. Of these relationships, corporate image emerged as the strongest determinant of attitudinal loyalty. Calculative commitment and corporate image are found to be partial mediators between satisfaction and attitudinal loyalty. Calculative commitment and switching costs are each proven to be partial mediators between trust and attitudinal loyalty, while corporate image is proved to be a complete mediator.

The study is limited to examining the impact of relationship variables on Indian consumers’ loyalty toward mobile phone companies. Future research can examine the impact of variables such as rate plans, value-added services, billing experience and voice quality on customer loyalty.

The results have implications for retaining customers in highly competitive and maturing Indian mobile telecommunications. The research provides some initial insights into corporate brand building as an important area for mobile phone companies.

This is one of the first studies to test the mediating role of commitment, switching costs and corporate image in the relationship between satisfaction, trust and loyalty in the Indian context.