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The objective of this study is to investigate the barriers hindering the integration of lean manufacturing (LM) practices within the furniture industry of Bangladesh. The traditional operational paradigms in this sector have posed substantial challenges to the effective implementation of LM. In this study, the barriers of implementing LM in the furniture business are examined, aiming to provide a systematic understanding of the barriers that must be addressed for a successful transition.

The research reveals that “Fragmented Industry Structure,” “Resistance to Lean Practices” and “Inadequate Plant Layout and Maintenance”, emerged as the foremost barriers to LM implementation in the furniture industry. Additionally, “Insufficient Expert Management,” “Limited Technical Resources” and “Lack of Capital Investment” play significant roles.

The outcomes of this study provide valuable insights into the furniture industry, enabling the development of strategies for effective LM implementation. One notable challenge in lean implementation is the tendency to revert to established practices when confronted with barriers. Therefore, this transition necessitates informed guidance and leadership. In addition to addressing these internal challenges, the scope of lean implementation should be broadened.

This study represents one of the initial efforts to systematically identify and assess the barriers to LM implementation within the furniture industry of Bangladesh, contributing to the emerging body of knowledge in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to study current practices in adopting blockchain technology amongst export companies in West Sweden and to capture their CEOs’ knowledge of and attitudes towards blockchains.

Factors enabling or hindering the adoption of blockchains were identified from a comprehensive literature review and a survey of 72 chief executive officers (CEOs) of export-oriented firms in West Sweden, all with turnovers exceeding €2m, regarding their knowledge of and attitudes towards blockchains.

Blockchain technology is not currently perceived to provide benefits that would outweigh the costs of introducing it into West Sweden’s export firms. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that such technology, though currently too immature to meet today’s industrial requirements, could experience more widespread use if certain key factors (i.e. lower cost, traceability, improved security or trustworthiness and new blockchain-enabled business models) are prioritised.

Answered by 72 CEOs, the survey achieved a response rate of 6%, meaning that the findings are only exploratory. Even so, they offer new insights into CEOs’ attitudes towards blockchain technology.

The CEOs reported comparatively limited knowledge of and experience with implementing blockchains, the lack of which has hampered their large-scale implementation in multi-actor supply chains.

Negative sentiment amongst CEOs towards blockchain technology may lower on-the-job satisfaction amongst tech personnel aspiring to develop and implement blockchain applications in their firms.

Knowledge of and attitudes towards blockchain technology amongst top-level managers, as well as about factors enabling or hindering its adoption, guide managers in crafting strategies for implementing blockchains in their organisations and maximising the benefits therein. Unlike past studies focussing on technological aspects or views of experts and middle-management, the study was designed to capture the views of CEOs.

This study aims to establish a comprehensive framework for adopting mobile-based artificial intelligence (AI) services in Tanzanian manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The methodology involved conducting a literature review and using the combination of Mobile Services Acceptance Model and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) as a theoretical foundation. This synthesis delves into the current knowledge on technology adoption, organizational behavior and innovation diffusion, creating a solid conceptual basis. Expert review was used for framework validation to ensure the framework's accuracy.

This study shows that the factors influencing the adoption of mobile-based AI services in Tanzanian manufacturing SMEs include perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, context, personal initiatives and characteristics, trust, infrastructure, cost, mobility, power distance, compatibility, observability and trialability.

The framework provides valuable insights tailored to Tanzanian sociocultural and economic nuances. However, its generalizability is limited due to its specificity to Tanzanian manufacturing SMEs.

The framework outlined in this research provides SME leaders, policymakers and technology implementers with valuable guidance to make informed decisions during the adoption process.

This study introduces a novel lens for understanding technology adoption. This study's focus on the Tanzanian context and its nuanced examination of contributing factors add to its originality and practical significance.

This longitudinal study focuses on the specific behaviours of both top and other leaders in family firms that are implementing lean and green practices in order to contribute to the sustainability transition.

Over the course of two years and two months, longitudinal comparative case research was carried out within two Indonesian family firms in the logistics and transportation business. Data were collected via of 86 interviews, 37 observed meetings within the firms and 12 work floor visits. The thematic analysis approach was based on the “fuller full-range theory of leadership”.

Over time, the leaders at various hierarchical levels learned to diversify their behavioural repertoire; solely exhibiting the transactional or transformational leadership style was not effective for employees’ adoption of lean and green practices. Instead, the leaders had to integrate the behaviours from the transactional, transformational and instrumental leadership styles.

This study explores the extension of leaders’ behaviours over time. Our findings result in two propositions that theoretically explain the evolved behaviours that steered the organisational transformation towards a lean and green firm. Given its context (i.e. Indonesian family-owned logistics firms), this study offers insights that might generalise to similar family firms in other Asian countries.

The aim of this study is to understand how digital platforms and context-specific characteristics of China – such as swift guanxi – affect opportunities for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) entering this market.

This study adopts a qualitative approach based on a multiple-case study of Italian SMEs in the wine industry that have activated international activities in China. Primary data consist of 32 interviews with SMEs’ managers, local consumers and other stakeholders involved in firm internationalization.

The findings of this study highlight that in SMEs’ internationalization, the process of knowledge/learning on digital platforms takes place in a bidirectional way thanks to the interactions among multiple stakeholders, which activate consumer education and knowledge sharing.

While previous research has emphasized firms' knowledge acquisition in the internationalization process, this study incorporates both the consumer perspective and the firm perspective, along with considering interactions with various stakeholders.

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the adoption of big data analytics (BDA) in the Tanzania banking industry by investigating the influence of technological, environmental and organizational (TOE) factors while exploring the moderating role of perceived risk (PR).

The study employed a qualitative research design, and the research instrument was developed using per-defined measurement items adopted from prior studies; the items were slightly adjusted to fit the current context. The questionnaires were distributed to top and middle managers in selected banks in Tanzania using the snowball sampling technique. Out of 360 received responses, 302 were considered complete and valid for data analysis. The study employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine the developed conceptual framework.

Top management support and financial resources emerged as influential organizational factors, as did competition intensity for the environmental factors. Notably, bank size and perceived trends showed no significant impacts on BDA adoption. The study's novelty lies in revealing PR as a moderating factor, weakening the link between technological readiness, perceived usefulness and the intent to adopt BDA.

This study extends literature by extending the TOE model, through examining the moderating roles of PR on technological factors. Furthermore, the study provides useful managerial support for the adoption of BDA in banking in emerging economies.

The purpose of this study is to add to the currently limited research on individual level people analytics (PA) adoption by focusing on a vital resource in the implementation of PA, namely the technology used for PA. We draw on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to examine antecedents of the use of technology for PA.

This study uses latent profile analysis to examine how different antecedents of PA (technology) adoption jointly act among 279 users of a specific PA technology.

This study identifies four user profiles, that we labeled the skeptic diplomats, the optimistic strugglers, the optimists, and the enthusiasts. These profiles relate to differences in user satisfaction and the frequency and versatility of PA technology use. This study demonstrates that performance benefits, social influence, required effort, and facilitating conditions jointly affect the use of PA technology, but that the latter two might be the most influential factors.

This study offers recommendations to practitioners and organizations on which actions by managers and the organization can be taken to support the use of PA technology.

Compared to previous research, we take a different approach by applying latent profile analysis to examine the combined effect of antecedents on user behavior and user satisfaction. In addition to a different analytical approach, we also extend existing research on individual PA adoption by focusing on actual behaviors and behavioral intention.

This study investigates how the extant literature approached the issue of small firms’ international market entry enabled by digital platforms.

The paper presents a systematic literature review of the internationalization of small firms using digital platforms. It includes only empirical papers from Scopus and Web of Science databases, covering 2016 to mid-2023.

The study provides both (1) a descriptive analysis of the selected papers, encompassing their temporal and spatial distribution, methods, theoretical perspectives and the type of platform examined and (2) a qualitative analysis of the articles’ content in a narrative review structure, culminating in an integrated framework of key findings and suggested research questions on the role of digital platforms in small firm internationalization.

There is still a very limited number of studies addressing the phenomenon, with several scholars recently calling for further research. This paper compiles, synthesizes, analyzes and integrates the empirical literature on SME internationalization enabled by digital platforms, offering possible future avenues to advance research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of firms’ features on innovation performance in Industry 4.0, focusing on the concepts of breadth and depth of openness in the innovation process.

Using data gathered from 96 firms active in Industry 4.0 (I4.0) in Italy, a Poisson regression analysis is conducted to investigate the relationship between the openness of firms’ innovation processes at the level of knowledge sources and their innovation performance in I4.0.

The results highlight the relationship between the level of openness and innovative performance in I4.0. In particular, the breadth of the openness of the innovation process of enterprises is curvilinearly related to innovation in I4.0, taking an inverted U-shape.

Managers of firms operating in I4.0 should consider openness as a strategic response to the knowledge requirements and risks associated with the innovation process in complex technologies.

Through the questionnaires administered mainly to highly qualified individuals, an original and unique database has been created with information on the openness of the innovative process and the innovation performances in I4.0.

The metaverse is a virtual world where users can communicate with each other in a computer-generated environment. The use of metaverse technology has the potential to revolutionize the way businesses operate, interact with customers, and collaborate with employees. However, several obstacles must be addressed and overcome to ensure the successful implementation of metaverse technology. This study aims to examine the implementation of metaverse technology in the management of an organization's supply chain, with a focus on predicting potential barriers to provide suitable strategies.

Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) was used to test the model. In addition, artificial neural network modeling (ANN) was also performed.

The CB-SEM results revealed that a firm's technological limitations are among the most significant barriers to implementing metaverse technology in the supply chain management (SCM). The ANN results further highlighted that the firm's technological limitations are the most crucial input factors, followed by a lack of governance and standardization, integration challenges, poor diffusion through the network, traditional organizational culture, lack of stakeholder commitment, lack of collaboration and low perception of value by customers.

Because metaverse technology has the potential to provide organizations with a competitive advantage, increase productivity, improve customer experience and stimulate creativity, it is crucial to discuss and develop solutions to implementation challenges in the business world. Companies can position themselves for success in this fascinating and quickly changing technological landscape by conquering these challenges.

This study provides insights to metaverse technology developers and supply chain practitioners for successful implementation in SCM, as well as theoretical contributions for supply chain managers aiming to implement such environments.