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Defence supply chains (SCs) aim at operational outcomes, and armed forces depend on them to provide availability and preparedness in peace and sustainability in war. Previous research has focussed on strategies for SCs aiming at financial outcomes. This raises the question of how suitable commercial supply chain strategies (SCSs) are for supply chain design (SCD) in defence. The purpose of this paper is to explain the constructs of SCSs that satisfy military operational requirements and to propose SCSs that are appropriate in defence.

This paper reports on a Delphi study with 20 experts from Swedish defence authorities. Through three Delphi rounds, two workshops and a validation round, these experts contributed to the reported findings.

The findings demonstrate that commercial SC constructs are acceptable and applicable in defence but not sufficient. An additional strategy is required to satisfy requirements on availability, preparedness and sustainability. The paper shows that different requirements in peace and war make it challenging to design suitable defence SCs and proposes eight SCSs that satisfy these requirements.

The results emanate from the Swedish defence context and further research is required for generalisation.

This paper extends theory by investigating SCs aiming at operational outcomes. For managers in companies and defence authorities, it explicates how the unique issues in defence must influence SCD to satisfy operational requirements.

This paper aims to identify and empirically analyze useful and applicable metrics for measuring and managing the sustainability performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

To achieve the objective of the paper, potential metrics were adopted from previous research related to industrial sustainability and an empirical analysis was carried to assess the applicability of the metrics by collecting empirical data from Italian footwear SMEs using a structured questionnaire. The SMEs were selected using a convenience sampling method.

The results of the within-case analysis and the cross-case analysis indicate that the majority of the metrics were found to be useful and applicable to each of the SMEs and across the SMEs, respectively. These metrics emphasized measuring industrial sustainability performance related to financial benefits, costs and market competitiveness for the economic sustainability dimension; resources for the environmental sustainability dimension; and customers, employees and the community for the social sustainability dimension.

Apart from the within-case analysis and cross-case analysis, it was not possible to conduct statistical analysis since a small number of SMEs were accessible to collect empirical data.

The findings of the paper have considerable academic, managerial and policy implications and will provide a theoretical basis for future research on measuring and managing industrial sustainability performance. By providing a set of empirically supported metrics based on the triple bottom line approach (i.e. economic, environmental and social metrics), this paper contributes to the existing knowledge in the field of industrial sustainability performance measurement.

Increased economic activity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has given rise to increased demand for port development. Given the often scarce availability of national public funding, port institutional reform programmes have been implemented to pave the way for the inclusion of external port investors. Notwithstanding this fact, some sub-Saharan African Governments remain institutionally locked into the notion that state-owned enterprises remain an appropriate vehicle for port terminal operations. This, despite the fact that terminal operational concessions globally and within the continent of Africa are increasingly being managed by global terminal operators. Given this context, this study aims to evaluate different port valuation and funding strategies. Two research questions form the core of this research: what is the financial value of a concession? What is the most cost advantageous funding strategy? The methodology is applied to the development of a two-berth container terminal in SSA.

After reviewing a range of financial valuation and funding techniques, the study presents valuation and funding model applicability-fit tests. Thereafter, a suitable valuation technique is selected and applied to the case study providing a concession valuation. Different funding strategies are applied to the valuation model to determine the cost implications of each funding instrument given the local context and institutional constraints applicable to SSA. Finally, the study discusses the significance of the results to potential SSA port investors by highlighting the impact of each funding approach on key financial metrics.

The study presents a range of financial investment appraisal results for the case study concession in consideration of four specific funding strategies. The highest concession valuation could be attributed to a higher debt ratio as a principal funding strategy. In addition, this funding approach (100% debt) realised the shortest payback period and the highest internal rate of return values. The authors, however, maintain that the optimal funding strategy for a concession depends ultimately on the financial goals of the investor.

This research makes a contribution to the existing literature on port finance and development by presenting a structured approach to the evaluation of the valuation and funding techniques, which can be used in terminal development subject to the specific local context and institutional constraints (in this case applicable to SSA). The study provides practical insight into the potential cost of the considered terminal concession for private or public sector participants and a view of the most cost advantageous funding strategy available for interested investors.

Entrepreneurs starting new ventures will encounter a host of legal issues requiring consultation with an attorney on an episodic or ongoing basis. It is critical that careful attention be given to the attorney selection process to properly match the needs of the company with the credentials of the attorney.Additionally, options should be explored regarding the billing and payment methodologies the attorney is willing to entertain. The financial resources and cash flow of young companies will likely have a direct impact on the financial agreements entered into with legal counsel. Further, companies desirous of offering the attorney a stake in the company as full or partial payment for legal services need to be mindful of ethical restrictions applicable to the lawyer, as well as exceptions to the lawyerʼs malpractice coverage arising from his or her role with the company

The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of Kafalah in the practice of Islamic banking in Malaysia generally and ascertain applicable rules governing the application under relevant legislations and Shariah. The study also aims to examine the legislations in the light of Shariah provisions governing Kafalah and propose amendments.

This is a qualitative research where primary data sources mainly legislations and secondary sources comprising of articles and books on the subject of Kafalah were examined. It is an exploratory legal research that primarily focuses on library studies and adopts doctrinal approach for content analysis of data from the identified sources.

Kafalah is widely used in Islamic banking in Malaysia with primary or secondary application in structuring such products/services as personal guarantee, bank guarantee, Islamic credit card among others. The substantive law applicable to Kafalah in Islamic banking in Malaysia is the Contracts Act 1950 as decided cases indicate. However, provisions of the Act are at variance with rules of Shariah applicable to Kafalah on absolution of guaranteed debtor, multiple guarantors’ liability towards guaranteed sum as well as recourse and recovery from principal debtor.

This research explored the practice of Kafalah in Islamic banking under Malaysian legal framework based on the available literature. The research does not embody an empirical evaluation.

This research suggests, with respect to the identified issues, an amendment to the Act for clarification as follows: that recourse and recovery from principal debtor is only where creditor has requested guarantor to settle outstanding debt, that presence of surety does not absolve principal debtor from his original liability and that multiple guarantors stand as having equal responsibility towards guaranteed amount. The research findings will assist policy and law makers to harmonize the relevant laws with the Shariah to facilitate sustainable development of Islamic banking.

This paper aims to describe an effort to provide for a robust and secure software development paradigm intended to support DevSecOps in a naval aviation enterprise (NAE) software support activity (SSA), with said paradigm supporting strong traceability and provability concerning the SSA’s output product, known as an operational flight program (OFP). Through a secure development environment (SDE), each critical software development function performed on said OFP during its development has a corresponding record represented on a blockchain.

An SDE is implemented as a virtual machine or container incorporating software development tools that are modified to support blockchain transactions. Each critical software development function, e.g. editing, compiling, linking, generates a blockchain transaction message with associated information embedded in the output of a said function that, together, can be used to prove integrity and support traceability. An attestation process is used to provide proof that the toolchain containing SDE is not subject to unauthorized modification at the time said critical function is performed.

Blockchain methods are shown to be a viable approach for supporting exhaustive traceability and strong provability of development system integrity for mission-critical software produced by an NAE SSA for NAE embedded systems software.

A blockchain-based authentication approach that could be implemented at the OFP point-of-load would provide for fine-grain authentication of all OFP software components, with each component or module having its own proof-of-integrity (including the integrity of the used development tools) over its entire development history.

Many SSAs have established control procedures for development such as check-out/check-in. This does not prove the SSA output software is secure. For one thing, a build system does not necessarily enforce procedures in a way that is determinable from the output. Furthermore, the SSA toolchain itself could be attacked. The approach described in this paper enforces security policy and embeds information into the output of every development function that can be cross-referenced to blockchain transaction records for provability and traceability that only trusted tools, free from unauthorized modifications, are used in software development. A key original concept of this approach is that it treats assigned developer time as a transferable digital currency.

Increased political measures to protect the marine environment addresses a shipping industry characterised by strained financial resources, excess supply of capacity and consolidation. In addition, 5-15 per cent of industry participants are believed by shipping experts to neglect rules on vessel-source pollution to stay competitive within their industry and vis-à-vis other transport modes. This study aims to identify and quantify cost effects of maritime environmental legislation, to relate these with company characteristics and to investigate the impact of regulatory compliance.

A mixed-methods design was used to develop both a theoretical model of compliance costs effects and to quantify effect sizes. In total, 12 in-depth exploratory expert interviews were conducted and analysed. A theoretical framework emerged, which was evaluated, strengthened and fed with quantitative data from questionnaire data by 120 shipping companies. Partial least squares analysis was conducted to determine compliance cost effects.

It was found that organisational capacities played a significant role in determining compliance behaviour. Exterior determinants showed no significant correlation with legal compliance. This is a striking result, as it does not support achieving legal compliance with measures of strong enforcement.

European transport policy-making depends on scientifically sound studies on the impact of policy. An in-depth impact assessment on environmental legislation for the maritime industry highlights mechanisms applicable to environmental policy-making in transport and helps in building policy that considers compliance concerns, company characteristics and the interconnectedness of different transport modes for a sound response to the tragedy of the commons.

Originality lies in the inductive development of a comprehensive theory on shipping companies’ legal compliance behaviour and the empirical testing of this theory. Further value is derived from applying a sequential mixed-methods approach to the research problem, showing both the worth and challenge in combining different methodologies to achieve sound research results.

This paper presents a survey of research into interactive robotic systems for the purpose of identifying the state of the art capabilities as well as the extant gaps in this emerging field. Communication is multimodal. Multimodality is a representation of many modes chosen from rhetorical aspects for its communication potentials. The author seeks to define the available automation capabilities in communication using multimodalities that will support a proposed Interactive Robot System (IRS) as an AI mounted robotic platform to advance the speed and quality of military operational and tactical decision making.

This review will begin by presenting key developments in the robotic interaction field with the objective of identifying essential technological developments that set conditions for robotic platforms to function autonomously. After surveying the key aspects in Human Robot Interaction (HRI), Unmanned Autonomous System (UAS), visualization, Virtual Environment (VE) and prediction, the paper then proceeds to describe the gaps in the application areas that will require extension and integration to enable the prototyping of the IRS. A brief examination of other work in HRI-related fields concludes with a recapitulation of the IRS challenge that will set conditions for future success.

Using insights from a balanced cross section of sources from the government, academic, and commercial entities that contribute to HRI a multimodal IRS in military communication is introduced. Multimodal IRS (MIRS) in military communication has yet to be deployed.

Multimodal robotic interface for the MIRS is an interdisciplinary endeavour. This is not realistic that one can comprehend all expert and related knowledge and skills to design and develop such multimodal interactive robotic interface. In this brief preliminary survey, the author has discussed extant AI, robotics, NLP, CV, VDM, and VE applications that is directly related to multimodal interaction. Each mode of this multimodal communication is an active research area. Multimodal human/military robot communication is the ultimate goal of this research.

A multimodal autonomous robot in military communication using speech, images, gestures, VST and VE has yet to be deployed. Autonomous multimodal communication is expected to open wider possibilities for all armed forces. Given the density of the land domain, the army is in a position to exploit the opportunities for human–machine teaming (HMT) exposure. Naval and air forces will adopt platform specific suites for specially selected operators to integrate with and leverage this emerging technology. The possession of a flexible communications means that readily adapts to virtual training will enhance planning and mission rehearsals tremendously.

Interaction, perception, cognition and visualization based multimodal communication system is yet missing. Options to communicate, express and convey information in HMT setting with multiple options, suggestions and recommendations will certainly enhance military communication, strength, engagement, security, cognition, perception as well as the ability to act confidently for a successful mission.

The objective is to develop a multimodal autonomous interactive robot for military communications. This survey reports the state of the art, what exists and what is missing, what can be done and possibilities of extension that support the military in maintaining effective communication using multimodalities. There are some separate ongoing progresses, such as in machine-enabled speech, image recognition, tracking, visualizations for situational awareness, and virtual environments. At this time, there is no integrated approach for multimodal human robot interaction that proposes a flexible and agile communication. The report briefly introduces the research proposal about multimodal interactive robot in military communication.

Advantage of its geologic location lying at the heart of Central Asia with a large internal market of 27 million people and easy access to CIS market of over 142 million people enables Uzbekistan to form the hub of the region. Its transport and communications networks are connected with the other Central Asian countries. FIEZ in Navoi would be the representative model in CIS and be built on the best practice of next generation model as special national economic zones. Considering that the most of modern business is made through the web connection basis even for the flight management, cargo trace and other controls and operations, the importance of web connection should be stable, reliable and affordable for tenants and business entities at the FIEZ in Navoi. In these regards, cooperation work of both countries to study more details mentioned in this paper as well as other applicable models from Korean Free Economic Zone cases for the full picture of execution and promotion of the FIEZ in Navoi, Uzbekistan is considered.

The awarding of terminals to private operators is considered a prime task of landlord port authorities. Yet, terminal concessions in seaports have only recently gained interest in academic circles. The awarding process poses a complex set of managerial challenges to port authorities, one of the key issues being the determination of the duration of the concession.

Despite the importance of the duration of terminal concessions in seaports, the issue has not received much attention in academic circles. Factors impacting on the duration of contracts, leases or concessions have, however, been studied extensively in other research areas, such as agriculture, coal contracts, franchising and natural gas. This paper uses insights from these academic studies to obtain a better understanding of the impact of concession duration on the stakeholders involved and relates them to empirical evidence on concession length in European seaports. The paper then proposes a classification scheme for the exogenous determination of concession duration, based on techniques developed for Public-Private-Partnerships in large infrastructure projects. In the last section the paper discusses the importance of concession durations to various stakeholders in seaports and illustrates these principles using a case study.