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The purpose of this paper is to develop a research model examining users’ perceived needs-technology fit of mobile communication software through motivational needs and technological characteristics. The study investigated the effects of perceived needs-technology fit on user satisfaction and intention to continue using mobile communication software.

This study proposes a research model based on task-technology fit theory and uses and gratification theory, incorporating key determinants of users’ continuance intention toward mobile communication software. An online survey instrument was developed to collect data, and 403 questionnaires were used to test the relationships in the proposed model.

The causal model was validated using AMOS 21.0, and all nine study hypotheses were supported. The results indicated that users’ perceived needs-technology fit and satisfaction were crucial antecedents of their intention to continue using mobile communication software and that they mediated the influence of users’ needs as well as technological characteristics.

Mobile communication software practitioners should focus on enhancing users’ perceived needs-technology fit through motivational needs (utilitarian, hedonic, and social needs) and technological characteristics (mobile convenience, service compatibility, and user control) to further boost user satisfaction and intention to continue using mobile communication software services.

This study contributes to a theoretical understanding of factors explaining users’ continuance intention toward mobile communication software.

Offer a new model for identifying effective approaches to gathering, understanding and synthesizing information related to new product needs of B2B customers.

Arthur D. Little, together with the Eindhoven University of Technology, conducted in-depth interviews with over 30 product development leaders in 15 companies across multiple sectors.

When the team interacting with customers is structured appropriately the research showed that “getting it right” can lead to doubling of innovation success rates and have significant impact on R&D effectiveness.

By identifying the degree to which B2B customer needs are clear (expressed) or unclear (latent) and the degree to which technology needs are known (expressed) or unclear (latent), we can start to characterize the most appropriate skill set that a multifunctional product development team will need in order to develop a winning product.

Companies can use an innovative analysis framework to help make informed decisions about how best to organize their teams. The four approaches can be mapped to the four quadrants of a “Customer Needs/Technology Needs” matrix. The study concludes that the benefits are both strategically and financially significant.

According to the definitions presented for agility drivers, it can be mentioned that supply chain risk factors in terms of feature have very close roles to agility drivers and both of these factors impact the uncertainty in the environment. However, the risk factors with a wider domain are more comprehensive. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of risk as a driver on the organizational agility.

To conduct the research, after identification of influential risk factors of supply chain and indicators of organizational agility, questionnaires needed for the research were designed and after confirming their validity and reliability were distributed among the member of the sample. To assess the relationship between supply chain risk and the amount of organizational agility, data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed using structural equation modeling technique.

The results of data analysis showed that supply chain risk factors could be considered as a driver affecting the organizational agility. In addition, in this study, supply chain risk factors were ranked using interpretive structural modeling. The presented comprehensive model indicated that based on causal relationships between risk factors, sovereign risk as the basis for model (three levels) and product and customer satisfaction risks as the output of the model (Level 1) were considered.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how the risk factors as drivers of supply chain agility can have effect on agility.

New product development (NPD) in food‐processing industries is often one element which determines whether companies are able to remain competitive in rapidly changing consumer markets. Current research suggests that well‐managed NPD should be organized as a continuous learning process. It should have strong information linkage across functions and outside the company to suppliers and customers. We examine NPD in Thailand’s food‐processing industry to determine how much it conforms (or not) to current thinking. Generally, only some multinationals and a few larger Thai companies make some attempt to integrate information from a wide knowledge base into their NPD. Even the ones that do it well by Thai standards still have some problems. Existing models of NPD are not very explicit on how information flows should be structured. From our examination of NPD in Thailand, we propose a model based on the continuous learning process in NPD. It suggests how to accumulate and integrate learning (about customers, technology, and NPD itself) across key internal functions (marketing, R&D and manufacturing).

Market presence, quality and costs are primarily decided during product development – improved in the last 15 years by the implementation of basic concurrent engineering and now further extended by enhanced quality function deployment (EQFD). Another key improvement is extended reusability, which enables greater product variety, while staying higher on learning curves. Reusability is best planned and managed by using a reusability matrix which is responsive to the voices of the customers and fully integrated into the total development process. Outlines the integration of the reusability planning and the required interface management into EQFD, and thus the integration into total quality development.

The product family assembly line (PFAL) is a mixed model-assembly line, which is widely used in mass customization and intelligent manufacturing. The purpose of this paper is to study the problem of PFAL, a flexible (evolution) planning method to respond to product evolution for PFAL, to focus on product data analysis and evolution planning method.

The evolution balancing model for PFAL is established and an improved NSGA_II (INSGA_II) is proposed. From the perspective of data analysis, dynamic characteristics of PFAL are researched and analyzed. Especially the tasks, which stability is considered, can be divided into a platform and individual task. In INSGA_II algorithm, a new density selection and a decoding method based on sorting algorithms are proposed to compensate for the lack of traditional algorithms.

The effectiveness and feasibility of the method are validated by an example of PFAL evolution planning for a family of similar mechanical products. The optimized efficiency is significantly improved using INSGA_II proposed in this paper and the evolution planning model proposed has a stronger ability to respond to product evolution, which maximizes business performance over an effective period of time.

The assembly line designers and managers in discrete manufacturing companies can obtain an optimal solution for PFAL planning through the evolution planning model and INSGA-II proposed in this paper. Then, this planning model and optimization method have been successfully applied in the production of small wheel loaders.

Managers as Actors Those of us who manage are playing on an organisational stage every day. We enter early every morning to take up our roles, whether it is as chief executive, marketing manager, personnel adviser, production executive or any of the numerous other roles that have to be performed if work is to be done effectively.

This paper aims to propose a framework that can be used for analysing services in the automotive industry.

Existing categorisation schemes for services are investigated and evaluated in terms of their applicability to services in the automotive industry.

Services categorisation schemes are grouped under eight service paradigms, expressing the understanding that various authors had about services in different times and contexts.

The remarks are limited to the automotive industry.

The paper suggests services classification schemes, which can be effectively applied to automotive services in order to generate valuable managerial insights.

This paper provides an overview over multiple services categorisation schemes existing in the literature.

With a view to enabling organisations provide a clear understanding of firm value creation, several national and supranational institutions have produced guidelines and frameworks for externally reporting intellectual capital (IC). In many cases regulators, the accounting profession and accounting scholars have driven these initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to summarise, analyse and compare the guidelines and frameworks that have been developed with a focus on externally reporting IC.

The paper analyses the assumptions underpinning 20 guidelines and frameworks that have been developed with a focus on reporting IC using a self-constructed framework.

The review resulted in a comparison of IC reporting guidelines and framework based on target audience, role of IC within the organisational strategic management process and reporting IC indicator. It provides an understanding of the state of the art in relation to external reporting of IC.

The insights provided by the comparison of the guidelines and frameworks are likely to be helpful for practitioners wanting to adopt or develop an IC reporting model for their organisation. Policy-makers will find these insights beneficial when attempting to refine existing frameworks and guidelines for reporting IC and in developing new ones to suit various circumstances. Also, this paper provides a useful review for academics.

This is the first paper to provide a review of a large number of business reporting guidelines and frameworks with a focus on IC. It is a valuable reference for practitioners, policy-makers and academics on IC reporting models.

Consider this proposition: The object of a business is to understand its customers’ needs and value chain, and to be the first and therefore most profitable to innovate to meet these needs and enhance the customers’ value. Such a management attitude would, we believe, lead to a series of judgements.