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The purpose of this paper is to determine best practices of aid agencies for outsourcing logistics to commercial logistics service providers (LSPs) in disaster relief. Moreover, it evaluates the application of the Delphi method for research in humanitarian logistics.

The paper is based on a two-round Delphi study with 31 experts from aid agencies and a complementary full-day focus group with 12 experts from aid agencies and LSPs.

The study revealed 12 best practices for outsourcing logistics in disaster relief and a compilation of more than 100 activities for putting these practices into action. Experts consider a proper balance between efficiency and compliance, a detailed contract and a detailed service request most important. Additionally, the Delphi method was found to be a promising technique for research on humanitarian logistics.

By critically examining the Delphi method, this study establishes the basis for a wider application of the technique in the field of humanitarian logistics. Furthermore, it can help to prioritize future research as the ranking of practices reflects the priorities of practitioners.

The paper provides guidance to practitioners at aid agencies in charge of outsourcing logistics.

This research is one of the first in the field of humanitarian logistics to apply the Delphi method. Moreover, it addresses the lack of literature dealing with approaches for building successful cross-sectoral partnerships.

Although we know that HRM practices can have a huge impact on employees’ innovative work behaviour (IWB), we do not know exactly which practices make the difference and how they affect IWB. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to determine the best HRM practices for boosting IWB, to understand the theoretical reasons for this, and to discover mediators and moderators in the relationship between HRM practices and IWB.

Based on a systematic review of the literature, the authors carried out a content analysis on 27 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Working with the definitions and items provided in the articles, the authors were able to cluster HRM practices according to the ability-motivation-opportunity framework. The best HRM practices for enhancing IWB are training and development, reward, job security, autonomy, task composition, job demand, and feedback.

The results of this study provide practical information for HRM professionals aiming to develop an HRM system that generates innovative employee behaviours that might help build an innovative climate.

A framework is presented that aggregates the findings and clarifies which HRM practices influence IWB and how these relationships can be explained.

Project managers face decisions every day and those decisions result in an “either or” situation. This is also true when it comes to the choice of a project management approach, i.e. predictive versus iterative. A case is made in this article that project managers should be ambidextrous and apply practices that are beneficial to the project, irrespective of the origin of the practices.

This study is based on a questionnaire focussing on six themes. The results of 290 projects were analysed using ANOVA and boxplots to test for skewness and variances.

Based on the analysis of 117 practices, most of these projects could be classified as either hybrid or iterative projects. The results indicate that irrespective of the classification of the projects or the industry, projects are managed using a hybrid approach, with a tendency to incorporate more iterative practices than predictive practices.

This article contributes to the current debate on which approach is the best given certain circumstances.

Nowadays, climate change and environmental pollution have become major international concerns, in which logistics and manufacturing activities are playing the major role. In the past decade, more attention has been directed toward environmental issues than ever before. The Paris agreement is one of the most recent milestones in this regard. Due to local and international legislation, managers are highly encouraged to seek out sustainable innovations and strategies to reduce the negative impacts of their business activities. An array of academic and practical activities has been formed around the greening of the supply chain (SC). This paper attempts to review and classify green supply chain management (GSCM) disciplines and best practices from a practical point of view. The authors also investigate the different areas of application and review the GSCM practices in some well-known companies. On this basis, the paper disclose the superiority of Apple company over the other studied cases in applying green practices, particularly in the manufacturing and design areas, while the parcel delivery company has been quite active in the green transportation and green marketing. It is also shown that all of the reviewed cases have been successful in implementing green logistics initiatives thus far.

The paper presents a research methodology that could be used to carry out a systematic literature review on the current state of the art of the technological development in the field of the digitalization and unphysicalization of supply chains (SCs). A three-dimensional conceptual framework focusing on the relationship between Digital Technologies (DTs), business processes and SC performance is presented. The study identifies the emerging practices and areas of SC management that could be positively affected by the implementation of DTs. With this in mind, the emerging practices have a high probability to be considered future best practices.

A systematic literature review was conducted on DTs in SC management. The methodology used aims to algorithmically and objectively standardize the information incorporated into thousands of scientific documents. Selected papers were analyzed to investigate the recent literature on SC digitalization and unphysicalization. A total of 87 DTs were selected to be analyzed and subsequently grouped into 11 macro-categories. 17 business processes linked to SC management are taken into account and 17 different impacts on SC management are presented. From a set of 1,585 papers, 5,060 emerging practices were collected and singularly summarized combining DT, business process and impact on SC performance.

A unique analytical perspective provided represents an important evolution when trying to organize the current literature on SC management. The widely used DTs in the practices and the most considered business processes and impacts are highlighted and described. The three-dimensional conceptual framework is graphically represented to allow for the emergence of the best combinations of DT, business process and impact on SC performance. These combinations suggest the most promising areas for the implementation of the emerging practices for SC digitalization and unphysicalization. Additional findings identify and define the most important contexts in which Big Data contributes to SC performance.

The research methodology used is offering progress through which to systemize the current practices as well as detect the potential of digitalization and unphysicalization under the three-dimensional conceptual framework. The paper provides a structured proposal for promising future research directions, assuming that the five research gaps as findings of this research could be the basis for prescriptions, as well as a future research agenda and theory development. Moreover, this research contributes to current managerial issues concerning SC management, referred to data and information management, efficiency and productivity of SC processes, market performance, SC relationship management and risk management in SC.

Total quality management is a valuable approach to continuously improve the quality of organizations; however, scholars debate its applicability to services, which require specific best practices that are different from those related to manufacturing. Moreover, digitization is pervading all kinds of services, but little has been written about total quality service practices in digital-based companies. For this purpose, the authors provide a holistic model of total quality service that reflects the peculiarities of such companies, guided by the question: how do total quality service practices change in digital-based service organizations?

The authors conduct an illustrative case study on Healthware Group, a global integrated digital health organization, to evaluate theoretical assumptions about total quality service practices in the digital environment.

The findings allow to validate the model provided. In addition, the study enables them to observe the changes the authors are witnessing in service provision in the digital era and the consequent transformation of best practices. To be accurate, the authors cannot refer to a full transformation in digital-based companies but rather to the enrichment and extension of TQS practices. The best illustration of these conclusions has been summarized in a set of propositions corresponding to seven of the key levers of a TQS model.

The paper represents the first attempt to discuss the relationship between total quality service and digitalization, offering a set of propositions for academics and insights for practitioners. The model can be used as a tool to visualize the different levers that successful implementation of TQS in digital-based services companies can rely on.

This paper presents an investigation into the ways the term “practice” is commonly referenced in supply chain management academic papers. Scholars have not yet developed a common understanding of the meaning and do not use practice theories when examining practices related to sustainability management in supply chains. Hence, the authors highlight theoretical gaps and make recommendations for future research.

Grounded in a systematic literature review of 232 peer-reviewed papers published in operations and supply chain management journals, a qualitative content analysis was conducted using both a deductive and an inductive approach.

Results show that supply chain sustainability (SCS) scholars seem barely interested in increasing the understanding of the term “practice,” widely used in the literature to refer to a practical context. Moreover, a clear distinction between being practical and using practice theories to study SCS practices is needed. A descriptive and critical analysis revealed eight key supply chain practices connected to sustainability, with a clear reflection on their meaning. As awareness of practice theories for research on SCS is limited, few recommendations for researchers and practitioners were identified.

Unlike prior literature reviews, the authors reinforce the need to increase the maturity of the SCS field by going beyond superficial theoretical building. Practice theories pathways are provided to enlighten scholars on how to avoid using the term “practice” as taken-for-granted and on how to deal with SCS research and practice.

External factors such as global competition and new technologies, require organizations to be innovative. Such organizational innovations also ask for innovative human resource management (HRM). However, in the current literature, it is not completely clear what innovative HRM means, as it is conceptualized in different ways. This study aims to provide clarity about innovative HRM by suggesting a new measurement scale; formulating hypotheses about some core determinants of innovative HRM; and investigating how innovative HRM relates to organizational innovation.

Using a sample of 719 Dutch organizations it was possible to investigate the properties of the inventory and examining several determinants of innovative HRM and how it relates to organizational innovation.

The innovative HRM scale is internally consistent and differs from other HRM indicators. It is explained by external developments, organizational size and stability of the organization. Finally, innovative HRM is a predictor of organizational innovation.

The measure that was developed in this paper is new to the literature. Innovative HRM has not been measured in a similar way to date. Besides that, the innovative HRM Survey is a novel data set.

The purpose of this paper is to determine which software systems business school administrators use to support accreditation efforts and how administrators select and use these systems. This study also provides best practice suggestions from institutions using faculty data management systems to support accreditation efforts.

This study used a sequential explanatory design using an internet-based survey for business school administrators involved with accreditation reporting with follow-up interviews with survey respondents.

There are four major software vendors that most respondents use for managing reporting of faculty research activity and sufficiency. The location of the school appears to influence the system selected. For assurance of learning reporting, most schools used an in-house or manual system. Respondents highlighted the importance of doing a thorough needs analysis before selecting a system.

Although respondents were geographically diverse, having a larger sample with schools in developing regions would provide greater generalizability of results.

This study gives business school leaders a comprehensive overview of the business schools’ data management systems, criteria used in system selection and best practices for system selection and implementation, faculty engagement and ongoing maintenance.

This study addresses the limited attention given to resources and best practices for selecting and implementing faculty data management software for accreditation in the academic and industry literature despite the significant investment of resources for schools and the importance such systems play in a successful accreditation effort.

The lean philosophy has demonstrated its effectiveness to improve firms' operational performance. However, the impact of lean practices on financial performance is still unclear due to the poor understanding of the link between operational and financial measures and the conflictive results obtained by previous research. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a systematic literature review to understand whether lean companies have improved their financial performance. Moreover, this article aims to uncover research gaps in the literature and examine which time spans of research have been considered to analyse both the degree of lean implementation and the measurement of financial outcomes.

A systematic literature review has been conducted to identify peer-reviewed articles that analyse the effect of the lean production paradigm on the financial performance measures of manufacturing companies. Then, the identified articles were processed using a combination of descriptive and content analyses methods to draw new conclusions, uncover gaps and find novel paths for research.

Various authors indicate that lean initiatives lead to an enhancement of financial performance measures. JIT and TQM lean practice bundles are suggested as the best enablers of financial performance in terms of sales and profit. In contrast, according to some scholars, lean does not necessarily improve companies' financial results if it is not properly implemented.

Several studies have focused on analysing the effects of lean on performance. However, only a small part of the literature has addressed the study of the effects of lean practices on financial performance metrics. The originality of this study lies in the investigation of the connections between lean practices and financial performance measures found in the literature. The outcome is the identification of various possible positive impacts of some lean practices on financial metrics.