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The objective of this study is to investigate how country risk, different political actions from the government and bureaucratic behavior influence the activities in industry supply chains (SCs) in emerging markets. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of these external stakeholders’ elements to the demand-side and supply-side drivers and barriers for improving competitiveness of Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry in the way of analyzing supply chain. Considering the phenomenon of recent change in the RMG business environment and the competitiveness issues this study uses the principles of stakeholder and resource dependence theory and aims to find out some factors which influence to make an efficient supply chain for improving competitiveness. The RMG industry of Bangladesh is the case application of this study. Following a positivist paradigm, this study adopts a two phase sequential mixed-method research design consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. Qualitative field study is then carried out to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. A survey is carried out with sample of top and middle level executives of different garment companies of Dhaka city in Bangladesh and the collected quantitative data are analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling. The findings support eight hypotheses. From the analysis the external stakeholders’ elements like bureaucratic behavior and country risk have significant influence to the barriers. From the internal stakeholders’ point of view the manufacturers’ and buyers’ drivers have significant influence on the competitiveness. Therefore, stakeholders need to take proper action to reduce the barriers and increase the drivers, as the drivers have positive influence to improve competitiveness.

This study has both theoretical and practical contributions. This study represents an important contribution to the theory by integrating two theoretical perceptions to identify factors of the RMG industry’s SC that affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. This research study contributes to the understanding of both external and internal stakeholders of national and international perspectives in the RMG (textile and clothing) business. It combines the insights of stakeholder and resource dependence theories along with the concept of the SC in improving effectiveness. In a practical sense, this study certainly contributes to the Bangladeshi RMG industry. In accordance with the desire of the RMG manufacturers, the research has shown that some influential constructs of the RMG industry’s SC affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. The outcome of the study is useful for various stakeholders of the Bangladeshi RMG industry sector ranging from the government to various private organizations. The applications of this study are extendable through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.

Building on the sociotechnical systems theory (STS), the purpose of this paper is to investigate the direct impacts of the social and technical QMs (ISO 9001) practices on both incremental and radical product innovation and the direct relationships relaying QMs (ISO 9001) as a sociotechnical system with incremental and radical product innovation.

The paper opted for a survey instrument to collect quantitative data from 82 Moroccan certified ISO 9001 firm. A partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses.

Results show that the social and technical QMs (ISO 9001) practices do not have a significant relationship with incremental and radical product innovation when they are taken in isolation. However, when ranged together to constitute a whole sociotechnical system of QMs (ISO 9001), QMs (ISO 9001) prove to have a strong positive and significant impact on incremental product innovation and a weak positive and significant impact on radical product innovation.

Because of the small sample size that might weaken the significance of the results and the use of cross-sectional data, this research may lack a large statistical generalizability vis-à-vis the analytical generalization.

The results provide useful implications for managers, suggesting that in order to develop their product innovation, they must ensure that both QMs (ISO 9001) social and technical practices achieve a high level of integration without allowing some quality practices to take over.

Based on the STS, this study is the first to focus primarily on the role of the multi-dimensional structure of QMs (ISO 9001), i.e. social and technical practices, in incremental and radical product innovation.

Research on purchasing managers and their skills requirements supports the training and education of purchasing professionals. This paper offers an in-depth analytical review of the purchasing skills reported in the supply chain management (SCM) literature. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the most important skills and factors that influence these skills.

This paper employs a systematic literature review methodology. Two databases, Scopus and Web of Science, are searched for relevant articles. The selected journal articles are used as sources to obtain a view not only on the relevant purchasing and supply management (P/SM) skills, but also on factors that emphasize certain P/SM skills. This paper also summarizes the ten skills ranked as most important (often described as the “top ten”) among the sample articles.

The paper highlights the essential skills for purchasing professionals, verified both by their frequent appearances in rankings and by citation frequency in the literature. Generic managerial skills, such as communication, cost analysis, teamwork, problem-solving, negotiation, influencing, and persuasion, as well as information technology skills, received the most attention in the literature and rankings of the “top ten” P/SM skills. This paper provides a refined categorization of purchasing skills, which have merged recently with other discussed skills, such as political and entrepreneurial ones, into this categorization. This paper identifies factors that affect purchasing managers’ skills requirements.

This paper presents a structured overview of 57 peer-reviewed articles from high-quality journals about purchasing skills. The review contributes to the purchasing skills literature by showing the most relevant skills and the factors that influence skills requirements. These factors also provide arenas for further research related to purchasing skills.

This article uses data collected from direct observations made during visits to over 20 Asian companies over a period of four years (1992‐1995) and discusses the culture and managerial approaches of companies located in Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. The main objective of these visits was to provide the participants the opportunity to gain an appreciation of the management approaches of internationally competitive manufacturing companies located in Asia and to gain an understanding of “World Best Practice” for a range of manufacturing/quality management methods and technologies. In this paper we present our overall observations relating to such factors as mission and purpose, culture of the organisation and consistency of purpose and of management. The evidence suggests, for example, that Asian companies have a long‐term vision and mission which is focused on benefiting mankind and a dedication to developing the knowledge, skills and health of the general community as well as their employees.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between total quality management (TQM) practices and innovation performance in the Vietnamese industry context.

The method of confirmatory factor analysis was applied to refine TQM and innovation scales for empirical analysis in Vietnam. The structural equation modelling method was applied to test the theoretical models.

This study confirms the results of previous studies that considered TQM as a set of practices. It confirms that TQM – considered as a set of practices – has a positive impact on the firm's innovativeness. It discovers that not all TQM practices enhance firm innovativeness. Only leadership and people management, process and strategic management, and open organization showed a positive impact on the firm's innovation performance.

The sample was not random. Future research should select different random samples to allow for more generalization of the results. The study assessed the concept of “newness” with the company boundaries. Future research should measure “newness” within the boundaries of the specific industry. The unclear evidence found in this study on the impact of the firm's education and training policy on innovation needs to be further investigated.

The findings are useful for business managers in developing countries such as Vietnam, who want to enhance business performance through implementing TQM practices that support their firm's product and services innovation efforts.

The study has contributed to develop a measurement system of TQM practices and innovation performance that facilitates more quality management research in developing countries. It has contributed to clarifying the disputed relationship between TQM practices and the firm's innovativeness, and shows empirical evidence in Vietnam to confirm that the TQM practice set deployed by a firm has a positive impact on its innovation performance.

Examines the changing nature of the production manager’s job. To assess the current position, a survey was conducted on a sample of 600 production/operations managers in Australia. The results of the study indicate that there have been significant improvements in the production manager’s job. The study found that Australian production managers are well qualified, highly

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between diversity management (i.e. diversity-focused human resource (HR) practices related to recruitment and selection, training and development, performance appraisal and compensation) and perceived firm performance, and the mediating effect of procedural justice.

Primary data based on 400 respondents of 162 organizations operating in India were analysed using statistical tools such as factor analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression analysis.

Multiple regression analysis indicated that diversity-focused HR practices had a positive association with perceived firm performance. Further, it was found that procedural justice played a partially mediating in the relationship between diversity-focused HR practices and perceived firm performance.

This paper relied on self-report surveys for data collection, and there laid a possibility of common method variance in the result findings. Hence, future studies should collect data from multiple sources by using multiple methods (e.g. interviews, surveys, peer reports, etc.).

The first implication highlights that senior management’s support is a prerequisite to execute justice-based diversity management processes, which in turn aid in harvesting the true potentials of diversity. Second, organizations should adopt an egalitarian approach while formulating and implementing diversity management initiatives to accentuate the fair and just perceptibility of procedures among employees.

This study sheds new light on the effects of diversity-focused HR practices on firm performance (perceived) in Indian context.

Despite the widely recognized benefits of integrating management systems, many multi-certified organizations continue to implement two or more systems separately. This can happen either through ignorance or by deliberate intent. Focusing on the second reason, the purpose of this paper is to examine a number of factors that can lead an organization to consciously choose not to integrate all of its management systems.

The paper presents a case study of a construction company that has integrated the environmental management system and the occupational health and safety management system – which implies that the company is familiar with the practice of integration – while choosing to implement the quality management system separately from the other two.

The findings of this study show that the reasons that led the company not to integrate all of its systems are not so much related to the compatibility of these systems, but are much deeper and have implications that touch upon its basic principles and values. Despite the occurrence of some organizational and operational problems (such as complexity of administrative issues and bureaucracy), the separate implementation of the systems allowed the company to preserve both the balance between the powers of its executives and the ability to attach special importance to each area: quality, environment, health and safety.

This study will be useful in order to understand that selective integration of management systems is based on the belief that integration is not a de facto desirable goal, especially when the estimated cost-benefit ratio of non-integration is better than that of integration.

Total quality management (TQM) is widely recognised as an enabler for performance improvement in the construction industry. This paper presents empirical findings from eight contracting organisations that have adopted TQM practices in response to competitive and environmental pressures. Using the NIES “How To” model developed by the Australian Government's National Industry Extension Scheme, the paper describes pragmatic considerations. Case study findings reveal that when implementing TQM, contractors must align their organisational culture with the objectives of their TQM program.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse professionals’ competencies in supply chain management (SCM) in the mid-sized supermarket sector in Brazil as a way of broadening the understanding of the importance and the use of competencies in business development.

The survey was conducted with 60 managers from 34 companies in the mid-sized supermarket sector in the metropolitan region of Natal, Brazil. The managers evaluated the importance and use of a set of 24 general and specific competencies related to SCM. The gaps between importance and use were identified and analysed.

The results showed that the level of use was below the level of importance for all competencies, and the general competencies somehow received more attention than specific competencies in the development and execution of SCM activities. Moreover, the overall average of the gaps between levels of use and importance calculated for the general competencies was less than the general average of the gaps calculated for the specific skills.

The research was carried out with a sample of mid-sized supermarkets in a particular region. Therefore, it is recommended that the research be extended to other contexts and supermarket companies of other sizes.

The calculated gaps between managers’ expectations or attributed importance and the perceived levels of competence use in supermarket organisations revealed important lines of action for correcting the course in human resources policy.

The present paper elaborated on an opportunities matrix, gaps × importance, showing how managers can set priorities to fill competence gaps and improve the companies’ human resources. Besides, it compares levels of importance and uses for two groups of competencies, general and specific related to SCM.