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This research aims to investigate how organisational and contextual factors affect supply chain collaboration and how that, in turn, influences firms' competitive advantage in the garment industry in the context of Vietnam, a developing country.

Following a qualitative research design, in-depth interviews were conducted with senior managers who are involved in supply chain collaboration in twelve garment companies in Vietnam. The data were recorded, transcribed and analysed using NVivo 12. Based on the literature and interview findings, a research model underpinned by the relational view (RV) and institutional theories, with organisational and contextual factors being the antecedents and competitive advantage as the outcome of supply chain collaboration, was proposed.

The findings showed that organisational and contextual factors induce both internal, supplier and customer supply chain collaboration. There is also a positive relationship between supply chain collaboration and competitive advantage. Based on these findings, a strategy matrix for supply chain collaboration is also put forward.

This is one of the first empirical attempts to investigate the role of organisational and contextual factors as potential antecedents of supply chain collaboration and its effects on competitive advantage in the garment industry. The research is expected to enrich both the literature and management practices on supply chain collaboration in the context of developing countries.

This study aims to comprehensively address the challenge of delineating traffic scenarios in video footage captured by an embedded camera within an autonomous vehicle.

This methodology involves systematically elucidating the traffic context by leveraging data from the object recognition subsystem embedded in vehicular road infrastructure. A knowledge base containing production rules and logical inference mechanism was developed. These components enable real-time procedures for describing traffic situations.

The production rule system focuses on semantically modeling entities that are categorized as traffic lights and road signs. The effectiveness of the methodology was tested experimentally using diverse image datasets representing various meteorological conditions. A thorough analysis of the results was conducted, which opens avenues for future research.

Originality lies in the potential integration of the developed methodology into an autonomous vehicle’s control system, working alongside other procedures that analyze the current situation. These applications extend to driver assistance systems, harmonized with augmented reality technology, and enhance human decision-making processes.

Farmers in India are hesitant to adopt organic farming (OF) despite high demand for organic products and favorable policy measures to encourage the practice. Therefore, this study aims to assess the OF adoption barriers faced by Indian farmers using a systematic method of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM).

The authors explored eighteen barriers to OF adoption by conducting a literature survey and discussion with experts on OF. Then the authors used a combined method of Grey Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) methodology to rank the barriers and analyze their interactions.

The analysis reveals that “Lack of knowledge and information,” “lack of financial capacity of farmers’ and “lack of institutional support” are the cause (independent) barriers that significantly impact other barriers. The top three effect (dependent) barriers are “lack of availability of organic inputs,” “personal characteristics such as age, attitudes and beliefs” and “lack of premium pricing,” which are affected by the other barriers.

This research work will help the decision makers understand the barriers to OF adoption in India and their interrelationships. The proposed framework enables them to focus on the high-priority independent barriers, which will subsequently impact the other dependent barriers.

Previous research on OF adoption barriers lacked a multifaceted scientific approach, which is necessary because OF is a complex system and needs a thorough investigation to assess the interaction between the barriers. The research attempts to fill this gap and addresses the complex nature of adoption barriers.

The acceleration of globalized commerce and economic activities has meant that conventional and Shariah (Islamic law) compliant organizations transact and negotiate among themselves. Therefore, this study aims to explore the concept of corporate negotiation and the communicative principles that guide the negotiation process among Shariah-compliant organizations.

The study uses a qualitative method through an inductive interpretative approach by conducting 20 in-depth interviews among four groups of experts. These consist of three muftis, ten academicians in Islamic assets, finance and asset jurisprudence; three practitioners in charge of inter-organizational negotiation and decision-making; and four shariah board members of selected Islamic banks.

The findings reported that business negotiation is used by Islamic organizations for reconciliation, consultation, resolving disagreements and as a means of achieving spiritual satisfaction. Furthermore, the key communicative principles of the negotiation process consist of the credibility of informational exchange, flexible interactions and the openness and truthful disclosure of information.

The empirical data discussed in this study supports the claim that macro-environmental factors and social and cultural values should be considered when examining business negotiating behaviors. However, this study focuses only on the banking/service organization negotiation. Therefore, future research should focus on the Islamic negotiation process in the context of diplomatic and international relations.

The findings reported in this study offer insight for negotiators operating among Islamic organizations to understand the principles and process of negotiation in the purview of Shariah standards and principles.

In terms of theoretical implications, this study reveals a clear conceptual difference between the conventional concept and the Islamic perspective of corporate negotiation. Also, this study highlights the impact of organizational culture, specifically Islamic management strategies, on the business negotiation process and business communication principles.

This study presents the impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU)-induced Trade Supply Chain Vulnerability (TSCV) on the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in India by leveraging the World Bank Enterprise Survey data for 2014 and 2022. Applying econometric techniques, it examines firm size’ influence on productivity and trade participation, providing insights for enhancing SME resilience and trade participation amid uncertainty.

The econometric techniques focus on export participation, along with variables such as total exports, firm size, productivity, and capital intensity. It addresses crucial factors such as the direct import of intermediate goods and foreign ownership. Utilizing the Cobb-Douglas production function, the study estimates Total Factor Productivity, mitigating endogeneity and multicollinearity through a two-stage process. Besides, the study uses a case study of North Indian SMEs engaged in manufacturing activities and their adoption of mitigation strategies to combat unprecedented EPU.

Results reveal that EPU-induced TSCV reduces exports, impacting employment and firm size. Increased productivity, driven by technological adoption, correlates with improved export performance. The study highlights the negative impact of TSCV on trade participation, particularly for smaller Indian firms. Moreover, SMEs implement cost-based, supplier-based, and inventory-based strategies more than technology-based and risk-based strategies.

Policy recommendations include promoting increased imports and inward foreign direct investment to enhance small firms’ trade integration during economic uncertainty. Tailored support for smaller firms, considering their limited capacity, is crucial. Encouraging small firms to engage in international trade and adopting diverse SC mitigation strategies associated with policy uncertainty are vital considerations.

This study explores the impact of EPU-induced TSCV on Indian SMEs’ trade dynamics, offering nuanced insights for policymakers to enhance SME resilience amid uncertainty. The econometric analysis unveils patterns in export behavior, productivity, and factors influencing trade participation during economic uncertainty.

This study aims to explore the interplay of ambicultural sensitivity and relational embeddedness in the quality of B2B relationships. Specifically, it examines how these factors contribute to enhancing the adaptability, collaboration and competitive advantage of multinational corporations and institutions operating within diverse cultural landscapes.

Using an abductive qualitative case study methodology, this study engaged professionals from three diverse multinational corporations in Indonesia − an energy services provider, a logistics services company and a not-for-profit institution. The objective was to explore the integration and implications of ambicultural sensitivity across varied cultural and industry settings.

This study demonstrates that ambicultural sensitivity − the ability to understand, appreciate and integrate diverse cultural values − enhances B2B relationships through its manifestation in individual and organizational practices. It facilitates a dynamic merging of cultural perspectives and management approaches within intercultural interactions. Furthermore, relational embeddedness is identified as crucial for successful cross-cultural collaboration and innovation. These insights highlight the strategic value of cultural integration and sensitivity in maintaining a competitive edge in the global marketplace.

This study adds to the B2B marketing literature by providing a nuanced understanding of how ambicultural sensitivity and relational embeddedness operate in the context of B2B relationships.

Sustainable strategic management (SSM) is an integrated concept that entails sustainability in the approaches and processes of strategic management. Banking being a rapidly growing industry in service sector, it is reasonably important to study the SSM and its integrated performance. This paper aims to study the sustainable-strategic (SS) factors of Indian banks that affects their endurance and prioritizes the banks based on their sustainable and strategic performance.

This study appertains a sustainable balanced scorecard (SBSC) framework to determine the SS factors and an integrated multicriteria decision making (MCDM) method to weigh the criteria and prioritize the banks' performance.

The criterion weightage signifies sustainability, followed by financial and internal business perspective to be a crucial dimension for the performance of banks. The banks, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank Ltd and Canara Bank are ranked top-most on the SS performance.

The insights from the study on SS factors and banks' performance can be further used by policy-makers and researchers to understand the sustainability assessing factors and focus on making policies and further studies to enhance the performance in this regard.

Banking is one of the potentially growing industry in service sector. It being a major part of economy's sustainable growth, it is essential to assess the SS factors that enhance their sustainable performance. There is dearth of study in this purview, for developing countries like India. Thus, this study critically analyses the strategic sustainability of Indian banking industry to ascertain the SS factors and prioritize the performance of banks based on criterion weightage and bank's SS operations.

This study aims to explore vocational education as stated in the basic constitution, law, government and ministerial regulations in the Indonesian context. This study aims to outline the Indonesian vocational education paradigm based on regulatory documents.

This research uses a qualitative document analysis approach by extracting vocational themes regarding senior high school and higher education from the available documents. The keywords used for document document analysis are education, vocational school and vocational higher education. These words are forced to be used to distinguish the types and levels that exist in Indonesian education.

The findings of this study identified that the political paradigms of vocational education, such as equality and justice, naming (regulative), purpose and life skills, the curriculum of local cultural value, decentralized authority, link and match and future paradigms are important themes raised in this study. This is a study to explore the politics of Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education in Indonesia.

The vocational education policy documents in Indonesia that were analyzed may have been forgotten. As a result, the forgotten documents are not included in the analysis document. Forgotten interpretations and documents are part of the limitations of this research.

It is hoped that the findings of this research will have an impact on improving vocational education policies in Indonesia. This can also be a comparison for other countries in looking at vocational education paradigms and policies. In general, these research findings can help in improving vocational education policies. However, this research still has limitations in terms of the number of documents analyzed.

This study contributes to the promotion and political debate of vocational education nationally and internationally. The study further explores how interest groups are taking a role in achieving Vocational High School and Vocational Higher Education policies that are compatible with today’s needs and demands.

In the realm of innovation systems and technology transfer (TT), the emergence of open innovation and complex market dynamics has amplified innovation intermediaries’ prominence of their role and involvement in TT projects. This study delves into private consultants’ involvement in TT projects, namely in what got them involved by the project’s key stakeholders.

An iterative two-phased research approach was followed, including exploratory interviews and a quantitative case study of a consultancy firm engaged in 219 TT projects.

Five main key motivators were found to lead TT stakeholders to involve private consultants in their TT projects, being the most relevant, the proactivity of private consultants.

The case study and results provide an alternative perspective of TT endeavours, emphasising the importance given by TT stakeholders (mostly recipient companies) to private consultants’ involvement as innovation intermediaries.

Quiet quitting (QQ) has been around in academic and professional discussions for quite some time. Despite many definitions and reasons for QQ being proposed, no study has systematically undertaken exploratory research on the reasons and behavioral manifestations of employees who QQ.

Our study adopted an exploratory qualitative approach to understand the reasons for QQ without any prior judgment. We undertook interviews with 21 employees who have undergone QQ in their careers.

The qualitative inquiry brought out the reasons behind QQ. The three major reasons for QQ were identified by thematic analysis: personal, organizational politics and people dynamics. Further, overt and covert behaviors that employees undertake while QQ were framed with this study. Findings are discussed in the framework of existence, relatedness and growth (ERG) theory.

The theoretical implications include understanding QQ within the purview of ERG theory and the frustrated regression model. Practically, measures to be taken by organizations to mitigate the instances are presented, along with employee suggestions on what measures need to be taken to avoid QQ behaviors of employees.

This study is a pioneering work on the exploratory understanding of QQ. Empirically validated theory formulation of QQ is developed here for the first time.