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The purpose of this paper is to assess the quality practices of European pharmaceutical manufacturers to determine the level of readiness of this industrial sector to implement and/or sustain lean manufacturing (LM).

An assessment framework developed by Al-Najem et al. (2013) was adapted to evaluate how ready European pharmaceutical manufacturers are to implement and/or sustain LM. Therefore, the lean readiness (LR) level of these organisations was assessed through six quality practices related to LM. These included: processes, planning and control, human resources, top management and leadership, customer relations, and supplier relations. One research question and three hypotheses were formulated and tested using a combination of descriptive statistics and non-parametric Mann-Whitney tests. Data were collected through a survey questionnaire distributed to 310 European pharmaceutical manufacturers and responded by 37 of these organisations.

Overall, the results of this study indicate an inadequate level of LR for the participating firms. Simultaneously, it was concluded that factors such as company size, type of relationships with suppliers and ISO 9000 certification do not have an effect on the quality practices, and hence LR level, of European pharmaceutical manufacturing organisations.

This study provides crucial information regarding the LR level of European pharmaceutical manufacturers, which can now be aware of the areas in their practices that require further improvement towards a successful lean journey. Simultaneously, organisations in the pharmaceutical sector that intend to implement LM can consider the results of this study and evaluate their readiness level. Managers can, therefore, refer to this research and use it as a platform to take better decisions regarding what quality aspects of their operations need to be enhanced to successfully deploy or sustain a lean strategy.

This research is one of the very few studies that have focussed on evaluating whether the European pharmaceutical manufacturing industry is ready to successfully implement or sustain LM. Therefore, this research expands the limited existent body of knowledge of LM in this industry.

Contact problems are among the most difficult ones in mechanics. Due to its practical importance, the problem has been receiving extensive research work over the years. The finite element method has been widely used to solve contact problems with various grades of complexity. Great progress has been made on both theoretical studies and engineering applications. This paper reviews some of the main developments in contact theories and finite element solution techniques for static contact problems. Classical and variational formulations of the problem are first given and then finite element solution techniques are reviewed. Available constraint methods, friction laws and contact searching algorithms are also briefly described. At the end of the paper, a bibliography is included, listing about seven hundred papers which are related to static contact problems and have been published in various journals and conference proceedings from 1976.

The tourism has become more responsible in terms of tourists choosing environmentally friendly alternatives and resorting to green options in food, travel, and purchase. In view of this, “ecotourism” appears as a sustainable means of promoting tourism in the less explored areas which are endowed with esthetic beauty of nature. Ecotourism is based on the pillars of biodiversity, wildlife, natural wealth, rivers, and authentic cuisine. The proposed chapter is an attempt to explore the ecotourism potential of the Southern Rajasthan in India which has a rich heritage of natural wealth and cultural diversity.

The potential for resource combinations to have adverse consequences for acquiring firms is often overlooked in research. However, considering potential inimical resources can explain target and acquiring firm actions across the phases (evaluation, completion, and integration) of an acquisition. The authors outline how managers deal with inimical resources in acquisitions. Specifically, during evaluation, due diligence offers managers from acquiring firms the opportunity to avoid potential inimical resources by abandoning an acquisition. During integration, inimical resources can be dealt with either by limiting integration, or with planned or unplanned divestment. As a result, inimical resources explain observed actions and provide a context for making and improving corporate restructuring decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contribution to improving the efficiency of the focal firm made by lean management at the internal and supply chain levels.

An empirical study was conducted of 285 Spanish focal companies from industrial sectors that occupy an intermediate position in the supply chain. The data gathering method consisted of a telephone survey using computer-assisted telephone interviewing. A structural equation was used to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that there is an improvement in efficiency of the focal firm when lean management extends throughout the supply chain, in line with the resource-based theory and integrated supply chain management. In addition, lean management at the internal level is observed to impact positively on the focal firm's efficiency only when it contributes to enhancing the implementation of lean supply chain management.

To achieve the best operational performance derived from lean management, managers should pay attention to the transfer to their supply chain members of knowledge, competencies and cultural change linked to the level of internal lean implementation of the focal firm. Moreover, this paper provides a way to assess the operational aspects of lean supply chain strategy implementation and lean supply chain planning.

This study uses a holistic focus on lean supply chain management, to which it applies a validated instrument. It underlines that lean on the internal level should be complemented with lean on the supply chain level to provide a better understanding of the drivers of the efficiency of the focal firm.

This bibliography is offered as a practical guide to published papers, conference proceedings papers and theses/dissertations on the finite element (FE) and boundary element (BE) applications in different fields of biomechanics between 1976 and 1991. The aim of this paper is to help the users of FE and BE techniques to get better value from a large collection of papers on the subjects. Categories in biomechanics included in this survey are: orthopaedic mechanics, dental mechanics, cardiovascular mechanics, soft tissue mechanics, biological flow, impact injury, and other fields of applications. More than 900 references are listed.

This study aims to explore the perceptions of investors regarding the risks associated with funding renewable energy projects in India, as well as the various factors that influence these perceptions. The investigation is limited to debt providers and seeks to pinpoint the primary risks that bankers perceive and the drivers that shape these perceptions.

This study draws on interviews and surveys of Indian bank executives, investigating how finance providers perceive risks in the Indian context and the factors driving such perceptions. Qualitative interviews have been used for operationalizing “risk perception” within the renewable energy domain, followed by a quantitative survey and exploratory factor analysis.

The authors find that experience and capacity are the most important factors that account for 30% of the overall variance. The second factor, which accounts for 15% of the variance, includes the perceived risks in funding renewable energy projects as compared to infrastructure projects. Among individual risks, the authors find that bankers perceive technological risk to be the lowest (5%) and contractual and regulatory risks as the highest (66%) in renewable energy projects.

The study contextualizes risk perception toward renewable energy investments in the Indian context by drawing from the risk perception literature and qualitative interviews with senior bankers. It presents empirical evidence on the decision-making behavior of bankers, who are important stakeholders of the renewable energy ecosystem. The main limitation of the study is the relatively small sample, and generalizing the results to the broader population might require a larger sample. This will facilitate the use of confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, which can facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of risk perceptions in renewables financing.

Insights gained can be used to provide policy recommendations for improving the financing ecosystem of renewable energy projects. The research significantly contributes to the extant literature within the renewable energy financing domain for emerging economies.

Motivation constitutes a central topic for business management, because of its critical impact on job performance. Therefore, understanding whether and how the style of leadership adopted by leaders in organizations promotes and maintains employee motivation is of great interest to both scholars and practitioners. Drawing on self-determination theory, this study investigates how ethical and emotional styles of leadership influence employee motivation and thus job performance.

An empirical study was conducted in the public sector in Kuwait. About 607 employees participated in this study. Structural equation modeling techniques were used for testing the causal relationships between constructs.

Results of our study indicate that both ethical and emotional leaderships enhance employee motivation. Furthermore, employee motivation has a positive impact on job performance. The results also show that job performance exerts a negative effect on quitting intentions. Finally, interest in the private sector moderates the job performance–quitting intentions relationship.

These findings provide theoretical contributions to the extant literature, as well as important practical implications for managers.

This study demonstrates the role of both ethical and emotional leaderships in shaping employee behaviors. To the best of our knowledge, this research is among the few that provides initial evidence regarding quitting intentions as an outcome of the impact of ethical and emotional leaderships on employee motivation and individual performance in Kuwait.

As an effective mode to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) raise working capital, supply chain finance has recently gained extensive attention. The purpose of this paper is to explore the intrinsic mechanism of how both weak and strong ties in the supply chain network impact the supply chain financing performance (SCFP) of SMEs from the perspective of the supply chain network.

Based on the extended resource-based perspective, this paper proposes a theoretical model to explain the mode in which strong ties and weak ties of SMEs in the supply chain network influence SCFP through both physical distribution flexibility and demand management flexibility. Based on data from 182 manufacturing firms in China, this paper uses multiple regression analysis to test hypotheses.

The results of this paper indicate that weak ties improve SCFP more effectively than strong ties. Furthermore, both physical distribution flexibility and demand management flexibility exert different mediating roles either between strong ties and SCFP or between weak ties and SCFP. Moreover, the effect of physical distribution flexibility and demand management flexibility on SCFP of SMEs is not reinforced.

This paper highlights the importance to expand supply chain finance research from the perspective of the supply chain network. In particular, this paper explores the poorly understood mediating effect both physical distribution flexibility and demand management flexibility exert on the relationship between network ties and the SCFP of SMEs.

In this issue of the Journal we continue with our series of articles describing the current situation of the printed circuit industry in various countries throughout the world and as such focus our attention on India. This article has been submitted by Mr. V. Mitter of Hegde & Golay Ltd., Bangalore, India and his co‐operation is gratefully acknowledged.