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The purpose of this paper is to comment on Magnusson et al.'s paper. Rather than entering into the COO (country of origin) relevance debate, the author observes the shift from manufacturing to brand origin and outline consequences for future COO research by taking into account linguistic aspects of brand names.

This paper documents the issue of brand origin recognition accuracy (BORA, a central theme in Magnusson et al.'s paper) and the progressive replacement of COO and COM (country of manufacture) by COB (country of brand). Linguistic cues lead to both incorrect and correct classification of brands in terms of their national origin, which the author subsumes in four ideal‐typical situations, by taking into account company intention to manipulate origin information or not. The author then outlines factors which cause and moderate incorrect versus correct classification, especially brand size, corporate vs product names, and linguistic devices.

A framework is developed crossing causes of incorrect versus correct classification with company strategic branding intents. Suggestions are provided for future research combining linguistic and non‐linguistic aspects of BORA.

Companies willing to build on the origin and favorability of their brand names should deploy a deliberate naming strategy that is expressed in the textual part, as well as in the visual part (i.e. brand name fonts, logo, packaging) and the accompanying marketing communications, especially advertising copy.

This paper takes distance from the raging debate on the relevance of COO research, and suggests to deepen the understanding of BORA. This is done by looking at causes and moderating variables of BORA, and taking into account linguistic aspects of strategic branding in the global market.

Brand origin (BO) has been suggested as an important determinant of brand evaluation and purchase intention. However, previous studies have indicated that consumers have limited knowledge and ability to recognize national origin of brands. The purpose of this paper is to assess brand origin recognition accuracy (BORA) and its relationships with brand evaluation and purchase intention in the Indonesian laptop market.

A convenient sample of 195 people in Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta participated in the survey. They were given a list of 18 laptop brands (four local and 14 foreign brands) and were asked to identify their actual national origins.

The study found that consumers are more likely to misidentify than correctly recognize a true BO. This limited ability also has contributed to the low BORA scores for both local and foreign brands. Brand evaluation was found to be positively correlated with purchase intention. However, the current study could only find partial supports for the relationship between BORA scores and brand evaluation as well as purchase intention.

Many Indonesian consumers are unaware of the laptops’ BO, whether it is foreign or local. Companies need to inform, educate, and/or remind consumers of their brand’s true origin and avoid being associated with a weaker country image. Furthermore, despite all four Indonesian laptop brand names seem to use non-Indonesian names, only one brand gains a slightly better brand evaluation from favorable misclassification. It may suggest that the effectiveness of foreign branding strategy in the Indonesian laptop market is debatable.

This is one of the few studies examining BORA in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country and the largest laptop market in Southeast Asia.

The purpose of this paper is to show the impact of operational and environmental conditions (risk influencing factors) on the component criticality of safety barriers, safety barrier performance and accidents frequency and therefore on risk levels.

The methodology focuses on the integration of criticality importance analysis in barrier and operational risk analysis method, abbreviated as BORA-CIA. First, the impact of risk influencing factors (RIFs) associated with basic events on safety barrier performance and accident frequency is studied, and then, a risk evaluation is performed. Finally, how unacceptable risks can be mitigated regarding risk criteria is analyzed.

In the proposed approach (BORA-CIA), the authors show how specific installation conditions influence risk levels and analyze the prioritization of components to improve safety barrier performance in oil and gas process.

The proposed methodology seems to be a powerful tool in risk decision. Ordering components of safety barriers taking into account RIFs allow maintenance strategies to be undertaken according to the real environment far from average data. Also, maintenance costs would be estimated adequately.

In this paper, an improved BORA method is developed by incorporating CIA. More precisely, the variability of criticality importance factors of components is used to analyze the prioritization of maintenance actions in an operational environment.

The objective of this study is to offer a longitudinal examination of country image, consumers’ brand origin recognition accuracy, and how their effects on brand evaluations have evolved over the last decade.

The authors compare data gathered in 2020 against data gathered in 2008. Each data set consists of more than 500 American consumers evaluating approximately 12 different brands from three separate industries (i.e. auto, television, and fashion).

The findings indicate that country image can evolve over time and that its effect on brand evaluation persists even when inaccurate brand origin associations are made. The study offers meaningful insights for managers in understanding how brands’ country associations affect corresponding brand attitudes.

Significant research attention has been focused on the effects of country image. However, longitudinal analysis of the same research questions has been rare. This study offers a valuable comparison of how several important country-image related issues have evolved over time.

The purpose of this paper is to present current and ongoing research investigating new ways of working across geographic distances and time within library and information science (LIS).

A total of four studies were conducted focusing on: the design of a virtual research environment (VRE) to facilitate the sharing of data collection instruments among students, researchers and professionals; new ways professionals and researchers can collaborate; collaborative decision making in the context of purchasing a library management system; and collaboration among LIS professionals.

Early results show that VREs within LIS can build on previous VRE research which focused on other domains. However, there are several unique characteristics of LIS that place requirements on VREs and which are not yet implemented within VREs and that offer unique opportunities for VREs to enhance LIS research, education and practice.

This paper reports on ongoing research and preliminary findings of unique studies investigating how VREs could enhance LIS research and professional practice, and how LIS research and practice can inspire the next generation of VREs.

During the last decades, different quality management concepts, including total quality management (TQM), six sigma and lean, have been applied by many different organisations. Although much important work has been documented regarding TQM, six sigma and lean, a number of questions remain concerning the applicability of these concepts in various organisations and contexts. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to describe the similarities and differences between the concepts, including an evaluation and criticism of each concept.

Within a case study, a literature review and face‐to‐face interviews in typical TQM, six sigma and lean organisations have been carried out.

While TQM, six sigma and lean have many similarities, especially concerning origin, methodologies, tools and effects, they differ in some areas, in particular concerning the main theory, approach and the main criticism. The lean concept is slightly different from TQM and six sigma. However, there is a lot to gain if organisations are able to combine these three concepts, as they are complementary. Six sigma and lean are excellent road‐maps, which could be used one by one or combined, together with the values in TQM.

The paper provides guidance to organisations regarding the applicability and properties of quality concepts. Organisations need to work continuously with customer‐orientated activities in order to survive; irrespective of how these activities are labelled. The paper will also serve as a basis for further research in this area, focusing on practical experience of these concepts.

To investigate the special services for immigrants which are offered by Swedish libraries on their different levels (regional, local and school) and how these services conduct themselves to the development of the harmonic multicultural society.

The methods used in this research were interviews with librarians, the study of documents, followed by a comparative analysis. The guiding theory was a three‐phase model mentioned by Gillis Herlitz, according to which a newcomer goes through stages in an adaptation period. Phase 1 is described as a positive “honeymoon” phase, while phase 2 is a critical period of negative emotions, dominated by disappointment, which then ideally should be resolved in phase 3, where the individual reaches a balancing stage of cultural integration and successful adaptation.

The performances of public libraries on different levels seem to operate in a way that corresponds to the different phases in this model. The approach of the local libraries is more individual and psychological. Their services correspond to those immigrants, who find themselves in the “disappointment” phase, whereas the activities of the regional libraries are more informative and suitable for the “balancing” phase. The school libraries have the educational features and do not depend on the phase of immigrants’ adaptation.

The Public Library of Borås, The Library of Komvux (The Municipal Adult Education Library) and The Hässlehus Library (the library in the district occupied mainly by immigrants) were chosen for this study.

To help immigrants overcome their difficulties of adaptation period in the new country.

This paper demonstrates how the libraries can act as a lifeline for immigrants.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to empirically test whether a “one size fits all” strategy fits the fashion e-commerce business and second, to evaluate whether consumer returns are a central aspect of the creation of profitability and, if so, to discuss the role of returns management (RM) in the supply chain strategy.

Transactional sales and return data were analysed and used to categorise customers based on their buying and returning behaviours, measuring each customer's net contribution margins.

The e-commerce business collects a vast quantity of data, but these data are seldom used for the development of service differentiation. This study analysed behaviour patterns and determined that the segmentation of customers on the basis of both sales and return patterns can facilitate a differentiated service delivery approach.

This research empirically supports the theory that customer buying and returning behaviours can be used to appropriately categorise customers and thereby guide the development of a more differentiated service approach.

The findings support a differentiated service delivery system that utilises a more dynamic approach, conserving resources and linking the supply chain and/or organisational strategies with customers' buying and returning behaviours to avoid over and underservicing customers.

Consumer returns are often viewed as a negative aspect of doing business; interestingly, however, the authors revealed that the most profitable customer is a repeat customer who frequently returns goods.

This paper aims to propose a framework for evaluating the performance of reverse value chain activities in the clothing industry operating at base of the pyramid. Specifically, the research explores firm and supply chain factors influencing clothing reverse value chain activities with a focus on developing economies.

The study adopted an explorative technique using direct observations and semi-structured interviews to collect information from eight companies and two traders. Internal resources and value chain capabilities were examined using theoretical underpinnings of resource-based view, transaction cost economics and base of the pyramid.

The paper identified multiple benefits of offshoring reverse value chain activities to the developing countries (at the base of the pyramid). Low operation cost, skilled manpower, business knowledge and location are found to be internal success factors. While favourable government legislation and domestic recycling markets are important external factors contributing to the success. Developing economies such as India contribute to firm performance by integrating, transforming, acquiring and co-creating the resources at base of the pyramid. Further, it was found that to achieve higher assets specificity, a few companies have opened their own shops in African countries, while others have opened sourcing branches in Canada or the USA to ensure good quality of raw materials. Collaboration and coordination among different value chain partners minimise cost and increases profitability. Innovation in the process such as clothes mutilation for recycling has created new business opportunities.

Information was collected from only eight organisations and two traders from India. Future scholars may extend the research to generalise the findings by documenting similar phenomena.

The proposed framework can serve a basis for the practitioners to evaluate firm performance, and the insights can be used to achieve sustainability by engaging producers, employees, consumers and community using base of the pyramid approach.

The study provides unique insights into the prevalent export and re-exports phenomena of used clothing. The resource-based view, transaction cost economics and base of the pyramid strategy underpinned together to develop a framework for understanding reverse value chain activities of clothing.