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Supply chain literature highlights that environmental uncertainty (EU) encourages firms to integrate their business strategies and develop strategic flexibility (SF). The authors’ use the dynamic capability view (DCV) to explain why the EU motivates firms to develop SF and integrate business strategies for better supply chain coordination (SCC) and enhanced performance. This study tests the role of SCC as a mediator between (1) business strategy integration (BSI) and operational performance, and (2) SF and operational performance. The study also measures the contingent effect of structural constructs on the relationship between EU, BSI and SF.

Data of 356 firms drawn from the continuous innovation network (CINet) are used in this paper. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test the direct, indirect and moderation hypotheses.

The paper finds that EU enhances SF and BSI. Further, BSI has a significant positive impact on SCC that drives operational performance. The paper also finds that SF has no direct impact on SCC rather it affects SCC through BSI. SCC mediates the relationship between (1) SF and operational performance, and (2) BSI and operational performance. The organization's structural factors including connectedness and formalization moderate the effect of EU on BSI and SF.

The paper extends debate at the interface of supply chain risk and strategy literature and provides a specific understanding of the “external-internal-external” mechanism in the context of the turbulent business environment. This mechanism helps to understand why and under what structural conditions EU (external) leads to BSI and SF (internal). Further, BSI and SF (internal) help firms to manage SCC (external) effectively that in turn improve operational performance.

This is the first of three articles on the various series of standard specifications which are most often referred to by industry and government in the United Kingdom. Information officers, standards engineers and librarians are frequently asked to supply and identify standards. An account is given here of what standards have been issued, where they can be consulted, borrowed or bought. The standards will be dealt with in the following order: British Standards Institution publications; other British non‐BSI standards; and finally international and foreign standards.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the perceptions of Bank Saderat Iran’s (BSI) customers in Isfahan and Dubai to find the probable differences in BSI service quality in these cities.

The required data were collected by adapted Bank Service Quality (BSQ) questionnaire from two samples of BSI customers (300 in Isfahan and 100 in Dubai). In this research, BSQ was measured by seven dimensions, including Bahia and Nantel (2000) BSQ dimensions, and globalization of bank services as the added dimension. The factor analysis was used to analyze the data, independent-samples t-test for comparing the means and Friedman test for ranking of the BSQ dimensions and items.

The results of this research revealed a relative satisfaction of customers with BSI service quality in both cities; however, the respondents in Dubai perceived a higher service quality. The most important dimensions were access and effectiveness and assurance in Isfahan and reliability and tangibles in Dubai. In addition, although these cities are located in developing countries, the respondents’ perceptions were similar to those in developed countries.

It is proposed that BSI managers should eliminate the barriers to prompt service provision, review service charges, integrate decision-making systems, decrease the bureaucratic factors and provide training programs to increase the personnel’s’ interactive skills in Isfahan.

A few studies have been conducted in the field of BSQ in Iran banking industry, and none has measured BSQ using a cross-country and cross-cultural method. No research has been conducted on BSI service quality in Isfahan and Dubai, and this is the first research in both cities. Furthermore, it is one of the few times that a specific tool is used for measuring BSQ in Iran banking industry.

The Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18) is a tool used to measure clinically relevant psychological symptoms to support clinical decision-making at intake and during the course of treatment in various settings. The BSI-18 has frequently been evaluated for construct validity via analysis of its structure. However, these studies showed mixed results of the factor solutions and no consensus on the dimensionality. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to synthesize the empirical findings about the factor structure to reach an overall conclusion about the factor structure of the BSI-18.

A meta-analysis of factor analysis results using an aggregated co-occurrence matrix approach was conducted to synthesize the factor structure. The item factor loading information from seven published studies is gathered, combined and summarized to conclude the factor structure of the instrument. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to quantify the similarity between the underlying factor structures of BSI-18 from different empirical articles.

The perceptual map from MDS-found items was clustered into three distinctive factors matching the original intent. The findings highlight the consistency of the BSI-18’s factor structure. However, the findings should be used with caution owing to the small sample size and conclusions made from visual representation.

This original study contributes to research in the provision of empirically tested measures that take a focus on factor analysis and the use of meta-analysis technique to account for an understanding of the factor structure.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mechanisms through which the use of enterprise systems (ESs) enhances buyer-supplier integration (BSI). More specifically, the authors explain a model where ES enhances BSI indirectly, mediated by inventory management capabilities (IMCs), as the way ES enhances BSI remains under-explored in the literature.

Application of the resource orchestration framework to explain how capabilities and mechanisms interplay to enhance BSI. Data were collected by means of a survey instrument. Data collection took place as part of a larger project, sponsored by the Spanish Government, to evaluate logistics competitiveness in Spain.

ES enhances BSI by serving as a coordinating mechanism that maintains capability configurations in a value-creating alignment. IMC plays a key, yet under-explored role as a mediating mechanism that supports ES-enabled BSI.

First, this research does not fully capture the multi-party nature of the supply chain context. Second, data collection was limited to companies that were more likely to have a systematic approach to logistics issues (i.e. large- and medium-sized companies) and companies based in Spain.

This paper enhances both scholarly and practitioner understanding of the mechanisms through which the implementation and use of ES contributes to BSI. In addition, this paper integrates literature from different fields (e.g. strategy, information systems, and operations) to gain a better understanding of how the implementation and use of ES affects BSI.

This paper aims to present investigation on textured polyimide (PI) substrate for enhanced light absorption in flexible black silicon (bSi).

Flexible bSi with thickness of 60 µm is used in this work. To texture the PI substrate, copper-seeding technique is used. A copper (Cu) layer with a thickness of 100 nm is deposited on PI substrate by sputtering. The substrate is then annealed at 400°C in air ambient for different durations of 60, 90 and 120 min.

With 90 min of annealing, root mean square roughness as large as 130 nm, peak angle of 24° and angle distribution of up to 87° are obtained. With this texturing condition, the flexible bSi exhibits maximum potential short-circuit current density (J_max) of 40.33 mA/cm², or 0.45 mA/cm² higher compared to the flexible bSi on planar PI. The improvement is attributed to enhanced light scattering at the flexible bSi/textured PI interface. The findings from this work demonstrate that the optimization of the PI texturing via Cu-seeding process leads to an enhancement in the long wavelengths light absorption and potential J_max in the flexible bSi absorber.

Demonstrated enhanced light absorption and potential Jmax in flexible bSi on textured PI substrate (compared to planar PI substrate) by Cu-seeding with different annealing durations.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to review the methodological and empirical underpinnings of transport network screening, or management, as it relates to improving road safety. As jurisdictions around the world are charged with transport network management in order to reduce externalities associated with road crashes, identifying potential blackspots or hotspots is an important if not critical function and responsibility of transport agencies.

Methodology – Key references from within the literature are summarised and discussed, along with a discussion of the evolution of thinking around hotspot identification and management. The theoretical developments that correspond with the evolution in thinking are provided, sprinkled with examples along the way.

Findings – Hotspot identification methodologies have evolved considerably over the past 30 or so years, correcting for methodological deficiencies along the way. Despite vast and significant advancements, identifying hotspots remains a reactive approach to managing road safety – relying on crashes to accrue in order to mitigate their occurrence. The most fruitful directions for future research will be in the establishment of reliable relationships between surrogate measures of road safety – such as ‘near misses’ – and actual crashes – so that safety can be proactively managed without the need for crashes to accrue.

Research implications – Research in hotspot identification will continue; however, it is likely to shift over time to both closer to ‘real-time’ crash risk detection and considering safety improvements using surrogate measures of road safety – described in Chapter 17.

Practical implications – There are two types of errors made in hotspot detection – identifying a ‘risky’ site as ‘safe’ and identifying a ‘safe’ site as ‘risky’. In the former case no investments will be made to improve safety, while in the latter case ineffective or inefficient safety improvements could be made. To minimise these errors, transport network safety managers should be applying the current state of the practice methods for hotspot detection. Moreover, transport network safety managers should be eager to transition to proactive methods of network safety management to avoid the need for crashes to occur. While in its infancy, the use of surrogate measures of safety holds significant promise for the future.

With increasing managerial attention on the strategic promotion of brand-related sustainability initiatives (BSI), this study explores the psychological role of image congruence of the triad comprising brand, BSI and self-concept (brand–sustainability–self-congruence; BSSC). The study assesses the predictive effect of BSSC on consumers' brand evaluations and its variation according to the brand types and consumers' attributes. The purpose is to provide managerial suggestions as well as theoretical implications to build an effective BSI strategy from the perspective of consumer psychology.

The data from 409 respondents in Japan are assessed to discuss the relationships among BSSC based on actual/ideal self-concept (actual/ideal BSSC), brand trust, brand affect and purchase intention according to hypothetical BSI settings.

The results suggest a significant role of BSSC in consumers' brand evaluation mechanisms associated with BSI: mostly, actual BSSC affects non-luxury brand evaluation, while ideal BSSC affects luxury brand evaluation. Likewise, the effects of actual/ideal BSSC seem to vary according to consumers' income levels.

The results suggest that managers strategically consider consumer psychology of brand evaluation with actual/ideal BSSC, income levels and brand attributes such as luxury level in BSI planning. Thus, they may predict its contribution to brand equity, leading to companies' performance being compatible with environmental contribution.

This study uniquely extends the self-congruity theory and discusses the psychological brand evaluation mechanism comprising BSSC, presenting the switching role of actual/ideal self-concept according to brand types and consumers' attributes.

The purpose of this study is to explore the implications of national and international standards for human resource development (HRD) practice. It focuses on the experiences, perceptions and learning of those involved in the social construction of standards and standardisation processes.

The research is grounded in institutional and organisational excellence theories and adopts a qualitative approach based in social constructivism. Thematic analysis of the data obtained from 13 semi-structured interviews leads to a discussion of awareness of standards, standards adoption including constraints, and impact of standards.

The findings indicate that that there has been a disconnect between the potential impact of British Standards Institute (BSI) HR standards and what has occurred in practice with little awareness of the BSI standards among practitioners.

This paper identifies an absence of institutional isomorphism in the HR arena and highlights the potential for a “standards-practice” gap where HR standards formation processes are perceived as detracting from flexibility and innovativeness in organisational practice.

This study contributes a new perspective of the implications of HR standards formation from the perspective of those involved and further contributes to the wider theorisation of standards in the HRD field.

This current research tries to answer the widespread debate about the role of derivatives in propagating the last financial crisis. So, this work aims to examine the effect of derivatives on bank stability in emerging countries by using the bank stability index (BSI) as developed by Ghosh (2011) from three major dimensions of banking operations: stability, soundness, and profitability. We use the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator technique developed by Blundell and Bond (1998) to estimate regressions during the normal, the turbulent, and the whole period, following the guidance given by Chiaramonte, Poli, and Oriani (2013).

The major conclusion of this study reveals that except to futures the other derivative instruments cannot be considered as troubling factors. The main implication of the research shows that derivatives – in general – are not responsible for the propagation of the recent financial crisis. Hence, the common debate accusing derivatives as being responsible for the aggravation of the recent financial crisis should be rejected.