Search results

Ineffective management inventory of medical products such as blood and vaccines can create severe repercussions for hospitals, clinics or medical enterprises, such as surgery delays and postponements. Inventory sharing is a form of horizontal collaboration that can provide solutions to key actors of the healthcare supply chain (HSC), yet no prior study reviewed this topic.

This study conducts a systematic literature review of thirty-nine inventory-sharing studies in the context of HSCs published from 2012 until early 2022. The descriptive and thematic analyses include chronological distribution, geographical location, comparison between developed/developing regions, stakeholder and incident analysis.

Thematic analysis classified inventory sharing among five product supply chains (blood, medical supplies, medicines, vaccines and generic medical products). Benefits include shortage reduction, cost minimisation, and wastage mitigation. Barriers include (1) IT infrastructure, (2) social systems, (3) cost and (4) supply chain operations. Perishable inventory policies include Fresher-First (FF), Last-Expire-First-Out (LEFO), First-In-First-Out (FIFO) and First-Expire-First-Out (FEFO). The analysis also showed differences between developed and developing countries. The study identifies several future research opportunities that include (1) product utilisation rate, (2) cost reductions, (3) shortage mitigation and (4) waste reduction.

No prior study has systematically reviewed inventory sharing in HSCs to reveal benefits, barriers, patterns and gaps in the current literature. It makes five propositions and develops a research model to guide future research. The study concludes with theoretical and managerial implications.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the key technical challenges that derive from the recently proposed European Artificial Intelligence Act and specifically, to investigate the applicability of the requirements that the AI Act mandates to high-risk AI systems from the perspective of AI security.

This paper presents the main points of the proposed AI Act, with emphasis on the compliance requirements of high-risk systems. It matches known AI security threats with the relevant technical requirements, it demonstrates the impact that these security threats can have to the AI Act technical requirements and evaluates the applicability of these requirements based on the effectiveness of the existing security protection measures. Finally, the paper highlights the necessity for an integrated framework for AI system evaluation.

The findings of the EU AI Act technical assessment highlight the gap between the proposed requirements and the available AI security countermeasures as well as the necessity for an AI security evaluation framework.

AI Act, high-risk AI systems, security threats, security countermeasures.

This work conducts a comprehensive analysis of how to incorporate resilience and sustainability into capacity expansion strategies for business-to-business (B2B) chemical supply chains. This study aims to guide both researchers and managers on ensuring profitability in B2B chemical supply chains while minimizing environmental impacts, complying with regulations and mitigating disruptions and risks.

A systematic literature review is conducted to analyze the interplay between sustainability and resilience in chemical B2B supply chains, specify the quantitative and qualitative methods used to tackle this challenge and identify the drivers and barriers concerning capacity expansion. In addition, a comprehensive conceptual framework is suggested to outline a compelling research agenda.

The findings emphasize the increasing importance of modeling and resolving decision-making challenges related to sustainable and resilient supply chains, particularly in capital-intensive chemical industries. Yet, there is no standardized strategy for addressing these challenges. The predominant solution methods are heuristic and metaheuristic, and the selection of performance metrics tends to be empirical and tailored to specific cases. The main barriers to achieving sustainability and resilience arise from resource limitations within the supply chain. Conversely, the key drivers of performance focus on enhancing efficiency, competitiveness, cost effectiveness and risk management.

This work offers practitioners a conceptual framework that synthesizes the knowledge and tackles the challenges of designing sustainable and resilient supply chains as well as managing their operations in the context of B2B chemical supply chains. Results provide a practical guide for navigating the complex interplay of sustainability, resilience and chemical supply chain expansion.

The key concepts and dimensions associated with capacity expansion planning for a resilient and sustainable chemical supply chain are identified through structured and comprehensive analyses of existing literature. A conceptual framework is proposed for delineating the intersections among sustainability, resilience and chemical supply chain expansions. This mapping endeavor aims to facilitate a future characterized by the deployment of a nexus of resilience and sustainability in chemical supply chains. To this end, a promising future research agenda is accordingly outlined.

The purpose of this review paper is to address the need for mapping the thematic structure of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) in the context of tourism and hospitality research, in response to the growing interest in this methodology.

This study conducts a comprehensive systematic review using the SPAR-4-SLR procedure to produce a scientific map of top-tier research using the fsQCA technique in tourism and hospitality studies.

A major finding of this review investigation is the identification of six knowledge clusters: business competitiveness in the hospitality sector; psychoanalysis of tourist behaviour and satisfaction; entrepreneurship in the tourism and hospitality sector; tourism business ecosystem; sustainable tourism; and service quality in the tourism and hospitality sectors.

Although this review assessment relied heavily on articles published in prestigious journals, it does not rule out the idea that other sources, such as conference proceedings, can provide valuable insight.

Novel insights into the intellectual structure of tourism and hospitality research using the fsQCA technique, as well as ideas for future exploration in this domain, are presented in this review.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of literature on corporate engagement with start-ups (CEWS) by identifying the modes, contexts, antecedents, barriers and outcomes. As an emerging field, CEWS presently has no such review available which will help in building consensus within the field and shape future research directions.

The study followed a two-phased systematic review of literature. Three research databases (i.e. Web of Science, ScienceDirect and SCOPUS) were accessed to gather and conduct the review. Of the total 379 papers retrieved, 63 total relevant papers were studied and analysed. The exhaustive review of literature helped to uncover the contexts, perspectives, antecedents, outcomes and barriers reported across the different modes of CEWS.

The study highlighted the five prominent modes of CEWS favoured by large corporations and start-ups. It found that the large corporations and start-ups associate with one another on the basis of complementarities of activities, resources and motives to pursue their strategic orientations. The engagements also face barriers on the ground, such as incompatibility of goals, power imbalances, cultural differences and weak engagement plans. Most important contexts seen were the high-technology industries in the developed economies like the USA and Europe. It also found that ecosystem creation, accessing innovation and corporate strategy have been preferred as the most productive modes of CEWS in the literature.

This review provides practitioners with a detailed list of the modes and drivers of CEWS. Subsequently, the barriers that need to be managed to successfully execute a specific mode of engagement. This shall enable the practitioners in developing and adopting the best practices while engaging with the start-ups to better facilitate the outcomes of CEWS.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no systematic literature review available in the domain of CEWS – thus, this study makes an important methodological contribution to the field. By consolidating the fragmented yet growing knowledge on CEWS, the study presents a detailed understanding of what drives and obstructs the engagement between large corporations and start-ups.

The study aims to explore the available academic literature on the decision-making frameworks used in additive manufacturing management (AMM).

This research formulates a systematic literature review to determine the research trend of the decision-making framework in AMM. Further, the theory, context, characteristics, and methodology (TCCM) framework is used to identify the research gaps and suggest future research directions.

The systematic literature review (SLR) delves into overarching research themes within decision-making frameworks in AMM. Additionally, it uncovers trends in article publication, geographical distribution, methodologies utilized, and industry applications. This review not only reveals research gaps but also proposes directions for future exploration.

The key novelty of this research lies in revealing the five most contributing themes of decision-making frameworks in AMM, with the highest contributing theme being AM process selection, followed by part selection for AM. This finding enables decision-makers to make informed decisions to address similar problems while exploring AM technology. Moreover, this research introduces an AM part fabrication roadmap inspired by the literature review. Lastly, the paper highlights key research gaps for future research.

The aim was not to perform a systematic review but firstly to search in PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science databases on the papers published in the last five years using tools for reviewing the statement of preferred information item for systematic reviews without focusing on a randomized analysis and secondly to perform a bibliometric analysis on the properties of films and coatings added of tocopherol for food packaging.

On January 24, 2022, information was sought on the properties of films and coatings added of tocopherol for use as food packaging published in PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science databases. Further analysis was performed using bibliometric indicators with the VOSviewer tool.

The searches returned 33 studies concerning the properties of films and coatings added of tocopherol for food packaging, which were analyzed together for a better understanding of the results. Data analysis using the VOSviewer tool allowed a better visualization and exploration of these words and the development of maps that showed the main links between the publications.

In the area of food science and technology, the development of polymers capable of promoting the extension of the shelf life of food products is sought, so the knowledge of the properties is vital for this research area since combining a biodegradable polymeric material with a natural antioxidant active is of great interest for modern society since they associate environmental preservation with food preservation.

Today’s businesses are looking for a circular bioeconomy (CBE) to develop a sustainable manufacturing process as industrial operations result in significant amounts of waste materials and the depletion of natural sources. The industry commonly applies techniques such as lean manufacturing (LM), digital innovations (DI) and green practices (GP) for operational and quality improvement. However, publications explaining how these technologies enable the CBE transition are scarce. This study examines CBE components, common practices of each technology facilitating the CBE transition, problems of solitary technology deployment as well as coupling technologies for the CBE transition.

A scoping review was conducted to analyse previous studies in this new field. The data collection is in a quantitative manner, but the data synthesis process follows a similar method of synthesising data in the grounded theory method, which includes familiarisation with the data, open-coding and finalisation of the themes.

Critical components of CBE were identified as biobased goods, industry symbiosis, material resource efficiency, renewable energy, product lifecycle and sharing economy. GP is the most prominent in moderating the CBE transition. We identify each technology has coupled relationships (Lean-4.0, Green-Lean and Green-4.0) technologies facilitated by the circularity concept, which form the core pillars of enablers and advance the CBE paradigm.

This study demonstrates that combining lean principles with green technology and digital technologies can effectively decrease waste and resource usage in biobased manufacturing processes, therefore endorsing the concept of resource efficiency in circular bioeconomy models.

The results allow entrepreneurs to strategically incorporate different existing technologies to meet CBE fundamental objectives by initiating it with dual technologies and facilitate industry professionals and regulators to support the improvement of environmental sustainability performance in the manufacturing industry. The management will be able to focus on the common practices across the technologies, which have a dual benefit for both operational and environmental performance.

The paper makes the first attempt to present the synergic impact of the three quality management technologies on a new concept of sustainability, CBE.

At the beginning of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a digitalized construction environments surfaced in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in the form of a modern delivery system called demand controlled ventilation (DCV). Demand controlled ventilation has the potential to solve the building ventilation's biggest problem of managing indoor air quality (IAQ) for controlling COVID-19 transmission in indoor environments. However, the improper evaluation and information management of infection prevention on dense crowd activities such as measurement errors and volatile organic compound (VOC) generation failure rates, is fragmented so the aim of this research is to integrate this and explore potentials with machine learning algorithms (MLAs).

The method used is a thorough systematic literature review (SLR) approach. The results of this research consist of a detailed description of the DCV system and digitalized construction process of its IAQ elements.

The discussion revealed that DCV has a potential for being further integrated by perceiving it as a MLAs and hereby enabling the management of IAQ level from the perspective of health risk function mechanism (i.e. VOC and CO₂) for maintaining a comfortable thermal environment and save energy of public and private buildings (PPBs). The appropriate MLA can also be selected in different occupancy patterns for seasonal variations, ventilation behavior, building type and locations, as well as current indoor air pollution control strategies. Furthermore, the conceptual framework showed that MLA application such as algorithm design/Model Predictive Control (MPC) integration can alleviate the high spread limitation of COVID-19 in the indoor environment.

Finally, the research concludes that a large unexploited potential within integration and innovation is recognized in the DCV system and MLAs which can be improved to optimize level of IAQ from the perspective of health throughout the building sector DCV process systems. The requirements of CO₂ based DCV along with VOC concentrations monitoring practice should be taken into consideration through further research and experience with adaption and implementation from the ventilation control initial stage of the DCV process.

Prior studies have put much emphasis on using the uses and gratification (U&G) theory to find out why people use games, social media, the Internet, e-shopping, etc. Despite past research efforts, the root causes underlying this phenomenon still need to be discovered as to why people use interactive virtual rides (vrides) entertainment services, especially when incorporating the hedonic consumption perspective (i.e. playful-consumption experiences). Considering the knowledge gap in the vrides’ context, this study aims to use the UGT to find out why people use the vrides entertainment service from a hedonic consumption point of view.

With 217 usable responses, the research model was tested using partial least squares-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

Findings reveal that only perceived enjoyment, arousal and sensory experience derive continuous intention behavior to consume vride entertainment service. Findings using the fsQCA revealed multiple causal configurations for the proposed outcome.

This study contributes to extending the assumption of UGT via incorporating the hedonic consumption perspective to explore the potential motives and intention to consume vrides entertainment services. Our study also discusses the important theoretical/practical implications of our findings. Besides, this study is unique because it shows both symmetrical and asymmetrical connections that help us understand why people keep using vrides entertainment service.