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This paper examines the impact of both the China-Hong Kong free-trade agreement and quota phasing-out on Hong Kong's textiles and clothing manufacturing industry in the post- MFA regime. In particular, it answers the question whether CEPA benefits companies in the short term and strengthens their strategic decisions in the long run as shown by evidence from various data sources and other related studies in the literature. Findings show that the industry will continue to consolidate even in light of the zero import tariffs in China provided by the agreement. We conclude that, from strategic perspectives, the agreement can act as a test-bed to enhance China's regulatory reform and govern the trade restructuring. Some other implications for the industry will be mentioned.

This paper focuses on coordination and collaboration technologies in contemporary knowledge management. In particular, we focus on the roles of coordination and collaboration technologies in managing knowledge in global textile and apparel companies. We begin by presenting the issues of knowledge and knowledge management in organizations, and determining how the latest coordination and collaboration technologies aid networked organizations in managing, sharing, and transferring their “knowledge.” The paper also examines the functions of the latest technologies in communication and coordination and determines how they help the organizations share, store, and transfer their “knowledge” between and within the organizations. This paper suggests how the latest technologies in communication can be applied to managing knowledge in organizations. Although our study is mainly based on empirical observations of international textile and apparel companies, the contextual elements governing the use of the technologies apply to all businesses that rely on proper communication and coordination to plan and monitor globally dispersed functional teams and enterprises.

This research concerns how to implement knowledge management for coordination and collaboration and what the important issues are in managing knowledge in today's globalizing fashion business contexts. Through a literature survey, we develop an implementation framework that provides a new, knowledge-centred management paradigm for organizations. We begin with a discussion of the issues of knowledge and knowledge management as aspects of the organizational process, and examine how knowledge management aids networked organizations in managing, sharing, and transferring their "knowledge". On such a premise we examine a case of how knowledge management can be operationalized and assessed in terms of the three-dimensional aspects of managing the latest communication and coordination technologies: predictability, interconnectedness, and efficiency. Although our research is based on empirical observations of international textile and apparel companies, the contextual elements governing the use of the technologies apply to all businesses that rely on proper communication and coordination to plan and monitor globally dispersed functional teams and enterprises.

Modern organizations face more and more challenges in today's globalizing markets. Many textile firms operate collaboratively as a globally-networked virtual team to sustain their competitiveness. How to select and utilize a diversity of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to facilitate collaboration among these textile virtual teams is a critical issue to these enterprises. This paper explores the criteria of ICT adoption in collaboration processes from both theoretical and practical perspectives. First, ICTs theories of telecommunications are reviewed to conclude background knowledge and examine contextual requirements for ICTs. We find that the conveyance of social cues, the ability of fostering member involvement and coordinating interruptions, and the user-friendly interface of communication technology are crucial to the remote collaboration among textile firms. Second, empirical in-depth interviews with 20 practitioners in textile and apparel companies are conducted. Then, combining the findings, we discuss the features of primary ICTs adopted in practice at present. We recommend six essential facets in ICTs adoption during textile virtual team communication (i.e. synchronicity, medium richness, connectedness, disruptiveness, ease of use, and cost). We also suggest how these ICTs can be deployed in line with organizational and individual factors to facilitate textile virtual collaboration.

Given the intense international competition brought on by globalisation, an organization's profit is largely determined by how it leverages its internal and external resources. This paper studies the production sourcing strategies adopted by the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the clothing industry together with their motivations for outsourcing, adoption of buyer-seller relationships, and satisfaction with their production sourcing performance. A conceptual framework was developed from the literature and tested using a questionnaire survey. Quantitative analysis showed that motivational factors (MFs) can affect an SME's satisfaction with its operational achievement; while host-country and location MFs can affect its strategic achievement. In addition, firms adopting a pure transaction approach seemed to be negatively motivated by the total-cost factor; and those adopting a more diverse sourcing strategy were more likely to be motivated by the corporate factor so as to develop appropriate buyer-seller relationships with vendors, and to be satisfied with their operational performance. This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of business networking from the perspectives of SMEs in regard to their pursuit of production sourcing; and demonstrates how clothing SMEs adopt production sourcing strategies to improve their production sourcing performance.

The purpose of this paper is to deal with the stabilization of the continuous Takagi Sugeno (TS) fuzzy models using their discretized forms based on the decay rate performance approach.

This approach is structured as follows: first, a discrete model is obtained from the discretization of the continuous TS fuzzy model. The discretized model is obtained from the Euler approximation method which is used for several orders. Second, based on the decay rate stabilization conditions, the gains of a non-PDC control law ensuring the stabilization of the discrete model are determined. Third by keeping the values of the gains, the authors determine the values of the performance criterion and the authors check by simulation the stability of the continuous TS fuzzy models through the zero order hold.

The proposed idea lead to compare the performance continuous stability results with the literature. The comparison is, also, taken between the quadratic and non-quadratic cases.

Therefore, the originality of this paper consists in the improvement of the continuous fuzzy models by using their discretized models. In this case, the effect of the discretization step on the performances of the continuous TS fuzzy models is studied. The usefulness of this approach is shown through two examples.

The purpose of this paper is to deal with the stabilization of the continuous-time Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy models by using their discretized models.

In this case, a discrete model is obtained from the discretization of the continuous TS fuzzy model. The gains obtained from a non-parallel distributed compensation controller ensuring the stabilization of the discrete model are used to check if the discrete control law used in the continuous time without any zero-order hold can stabilize the continuous TS model.

This method is compared to another published method.

Therefore, the originality of this paper consists in the fusion of the two continuous and discrete cases to obtain new stabilization conditions in the continuous case. Simulation examples show the interest of the proposed approach.

Board diversity positively impacts corporate social responsibility (CSR); however, there is limited evidence on how board diversity affects the reputation of organizations that are involved in CSR. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect board diversity has on socially responsible firms’ corporate social responsibility reputation (CSRR). The authors specifically examine this relationship because an organization’s corporate reputation may be very different to its CSRR gained through engagement in socially responsible activities.

The authors use the CSR reputation scores for the top 100 most socially responsible global companies provided by the RepTrak Database as a measure of CSRR. Board diversity measures are calculated for gender, ethnicity and education to measure their impact on social reputation. The sample for this study consists of 146 observations for the period 2013–2017.

The authors find a significant and positive relation between having a combination of women and ethnically diverse members on the board and firms’ CSRR. The authors also find a significant positive effect on CSRR when the board is composed of women and educationally diverse members.

Board diversity characteristics continue to impact organizations’ decision-making processes and their involvement in CSR activities as public stakeholders demand greater representation of females and minorities on the board. Because research on board diversity is in its infancy, the authors urge scholars to continue to investigate the impact board diversity has on an organization’s motivation to be socially responsible as well as how it affects their CSRR.

The findings of this study highlight the importance stakeholders place on an organization’s social responsibility reputation and the positive effects of board diversity in managing their CSRR.

The findings provide evidence that the composition of the board can influence a company’s engagement in CSR activities and their CSRR as perceived by its stakeholders.

This study contributes to the CSR literature by introducing the concept of CSRR. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study also extends research in the diversity literature by examining the relationship between board diversity variables and an organization’s CSRR. The findings highlight the importance of having a diverse board composed of ethnically and educationally varied individuals and provide evidence of a link between organizations’ involvement in socially responsible activities and their CSRR.

This study aims to apply the service robot acceptance model (sRAM) to examine how attitude toward human–robot interaction (HRI) and engagement influence consumer acceptance of service robots in a frontline setting.

Data was collected from 255 visitors who interacted with a robotic tour guide at a city museum. The data was analyzed using smart PLS 4.0.

The findings show the positive effects of subjective norms, appearance, perceived trust and positive emotion on both attitude toward HRI and engagement. In addition, social capability impacted attitude toward HRI, whereas perceived usefulness affected engagement.

To deliver engaging museum experiences that bring about positive word-of-mouth and intention to visit, managers need to incorporate the sRAM dimensions in the design and deployment of service robots.

This research uses field data to empirically validate the sRAM in the context of service robot acceptance. It introduces engagement as a novel mediating variable, enriching current understanding of human-like qualities in HRIs.

Presents a special issue, enlisting the help of the author’s students and colleagues, focusing on age, sex, colour and disability discrimination in America. Breaks the evidence down into manageable chunks, covering: age discrimination in the workplace; discrimination against African‐Americans; sex discrimination in the workplace; same sex sexual harassment; how to investigate and prove disability discrimination; sexual harassment in the military; when the main US job‐discrimination law applies to small companies; how to investigate and prove racial discrimination; developments concerning race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; developments concerning discrimination against workers with HIV or AIDS; developments concerning discrimination based on refusal of family care leave; developments concerning discrimination against gay or lesbian employees; developments concerning discrimination based on colour; how to investigate and prove discrimination concerning based on colour; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; using statistics in employment discrimination cases; race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning gender discrimination in the workplace; discrimination in Japanese organizations in America; discrimination in the entertainment industry; discrimination in the utility industry; understanding and effectively managing national origin discrimination; how to investigate and prove hiring discrimination based on colour; and, finally, how to investigate sexual harassment in the workplace.