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Advancements in responsive manufacturing have been supporting companies over the last few decades. However, manufacturers now operate in a context of continuous uncertainty. This research paper explores a mechanism where companies can “elastically” provision and deprovision their production capacity, to enable them in coping with repeated disruptions. Such a mechanism is facilitated by the imitability and substitutability of production resources.

An inductive study was conducted using Gioia methodology for this theory generation research. Respondents from 20 UK manufacturing companies across multiple industrial sectors reflected on their experience during COVID-19. Resource-based view and resource dependence theory were employed to analyse the manufacturers' use of internal and external production resources.

The study identifies elastic responses at four operational levels: production-line, factory, company and supply chain. Elastic responses that imposed variable-costs were particularly well-suited for coping with unforeseen disruptions. Further, the imitability and substitutability of manufacturers helped others produce alternate goods during the crisis.

While uniqueness of production capability helps manufacturers sustain competitive advantage against competitors during stable operations, imitability and substitutability are beneficial during a crisis. Successful manufacturing companies need to combine these two approaches to respond effectively to repeated disruptions in a context of ongoing uncertainties. The theoretical contribution is in characterising responsive manufacturing in terms of resource heterogeneity and resource homogeneity, with elastic resourcing as the underlying mechanism.

This paper aims to use doctrinal legal investigative methods combined with economic analysis to investigate the efficacy of the Law.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the inherent absurdity in the modern law of town and village greens (TVGs). The author wishes to show that the public understanding of what constitutes a green worth protecting is incomparable with how the Law currently operates, instead providing a crude vehicle to prevent development.

Applying an efficiency maximisation framework to the law of TVGs the Law fails to protect land worth protecting, as well as prevents allocatively efficient bargaining from taking place.

This research has not presented empirical evidence to suggest the extent of the damage identified. This is a separate question to the marginal impacts of the damage.

A Law and Economics analysis of TVG Law in England and Wales has not been attempted before.

This paper explores the relevant fire code requirements and outlines the development of an evaluation tool based on these codes to evaluate fire safety measures in dining properties.

Existing literature was examined to identify the combustible materials, fire causes and factors making these properties prone to fire incidents. An evaluation method, based on code regulations, for ensuring fire safety in dining properties was then developed and tested on a specific dining facility to validate its practicality.

Forty requirements, grouped into seven categories, were identified for ensuring fire safety in dining properties. The case study exposed multiple violations of fire safety, leading to corrective measures for enhancing the fire safety status of the building.

This study introduced a methodical approach for raising awareness, among property managers of dining properties, about fire incidences and their consequences. It presents an evaluation tool for assessing the compliance level with fire codes and standards.

Dining properties are facilities that offer both dine-in and take-out food services. Given the increasing number of fire incidents in dining properties worldwide, there is a substantial demand for a process to audit the adherence to fire safety codes in these properties. This study presents a systematic approach to increase public knowledge of fire events and their effects in dining properties.

This chapter draws on longitudinal case study research that focused on the experiences of hospitality employees working in a UK university who worked split shifts in the morning and evening while completing NVQ 2 and 3 apprenticeship training. We show how fragmented working time (Rubery, Grimshaw, Hebson, & Ugarte, 2015) rather than long hours led to the apprenticeship training further eroding an already blurred work-life boundary as workers were required to complete training activities in their non-work time which for them is during the middle of the day. We argue current depictions of the positive impact of training and development on low paid workers are decontextualized from the challenges and priorities of workers whose work-life interface is already complex because of working fragmented hours across the day. This is complicated even further by the dynamic and evolving experiences of workers themselves as they experience the highs and lows of combining paid work and training. We situate the research in the context of wider conceptual debates that call for a more inclusive approach to research on the work-life interface (Warren, 2021) and highlight implications for HR practitioners who want to offer such opportunities to low paid workers in sectors such as hospitality, while also recognizing the complex challenges such workers may face.

The notion of sexual health has become a buzzword across various spheres, including the scientific, political, and social arenas. In a similar manner, discussions about the subject of disability and sexuality are commonly articulated through the lens of sexual health and “healthy sexualities.” Greater focus has been placed on issues of protection, abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and unplanned pregnancy. Opportunities to talk about sex, desire, and pleasure is missing in this discourse. Drawing on my experience conducting studies about disability and sexuality, I interrogate the (over)reliance and unproblematized use in terms of the language of sexual health and healthy sexuality when it comes to people labeled/with intellectual disabilities.