Search results

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the development of a novel test instrument to quantify the eco‐functional properties of various shopping bags. One of the main properties, which lies at the interface of both ecological and functional properties, is the reusability of shopping bags. Other properties at this juncture also include the impact strength and weight holding capacity of a shopping bag.

The developed tester can be used to assess these three properties (reusability, impact strength and weight holding capacity) of any type of shopping bag. This study discusses the concept and development of an eco‐functional tester for shopping bags. It also reports test results of the reusability, impact strength and weight holding capacity of different types of shopping bags. Reusability and impact strength are expressed by two variants: absolute maximum capability and comparative maximum capability.

According to the test results, plastic bags outscore paper bags in the single use category and woven bags top the reusable bags category.

To date, there is no scientific instrument reported in the literature that quantifies the reusability of different shopping bags. The value of reusability can be directly utilized for LCA calculations. Other functions derived from this instrument are equally important, since they decide the useful life time of shopping bag and they assist the LCA practitioner to decide the functional unit of the study. This unit is the base of any LCA study and upon it comparisons are made.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

This study proposes targeted modernization of the Department of Defense (DoD's) Joint Forces Ammunition Logistics information system by implementing the optimized innovative information technology open architecture design and integrating Radio Frequency Identification Device data technologies and real-time optimization and control mechanisms as the critical technology components of the solution. The innovative information technology, which pursues the focused logistics, will be deployed in 36 months at the estimated cost of $568 million in constant dollars. We estimate that the Systems, Applications, Products (SAP)-based enterprise integration solution that the Army currently pursues will cost another $1.5 billion through the year 2014; however, it is unlikely to deliver the intended technical capabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to, using a quality management assessment framework (QMAF), provide a comparative analysis of quality management capabilities of organisations categorised by size and groups, based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) code.

A questionnaire-based survey was used for data collection. Statistical data analysis, including descriptive statistics, multivariate and univariate analysis of variance and Hsu’s multiple comparisons with/to the best post-hoc test results, was carried out to identify significant differences and similarities in total quality management capabilities between organisations based on the QMAF model.

Significant differences in quality management capabilities were identified between large organisations and SMEs while no significant differences were found to exist between medium- and small-size organisations. Most of the QMAF-based capabilities do not seem to show significant differences between the four groups of ANZSIC code of firms, except for partnering focus and business outcomes.

The research was limited by the number of returned responses of survey questionnaire from manufacturing organisations in the Greater Western Sydney region. This research provides practitioners with practical guidelines for improving quality management capabilities and can become the basis for comparative analysis in other regions of Australia, and globally. In addition, the research findings can be used by government and quality associations to develop appropriate strategies and policies for supporting the development of quality enhancing programmes in SMEs.

The comparative analysis of quality management capabilities by organisational size and industry type advances the previous work on optimum pathways of achieving business outcomes using the QMAF model. In addition, the research has mapped out differences in quality management capabilities, based on a combined scope of size and industry type, especially in the Greater Western Sydney region where a large number of SMEs are located.

This paper presents a method for adapting an Information Security Focus Area Maturity (ISFAM) model to the organizational characteristics (OCs) of a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) cluster. The purpose of this paper is to provide SMEs with a tailored maturity model enabling them to capture and improve their information security capabilities.

Design Science Research was followed to design and evaluate the method as a design artifact.

The method has successfully been used to adapt the ISFAM model to a group of SMEs within a regional cluster resulting in a model that is aligned with the OCs of the cluster. Areas for further investigation and improvements were identified.

The study is based on applying the proposed method for the SMEs active in the transport, logistics and packaging sector in the Port of Rotterdam. Future research can focus on different sectors and regions. The method can be used for adapting other focus area maturity models.

The resulting adapted maturity model can facilitate the creation and further development of a base of common or shared knowledge in the cluster. The adapted maturity model can cut the cost of over implementation of information security capabilities for the SMEs with scarce resources.

The resulting adapted maturity model can facilitate the creation and further development of a base of common or shared knowledge in the cluster. The adapted maturity model can cut the cost of over implementation of information security capabilities for the SMEs with scarce resources.

Considerable research has been conducted on the comparative advantage of Chinese manufactured exports before 2000, but too little attention has been focused on the twenty‐first century. With this rapid growth of China's export volume since 2001, what is the change in comparative advantage? Have qualitative changes taken place? The purpose of this paper is to conduct a thorough analysis of the comparative advantage of Chinese manufactures from 2002 to 2009, not only within the world market but also in the US market.

The research is based on 144 manufactures' comparative advantage in the US and world market, displaying the distribution and variation range for the comparative advantage of Chinese manufactures at different technological levels in the 2002‐2009 period with the RCA Index. This paper classifies 144 kinds of manufactures (on Standard International Trade Classification, Rev. 3 data) by technology level into five general groups and nine small groups, which cover the majority of Chinese manufactured exports.

First, the authors found that types of Chinese manufactured products with comparative advantage in both world and US markets are increasing. Most of the products with comparative advantage are low technology (LT) products. Second, in the world market, the comparative advantage of Chinese medium technology (MT) products has largely improved, but their RCA indexes are low and their kinds of products with very high comparative advantage are small. Third, as a whole, Chinese manufactured exports are of greater comparative advantage in the world market than in the US market. Specifically, LT products have the same position in world and US markets, while MT products and high technology (HT) products obviously have a greater comparative advantage in the world market.

First, little research has been conducted on the comparative advantage of Chinese manufactured exports since 2001. This paper undertakes a thorough analysis of the comparative advantage of Chinese manufactures from 2002 to 2009, not only within the world market but also in the US market. Second, it is very important for China to stabilize the overseas market demand and secure exports, this paper shows how China could cope with a crisis.

Organizational capabilities are crucial to achieve the objectives. A plethora of maturity models is available to guide organizational capabilities that create a perplexing situation about what stuff to improve and what to leave. Therefore, a unified maturity model addressing a wide range of capabilities is a necessity. This paper establishes that a flexibility maturity model is an unified model containing the operational, strategic and human capabilities.

This paper does a comparative analysis/benchmarking studies of different maturity models/frameworks widely used in the information technology (IT) sector with respect to the flexibility maturity model to establish its comprehensiveness and application in the organization to handle multiple goals.

This study confirms that the flexibility maturity model has the crucial elements of all the maturity models. If the organizations use the flexibility maturity model, they can avoid the burden of complying with multiple ones and become objective-driven rather than compliance-driven.

The maturity models used in information technology sectors are used. This work will inspire other maturity models to adopt flexibility phenomena.

The comparative analysis will give confidence in application of flexibility framework. The business environment and strategic options across organizations are inherently different that the flexibility maturity model well handles.

A choice is put to an organization to see the comparison tables produced in this paper and choose the right framework according to the prevailing business situation.

This is the first study that makes a conclusion based on comparative benchmarking of existing maturity models.

Despite the growing awareness of supply chains on industry 4.0 (I4.0) capabilities as the enabler of sustainable performance, little is known about what accelerates this interaction. Prior studies have focused on the ambidexterity dilemma and the need to adopt sustainable inter-organizational governance to drive I4.0 capabilities while achieving sustainable performance. To address these issues, this paper aims to explore the distinct and combined effects of several approaches such as digital business transformation (DBT), organizational ambidexterity (OA) and circular business models (CBMs) on the relationship between I4.0 capabilities and sustainable performance.

Drawing upon a hybrid methodology including structural equation modeling and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, this paper develops and tests a hypothetical model using data collected from 306 organizations in Europe, Asia and Africa.

The study findings lead to several important implications concerning the potential paths linking I4.0 and sustainable performance. Notably, the DBT was found to mediate this relationship by integrating circular principles to devise business models. Moreover, OA was found to substitute the CBMs in developing new sustainable business models and reconcile sustainability.

The study is among the first to analyze the combined effects of OA, DBT and CBMs on the relationship between I4.0 capabilities and sustainable performance at the supply chain level. Moreover, the findings propose several solutions to resolve the sustainability dilemma through I4.0 capabilities, DBT, OA and CBMs.

Total risk score (TRS) is considered one of the main indicators for risk evaluation. Several studies attempted to employ different types of risk indices for the evaluation of cost overrun causes. Hence, this study aims at performing a comparative analysis to evaluate the efficiency of three different approaches for TRS calculation.

Thirty-eight unique causes of cost overrun in urban-related construction projects were identified and a survey was conducted among construction professionals in Iran. The TRS for each cost overrun cause is calculated using single-attribute (SA), double-attribute (DA), and multiple-attribute (MA) approaches, and eventually, causes were ranked. Furthermore, principal component analysis (PCA), logistic regression analysis (LRA), and K-means clustering are utilized to compare the differences in the generated TRS using different approaches.

The results revealed that the TRS generated through the MA approach demonstrated the highest efficiency in terms of generating correlation between causes and their identified latent constructs, prediction capability, and classification of the influential causes in the same group.

The originality of this study primarily stems from the adoption of statistical approaches in the evaluation of the recently introduced TRS calculation approach in comparison to traditional ones. Additionally, this study proposed a modified application of the relative importance index (RII) for risk prioritization. The results from this study are expected to fulfill the gap in previous literature toward exploring the most efficient TRS calculation approach for those researchers and practitioners who seek to utilize them as a measure to identify the influential cost overrun causes.

This paper aims to examine how modern small-medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in the tourism industry perceive and define corporate performance, and how they measure and monitor businesses’ achievements. Actual performance measurement activities are expected to show how (and if) companies manage the key factors that drive value creation and value erosion processes. Are effective performance measurement activities aligned with main theoretical prescriptions?

Theory and previous empirical research on SMEs’ performance is instrumentally used to identify those key factors that are supposed to drive small/medium hotels’ business performance; building on a resource-based view (RBV) framework, which provides the theoretical perspective to link resources, capabilities and actions to firm performance, a model based on the financial, the operational and the organisational dimension of firm’s success is developed through the selection of a set of consistent financial and non-financial indicators. The balanced performance measurement model is then tested via a field research study based on a semi-structured questionnaire sent to 540 selected SMEs active in the tourism sector.

The results suggest that small-medium Italian hotels, typically family firms managed by owners, tend to adopt a balanced system of performance measurement that keeps track of the financial and non-financial dimensions of hotel’s performance; customer orientation proves to be an extremely important leading indicator of non-financial corporate performance. Amongst traditional financial indicators, net profits, profitability ratios such as return on investment and return on sales, revenues for available room, occupancy rate and some cost efficiency ratios are found to be relevant, whereas extensive use is made of non-financial metrics such as customer satisfaction, number of complaints, number of new and repeat customers, employee competencies and staff abilities. Furthermore, some interesting results about frequency of measurement and purpose of measurement are also presented.

Data used in this study do not allow for a comprehensive analysis of the correlation between hotel performance and a specific measurement model implemented. Further future research that is meant to be developed will focus on the issue of addressing the nexus between firm performance and resource and capability used as strategic factors and monitored with an effective performance measurement system. The sample can also be expanded to carry out comparative analysis.

The results shed some further light on performance measurement activities actually implemented by Italian hotels. The evidence gives a contribution to understanding the relationship between critical resources and capabilities that need to be developed and effectively managed to reach superior business performance. Furthermore, the study highlights the need to design and implement a customised performance measurement model, which accounts for firm-specific resources and capabilities and sector-specific features for the hotel to properly manage those strategical success factors that can deliver sustained competitive advantage to the firm.

This research paper contributes to performance measurement literature, by suggesting that the development and the implementation of a simplified but structured and complete performance measurement system, designed on the specific needs and features of SMEs, seems to be a sensible way to improve resources and capabilities utilisation and to obtain a holistic understanding of the achievements of these organisations.