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This study examines the interaction between sales control systems and firm level strategic orientations and their joint effects on company performance in B2B context. Independent and joint effects of market orientation (MO), innovation orientation (IO) and sales control systems (SCS) on firm performance were analyzed.

A quantitative research methodology is adopted to compile firm-level primary data from manufacturing companies located in an organized industrial zone. Research data were collected by face-to-face surveys from 302 sales professionals. The research model and hypotheses were tested by using partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM) with Smart PLS 3.0.

In addition to confirming the positive effects of MO and IO on performance, data analyses revealed that SCS exert an indirect effect on company performance which is fully mediated by MO.

The research was limited to a developing country context and research data was collected from a convenient sample of B2B companies by a cross-sectional study. Cross-cultural and longitudinal studies may provide additional insights. Firm level strategic orientations and sales control systems must be examined together in an integrated way to explore their effects on company performance. The individual effects of these structures on business performance may manifest differently when they come together.

Results indicate that the sales control system setup is critical for the implementation of a market-oriented strategy. This study highlights the importance of setting a compatible sales control system to achieve organizational goals in accordance with the strategic orientations which affect the success of particular organizational strategies.

Although the current literature identifies the independent and joint effects of market orientation and innovation orientation on company performance, empirical studies probing the interaction of sales control systems with these constructs is very scarce. Understanding how sales control systems relate to strategic orientations will help design a more effective sales organization and improve company performance. This study contributes to the literature by promoting additional insights by linking sales control systems with market orientation, innovation orientation and company performance.

This study investigates how organizational control systems induce emotional labor in frontline service employees (FLEs). Drawing on the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) theory, we hypothesized that two control systems, an outcome-based control system (OBCS) and a behavior-based control system (BBCS), trigger work engagement rather than organizational dehumanization in FLEs, leading them to choose deep acting rather than surface acting as an emotional labor strategy.

This study employed three-wave online surveys conducted 3–4 months apart to assess the time-lagged effects of S-O-R. We measured OBCS, BBCS (stimuli) and control variables at Time 1 (T1); work engagement and organizational dehumanization (organisms) at Time 2 (T2) and emotional labor strategies (responses) at Time 3 (T3). A total of 218 employees completed the T1, T2 and T3 surveys.

OBCS increased work engagement, leading to increased deep acting. BBCS enhanced organizational dehumanization, leading to increased surface acting. Post-hoc analysis confirmed that the indirect effect of OBCS on deep acting through work engagement and the mediation effect of BBCS on surface acting through organizational dehumanization were statistically significant.

This study collected three-wave data to reveal how organizational control systems affect FLEs’ emotional labor in the S-O-R framework. It illustrated how organizations induce FLEs to perform effective emotional strategies by investigating the effects of organizational control systems on their internal states.

This paper aims to identify and report the differential effects of activity control and capability control on role stressors, which subsequently affect salespeople’s job satisfaction and sales performance.

Drawing on job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, the authors defined active control and customer demandingness as the job demands and capability control as the job resource, and designed their relationship with role stressors, which are indicated as role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload. The authors enrolled a sample of 223 industrial salespeople from pharmaceutical companies. After collecting the data, the authors used structural equation modeling using AMOS to test and estimate causal relationships along with a two-step approach to examine the interaction effect. The authors have also tested the simple slope of two-way interactions. All of the measured variables were identical to those used in previous studies.

The study findings indicate that behavior-based control can be counterproductive. Reducing activity control can decrease role stress, increase job satisfaction and improve job performance; increasing capability control, however, can reduce role stress and increase job satisfaction and performance. It is also important to acknowledge the external environment of the sales context in which behavior-based control is most effective: whereas high customer demandingness and capability control are related to reduced role stress, high customer demandingness and activity control are related to increased role stress.

Sales managers should recognize that different control management regimes reinforce or mitigate salespeople’s job stressors and outcomes under specific conditions (i.e. work environments marked by higher or lower customer demandingness).

Drawing on JD-R theory, the research shows that a behavior control (i.e. activity control and capability control) has differential, and even opposite, psychological consequences.

This paper aims to conceptually unite an ontology of cybernetics, bridging living and technical systems, to facilitate future epistemological and theoretical advancements applicable to highly technical societies by crafting a set of definitions that elucidate the nature of the world in which these systems operate.

The research uses a thematic synthesis of two systems/cybernetic traditions: complex adaptive systems and mechanology. The primary sources for this research were the main theses and correlated papers published in the Simondon case for mechanology, and the seminal literature preselected by the Santa Fe Institute for complex adaptive systems.

The study proposes the following concepts: Individuation: the emergence of new properties in an individual composed of synergistically related parts; Technical evolution: the notion that technical objects evolve into living beings; circular causality: the notion that feedback and feedforward processes shape the organisation and structure of systems and their relationship with the environment; The milieu refers to the part of the environment that has a relationship of co-production, co-dependency, and co-evolution with systems. Metastability is a state that transcends stability and instability and motivates changes in the system. Transduction is the cumulative process of individuation in which systems change structure and organization to maintain operational coherence with their surroundings.

The concepts the paper identifies can serve as a starting point for an extended study on the ontology of cybernetics or as the basis for an evolutionary epistemology both in humans and machines.

This study explores the configurations of management control systems (MCSs) while taking into account entrepreneurial cognition styles (ECSs) in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The objective is to understand the impact of ECS on deployment and identify the various modes of MCS configurations employed by SMEs. The authors draw on and synthesise two theoretical perspectives relating to cognition and management control packages to understand the associations between ECS and MCS employed by SMEs in managing their business. This study was conducted using a quantitative approach that utilises a questionnaire survey to collect cross-sectional data from 150 SMEs. The authors uncovered three cognitive styles: knowing (e.g. preciseness), planning (e.g. organising), and creativity (e.g. innovativeness). Furthermore, five configurations of MCS utilised by SMEs were identified: customer focus, performance monitoring, administrative focus, strategic focus, and development focus. By combining both analyses, the authors discovered three constellations of significant association between ECS and MCS characterised by Cluster 1’s cohesive integration approach, Cluster 2’s revealing strategic approach, and Cluster 3’s multifaceted exploration. The study is significant because it uncovers the complex relationship between ECS and MCS configurations, highlighting their interdependence within the institutional context. Using a cognitive view, the authors explore how the cognitive styles of entrepreneurs facilitated imprinting institutional context into MCS configurations. These insights enable us to envisage that ECS is not mutually exclusive but forms a continuum that provides more plausible explanations that relax the direct universal relationship between MCS configurations and contextual factors.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the integration of business intelligence (BI) systems in the digital transformation context and its impact on management control (MC) and organizational performance by delving into the implementation of a BI pilot project in a multinational Engineering and Construction (E&C) group.

This research adopts a qualitative insider action research approach. The initial stage of a BI system (BIS) is implemented by leveraging the critical success factors (CSFs) framework, based on the organizational, process and technological dimensions.

The results show that the BI solution leverages the capabilities of the reporting process with impacts on MC and overall organizational performance. The study uncovers the intricate dynamics of integrating BI and reports gains that span across streamlined and standardized processes, optimized use of resources, improved data flexibility and nurturing a data-driven culture.

This research adds to the current literature on MC and accounting information systems by providing an in-depth analysis of the early stages involved in implementing a BIS. The approach uses a well-established CSFs framework, which enhances the comprehension of how these factors impact the success of the implementation process. Focusing on the E&C sector, where the adoption of digital transformation is still gaining traction, this study provides practical knowledge and extends the theoretical understanding of BI technology applications with empirical evidence from the accounting field.

Enzymes play a pivotal role in orchestrating essential biochemical processes and influencing various cellular activities in tissue. This paper aims to provide the process of enzyme diffusion within the tissue matrix and enhance the nano system performance by means of the effectiveness of enzymatic functions. The diffusion phenomena are also documented, providing chemical insights into the complex processes governing enzyme movement.

A computational analysis is used to develop and simulate an optimal control model using numerical algorithms, systematically regulating enzyme concentrations within the tissue scaffold.

The accompanying videographic footages offer detailed insights into the dynamic complexity of the system, enriching the reader’s understanding. This comprehensive exploration not only contributes valuable knowledge to the field but also advances computational analysis in tissue engineering and biomimetic systems. The work is linked to biomolecular structures and dynamics, offering a detailed understanding of how these elements influence enzymatic functions, ultimately bridging the gap between theoretical insights and practical implications.

A computational predictive model for nanozyme that describes the reaction diffusion dynamics process with enzyme catalysts is yet not available in existing literature.

This study assesses the current landscape of business continuity management (BCM) research while exploring research trends, structures and delineating potential future directions.

A comprehensive bibliometric analysis was conducted on 360 articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases using Biblioshiny software. A meta-synthesis was employed to aggregate and synthesize findings from the bibliometric results.

The results demonstrate a notable increase in publication numbers since the onset of the pandemic, reaching a peak in 2022 with a total of 342 articles. A collaborative bond among scholars transcends geographical boundaries and national affiliations. The analytical results propose avenues for future research, addressing crucial areas such as the integration of business continuity management systems (BCMS), the development of BCM frameworks and a comparative analysis of business impact analysis (BIA) frameworks through pertinent theories.

The study contributes theoretical and practical implications, serving as a valuable resource for academics and practitioners seeking to deepen their understanding of BCM’s role in business recovery and preserving organizational continuity in the face of disruptions.

This study pioneers a comprehensive approach by integrating bibliometric analysis and qualitative meta-synthesis, providing a consolidated overview of BCM research. Additionally, it presents future research proposals in this area.

This study aims to address the issue of random movement and non coordination between docking mechanisms and locking mechanisms, and proposes a comprehensive dynamic docking control architecture that integrates perception, planning, and motion control.

Firstly, the proposed dynamic docking control architecture uses laser sensors and a charge-coupled device camera to perceive the pose of the target. The sensor data are mapped to a high-dimensional potential field space and fused to reduce interference caused by detection noise. Next, a new potential function based on multi-dimensional space is developed for docking path planning, which enables the docking mechanism based on Stewart platform to rapidly converge to the target axis of the locking mechanism, which improves the adaptability and terminal docking accuracy of the docking state. Finally, to achieve precise tracking and flexible docking in the final stage, the system combines a self-impedance controller and an impedance control algorithm based on the planned trajectory.

Extensive simulations and experiments have been conducted to validate the effectiveness of the dynamic docking system and its control architecture. The results indicate that even if the target moves randomly, the system can successfully achieve accurate, stable and flexible dynamic docking.

This research can provide technical guidance and reference for docking task of unmanned vehicles under the ground conditions. It can also provide ideas for space docking missions, such as space simulator docking.

The aim of this paper is to enhance the control performance of dexterous hands, enabling them to handle the high data flow from multiple sensors and to meet the deployment requirements of deep learning methods on dexterous hands.

A distributed control architecture was designed, comprising embedded motion control subsystems and a host control subsystem built on ROS. The design of embedded controller state machines and clock synchronization algorithms ensured the stable operation of the entire distributed control system.

Experiments demonstrate that the entire system can operate stably at 1KHz. Additionally, the host can accomplish learning-based estimates of contact position and force.

This distributed architecture provides foundational support for the large-scale application of machine learning algorithms on dexterous hands. Dexterity hands utilizing this architecture can be easily integrated with robotic arms.