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The purpose of this paper is to assess the quality of commercial lubricant oils. A spectroscopic method was used in combination with multivariate regression techniques (ordinary multivariate multiple regression, principal components analysis, partial least squares, and support vector regression (SVR)).

The rationale behind the use of SVR was the fuzzy characteristics of the signal and its inherent ability to find nonlinear, global solutions in highly complex dimensional input spaces. Thus, SVR allows extracting useful information from calibration samples that makes it possible to characterize physical-chemical properties of the lubricant oils.

A dataset of 42 spectra measured from oil standards was studied to assess the concentration of copper into the oils and, thus, evaluate the wearing of the machinery. It was found that the use of SVR was very advantageous to get a regression model.

The use of genetic algorithms coupled to SVR was considered in order to reduce the time needed to find the optimal parameters required to get a suitable prediction model.

The purpose of this paper is to explore shared workspace and professional learning community (PLC) interactions in schools. The collaborative culture and PLCs were parts of the school culture. The collaborative culture of each school was designed to ensure teachers share intellectual and physical contributions in learning to investigate the impact of teaching and learning on students. The workspace overlap for teachers was part of the culture of each school and a function of the PLC interactions. PLCs provided opportunities for collaboration and therefore opportunities to share intellectual and physical workspace.

A grounded theory research approach was taken to this investigation, primarily because of the common experiences of educators in schools (Creswell, 2013). Collaborative process between educators in schools was qualitatively investigated as a function of PLC interactions. In all, three communities, five schools, and 70 educators were purposefully selected to participate. Data were collected, including semi-structured interviews, observations, artifacts, and researcher field notes.

The workspace interactions include shared leadership, decision making, teaching and learning practice, and accountability measures. Attributes and characteristics of effective collaboration and PLCs greatly affect the outcomes of PLCs. An emergent framework is provided that includes attributes of effective collaboration and the characteristics of effective PLCs that merge into intellectual and physical shared workspace.

This paper focuses on the connections between PLCs, school culture, and professional educator collaboration. This paper proposes to provide a unique model called the shared workspace. The model combines the intellectual and physical aspects of group members to ensure the effectiveness of collaborative systems that promote quality practice in schools through functional PLCs as part of a positive school culture. This paper further offers extensions to the shared leadership concept (Carpenter, 2015) in how schools, administrators, and teachers should work together, thus more collaboratively through a continuous improvement process of the school as a workplace and a learning organization.

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the nature of variations among established and emerging middle class consumers in South Africa in response to the institution context factors associated with emerging markets that are established in international business studies.

An exploratory research approach using semi-structured expert interviews was used to collect data.

Key findings indicate distinct approaches in dealing with factors such as different fallback positions, asset ownership, education, language, family responsibility, career aspirations and risk protection in the middle class process of attaining and sustaining middle class status.

The focus on one country has the potential to minimize the generalizability of findings from the study, however, South Africa has a significantly high proportion of sub-Saharan middle class consumers. This provides a basis for further a basis for further research into other sub-Saharan African countries.

Findings from the study provide practical insights on risk profiling of middle-class consumers for marketing practitioners.

The study provides insights into the distinct variations between emerging and established middle class consumers in areas such as language and education. These insights have potential implications on the implementation of government policies such as the Empowerment Policy and consumer protection.

The paper expands the research agenda in the area of middle class consumer behavior in emerging markets. By concentrating on South Africa, the research expands existing knowledge beyond emerging giants like China and India, which are often a focus in literature.

African countries inevitably take loans due to lack of fiscal space more so, due to the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic in Africa, several loans and bailouts are expected from the West. These loans come with conditions which have policy implications. This study aims at examining the impact of loans received by selected African countries from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank during the period 1994 to 2020. The study makes use of a cross sectional panel data analysis and quantile regression models. Results indicate that IMF loans had a positively but insignificant impact on GDP whilst World Bank loans and debt service to export ratio negatively affect GDP. These finding suggest that loans are not a necessary evil in Africa but what matters is targeting debt towards growth priorities. This study recommends that policies should be put to direct the use of loans towards economic growth and sustainability in Africa.

This work examines the intersection between traditional human resource management and the novel employment arrangements of the expanding gig economy. While there is a substantial multidisciplinary literature on the digital platform labor phenomenon, it has been largely centered on the experiences of gig workers. As digital labor platforms continue to grow and specialize, more managers, executives, and human resource practitioners will need to make decisions about whether and how to utilize gig workers. Here the authors explore and interrogate the unique features of human resource management (HRM) activities in the context of digital labor platforms. The authors discuss challenges and opportunities regarding (1) HRM in organizations that outsource labor needs to external labor platforms, (2) HRM functions within digital labor platform firms, and (3) HRM policies and practices for organizations that develop their own spin-off digital labor platform. To foster a more nuanced understanding of work in the gig economy, the authors identify common themes across these contexts, highlight knowledge gaps, offer recommendations for future research, and outline pathways for collecting empirical data on HRM in the gig economy.

Recent literature has highlighted the importance of human resource management, knowledge management, and technical innovation as key elements for achieving competitive advantage. Furthermore, research has shown a positive relationship between these three variables. However, empirical research on this issue is still scarce. This paper analyzes those linkages using structural equation modeling with data collected from 373 Spanish firms. The findings show that there is a relationship among the variables, although it is more complex than described in previous studies.

Can we do business with strangers? A major handicap to any promotion is ignorance of the market and its members. In order to understand Latin Americans, says Albert Hirschman, we must first understand how Latin Americans understand each other. We see the “facts” one way, but their perception of these same facts is often very different. This is my purpose in reporting on Peru's attitude and internal discussions on international trade. Why Peru? A U S. State Department official told me that they consider Peru as a sort of bell wether in South America. Abraham Lowenthal of the Inter‐American Dialog says Peru has an international significance greater than would be expected, considering the size of its economy, and E. V. K. Fitzgerald of Cambridge says the Peruvian experience is significant in judgimg prospects in South America.

This paper aims to explore synergies between lean production (LP) and six sigma principles to propose a lean six sigma (LSS) framework for continuous and incremental improvement in the oil and gas sector. The Three-dimensional LSS framework seeks to provide various combinations about the integration between LP principles, DMAIC (define–measure–analyse–improve–control) cycle and plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle to support operations management needs.

The research method is composed of two main steps: diagnosis of current problems and proposition of a conceptual framework that qualitatively integrates synergistic aspects of LP and six sigma and analysis of the application of the construct through semi-structured interviews with leaders from oil and gas companies to assess and validate the proposed framework.

As a result, a conceptual framework of LSS is developed contemplating the integration of LP and six sigma and providing a systemic and holistic approach to problem-solving through continuous and incremental improvement in the oil and gas sector.

This research is different from previous studies because it integrates LP principles, DMAIC and PDCA cycles into a unique framework that fulfils a specific need of oil and gas sector. It presents a customized LSS framework that guides wastes and cost reduction while enhancing quality and reducing process variability to elevate efficiency in operations management of this sector. This is an original research that presents new and original scientific findings.

In recent years, practitioners have identified a number of problems with traditional performance management (PM) systems, arguing that PM is broken and needs to be fixed. In this chapter, we review criticisms of traditional PM practices that have been mentioned by journalists and practitioners and we consider the solutions that they have presented for addressing these concerns. We then consider these problems and solutions within the context of extant scholarly research and identify (a) what organizations should do going forward to improve PM practices (i.e., focus on feedback processes, ensure accountability throughout the PM system, and align the PM system with organizational strategy) and (b) what scholars should focus research attention on (i.e., technology, strategic alignment, and peer-to-peer accountability) in order to reduce the science-practice gap in this domain.