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The purpose of this study was to develop and implement a new model to improve maintenance management and the production system through the concepts: maintenance, lean philosophy and Industry 4.0.

The methodology employed in this study includes conducting a bibliographic survey of existing models exploring the joint application of the concepts under study, critically analyzing these models, developing a model proposal and subsequently analyzing the results obtained. The model is implemented on a belt conveyor of a feed mill to improve its performance.

The proposed model contributes to improve maintenance and production system management, proving to be a useful tool to improve real-time decision-making. After its application, it was possible to verify that it increased the performance of the conveyor belt, as well as improved the skills of the operators who operate on it.

Limitation about the distance between the devices that make up the model. The implementation of autonomous maintenance can highlight some challenges within the company. The implementation was only in the belt conveyor, being useful to introduce this in the remaining areas of the factory.

The study presents an innovative, versatile, low-cost and easy-to-apply model to improve maintenance management by combining the three concepts. The model can be easily adapted to monitor condition parameters such as temperature, noise, among others, through the correct choice of devices and proper programming. This work also contributed to help in real-time decision-making for both the maintenance and production departments.

The objective of this research work is to study the artificial intelligence (AI)-based product benefits and problems of the agritech industry. The research variables were developed from the existing review of literature connecting to AI-based benefits and problems, and 90 samples of primary data from agritech industry managers were gathered using a survey of a well-structured research questionnaire. The statistical package of IBM-SPSS 21 was utilized to analyze the data using the statistical techniques of descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Results show that better information for faster decision-making has been ranked as the topmost AI benefit. This implies that the executives of agritech units have a concern about the quality of decisions they make and resistance to change from employees and internal culture has been ranked as the topmost AI problem.

Roots of global Terrorism are in ‘failed’ states carved out of multiracial empires after World Wars I and II in name of ‘national self‐determination’. Both sides in the Cold War competed to exploit the process of disintegration with armed and covert interventions. In effect, they were colluding at the expense of the ‘liberated’ peoples. The ‘Vietnam Trauma’ prevented effective action against the resulting terrorist buildup and blowback until 9/11. As those vultures come home to roost, the war broadens to en vision overdue but coercive reforms to the postwar system of nation states, first in the Middle East. Mirages of Vietnam blur the vision; can the sole Superpower finish the job before fiscal and/or imperial overstretch implode it?

The application of physiological methods to the study of psychological phenomena has garnered considerable interest in recent years. These methods have proved especially useful to the study of emotions, since evidence suggests that validly measuring a person’s emotional state using traditional, psychometric methods such as surveys or observation is considerably more difficult than once thought. The present chapter reviews the challenges associated with measuring emotions from a purely psychological perspective, and suggests that the study of emotions in organizations can benefit from the use of physiological measurement to complement traditional assessment methods. We review more established approaches to physiological measurement, including those related to hormone secretion, cardiovascular activity, and skin conductance. We then highlight somewhat more recent attempts to use neurological scanning. A theme of this chapter is that both psychological and physiological measures are relevant to understanding and assessing emotions in organizations. Accordingly, we propose a multi-method approach involving both types of assessment. Finally, we discuss the practical and ethical implications of employing various forms of physiological measurement in the study of emotions, specifically in the context of organizations.

The impact of frontline robots (FLRs) on customer orientation perceptions remains unclear. This is remarkable because customers may associate FLRs with standardization and cost-cutting, such that they may not fit firms that aim to be customer oriented.

In four experiments, data are collected from customers interacting with frontline employees (FLEs) and FLRs in different settings.

FLEs are perceived as more customer-oriented than FLRs due to higher competence and warmth evaluations. A relational interaction style attenuates the difference in perceived competence between FLRs and FLEs. These agents are also perceived as more similar in competence and warmth when FLRs participate in the customer journey's information and negotiation stages. Switching from FLE to FLR in the journey harms FLR evaluations.

The authors recommend firms to place FLRs only in the negotiation stage or in both the information and negotiation stages of the customer journey. Still then customers should not transition from employees to robots (vice versa does no harm). Firms should ensure that FLRs utilize a relational style when interacting with customers for optimal effects.

The authors bridge the FLR and sales/marketing literature by drawing on social cognition theory. The authors also identify the product categories for which customers are willing to negotiate with an FLR. Broadly speaking, this study’s findings underline that customers perceive robots as having agency (i.e. the mental capacity for acting with intentionality) and, just as humans, can be customer-oriented.

Attachment theory is emerging as an important theoretical foundation in marketing because of the relational nature of consumption, but little guidance exists as to which of many attachment style measures is most suitable for use by researchers. As a result, many measures are being used with little justification, and frequently, these scales are being adapted due to poor measurement fit, length or wording unrelated to the focal attachment figure. This paper aims to evaluate seven existing attachment style measures and provides recommendations regarding which measure is the most suitable for assessing the impact of chronic attachment styles on marketing outcomes.

A literature review identified seven measures of attachment style for analysis. Two studies examine the psychometric properties, susceptibility to response bias and predictive validity of the seven measures (Study 1n = 325 and Study 2n = 205).

Among the seven scales evaluated, the Johnson et al. (2012) [Johnson, Whelan, and Thomson (JWT)] measure exhibited the best psychometric properties and predictive validity for general (i.e. not relationship-specific) attachment styles. In addition, two relationship-specific measures, also with strong psychometric properties, were better able to capture their respective relationships or relationship types than general attachment styles, as expected.

This research provides guidance to researchers on which measure to use when examining the impact of attachment style in marketing.

This research provides marketing researchers guidance on which measure to use when examining the impact of general attachment styles. Because the JWT scale is brief, psychometrically sound and demonstrates strong predictive validity, it can be used for academic and managerial purposes. The authors also confirm previous research suggesting that relationship-specific measures of attachment style may act differently than general interpersonal attachment style measures and vary in their ability to predict marketing outcomes.

This research is the first to provide guidance regarding which measure of attachment style to use in marketing and consumer research. This research can serve as a reference point for future researchers in selecting measures of attachment style and may allow for convergence on a narrow set of measures to advance research in marketing.