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The paper covers mega infrastructure construction supply chain (MICSC) in Engineering-Procurement-Construction (EPC) projects, where the frequent occurrence of risk incidents has greatly affected human life. The research aims to establish a risk evaluation index system for MICSC in EPC projects, exploring what risk factors lead to risk incidents and measure the importance and causality of all these risk factors.

The research applies a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis methodology to process data sequentially. In the first place, risk factors for MICSC in EPC projects are extracted and identified from literature survey and expert interviews. In the second place, an integration model fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (f-AHP) and fuzzy Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (f-DEMATEL) is constructed to comprehensively analyze all these risk factors.

12 primary risk factors and 36 secondary risk factors comprise the risk evaluation index system for MICSC in EPC projects from 178 literature and 5 professionals. The results indicate that Political Situation (F1), Social Security (F2) and Management Mode (F8) are critical risk factors, where F1 and F2 are cause factors and F8 is an effect factor.

There are three main contributions of this paper. First and foremost, from the perspective of the research content, no other study has been able to assess risk factors for MICSC in EPC projects, while embedding nine phases of the whole project life cycle and six subjects of stakeholders into a risk evaluation index system. Additionally, from the perspective of research method, a combined model incorporating f-AHP and f-DEMATEL is constructed to avoid the one-sidedness of a single model. Last but not least, from the perspective of practical significance, focusing on the critical risk factors, a series of effective measures are formulated to make appropriate management decisions for nodal enterprises of MICSC, which can improve their risk management capabilities.

The study explores the evolution of Indian domestic electronics manufacturing post-economic reforms and also investigates the lack of natural growth stages among Indian start-up/SME electronics manufactures.

The theoretical framework is inspired by Dawar and Frost's survival strategy theory that local companies may follow to overcome competitive threats from MNCs. The study adopts a qualitative methodology, more precisely, a phenomenological approach to walking through policy/regulatory reforms amid market distortions, technological gaps and colonial mindset from the perspective of Indian domestic electronics manufacturers. The study has adopted Gioia method of data analysis to inductively suggest a few research propositions.

The phenomenological approach revealed eight essential structure (essence) narratives to explore the complex issue that plague the industry: make in India, made in India, preferential market access strategy, equitable market access strategy, blue ocean strategy, competitive positioning strategy, technical capability and importance of policy/regulatory arbitrage.

The situation of Indian electronics manufacturing units is comparable to the bonsai tree situation, where natural evolution in business stages does not exist; they are born and die as start-ups/MSMEs. The study advocates for equitable market access by removing market distortions. The long-term solution may lie in making available locally manufactured products as a dependable alternative to the imported products or produced locally by MNC OEMs in terms of cost, quality, technology, volume, after-sale service and integrated supply chain.

While the favorable FDI policies, digital India and make-in India initiatives have strengthened domestic electronics production, it is yet to significantly impact India's position in global trade, including manufacturing and exports.

As supply chain excellence matters, designing an appropriate health-care supply chain is a great consideration to the health-care providers worldwide. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to benchmark several potential health-care supply chains to design an efficient and effective one in the presence of mixed data.

To achieve this objective, this research illustrates a hybrid algorithm based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) and goal programming (GP) for designing real-world health-care supply chains with mixed data. A DEA model along with a data aggregation is suggested to evaluate the performance of several potential configurations of the health-care supply chains. As part of the proposed approach, a GP model is conducted for dimensioning the supply chains under assessment by finding the level of the original variables (inputs and outputs) that characterize these supply chains.

This paper presents an algorithm for modeling health-care supply chains exclusively designed to handle crisp and interval data simultaneously.

The outcome of this study will assist the health-care decision-makers in comparing their supply chains against peers and dimensioning their resources to achieve a given level of productions.

A real application to design a real-life pharmaceutical supply chain for the public ministry of health in Morocco is given to support the usefulness of the proposed algorithm.

The novelty of this paper comes from the development of a hybrid approach based on DEA and GP to design an appropriate real-life health-care supply chain in the presence of mixed data. This approach definitely contributes to assist health-care decision-makers design an efficient and effective supply chain in today’s competitive word.

Given their interrelationship, international market selection (IMS) and entry mode selection (EMS) must be considered jointly if an optimal entry strategy is to be realized. However, researchers in the field of international construction have the tendency to consider IMS and EMS independently or sequentially. Therefore, this paper aims to explore a holistic framework that can accommodate IMS and EMS concurrently and test it using empirical data.

his study includes theoretical and empirical research. In theoretical part, an integrated decision model of IMS and EMS is proposed adopting literature review and theoretical derivation, then hypotheses are developed for the impact of decision-making factors. In the latter part, the IMS and EMS of 54 Chinese contractors in 67 countries were investigated, empirical data are collected according to hypotheses, an ordinal logistic regression model is established for statistics analysis. Finally, findings are drawn by comparing literature-based hypotheses with data-based analysis results.

Results show that empirical data fit theoretical model well. Findings are: IMS and EMS can be integrated into a holistic decision-making framework when be properly sequenced. When IMS and EMS are determined simultaneously, the decision can benefit from a sharing of common information. And the roles of at least 13 common factors are empirically demonstrated in this study.

The integrated decision sequence proposed in this study is applicable for a specific market, and cannot compare multiple alternative markets directly. The decision-making factors identified in this paper do not cover the enterprise strategic objectives and some other factors. Empirical data and some theoretical assumptions are based on the international market entry strategy of Chinese contractors. Therefore, the conclusions may not be completely applicable to global contractors though have certain reference value.

Based on the idea of holistic decision-making of IMS and EMS, this study proposes an international market entry strategy (IMES) sequence and an explicit model for determinants, then tests them with empirical data. This paper provides a new idea to manage IMS and EMS concurrently, which can improve the efficiency of IMES decision-making and avoid missing optimal alternatives. This study paves the way for a practical model and provides reference for contractors' international market entry strategy.

Globally, the governance has shifted from positivist to the regulatory-centric approach, necessitating accurate contouring of regulatory governance framework. The study proposes a novel approach to unravel the regulatory governance framework in the context of the Indian electronics industry – extendable to other sectors in India and other emerging economies.

The research objective has been operationalized through document analysis and thematic analysis of semi-structured interview transcripts in three steps: (1) arrive at parameters of the regulatory governance framework, (2) identify instruments against each parameter and (3) characterize parameters in terms of dominant instruments and their underlying modalities. The authors have adopted a set of 6 Cs modalities (control, communications, competition, consensus, code and collaboration) and regulatory space theory to analyze existing modalities mix in the dominant instruments.

In summary, the study has (1) identified eight macro and twenty micro regulatory governance parameters, (2) mapped regulatory governance parameters with instruments and institutions (3) revealed the top two dominant modalities for each regulatory governance parameter.

The existing modality characteristics of regulatory governance parameters can be used by manufacturers, investors and other stakeholders to make a realistic assessment of regulatory governance and reduce regulatory risk and regulatory burden.

The multidimensional use of parameters, instruments and modalities broadens the understanding of the existing regulatory governance framework and may assist the regulators in optimizing it to meet market requirements.

This study investigates whether the underrepresentation of women in executive-level roles within the supply chain management (SCM) field is justified or the result of gender injustices. The analysis examines if there is a gender compensation gap within executive-level SCM roles and whether performance differences or other observable factors explain disparities.

Publicly reported executive compensation and financial data are merged to empirically test if gender differences exist and investigate whether the underrepresentation of women in executive-level SCM roles is unjust.

Women occupy only 6.29% of the positions in the sample of 447 SCM executives. Unlike prior studies, we find that women executives receive higher compensation. The analysis does not identify observable factors explaining the limited inclusion of women in top-level roles, suggesting that gender injustices are prevalent in SCM.

This study only considers observable factors and cannot conclusively determine if discrimination is occurring. The low level of inclusion of women in executive roles suggests that gender injustice is intrinsic within the SCM profession. These findings will hopefully motivate firms to undertake transformative actions that result in outcomes that advance gender equity, ultimately leading to social justice for female SCM executives.

The use of social justice and feminist theories, a focus on SCM roles, and an empirical methodology utilizing objective measures represents a novel approach to investigating gender discrimination in SCM organizations, complementing prior survey-based studies.

The present study aims to provide a roadmap for meeting the carbon-free, green energy production target within the stipulated period while also considering climate targets through a sustainable auctioning scheme.

The research outlines the opportunity to design auctions based on qualitative research, the impact of auctions on energy costs and thus the feasibility of suggested auctioning schemes based on country-specific empirical evidence and benefits.

The conclusions show that this may result in various advantages for emerging economies relating to technology-neutral site-specific auctions if designed according to state-specific socio-economic conditions.

The planned addition to the state-of-the-art in the renewable energy (RE) field of this paper is that it intends to bridge the gap between theory and practice. The analysis has concepts for research, practice and/or community. Thus, it can serve as a primary source of literature reference for those willing to learn more about the aspects of cost related to RE.

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the multinational oil companies’ (MOCs) corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in Nigeria. Its special focus is to investigate the impact of the global memorandum of understanding (GMoU) on development of enterprising rural women as custodians of seed, food and traditional knowledge for climate change resilience in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

This paper adopts a survey research technique, aimed at gathering information from a representative sample of the population, as it is essentially cross-sectional, describing and interpreting the current situation. A total of 768 rural women respondents were sampled across the rural areas of the Niger Delta region in Nigeria.

The results from the use of a combined propensity score matching and logit model indicated that the meagre interventions of MOCs’ CSR targeted at the empowerment of rural women as custodians of seed, food and traditional knowledge for climate change resilience recorded significant success in improving the role of women in agricultural production, especially in women’s involvement across value chains.

This suggests that any increase in the MOCs’ CSR targeted at increasing rural women’s access to seed preservation facilities, food processing facilities and extension systems that impact a strong body of knowledge and expertise that can be used in climate change mitigation, disaster reduction and adaptation strategies will enhance women’s responsibilities in households and communities as stewards of natural and household resources and will position them well to contribute to livelihood strategies adapted to changing environmental realities.

This implies that MOCs’ GMoUs’ policies and practices should enhance women’s participation, value and recognize women’s knowledge and enable women as well as men farmers to participate in the decision-making process in agriculture, food production and land governance, as women need to be acknowledged and supported as the primary producers of food in the region, able to both cultivate healthy food and climate change resilience through small-scale agro-ecological farming system.

This research contributes to gender debate in agriculture from a CSR perspective in developing countries and explains the rational for demands for social projects by host communities. It concludes that business has an obligation to help solve problems of public concern.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the barriers militating against the adoption of robotics in the construction industry.

Robotics implementation barriers were obtained from the previous studies and then through questionnaire survey construction stakeholders in Nigeria evaluate these barriers. Consequently, these barriers were examined via the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) technique. Furthermore, a model of these barriers was implemented by means of a partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The EFA results showed that these barriers could be categorized into two: cost and technology. Results obtained from the proposed model showed that platform tools were crucial tools for implementing cloud computing.

The novelty of this research work will be provided a solid foundation for critically assessing and appreciating the different barriers affecting the adoption of robotics.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the intensity and success of the digitalization process, by measuring the efficiency of the use of information and communication technologies in business in the Republic of Serbia (RS) in the period from 2006 to 2019.

The data envelopment analysis method is applied and due to the sensitivity of the results to measurement errors, the robustness analysis of the obtained values of average efficiency is performed, using the bootstrapping method.

The results show an intensive, expansive and relatively efficient process of digital business transformation in the RS. The results indicate inefficient use of software packages, While the efficiency of e-commerce in companies in most years is over 80%.

The research is limited to the RS, so the conclusions cannot be generalized in a broader context.

The biggest problem in the implementation of digital business transformation in the RS is the understanding of management and employees in organizations that digital business transformation will take place only if software solutions are purchased and installed, with less attention paid to their proper application and low use of their maximum capabilities.

Digital transformation measurement is the subject of a very small number of studies. Through a review of the literature, the authors of this paper do not find the use of data envelopment analysis to measure the efficiency of digital business transformation in the way they present it in this paper.