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The purpose of this research is to develop a better understanding of the hurdles in implementing Lean Six Sigma (LSS) for operational excellence in digital emerging technology companies.

We have conducted case studies of LSS implementations in six US-based companies in the digital emerging technology industry.

Critical success factors (CSF) for LSS implementations in digital emerging technology companies are: (1) organizational leadership that is engaged to the implementation, (2) LSS methodology that is rebranded to fit existing shared values in the organization, (3) restructuring of the traditional LSS training program to include a more incremental, prioritized, on-the-job training approach and (4) a modified LSS project execution methodology that includes (a) condensing the phases and tools applied in LSS projects and (b) adopting more iterative project management methods compared to the standard phased LSS project approach.

The qualitative nature of our analysis and the geographic coverage of our sample limit the generalizability of our findings.

Implications comprise the awareness and knowledge of critical success factors and LSS methodology modifications specifically relevant for digital emerging technology companies or companies that share similarities in terms of focus on product development, innovation and growth, such as R&D departments in high-tech manufacturing companies.

Research on industry-specific enablers for successful LSS implementation in the digital emerging technology industry is virtually absent. Our research informs practitioners on how to implement LSS in this and alike industries, and points to aspects of such implementations that are worthy of further attention from the academic community.

The purpose of this paper is to advance spatial studies of change interventions by conceptualizing them as liminal spaces and examining how these spaces are conceived, perceived and lived during the intervention process.

The paper explores change interventions as liminal spaces in the empirical context of LEGO serious play workshops through participant observations and interviews.

The study shows that in change interventions an abstract, conceived liminal space is created, maintained and closed down to enable the planned change to take place. While practicing the space, the change participants may indeed perceive this space as liminal, but the space is less manageable because of their both prescribed and unprescribed interpretations. Furthermore, as subjectively experienced, the space may hold a spectrum of liminal, liminoid and everyday (business as usual) notions.

The study contributes to the research on (1) the spatiality of change interventions and (2) artificially created liminal spaces of organizing.

The paper reminds consultants and organizations embarking on change interventions to pay attention to the spatiality of such interventions. The study shows that it is not enough to plan how these spaces are to be used, but also it is equally important to consider how the participants use and experience them.

The study provides a novel insight into change interventions by examining them as liminal spaces that are simultaneously conceived, perceived and lived during the intervention process.

This paper aims to draw attention to a broad range of experimental institutional initiatives which operate in the absence of a global antitrust regime. The purpose of this paper is to offer food for thought to scholars in other fields of international trade law facing challenges from divergent national regimes.

Taking inspiration from political science literature on institutions, this paper crafts a broad analytical lens which captures various organisational forms (including networks), codes (including soft law) and culture (including epistemic communities). The strength and shortcomings of traditional “bricks and mortar” institutions such as the European Union (EU) and General Agreement Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organisation are first examined. Then, the innovative global network of International Competition Network (ICN) is analysed.

It highlights the value of the global antitrust epistemic community in providing a conducive environment for extensive recourse to “soft law”. Examples from the EU and the ICN include measures which find expression in enforcement tools and networks. These initiatives can be seen as experimental responses to the challenges of divergent national antitrust regimes.

It is desktop research rather than empirical field work.

To raise awareness outside the antitrust scholarly community of the variety of experimental institutional initiatives which have evolved, often on a soft law basis, in response to the challenges experienced by national enforcement agencies and businesses operating in the absence of a global antitrust regime.

It offers some personal reflections on the ICN from the author’s experience as a non-governmental advisor. It draws attention to the ICN’s underappreciated range of educational materials which are freely available on its website to everyone. It submits that the ICN template offers interesting ideas for other fields of international trade law where a global regime is unrealisable. The ICN is a voluntary virtual network of agencies collaborating to agree ways to reduce clashes among national regimes. Its goal of voluntary convergence is portrayed as standardisation rather than as absolute congruence. Even if standardisation of norms/processes is too ambitious a goal in other fields of international trade law, the ICN model still offers inspiration as an epistemic community within an inclusive and dynamic forum for encouraging debate and creating a culture of learning opportunities where familiarity and trust is fostered.

This paper aims to contribute to understandings of the dynamics of marketplace exclusion and explore the benefits of a performative approach to knowledge production.

Interactive documentary theatre is used to explore the pressing issue of marketplace exclusion in a deprived UK city. The authors present a series of three vignettes taken from the performance to explore the embodied and dialogical nature of performative knowledge production.

The performative mode of knowledge production has a series of advantages over the more traditional research approaches used in marketing. It is arguably more authentic, embodied and collaborative. However, this mode of research also has its challenges particularly in the interpretation and presentation of the data.

The paper highlights the implications of performative knowledge production for critical consumer learning. It also explores how the hitherto neglected concept of marketplace exclusion might bring together insights into the mechanics and outcomes of exclusion.

While theatrical and performative metaphors have been widely used to theorise interactions in the marketplace, as yet the possibility of using theatre as a form of inquiry within marketing has been largely neglected. Documentary theatre is revealing of the ways in which marketplace cultures can perpetuate social inequality. Involving local communities in the co-production of knowledge in this way gives them a voice in the policy arena not hitherto fully addressed in the marketing field. Similarly, marketplace exclusion as a concept has been sidelined in favour of marketplace discrimination and consumer vulnerability – the authors think it has the potential to bring these fields together in exploring the range of dynamics involved.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a synthesis of the contingent work field and to advocate a sustainable career perspective on contingent work.

Adopting a broader review approach allowed to synthesize the contingent work literature across contingent work types (temporary agency work, gig work and freelance work) and develop a sustainable career perspective on contingent work. The authors searched for empirical, conceptual and review articles published from 2008 to December 2021. In total, the authors included 208 articles.

The authors advocate a sustainable career perspective that allows for organizing and synthesizing the fragmented contingent work literature. Adopting a sustainable career perspective enables to study contingent work from a dynamic perspective transcending one single organization.

The field is suffering from fragmentation and most importantly from an oversight of how contingent work experiences play a role in a persons’ career. This paper addresses this problem by adopting a sustainable career perspective on contingent work.

Soil quality is in decline in many parts of the world, in part due to the intensification of agricultural practices. Whilst economic instruments and regulations can help incentivise uptake of more sustainable soil management practices, they rarely motivate long-term behavior change when used alone. There has been increasing attention towards the complex social factors that affect uptake of sustainable soil management practices. To understand why some communities try these practices whilst others do not, we undertook a narrative review to understand how social capital influences adoption in developed nations. We found that the four components of social capital – trust, norms, connectedness and power – can all influence the decision of farmers to change their soil management. Specifically, information flows more effectively across trusted, diverse networks where social norms exist to encourage innovation. Uptake is more limited in homogenous, close-knit farming communities that do not have many links with non-farmers and where there is a strong social norm to adhere to the status quo. Power can enhance or inhibit uptake depending on its characteristics. Future research, policy and practice should consider whether a lack of social capital could hinder uptake of new practices and, if so, which aspects of social capital could be developed to increase adoption of sustainable soil management practices. Enabling diverse, collaborative groups (including farmers, advisers and government officials) to work constructively together could help build social capital, where they can co-define, -develop and -enact measures to sustainably manage soils.

There is evidence that spirituality at the workplace has positive effects on work outcomes, and there are different models conceptualizing the construct. To date, there is no discussion highlighting how digitalization is affecting workplace spirituality and vice versa. The present review tries to close this gap by discussing the psychological dynamics in light of digitalization and spirituality in the context of work.

This is a conceptual discussion based on an extensive narrative review. The conceptual design is further tested with a real-life case study.

The result is a model that may guide future research, which consists of the four highly interdependent domains, namely psychology (with the dimensions of emotion, cognition and behavior), digitalization (with the dimensions of platforms, data and algorithms), spirituality (with the dimensions of meaning, self-transcendation and belonging), as well as the workplace (with the dimensions of work tasks, location, community and culture and values). The discussion includes implications for the future of work, suggestions for management decisions and potential future research directions.

To date, there are many discussions about digital transformation and a limited amount of them have invested in analyzing psychological dimensions. The application to spirituality and the workplace – especially when the two are combined – is almost wholly absent, which makes the present discussion both innovative and original.

This study provides empirical evidence of the economic valuation of ecosystem services. It examines the willingness-to-pay (WTP) and compensating surplus (CS) in response to policy change based on focus group discussion (FGD) and survey.

A randomized conjoint analysis based experiment was conducted in seven villages of Sundarbans in Bangladesh to elicit stated preference data and measure WTP and CS. Each respondent faced three options in every choice card-two hypothetical alternatives and one status quo scheme. Four alternatives – payment for ecosystem services, storm protection, erosion control and habitat for fish breeding – are randomly and simultaneously assigned to the two alternatives.

The findings suggest that age, income, education, family size and occupational status are the influential factor to choice the relevant attributes of ecosystem services and their levels. Villagers would like to pay annually Tk. 703, Tk. 281, and Tk. 59 for lower, moderate, and higher ecosystem services. With these WTP, they get surplus Tk. 760, Tk. 138, and Tk. 346 respectively.

The lower WTP does not necessarily imply low demand for ecosystem service, as the findings from WTP illustrate potential demand for ecosystem services of Sundarbans.

The study provides an important insight into the ecosystem services and values of Sundarbans mangrove forests for welfare and can inform policy for sustainable use of resources of this forest.

There is a crucial gap in understanding what could villagers be ready for WTP for better ecosystem services of Sundarbans mangrove forest, how do payment based ecosystem services, as a proxy for the conservation of Sundarbans mangrove, and to what extent the policy can be strengthened.

This study addresses the pivotal role of digital transformation (DT) in the post-pandemic business landscape, identifying a notable gap in comprehending strategic adaptations and digital communication amidst the complexities of the digital era. It seeks to illuminate practical insights for businesses navigating through DT by intertwining its technological and organizational aspects.

Employing a conceptual approach, this paper synthesizes existing literature and theoretical frameworks related to DT, integrating its technological, strategic and organizational dimensions. It utilizes real-world instances to elucidate the digital era’s practical implications and strategic adaptations. The study also proposes a research agenda that spotlights pressing DT issues, challenges and actionable strategies for businesses.

Despite DT’s inherent complexity, the paper reveals that it is crucial for businesses navigating the contemporary digital landscape. It underscores the importance of strategic adaptations in DT, highlighting their implications on customer experiences and organizational structures amidst the evolving technological and market dynamics. Moreover, it accentuates the significance of effective digital communication strategies in enhancing user experiences and conveying value propositions adeptly.

This paper brings vital aspects of DT impacting modern organizations, offering invaluable insights for practitioners and scholars aiming to comprehend and navigate DT’s complexities. The identified research gaps underscore the necessity for further exploration, aiming to broaden DT’s theoretical and practical facets.

Zoos are important urban tourism attractions. The challenge for zoos is finding a balance between attracting visitors and enhancing education and conservation management. This research contributes to a greater understanding of the conservation intentions of zoo visitors and how zoos can emphasise conservation management principles sustainably. This study aims to identify the variables that encourage conservation intentions among visitors to a South African zoo.

A destination-based survey was conducted in 2019 at the Johannesburg Zoo, and 445 questionnaires were administered through convenience sampling.

Exploratory factor analyses identified visitors’ conservation awareness because of zoos (pre-conscious, conscious and unconscious), behavioural intentions (advocating and supporting), motives (engagement, edutainment and escapism) and satisfaction (interaction and facility quality, and service and interpretation quality). The behavioural intentions were the dependent variables. Advocating conservation intentions (ACI) is an active role where zoo visitors feel a strong responsibility towards conservation and encourage others to the conservation cause. Supporting conservation intentions (SCI) relates more to loyalty towards visiting the zoo and subsequently supporting conservation. Stepwise linear regression analyses revealed that enhancing ACI relies on SCI, edutainment, conscious awareness, service and interpretation quality and total spending. However, enhancing SCI relies on ACI, interaction and facility quality and the motive, escapism, while engagement revealed a negative relationship.

The results show that zoos can encourage SCI to ACI by using interactive and entertaining interpretations to teach visitors about the zoo’s mandate and the importance of conservation while balancing their need to escape.