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Reports on a new methodology for formation of virtual (“extended”) machining cells using generic capability patterns termed “resource elements”. Resource elements are used to uniquely describe the processing requirements of the component mix and dynamically match them to the processing capabilities of the machining shop. The virtual cell formation methodology is based on four steps: component requirement analysis and generation of processing alternatives; definition of virtual cell capability boundaries; machine tool selection; and system evaluation. The proposed methodology facilitates the dynamic formation of virtual manufacturing structures by providing accurate assessment of the component processing requirements and their matching with the available capabilities of the existing manufacturing facilities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore roles of electronic texts (e‐texts) in research enquiry in literary and historical studies, and to deepen the understanding of the nature of scholars' engagement with e‐texts as primary materials. The study includes an investigation of references to e‐texts and discussions about researchers' citation practices in interviews.

Qualitative methodology was used to explore scholars' interactions with e‐texts in 30 research projects. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to examine citations and any other acknowledgments of e‐texts in participants' prepublications and published works. In‐depth semi‐structured interviews provided data for findings about researchers' citation practices.

Formal acknowledgments of e‐texts do not represent the depth and breadth of researchers' interactions with e‐texts. Assessments of the relevance and trustworthiness of e‐texts, as well as considerations of disciplinary cultures, had some impact on researchers' citation practices.

The study was based on in‐depth data‐gathering from a small group of participants. It does not have any statistical significance and the findings cannot be generalized, but comparisons with other scholars in literary and historical studies are possible. The study indicated a need for further investigation of changing academic practices in general and citation practices in particular.

The findings have implications for the development of standards and institutional support for research in the humanities.

The study provides new insights into the phenomenon of a very small number of citations of electronic sources in publications in the humanities, and considers issues related to citations from the perspective of changing academic cultures.

Challenges to energy access in Nigeria have resulted in the widespread use of fossil fuel generating sets (generators) despite its renewable energy (RE) potential. Given the climate crisis, combined with the country's rapid population growth and expected rise in energy and building demand, transitioning to low-carbon electricity using REs like solar photovoltaic (PV) presents opportunities beyond securing its energy future. While PV use is growing in Nigeria, this is focused on the residential sector despite the identification of the commercial sector as a high energy consumer and a key platform for its integration. In line with this, this research aims to investigates the challenges to energy transitioning from generators to solar PV in commercial buildings.

A qualitative approach in line with grounded theory was adopted using in-depth face-to-face interviews with industry experts.

Two distinct but interrelated categories emerged: being held captive and being a saviour that represented a duality of systems, and/or processes formed the core category “Hostage Syndrome”. The core category (theory) was generated based on the explanations and expressions by participants about their concerns, interests, and the conditions under which they operate. The findings reveal the value attributed to generators beyond an operational role and the adjustments or mechanisms adopted by building professionals during their practice. It suggests a sphere of influence beyond the obvious financial and/or institutional aspects, as determining factors to what is viewed as sustainable which will be key to transitioning to REs.

This paper provides new and in-depth insight into understanding the conditions under which building professionals operate associated with their interpretations of “being sustainable”. The study highlights the need to consider psychological and cultural factors in the development of interventions, strategies and/or policies to support RE transition, particularly towards achieving a sustainable construction industry.

By engaging with recent debates between management historians over social constructionism, this paper aims to show the merits of adopting a new realist ontology of the business enterprise. In contrast with ANTi-History, the purpose is to provide a philosophically rigorous conception of social objects and to argue that enterprises are a member of this category.

Insights from Maurizio Ferraris’s documentality theory and Graham Harman’s philosophy of social objects are used to identify the ontological forming ground and developmental pathway of an Antipodean stevedoring company that operated prior to the deregulation of New Zealand’s ports in 1989.

With regard to social entities in general and firms in particular, continental philosophy’s resurgent realist movement provides a history-aware social ontology that incorporates the grain of truth lying within social constructionism. As exemplified by the writings of Ferraris and Harman, realism provides a viable conception of social objects and, in so doing, a more coherent ontological foundation for the business enterprise than the relational ontology embraced by management history ANTians.

By drawing on two realist perspectives hitherto neglected by management historians, this paper resolves disagreements about the ontology of the business enterprise.

We examine the relationship between tax-related accounting misstatements and changes in the uncertain tax benefits accrual account in the year of the disclosure of a misstatement. We find that the disclosure of a tax-related misstatement is associated with an increase in unrecognized tax benefits during that year. We show that the increase in unrecognized tax benefits in the year of disclosure is from uncertain tax positions taken in prior periods. Overall, this finding is consistent with increase in financial reporting conservatism upon disclosure of tax-related accounting misstatement.

The sixth of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has access to improved sanitation as one of its targets. Sanitation is important not only for environmental quality and public health but also for the outstanding universal value (OUV) of heritage monument sites and tourism promotion. The study examined the causes of open defecation (OD) in the neighbourhood of a World Heritage (WH) site in Ghana and the implications of the practice for sustainable tourism and heritage management.

The study used the qualitative approach. Data were gathered from purposively targeted respondents (an Environmental Health Officer, Heritage Managers, a Tourism Expert, Hoteliers, Zoomlion Staff, Open Defecators, Community Opinion Leaders and Ordinary Community Residents) and analysed using the thematic approach.

It became evident that the causes of OD were: the lack of toilet facilities in many houses in the community, filthy and foul-smelling public latrines, poor attitude and heritage culture, mental and income poverty, inadequate sensitisation and a poor law enforcement regime. OD threatened the sustainability of heritage tourism and its associated livelihoods, as well as public health. In addition, it impaired the authenticity and integrity of the heritage monument, culminating in a detraction from the OUV of the heritage property.

In collaboration with the local, national and international stakeholders, the managers of the heritage monument should design and implement a comprehensive environmentally friendly plan. The plan should consider demarcating the boundaries of the heritage asset, monitoring the protected area, enforcing sanitation laws and mounting intensive sanitation education campaigns. It should also consider providing a decent toilet in the vicinity of the monument for the transit population, facilitate the provision of a toilet in every house through the community-led total sanitation approach, installing digital cameras at vantage points in the buffer zone of the castle to capture open defecators and punishing offenders severely to deter others from engaging in the ignoble practice of OD.

The authors argue that sanitation at heritage sites in developing countries merits further discussion within the WH network to promote sustainable heritage conservation management and tourism.

This paper aims to suggest that gender inequality plays a significant role in explaining the prevailing magnitudes of food insecurity in the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. It provides empirical evidence for the underlying hypothesis that removing discrimination against women, particularly, with respect to their reproductive health and rights, depicted in high adolescent fertility rates and maternal deaths, will be an important pre-condition for addressing the hunger and undernourishment challenge in the region. A theoretical linkage has been conceptualised and supported through findings from panel data analysis of a set of 20 countries in the region, over a period of 16 years (from 1999 to 2015). The key result is that the relative impact of health inequality on food insecurity is higher and significant, in comparison to disparities in education and economic participation of women. A unit increase in adolescent fertility rate leads to an increase in undernourishment by 19.4 per cent, depth of food deficit by 1.15 per cent and a decline in average dietary energy adequacy by 0.21 per cent.

In the paper, time series data set for 20 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa is generated by using world development indicators (World Bank) of gender inequality and food security statistics of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Data set involves trends in variables over a period of 16 years (1999 to 2015). A panel regression analysis with fixed effects is undertaken for testing the underlying hypothesis. To capture the linkage in a detailed manner, the author has fitted four models for each of the three measures of food security. First model captures the specific impact of gender differences in secondary school enrolment on food security in the region. Second model assesses the impact of gender inequality in labour force participation, and the third model explores the impact of health inequality in terms of adolescent fertility and maternal mortality on food security indicators. In the final model, the relative impact of all the four gender inequality indicators on magnitude of food insecurity in the study region is assessed.

The findings from panel data analysis provide empirical support to our hypothesis that gender disparities prevailing in Sub-Saharan Africa have an adverse impact on the level of food security in the region. Individually, increase in both, gender parity in secondary education and ratio of female to male labour force participation rate, has a negative influence on prevalence of undernourishment and depth of food deficit in the region. But, when the relative impact of gender inequality in education, economic participation and health are considered together in a single model, adolescent fertility rate, followed by maternal mortality ratio became the two most important indicators negatively influencing the magnitude of food security in SSA. A unit increase in adolescent fertility rate, leads to an increase in undernourishment by 19.4 per cent, depth of food deficit by 1.15 per cent and a decline in average dietary energy adequacy by 0.21 per cent.

Scarcity of continuous time series data for the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa limits the scope of analysis.

Government policies and programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa must focus on successful implementation of sexual and reproductive health and rights of women, as underlined in Goal 3 of sustainable development goals (SDGs). This would require deeper levels of interventions aimed at transforming gender roles and relations through involvement of men and boys as partners. Elimination of sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls, and ensuring easy and affordable access to sexual and reproductive health services, particularly in fragile and conflict affected areas, are some of the important measures which may facilitate movement of the countries in the region, towards the target set by SDG 3.

Indisputably, women play a key role in a nation’s food economy, not only as food producers and income earners but also as food distributors and consumers. Nevertheless, they face discrimination in every dimension and phase of life, which hampers their ability to successfully fulfill this responsibility. The paper provides a theoretical linkage and empirical evidence on the underlying hypothesis that targeting various forms of gender disparities in the African sub-continent, particularly those relating to reproductive health and rights of women will pave the way for reducing the magnitude of hunger and food insecurity in the region of Sub-Saharan Africa. Few papers in my knowledge have explored the linkage between gender inequality and food insecurity, but none have empirically emphasised the reproductive health dimension of this association.

I examine patterns of making or deferring strategic repatriations that firms can use to either meet analysts' forecasts or defer to maintain future reported earnings flexibility. First, I examine the extent to which firms repatriate earnings from high foreign tax subsidiaries to decrease US tax expense, resulting in increased net income and lower cash taxes. Using federal tax return information, I find evidence that firms strategically repatriate these earnings to meet or beat current analysts' forecasts. Next, I find evidence that firms that are able to obtain current year tax reductions defer these repatriations in an attempt to build cookie-jar reserves. Lastly, I find that firms do not disclose high foreign tax repatriations (HTRs), even when required by SEC rules. This study contributes to the earnings management, tax avoidance, and disclosure literature by examining a discretionary tax planning strategy.

The implications arising from the underrepresentation of women and inequality of female participation in leadership and senior management positions continues to challenge many sectors of the economy and transportation, including commercial aviation. Although concerted efforts have been made to introduce initiatives encouraging women into senior leadership roles, change is slow and women remain underrepresented on Senior Management Teams (SMTs) and the Executive Committees of commercial airlines and airports. Globally, and prior to the COVID pandemic, only 3 per cent of airline CEOs were women whilst women held 8 per cent of airline CFO posts and 3 per cent of COO posts (Silk, 2019).

Air transport’s apparent inability to recruit and retain women in top leadership positions poses a serious challenge to the sector and the global economy as a whole. This chapter argues that lack of gender diversity will inevitably hinder the expansion of the sector and pose a significant challenge by failing to capitalise on the skill set of women. The aim of this chapter is to examine women’s representation and progression within the UK aviation sector with a particular focus on airports.

Management of Innovation and Technology/Management Information Systems.

Information Systems.

SER (Sugar, Energy & Rum) was a company belonging to the Grupo Pellas Corporation. The company operated in four countries, had six subsidiaries, employed more than 25,000 people, had more than 43,500 manzanas of sugarcane crops in Nicaragua alone and had global annual sales of more than US$400m. In 2008, due to the negative effects of the crisis on the company’s business model (increasing costs due to higher prices for fuel and decreasing income because of low international sugar prices), the company decided to implement a business intelligence (BI) system to optimize its processes to reduce costs and increase productivity. At that time, the company had more than 100 years of data, information systems that fed into their main business processes and a culture that appreciated data as the basis for decision-making. However, there were inconsistencies among data systems, users received highly complex reports in Excel or green screens and process monitoring happened long after the tasks had been completed. As a response, SER used extract–transform–load to collect and clean data that would be used in the BI system (the case leaves the questions regarding the systems selection unsolved for discussion). Based on their business model, they selected the most critical processes and defined key performance indicators to measure the impact of changes in those processes. They considered graphic design as a tool to make the system more accepted by users and worked together with users so that reports only offered the most important information. The result was improved costs and productivity. They decreased manual time spent by 14 per cent, automated time spent by 10 per cent, and eliminated 1,556 hours of dead time for equipment in the field, which allowed them to increase productivity by US$1m just in sugar. They saved 20,000 trips from the fields to the factories, which represented more than US$1m in savings by monitoring the weight of wagons loaded with sugarcane in real time. They improved client perceptions about the company both locally and internationally by implementing a sugar traceability system.

The case “Business Intelligence at the Grupo Pellas SER Company” has as its objective to respond to the question: How does a company make its BI system implementation successful? As such, the case: Discusses what a BI system is and what it provides to a business analyses challenges, benefits and context when implementing a BI system; analyses success factors and recommendations in the BI system implementation process; analyses the process of implementing a BI and highlights the importance of the system priority questions and technological alternatives.

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CSS 11: Strategy