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The purpose of this study is to identify the characterizations of business process management (BPM) methodology in hotel industry through an aggregate processing of the core cyclesteps (CCCs) of the highly-cited BPM life-cycle models in the literature aiming to highlight the major issues of the current methodological approach of BPM in hotels when to put the notion of service process into practice.

The paper identifies and examines the most popular BPM life-cycles models in the literature and locates 15 life-cycles that are highly cited. The paper then focuses on applying the theory on nine listed hotel companies in Egypt using a questionnaire in the form of a semi-structured interview technique.

The CCSs of BPM life-cycle model applied in hotels revealed a gap between BPM theory and practice in this sector. Utilizing this model of BPM life-cycle, the paper focuses on describing several of the main problems or pitfalls found in the methodological approach of BPM in hotels, which brings the essence of the whole operation management problems.

In light of these findings, the paper discusses the practical implications and focuses on recommendations on how to properly improve the methodological approach of BPM in hotels in order to get better business results.

The paper bridges the gap between BPM theory and practice and suggests recommendations that will assist hotel companies to eliminate the problems of poor process management (PM). There are also future research recommendations to enhance the knowledge of BPM theory in the service sector.

This research proposes how Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) provides a complementary approach for business process management (BPM) lifecycle implementation in order to address gaps identified in the current literature.

The mandatory elements of a method (MEM) framework is used to illustrate DFSS's maturity as a process redesign method. The use of DFSS in a BPM context is described through several action research case examples.

This research specifies the procedure model (order of development activities), techniques, results, roles and information/meta model (conceptual data model of results) associated with using DFSS to address BPM-related challenges. The action research case examples provided discuss the details of implementing BPM using DFSS to design, implement and test redesigned processes to ensure they fulfill the needs of process participants.

While the case examples discussed were performed in only a few settings, which limits the generalizability of their results, they provide evidence regarding the wide range of domains in which the proposed DFSS-BPM approach can be applied and how the tools are used in different contexts.

This research offers a road map for addressing the challenges practitioners often face with BPM lifecycle implementation.

This research provides the first attempt to integrate DFSS as a complementary method for BPM lifecycle implementation.

The COVID-19 pandemic likely impacted cannabis distribution, access and usage worldwide. This study aims to describe self-reported changes in cannabis use and related outcomes following COVID-19-related restrictions among an international sample of people who use drugs.

Using data from the Global Drug Survey COVID-19 Special Edition, the authors identified 20,417 respondents from 13 countries who reported whether the number of THC-containing cannabis usage days changed compared with February 2020 (before COVID-19 restrictions). Using descriptive statistics and a multinomial multivariable logistic regression, the authors investigated the impact of changes in cannabis use on respondents’ mental health, physical health, relationships, finances, work/study performance and cannabis-related pleasure/enjoyment.

Similar proportions of respondents reported that their cannabis use had stayed the same (38.2%) or increased (38.3%) compared with February 2020, while 21.9% of respondents reported a decrease. The most common reason for increased use was having more time (68.4%), while decreased use was associated with having less contact with people they use cannabis with (58.4%). The likelihood of reporting worse mental and physical health, finances, and work/study performance following COVID-19 restrictions was highest among those who reported increased cannabis use.

These findings provide a unique understanding of the short-term international impact of initial COVID-19 restrictions on cannabis use, and highlight the need for policy to address the ongoing and improved provision of evidence-based mental health and other support for people who frequently use cannabis.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the world’s largest international study exploring the impacts of these changes in cannabis use following initial COVID-19 restrictions on individuals’ mental health, physical health, relationships, finances, work/study performance and cannabis-related pleasure. This study is also unique in comparing these changes across multiple continents.

Based on an extensive literature review, this chapter outlines key developments in global health and research during the last century with focus on the emergence of violence and child maltreatment as international public health priorities. Violence has been known to humans for millennia, but only in the late 1990s was it recognised as a global public health issue. Every year, an estimated 1 billion children are exposed to trauma, loss, abuse and neglect. Child maltreatment takes a social and economic toll on countries. Research initiated in 1985 found child maltreatment to be associated with increased disease, disability and premature death in adult survivors. The global availability of data on child maltreatment is, however, sporadic with low validity and reliability. Few global experts have consulted and involved the survivors of child maltreatment, as the experts by experience, in their attempts to provide a more comprehensive picture of reality. Youth and adult survivors of child maltreatment are often traumatised by the experience, and it is important to use trauma-informed approaches to prevent re-traumatisation. Participatory and inclusive research on child maltreatment is only in its infancy. There is a need for more inclusive research, designed by survivors for survivors, hereby strengthening local capacity building and informing policymakers from the bottom up. This chapter reviews lessons learnt and provides recommendations for how to enhance the participation and inclusion of the experts by experience in research on child maltreatment.

This study aims at presenting deeper insights regarding the understanding and application of the quality costs (CoQ) in the automotive manufacturing industry. The empirical research included three general determinants: reasons for, difficulties during and benefits from implementing quality costs, as well as two specific determinants: measuring and evaluating quality cost elements.

The empirical research methodology employs the expert evaluation method – the Delphi method, using a survey questionnaire comprising a total of 200 questions, and answered by 9 companies.

The survey results showed that companies do recognize the reasons for implementing quality costs as a need arising from the quality management standards, the lack of knowledge of quality costs by employees and management as the biggest difficulty while the biggest benefit includes the quality costs enhance the company competitiveness. The costs competence and qualification, the quality management system costs, the costs for improvement, the production control costs, the input control costs, the new measuring and control equipment calibration costs, the costs related to scrap, repairs and product finishing are the most significant elements of the quality costs.

This study is limited by the small number of surveyed companies from the automotive cluster.

The proposed quality costs model provides to the management to conceive CoQ elements as possible drivers in the improvement process of product quality. The structure and the nature of the CoQ elements is expected to advance the process of detailing the quality costs elements.

The novelty of this paper refers to development of a generic quality cost model, whose relevance is confirmed by the structuring of the model with elements published in literature and validating in research companies.

This paper examines the effect of green creativity (GC) on the business sustainability (BS) of large manufacturing firms (LMFs) in Malaysia and investigates the mediating effect of total quality management (TQM) on this relationship.

A quantitative approach was adopted, using a sample of 206 LMFs; the formulated hypotheses were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The findings revealed a significant positive effect of GC on the TQM and BS of LMFs and a significant positive effect of TQM on their BS. TQM also has a full mediating effect on the relationship between GC and BS.

One of the limitations of this study is its focus on Malaysian LMFs. It nevertheless contributes to the literature by extending knowledge concerning their TQM, GC and multi-faceted perspectives. This is largely ignored in literature and, as such, the study paves the way for additional research.

The findings of this study may be used as guidelines for CEOs, particularly on the way TQM and GC can be developed for enhanced BS, in the context of South Asian countries.

This study is the first to test the influence of GC on Malaysian LMFs’ BS and the first worldwide to investigate the mediating effect of TQM on their GC-BS relationship.

This research fills a gap in process science by defining and explaining entropy and the increase of entropy in processes.

This is a theoretical treatment that begins with a conceptual understanding of entropy in thermodynamics and information theory and extends it to the study of degradation and improvement in a transformation process.

A transformation process with three inputs: demand volume, throughput and product design, utilizes a system composed of processors, stores, configuration, human actors, stored data and controllers to provide a product. Elements of the system are aligned with the inputs and each other with a purpose to raise standard of living. Lack of alignment is entropy. Primary causes of increased entropy are changes in inputs and disordering of the system components. Secondary causes result from changes made to cope with the primary causes. Improvement and innovation reduce entropy by providing better alignments and new ways of aligning resources.

This is the first detailed theoretical treatment of entropy in a process science context.

This study investigates the overall publications of The TQM Journal since its inception with an aim to identify the trending topics and emerging trends.

The quantitative bibliometric and social network analysis techniques composed of keywords, co-occurrence network and keyword cluster detection are employed to conduct the investigation. A total of 968 papers published in The TQM Journal till August 2022 were sourced from the SCOPUS database to conduct the analysis.

The research identifies five themes from the published articles namely, customer service experience and satisfaction; quality management and organizational performance; quality measurement tools and models; quality and sustainable development; and quality and competitive advantage. The study also identifies the most significant articles, authors and countries published in the journal and shows that Industry 4.0 is the trending topic and quality 4.0 the new emerging trend in the journal.

The analysis is carried out only for papers published in The TQM Journal till August 2022; those after this month are not included in the analysis. The outcome of this study is dynamic in nature and subject to change over time as more papers, citations and collaborations are added to the list.

This is the first article of its kind to explore The TQM Journal publications with an aim to identify trending and emerging topics and also the most valuable authors based on the number of publications and citations through the bibliometric analysis.

Infrastructure projects play a vital role in the development of countries' economies. However, these projects, notably underground ones, are encountering growing claims as they are subject to many unknowns. Without having a clear insight into the causes of claims and their influence on one another, it is not possible to mitigate their adverse impacts on these projects' goals. To this aim, the main purpose of this study is to identify the critical paths leading to cost claims for underground metro projects.

First, causes of claims were identified through a literature review and then refined to 22 main causes according to the opinions of 148 Iranian experts. A qualitative system dynamics (SD) model was then provided to visualize how various causes interact with each other. The model was developed and validated by drawing on the expertise of industry-related experts, and the critical paths were finally recognized based on their frequency and severity indexes.

The findings revealed that each cause should be evaluated based on their connections with others as there are complex relations among the causes. It was also shown that the major claim paths among others were initiated due to ambiguous contract clauses, unforeseen physical conditions and land handover problems.

The findings of this study provide a better insight into how various causes of claims for underground metro projects are related to each other and can eventually assist project managers of different parties, even in other countries, to select proportional strategies to mitigate their adverse impacts.