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The paper points out the image of a destination as a possible source of competitive advantage of the destination. A review of the literature is included showing the rising importance of the image of a destination. Slovenia's image as a tourist destination perceived by foreign tourist experts is analysed. Interesting mountains and lakes, beautiful natural attractions and interesting and friendly people were identified as the most typical attributes of Slovenia's image from the foreign tourist experts' point of view. The significant differences in Slovenia's image between those experts familiar with Slovenia compared to those experts who are only just aware of Slovenia are presented. The research shows that familiarity with Slovenia increases a tourist expert's image of Slovenia, especially the perceptual/cognitive component. According to the results of discriminant analysis, the discriminant attributes of Slovenia's image for each group are emphasised. Slovenia's appealing food and modern health resorts were the discriminant attributes for the group of tourist experts that is familiar with Slovenia, while traditional events were the distinguish attribute for the group of experts that is only just aware of Slovenia. Suggestions as organising familiarisation tours that include tour operators, travel agents and travel writers seemed to be a proper way of boosting Slovenia's image compared to other competitive tourist destinations.

A new process called direct ceramic machining was successfully applied for the fabrication of dental restorations and technical components. It uses prefabricated, easy to machine ceramic blanks. The shape of a ceramic component is machined with enlarged contours to compensate for the sintering shrinkage. Afterwards the machined component is sintered to full density and thereby shrinks to its final dimensions. Technical components from 5 to 100 mm in size possessing features of 1/10th mm to several millimeters and dental restorations were fabricated sucessfully, and thus demonstrate the capability for rapid production of ceramic functional prototypes. The dimensional accuracy is about 20 μm with a relative accuracy of 0.1 per cent of the component's length. Thus accurate net‐shape of the components could be achieved without hard machining.

By replacing traditional fossil fuels, renewable energy (RE) has the potential to become an outstanding sustainable energy supply. However, owing to technological, economic, social and legal constraints, RE is still in its early stages of development. Hence, this paper aims to analyze the sustainable development hindrances in the RE supply chain (RESC).

Twenty-three hindrances to the sustainable development of the RE industry were investigated in this research, which included a review of the expert opinion and literature. Then, a mutual relationship between the hindrances by integrating interpretive structural modeling and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory in fuzzy environment was established. Furthermore, using the cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to a classification analysis, these hindrances were grouped.

The findings show that the important hindrances are “lack of standards for the RESC (H19), lack of entrepreneurship support (H21), lack of incentives/subsidies to encourage RE producers to compete (H30) and lack of governmental support for sustainable supply chain solutions (H31).

This research provides unique insights into the area of sustainability in RESC. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to analyze the sustainability hindrances in the RESC.

Despite major market-orientated reforms to enhance the competitive advantage of Russian domestic firms, the antecedents and consequences of frontline employee (FLE) customer orientation (CO) remain poorly understood. Acknowledging this paucity of research, the authors draw upon a hierarchical model of personality to examine personality trait determinants of CO and job performance in the context of the Russian financial services sector.

Data was collected from 186 FLEs using a self-administered survey questionnaire and analyzed using AMOS.

The results identify which basic personality traits matter in translating FLE CO behavior into higher job performance in the Russian retail-banking sector.

Limitations of the study include the generalizability of the findings within one organizational context. Future research should examine whether the found associations hold true for FLEs working in other service sectors in other parts of the country.

Study findings differ significantly to Western-based research and provide valuable insight into the process that motivates Russian FLEs in a commercial retail setting to perform better in their jobs.

This is the first empirical study that employs a hierarchical model of the effects of basic personality traits on FLE CO and job performance in a former socialist/communist economy. We also advance existing research on FLE CO by distinguishing between two types of CO behavior. Findings provide an understanding of those personality traits that affect the ability of Russian FLEs to better satisfy customer needs and to interact and serve customers in an enjoyable way.

This empirical paper seeks to address the neglected work condition aspect of lean production (LP) implementation, specifically the relationship between LP and worker job stress.

The Karasek job stress model was used to link shopfloor practices to expected worker stress. The model incorporates the effects of job demands (physical and psychological), job control and social support. The study employs management and worker questionnaires, management interviews and structured plant tours. The response variable is total worker job stress – the sum of the physical and mental stress levels. The independent variable for the first question is the degree of lean implementation at the sites.

The results are based on 1,391 worker responses at 21 sites in the four UK industry sectors. About 11 tested practices are significantly related to stress and an unexpected non‐linear response of stress to lean implementation is identified. Results indicate that LP is not inherently stressful, with stress levels significantly related to management decisions in designing and operating LP systems.

The hypotheses tests shed light on the relationships between LP practices and job stress, and reveal a significant managerial influence on stress levels. The regression model shows the scale and significant lean practices of this influence, with the work practices explaining 30 percent of job stress variations. The stress reduction and stress control opportunities identified in the study show the potential for designing and operating effective lean systems while also controlling stress levels.

This is the first known multi‐industry empirical study of the relationship of job stress to a range of lean practices and to the degree of lean implementation.

Algorithms for the construction of the Chomsky and Greibach normal forms for a fuzzy context‐free grammar using the algebraic approach are presented and illustrated by examples. The results obtained in this paper may have useful applications in fuzzy languages, pattern recognition, information storage and retrieval, artificial intelligence, database and pictorial information systems.

Detailed results of numerical calculations of transient, 2D incompressible flow around and in the wake of a square prism at Re = 100, 200 and 500 are presented. An implicit finite‐difference operator‐splitting method, a version of the known SIMPLEC‐like method on a staggered grid, is described. Appropriate theoretical results are presented. The method has second‐order accuracy in space, conserving mass, momentum and kinetic energy. A new modification of the multigrid method is employed to solve the elliptic pressure problem. Calculations are performed on a sequence of spatial grids with up to 401 × 321 grid points, at sequentially halved time steps to ensure grid‐independent results. Three types of flow are shown to exist at Re = 500: a steady‐state unstable flow and two which are transient, fully periodic and asymmetric about the centre line but mirror symmetric to each other. Discrete frequency spectra of drag and lift coefficients are presented.

This article investigates the relative impact which marketing growth strategies have on profit performance as opposed to strategic debt utilisation, asset management, and margin management. A structural equation approach is used to assess which areas deserve the greatest attention in the process of making strategic decisions. Implications for management and future research are offered.

Environmental sanctions and pressure from governments and customers can play an essential role in driving the manufacturing industry to adopt more sustainable practices and reduce their environmental impact. Thus, this study explores how pressures from customers and governments influence sustainable firm performance and customer satisfaction through green production, green creativity, green brand innovativeness and green brand image in the Chinese manufacturing industry? Further, the moderating role of green knowledge was analyzed.

640 valid responses from the Chinese manufacturing industry were collected through web-based and physical surveys and later assessed through structural equation modeling.

The findings of this study validated the direct relationship between the proposed construct. Mediation analysis found the mediating role of green brand innovativeness, green brand image green and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the moderating impact of green knowledge was also proved.

The empirical findings of this research filled the literature gap on cleaner production and sustainable firm performance by focusing on green production, green creativity and green knowledge in the Chinese manufacturing industry context.

The study aims to empirically test the effects of antecedents on behavioral intentions towards Uber-ridesharing services. The antecedents are perceived value (hedonic, utilitarian, epistemic, and symbolic value), e-Attitude, and technology attachment (smartphone use, Internet use, and e-Involvement). Moreover, the study explores the mediating effect of three-dimensional perceived value (hedonic, utilitarian, and epistemic value) and e-Attitude; and the moderating effect of symbolic value on behavioral intentions towards Uber-ridesharing services.

A mixed survey (75% Google Form, 25% face to face) was conducted in Bangladesh to collect data from customers who had previously participated in Uber-ridesharing services, one of the largest ridesharing platforms in Bangladesh. Subsequently, data were analyzed based on the structural equation modeling technique using SmartPLS 3.3.3.

The study findings revealed that hedonic value, utilitarian value, epistemic value, symbolic value, e-Attitude, smartphone use, internet use, e-Involvement had a direct significant positive impact on behavioral intentions. Also, e-Attitude significantly impacted hedonic, utilitarian, and epistemic value. In addition, Smartphone use, internet use, and e-Involvement significantly influenced e-Attitude. Moreover, the study findings revealed that hedonic, utilitarian, and epistemic value partially mediates between e-Attitude and behavioral intentions; and e-Attitude partially mediates between Smartphone use, Internet use, and e-Involvement and hedonic, utilitarian, and epistemic value and behavioral intentions. Furthermore, the results indicate that epistemic value significantly moderates the relationship between hedonic, utilitarian, and epistemic value and behavioral intentions.

This study uncovers some insightful findings for ridesharing services providers and managers helping to build customers' positive behavioral intentions towards Uber-ridesharing services. In particular, practitioners can improve cost-efficiency, hedonic and symbolic aspects, availability of rides of Uber-ridesharing services. Moreover, the ridesharing services managers should adopt technology-based service opportunities.

The study enriches sharing economy literature, especially ridesharing services, exploring the direct effect of epistemic value, e-Attitude, smartphone use, Internet use, and e-Involvement on behavioral intentions. Moreover, this study presents smartphone use, Internet use, and e-Involvement as new antecedents of e-Attitude and behavioral intentions. Furthermore, the study explores the mediating effect of hedonic, utilitarian, and epistemic value and e-Attitude; and the moderating effect of symbolic value in Uber-ridesharing service perspective.