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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a previously developed framework for creating so-called high performance partnerships (HPPs), which yields a competitive advantage for all firms in the partnership, in the Asian context.

The HPP framework is evaluated for a Philippine organization that produces, markets and ships bananas in Asia. The evaluation entailed conducting a questionnaire, statistically redeveloping the framework and organizing several feedback workshops with the partner firms, the latter aiming to discuss and agree to improvements that each partner could implement to achieve high performance in the value chain.

The results showed that the evaluated HPP framework can be used to score the quality of each partner in the chain and to yield targeted recommendations to improve the performance of each partner firm. The subsequent application of the recommendations derived from applying the HPP framework created substantial profits for the partner firms.

Originally developed in a western context and applied to a value chain of European organizations, the HPP framework was successfully applied for the first time in the Asian context, to evaluate the performance of an Asian value chain and identify areas for improvement of the Asian partner firms. As such, the results contribute both to the HPP literature, filling a gap therein, and to practice, as Asian organizations can use with confidence a framework which has been validated in their context.

The increased demand for high-quality, nutritionally rich processed food has led to non-thermal food processing technologies like high pressure processing (HPP), a novel process for microbial inactivation with minimal loss of nutritional and sensory properties. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the impact of HPP on the microbiological, nutritional and sensory properties of food.

Recent research on the role of HPP in maintaining food quality and safety and the impact of process conditions with respect to various food properties have been explored in this paper. Also, the hurdle approach and the effectiveness of HPP on food quality have been documented.

HPP has been verified for industrial application, fulfilling the consumer demand for processed food with minimum nutrition loss at low temperatures. The positive impact of HPP with other treatments is known as the hurdle approach that enhances its impact against microorganism activity and minimizes the effects on nutrition and sensory attributes.

This paper highlights the impact of HPP on various food properties and a good alternative as non-thermal technology for maintaining shelf life, sensory properties and retention of nutrients.

The importance of partnerships to organizational success has increased considerably the past decennia and many organizations strive at creating high-performance partnerships (HPPs). For this to happen, organizations in the partnerships have to be of high quality and their collaborations should be world-class. Whereas the factors that create high-performance organizations (HPO) are by now reasonably well established, the HPP factors are still unclear. The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale for measuring the factors of importance for creating and maintaining HPPs, and relates these factors to the factors of the HPO framework and to the success of the partnership.

During a literature study ten potential factors of importance for creating and maintaining HPPs were identified. These potential factors were put in a questionnaire, together with the factors that create the HPO and the factor that measures the success of the partnership. This questionnaire was administered to a cable company, which was working on becoming an HPO, and four of its main suppliers. The data were subjected to a factor analysis which yielded a HPP framework consisting of three factors and 19 underlying characteristics. In addition, these HPP factors were put in a regression analysis with the factors of the HPO framework and the success of the partnership factor.

The research results show a strong relationship between three HPP factors, the five HPO factors, and the success of a partnership factor.

This research adds to the literature by extending the concept of HPOs to the value chain these HPOs operate in. Thus the research into the factors of successful partnerships has been brought forward. The practical benefit of the research is that organizations can use the HPP factors to increase the quality of the partnerships they have with their suppliers and customers.

There is much literature on partnerships but not so much on partnerships between organizations which strive to become a HPOs, and in the process need to create partnership of high quality.

The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer attitudes towards apple juice produced by means of two new processing technologies, high‐pressure processing (HPP) and pulsed electric field processing (PEF).

Means‐end chain approach is used. Laddering interviews are conducted with consumers in Norway, Denmark, Hungary and Slovakia.

Consumers in this study did recognize and appreciate the benefits that HPP and PEF apple juice have to offer over a juice produced by pasteurization. The respondents in all four countries associated positive consequences with product attributes related to the nutritional value and the taste of the products produced by means of these novel technologies. Also the environmental benefits from processing foods by applying these technologies were seen as highly positive characteristics of the technologies. However, many respondents also expressed some scepticism, especially towards the PEF treated juice and were unsure about if there were risks associated with consuming products processed by this technology.

When new processing technologies are introduced, consumer acceptance is one of the key issues for their future success. It is up to food producers and food scientists to provide the evidence that will convince consumers that these new technologies are safe to use.

This research contributes to the limited knowledge on consumer attitudes towards food products produced by HPP and PEF. From a general perspective, the research expands the body of knowledge on consumer perception of food technologies.

In recent years there has been an increasing interest in make-to-stock and make-to-order combined strategies in food manufacturing operations. However, most scholarly work to-date has neglected the role of hierarchical production planning (HPP) in guiding small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) implementation of such strategies. The purpose of this paper is to address food SME manufacturers’ readiness to adopt such strategies, in terms of internal integration and their capability to adopt formalised planning approaches.

This study adopted an action research methodology to explore the potential impact of HPP in SME food manufacturers. Selected companies had identified product variety management as a challenge and also had recognised the need to enhance internal integration. Given this, the research team, from a theoretical perspective, proposed the use of HPP set within a broader decision-making conceptual framework to improve internal integration and planning.

This paper adopts the fundamental position that HPP provides a useful framework in the establishment of strategic and tactical level constraints and priorities which then act as specific guides at the operational level, and presents empirical evidence in a food SME manufacturing context. In the cases the authors studies, the cascading effect of this decision-making framework focused attention on key metrics, encouraged greater internal integration and delivered tangible, significant improvements in performance. This was greatly facilitated by the provision of new key data on the cost of certain managerial trade-offs which these firms faced.

SMEs are of a scale that requires a formalised planning approach; however production planning systems are typically designed for large scale enterprises. This paper addresses the need of SMEs in this regard. Well-established supply chain metrics were used to establish the benefits of both HPP and resulting improvement in internal integration and beyond, in terms of improvement in the quality of planning decisions.

High pressure processing (HPP) has been widely used for high-acid (pH<4.6) juices. The purpose of this study was to investigate optimal parameters aimed at achieving 5-log reduction of the pathogens of reference in Concord grape juice (pH 3.39).

Grape juice was inoculated with five strain cocktails of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica and Listeria monocytogenes. In total, 11 trials were carried out based on a Central Composite Rotational Design (CCRD). The pressure (P), ranging from 319 to 531 MPa, and dwell time (t), from 35 to 205 s, were tested. The performance of the combinations (P × t) was evaluated by pathogen challenge microbiological assays.

E. coli O157:H7 was more resistant to HPP than S. enterica. L. monocytogenes did not grow in unprocessed juice (before HPP). Findings demonstrated that moderate pressures (~400 MPa) and short dwell times (~2 min) were effective in achieving a greater than 5-log reduction in the pathogens of reference.

Because the maintenance costs of equipment exponentially increase with pressure beyond 600 MPa, significant reductions in process pressure are highly desirable.

The results of this study can supplement the dearth of information on the applicability of high pressure as a Concord grape juice processing technology in terms of the pathogens inactivation. Furthermore, the use of a cocktail of five strains of pathogens inoculated in Concord grape juice to challenge different HPP parameters has not been reported.

The impact off strategic capacity decisions on production and distribution.

Nowadays, it is rare to find an organization that operates in isolation, without the need to partner with other organizations. Partnerships offer firms access to new technologies, markets, and knowledge. During the process of transforming into a high performance organization (HPO), an organization will eventually find itself operating within a bigger value chain. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors and practices that can help Egyptian ICT companies to become better members in such a partnership, in a way that enables full benefit to be gained from the partnership.

The study used a questionnaire based on the high performance partnership (HPP) framework that has previously been validated in the Western and Asian contexts. The questionnaire was distributed to seven Egyptian ICT organizations who partnered with each other, after which a exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed on the collected data to identify the factors that influence the success of partnerships between Egyptian ICT companies.

The EFA showed that five (of the original ten) factors from the HPP Framework achieved a high reliability while 47 of the original 54 underlying characteristics applied in the Egyptian ICT context. In addition, these five HPP factors had strong positive relations with the success of the partnership as perceived by partners. Interestingly, the HPO scores of individual partners also had a positive effect on the perceived success of the partnership.

This study fills the lacuna that currently exists in empirical research about organizational performance practices in Egypt. The study also has practical implications, as management of Egyptian ICT companies are now able to undertake focused improvement actions to increase the success of the partnerships into which they enter.

High-acid liquid foods are a substrate in which foodborne pathogens can maintain their viability. In this research an experimental design was conducted to optimize the parameters for high pressure processing (HPP) of apple juice (pH 3.76).

Juice was inoculated with cocktails of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica and Listeria monocytogenes. Pressures ranging from 139 to 561 MPa and dwell times between 39 and 181 s were challenged.

Pressures above 400 MPa achieved a greater than 5-log reduction in all pathogen cocktails regardless of the dwell time. L. monocytogenes was more sensitive to HPP at a pressure of 350 MPa and dwell times equal to or beyond 110 s. E. coli O157:H7 and S. enterica exhibited similar resistance; the number of log reductions in the central point (350 MPa/110 s) ranged from 2.2 to 3.7. The first-order mathematical model better fitted experimental data for E. coli O157:H7 and S. enterica. In regard to L. monocytogenes, the second-order model better fitted this pathogen's reduction.

Fruit juices are usually high pressure processed at approximately 600 MPa. For pathogenic reduction, the use of milder parameters may save energy and maintenance costs. The results herein exhibited could assist the apple juice industry with more effective applications of HPP.

The findings of this study demonstrate that relatively moderate pressures can be successfully used to assure the safety of apple juice.

Shape memory materials are functional materials having a good number of applications due to their unique features of programmable material technology such as self-stretching, self-assembly and self-tightening. Advancements in today’s technology led to the easy fabrication of such novel materials using 3D printing techniques. When an external stimulus causes a 3D printed specimen to change shape on its own, this process is known as 4D printing. This study aims to investigate the effect of graphene nano platelet (GNPs) on the shape memory behaviour of shape memory photo polymer composites (SMPPCs) and to optimize the shape-changing response by using the Taguchi method.

SMPPCs are synthesized by blending different weight fractions (Wt.%) of flexible or soft photopolymer (FPP) resin with hard photopolymer (HPP) resin, then reinforced with GNPs at various Wt.% to the blended PP resin, and then fabricated using masked stereolithography (MSLA) apparatus. The shape memory test is conducted to assess the shape recovery time (T), shape fixity ratio (R_f), shape recovery ratio (R_r) and shape recovery rate (V_r) using Taguchi analysis by constructing an L9 orthogonal array with parameters such as Wt.% of a blend of FPP and HPP resin, Wt.% of GNPs and holding time.

SMPPCs with A3, B3 and C2 result in a faster T with 2 s, whereas SMPPCs with A1, B1 and C3 result in a longer T with 21 s. The factors A and B are ranked as the most significant in the Pareto charts that were obtained, whereas C is not significant. It can be seen from the heatmap plot that when factors A and B increase, T is decreasing and V_r is increasing. The optimum parameters for T and V_r are A3, B3 and C2 at the same time for R_f and R_r are A1, B3 and C1.

Faster shape recovery results from a higher Wt.% of FPP resin in a blend than over a true HPP resin. This is because the flexible polymer links in FPP resin activate more quickly over time. However, a minimum amount of HPP resin also needs to be maintained because it plays a role in producing higher R_f and V_r. The use of GNPs as reinforcement accelerates the T because nanographene conducts heat more quickly, releasing the temporary shape of the specimen more quickly.

The use of FPP and HPP resin blends, fabricating the 4D-printed SMPPCs specimens with MSLA technology, investigating the effect of GNPs and optimizing the process parameters using Taguchi and the work was validated using confirmation tests and regression analysis, which increases the originality and novelty.