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Without reliance on results obtained from applying a cell formation method, this paper aims to describe a simple quantitative approach to testing whether an underlying pattern of relationships exists between machines of a given system, such that the machines may be rearranged into manufacturing cells. It also aims to support the approach by an index for measuring the clustering tendency.

The eigenvalues of the similarity coefficient matrix and Kaiser's rule are used to: detect the number of clusters existing in the part‐machine matrix, and derive an index for predicting the goodness of the best possible obtainable cell formation.

The results of applying the proposed approach and the clustering tendency index to problems of different sizes taken from the literature have proven that both the approach and the clustering tendency index are powerful in performing the feasibility assessment and in predicting the right number of manufacturing cell to be formed.

This study is of considerable value to practitioners because it provides them with a powerful yet very easy to apply approach for assessing the feasibility of adopting cellular manufacturing in early stages of design. Another characteristic of this approach is the possibility of using it as a decision support tool for practitioners who opt to use a cell formation method which requires specifying the number of cells in advance. Moreover, the approach does not require any special software package, since it can be easily performed using several available software packages such as MATLAB and Mathematica.

A methodology for evaluating the adaptability of a system to cellular manufacturing has been proposed in a previous study. However, the methodology used is complex and uses a certain degree of subjectivity. In contrast, the proposed approach is simple and completely quantitative. Furthermore, a new index for measuring the clustering tendency is presented.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the results of a study investigating the association between organizational differences and some aspects relating to the implementation of ISO 9001:2000.

Data required for this study were collected from 42 ISO 9001:2000‐certified organizations of different size and sector type in the Sultanate of Oman. The Kruskal‐Wallis test was adopted for testing 12 research hypotheses.

The results show that there is no strong evidence to suggest that the motives for implementation, the process and cost of achieving certification, the perceived benefits, and the shortcomings differ significantly according to organization size or sector type.

The main outcome of this study is that the issue of organization size or sector type should not be a factor for an organization in deciding certification. This outcome is of value to organizations that are interested investing in ISO certification.

Several studies have been carried out investigating aspects relating to the implementation of the ISO 9001:2000 quality management standard in organizations operating in different countries. However, the issue of whether these aspects differ according to organization size or sector type has not been sufficiently and appropriately addressed in the literature. This paper reports on the results of a study investigating these issues.

Despite the increasing number of studies investigating environmentally sustainable practices in different sectors, no research exists on the issues related to the success factors for implementing environmentally sustainable practices in the utilities sector. To partially fill this research gap, the purpose of this study is to empirically examine these success factors in a public utilities organization in the United Arab Emirates.

An integrated interpretive structural modeling and fuzzy cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification approach was implemented to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) and to model and analyze the relationships among them.

Thirteen CSFs were identified and the relationships among them were represented by a seven-level hierarchical graphical model, and six CSFs were identified as drivers of success: government policies, regulations and environmental awareness programs; organization sustainability strategies; top management commitment; organizational capabilities; social and environmental responsibility; and eco-knowledge.

This is first kind of study to identify CSFs for implementing environmentally sustainable practices in the utilities sector. The results could guide government policymakers and decision-makers in utilities organizations that are interested in implementing environmentally sustainable practices.

This conceptual paper aims to explore how supply chain managers deal with social threats to supply chains, in the process of demonstrating the potency of a largely neglected strand of realist social theory. This theory, as posited, sheds a great deal of light on the behavioural reality of how supply chain managers operate within the social aspects of their risk environments.

The paper is presented as a narrative synthesis of classical realist sociological literature.

The Machiavellian approach provides a template that can be used to help academics and practitioners understand how and why supply chain managers orient themselves to the social threats they confront in very different ways. The theory’s contention that the behavioural reality can be subdivided between two basic patterns allows it to serve as a constructively simple template for becoming attuned to ways in which supply chain managers socially construct and act within their social threat environments.

The growing social complexity of supply chains gives behavioural responses a complexity reduction function. The authors theorise that such patterns, once activated, may not necessarily adapt rationally as guides to optimise the chance of success against the full range of social threats they are likely to encounter.

Cross-disciplinary supply chain management research is increasingly drawing upon sociology and behavioural science to facilitate greater understanding of not only the supply chain environment but also the roles of supply chain managers as relationship influencers and managers of conflict. The authors posit that Machiavellian–realist social theory can contribute to supply chain management scholarship by offering a constructively simple approach to evaluate the behavioural realities associated with social threats.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the relationship between asset quality and profitability is linear or nonlinear, using a global dataset containing 2,943 banks from advanced and emerging economies.

The authors use the U-shape test to investigate the existence of a nonlinear relationship between asset quality and profitability. In addition, the dynamic panel generalised method of moments (GMM) and quantile regression are used to examine the nonlinear effect of profitability on nonperforming loans (NPLs).

After controlling for macroeconomic and bank internal factors, the authors find empirical evidence supporting the existence of a nonlinear relationship in the form of a U-shape. This is also confirmed through the three-stage U test procedure. After distinguishing between advanced and emerging economies, the authors also find that, in advanced markets, the credit policy responds more rapidly to changes in credit market conditions than in emerging markets, providing insights into credit market dynamics.

Further research can check the robustness of this study’s findings in different markets and investigate the existence of nonlinearity in other bank variables.

In a nutshell, the results demonstrate potential implications for policymakers who need to carefully monitor banks' lending behaviour to ensure that banks do not lower lending standards. In addition, banking regulators and supervisors should consider the possible nonlinear relationship in their risk assessments and macrostress tests. Further, these results are important for bank managers, who should monitor the performance of their loan portfolios to ensure that their credit officers do not lower credit standards. Likewise, for banks located in an emerging economy, investing in human capital and advanced technologies can enable them to respond more effectively to changes in the credit market.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is considered the first to provide empirical evidence for the nonlinear relationship between asset quality and profitability.

This study focuses on the factors that determine the readiness of hotels to implement customer relationship management (CRM) in hotels within the context of Ghana. The sample consisted of 292 employees (restaurant managers, customer service officers, customer relations' officers, and marketing managers) from 3- to 5-star hotels. The study adopted a quantitative deductive approach to collected data using cross-sectional survey, which was analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings revealed that management change initiatives and culture have significant impact on organizational readiness to implement CRM in hotels, specifically Ghana. Also, the organizational culture partly mediates management change initiatives and organizational readiness to implement CRM activities. On the other hand, use of technology proved not to mediate management change initiatives and organizational readiness as the relationship proved not to be significant. Also, culture and use of technology have not mediated management change initiatives and organizational readiness as the indirect path proved not to be significant. The outcomes have useful implications for CRM adoption by hotel managers.

The issue of foreign aid has continued to gain renewed economic cum political attention in the early years of the twenty-first century. At a summit, popularly known as the Millennium Summit, which took place in 2000, there was an agreement by the international community concerning some goals known as the Millennium Development Goals which were targeted to be reached by the year 2015 but have now been replaced by the Sustainable Development Goals. Against this background, it becomes pertinent to ascertain the contributions and impact of foreign aid in the form of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) on capital formation in Nigeria. This is an area of foreign aid studies that has been ignored by many researchers. Most studies are seen delving into analyzing the aid-growth nexus without evaluating the transmission link through which foreign aid transmits to affect economic growth. There is paucity of studies on the aid-capital nexus. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The empirical method used was autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model.

The empirical results from the ARDL model estimations show that foreign aid, which is proxied by ODA, has a positive and significant impact on capital formation in Nigeria for the years under analysis. The result of the Granger causality test shows that a bi-directional granger causality exists between foreign aid and gross fixed capital formation (GFCF).

Empirical results from the ARDL model estimations show that foreign aid, which is proxied by ODA, has a positive and significant impact on capital formation in Nigeria for the years under analysis. The result of the Granger causality test shows that a bi-directional Granger causality exists between foreign aid and GFCF. It is therefore recommended that government should make serious efforts toward the implementation and effective utilization of foreign aid. Appropriate policy measures that would monitor the maximum and effective utilization of foreign aid are also required.

This chapter investigates the effect of customer orientation and CRM organization on hotel financial performance. A model of enhancing hotel financial performance through customer satisfaction practices was tested. Customer satisfaction was hypothesized to be a mediator in the relationships between customer orientation and CRM organization and the result being financial performance. The sample consisted of 54 hotels that was made up of three 5-star, fifteen 4-star, and thirty-six 3-star hotels in Ghana. A quantitative deductive approach was employed to gather data using cross-sectional survey, which was analyzed using PLS-SEM to check the validity, reliability and factor loading of the data. The findings revealed that, CRM organization enhances customer satisfaction and financial performance of hotels. Also, customer orientation showed significant positively related to customer satisfaction in the hotels. Surprisingly, the effects of CRM organization and customer orientation on financial performance through customer satisfaction were insignificant. Thus, customer satisfaction failed to mediate the effect of CRM organization and customer orientation on the financial performance of hotels. This suggests that though an effective CRM organization enhances customer satisfaction, it directly affects the financial performance of hotels. The outcomes have useful implications for CRM implementation on hotel financial performance in Ghana.

The study aims to shed light on the current state of “Dataset repositories” indexed in Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR).

From each repository/record information, the Open-Access Policies, Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), year of creation and the number of data sets archived in the repositories were manually searched, documented and analyzed.

Developed countries like the United Kingdom and the USA are primarily involved in the development of institutional open-access repositories comprising significant components of OpenDOAR. The most extensively used software is DSpace. Most data set archives are OAI-PMH compliant but do not follow open-access rules. The study also highlights the sites’ embrace of Web 2.0 capabilities and discovers really simple syndication feeds and Atom integration. The use of social media has made its presence known. Furthermore, the study concludes that the number of data sets kept in repositories is insufficient, although the expansion of such repositories has been consistent over the years.

The work has the potential to benefit both researchers in general and policymakers in particular. Scholars interested in research data, data sharing and data reuse can learn about the present state of repositories that preserve data sets in OpenDOAR. At the same time, policymakers can develop recommendations and policies to assist in the construction and maintenance of repositories for data sets.

According to the literature, there have been numerous studies on open-access repositories and OpenDOAR internationally, but no research has focused on repositories preserving content-type data sets. As a result, the study attempts to uncover various characteristics of OpenDOAR Data set repositories.