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Asserts that once it is realised that quality is the key to efficiency, a “commitment to quality” becomes a natural consequence. Contends that in the future SAS will see the results ‐ increased profitability through the right quality. Describes the airline′s long‐term objectives to expand and prosper in a de‐regulated airline industry. Concentrates on three strategic development areas: service standards; operational standards; technical standards. Describes the formation of a quality information training programme. Discusses lessons learned about corporate management. Stresses the value of TQM. Asserts that the quality work will significantly influence the overall target of increased profitability and satisfied customers.

A seven-step Strategy Execution Model provides a tested guide to agile implementation.

Pragmatic actions, key deliverables and a case example for each of the seven steps in the model are presented.

Firms that focus more on strategic planning than implementation are often plagued with execution issues. Whereas, organizations that are able to execute their strategies as a well managed, integrated process have a much better chance of realizing the full potential of their plans.

Supporting the experience of numerous management teams, research indicates that poor execution often squanders the value companies anticipate from innovative, advantageous strategic initiatives. To minimize the likelihood of mismanagement, companies need a repeatable process that provides an integrated and actionable approach to effective strategy execution.

Senior executives and middle managers need a structured, coordinated system for managing strategy implementation. The author’s seven-step method has been tested in practice and refined. It emphasizes communication and agile adaptability.

This paper aims to investigate the relationships among supply chain management (SCM) implementation, human resource management (HRM) practices and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) firm performance in Thailand. It further examines whether HRM practices have a mediating effect on such relationship.

A survey instrument was developed based on the literature review which then was verified by SCM expert opinions. Cross-sectional surveys of sample employees of SMEs in Thailand were undertaken by both direct and mail surveys. Of about 779 questionnaires distributed, 203 usable questionnaires were returned. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to analyze the obtained data.

The statistical results reveal that SCM indirectly improves firm performance of small- and medium-sized firms through HRM practices. The latter, HRM practices, is found to fully mediate the impact of SCM implementation on SME firm performance. These results suggest that SCM cannot enhance SME firm performance if its implementation is undertaken without effective HRM practices.

This study identified the research gap in SCM areas by recognizing the scarcity of research on SCM in SMEs and by identifying and integrating HRM practices as a significant behavioral support system to SCM implementation in SMEs. Its results reveal that HRM practices fully mediates the impact of SCM on SMEs’ firm performance.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and compare the implementation of quality initiatives in banking, insurance and tele-communication industry under public and private sectors in India.

The study comprised of a descriptive research with a cross-sectional design. Preliminary interviews and extensive literature review was done to identify the quality initiatives to be considered for the study. Data were gathered through a questionnaire comprising of items on a five-point Likert’s scale. Descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviations and inferential statistics such as paired t-test and correlation were used for analysing the data.

The results depict that although both the sectors are trying to outsmart each other by the various quality initiatives undertaken, the private sector is still ahead in quality implementation. It is also worth witnessing a major overhaul in the public sector operations to service the end customer with utmost commitment good enough to match its private counterparts.

The paper provides insights to young managers and researchers about the level of implementation of quality practices in public and private sector organisations and strategies for improvement.

The paper contributes to theory and practice as little empirical research is available to understand the differences between the two sectors on the basis of quality initiatives. Also there is dearth of such a research in industries other than banking.

Most prior literature on the GCC workforce nationalization has focused on a limited set of themes (e.g. nationalization challenges), initiatives (e.g. quota system) and methodology (e.g. qualitative) and none has captured the full range of content associated with its implementation phenomenon resulting in our current incomplete knowledge on it. As one of the first studies on this phenomenon, our study explores the factors influencing comprehensive implementation of workforce nationalization in Qatar. We postulate a research model based on the strategic human resource and strategic management works of literature which contain five exogenous variables under three perspectives: Qatarization, organizational and environmental.

The study model was tested by using structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze data collected from 300 managers in Qatar.

The results show that four variables –formal Qatarization planning, top management commitment, Qatarization experience and stakeholder pressures – positively influence the comprehensive implementation of Qatarization efforts.

Successfully implementing Qatarization objectives requires a robust synergy between dedicated planning and unwavering commitment from top management. Further, to effectively navigate the challenges of nationalization, collaboration with key stakeholders becomes pivotal. Our findings offer actionable insights for public organizations aiming to optimize their Qatarization efforts, emphasizing the integral role of holistic strategies and committed leadership.

We introduce a novel research model rooted in both strategic human resource and strategic management theories. Diverging from traditional qualitative approaches, our quantitative methodology provides empirical depth to our findings.

Information infrastructures can enable or constrain how companies pursue their visions of sustainability reporting and help address the urgent need to understand how corporate activity affects sustainability outcomes and how socio-ecological challenges affect corporate activity. The paper examines the relationship between sustainability reporting information infrastructures and sustainability reporting practice.

The paper mobilises a socio-technical perspective and the conception of infrastructure, the socio-technical arrangement of technical artifacts and social routines, to engage with a qualitative dataset comprised of interview and documentary evidence on the development and construction of sustainability reporting information.

The results detail how sustainability reporting information infrastructures are used by companies and depict the difficulties faced in generating reliable sustainability data. The findings illustrate the challenges and measures undertaken by entities to embed automation and integration, and to enhance sustainability data quality. The findings provide insight into how infrastructures constrain and support sustainability reporting practices.

The paper explains how infrastructures shape sustainability reporting practices, and how infrastructures are shaped by regulatory demands and costs. Companies have developed “uneven” infrastructures supporting legislative requirements, whilst infrastructures supporting non-legislative sustainability reporting remain underdeveloped. Consequently, infrastructures supporting specific legislation have developed along unitary pathways and are often poorly integrated with infrastructures supporting other sustainability reporting areas. Infrastructures developed around legislative requirements are not necessarily constrained by financial reporting norms and do not preclude specific sustainability reporting visions. On the contrary, due to regulation, infrastructure supporting disclosures that offer an “inside out” perspective on sustainability reporting is often comparatively well developed.

The CAN (Controller Area Network) standard, ISO 11898, is now ubiquitous in industrial automation environments. CAN is used with defined application layers for implementing sensor/actuator level distributed control applications. Protocols such as Honeywell's SDS, ODVA's DeviceNet (Allen Bradley) and CANopen are well‐known device level networks which are based on the CAN protocol. A new time‐triggered protocol for CAN, referred to as TTCAN, is under development where the real‐time scheduling of the network traffic can be formally verified. This paper introduces the new TTCAN protocol and suggests that TTCAN has the potential to provide new solutions in industrial automation applications. TTCAN has the potential to replace some conventional pneumatic, hydraulic and other mechanical safety‐critical control systems with a reliable electronic network. The emergence of 42‐volt technology from the automotive world will further complement the TTCAN technology to provide some unique industrial automation solutions.

This article aims to assess how enterprise content management (ECM) has been implemented in South Africa.

The article is a five‐part analysis of the concept of ECM. The first part outlines a perspective to ECM based on predecessor and related terms such as EDMS and ERMS. The second part reviews literature generated in South Africa on electronic records and document management over the last decade as well as a discussion on value added resellers in the country. The third part provides the results of the survey of ten South African institutions. This section includes an outline on the research methodology used as well as analysis of the data and a brief discussion of the research implications. The fourth part provides concluding remarks and the fifth part is a list of references.

A literature review conducted by the author reveals that there have been few published sources on institutional experiences related to implementing electronic document and records management in South Africa. However, the survey published in this article reveals that South African institutions have as much as eight years of ECM implementation experience, a majority using ECM applications from one company and the most common ECM applications modules installed within the organizations being records management, document management and imaging. These survey results suggest additional research is needed to assess proprietary vs non‐proprietary applications as well as the impact of value‐added resellers to ECM implementation.

As the literature review has shown, ECM implementation in South Africa has received minimal attention beyond graduate level research. This article provides an analysis of empirical data on ECM implementation in South Africa and serves as a baseline for more comprehensive studies in the future.

Strategy process research has made considerable progress over the last 20 years and has produced a vast body of literature. This valuable contribution, however, has not adequately examined the relationships between the characteristics of the strategy process. This study aims to fill this gap by providing evidence on the relationships between the characteristics of the process of making strategic decisions (SDs) in a new setting.

The study uses quantitative and qualitative methods.

Based on quantitative and qualitative evidence from a sample of Egyptian companies, it was found that decision makers could be simultaneously rational, political and/or intuitive.

The study recommends further research to develop new constructs of the SD making process the way in which the multi‐dimensional nature of this organic process can be considered.

The SD making process can be multi‐dimensional

The paper examines the relationships between the characteristics of the strategy process. It provides evidence on the relationships between the characteristics of the process of making strategic decisions (SDs) in a new setting.