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This study aimed to develop the integration of the multiperiod production-distribution model in a closed-loop supply chain involving carbon emission and traceability. The developed model was for agricultural food (agri-food) products, considering the reverse flow of food waste from the disposal center (composting center) to producers.

The results indicate that integrating the production and distribution model considering food waste recycling provides low carbon emissions in lower total costs. The sensitivity analysis also found that there are trade-offs between production and distribution rate and food waste levels on carbon emission and traceability.

This study focuses on the mathematical modeling of a multiperiod production-distribution formulation for a closed-loop supply chain.

The model of the agri-food closed-loop supply chain in this study that considers food recycling and carbon emissions would help stakeholders involved in the agri-food supply chain to reduce food waste and carbon emissions.

Quality 4.0 is managing quality during the fourth industrial revolution. It is used by modern-day organizations as a strategy to compete and thrive in the marketplace. The purpose of this study is to analyze the potential impact of Quality 4.0 on organizational performance.

This study through an integrative literature review critically analyzed 41 previous literature articles to study the impact of Quality 4.0 on various metrics of organizational performance.

The results of the review suggest that Quality 4.0 may have an impact on financial performance, customer value proposition, internal business processes, learning and growth, environmental performance and social performance.

This study is limited by the databases reviewed. The second limitation is that this study considered articles published in the English language. Therefore, articles published in other languages were not considered in this study.

Organizations can use the findings of this study to strongly leverage the implementation of Quality 4.0 to reach their strategic objectives and improve competitive advantage.

This is the first study to explore the impact of Quality 4.0 on organizational performance through an integrative literature review.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

The purpose of this paper is to provide new elements to understand, measure and predict managerial creativity. More specifically, based on new approaches to creative potential (Lubart et al., 2011), this study proposes to distinguish two aspects of managerial creative problem solving: divergent-exploratory thinking, in which managers try to generate several new solutions to a problem; and convergent-integrative thinking, in which managers select and elaborate one creative solution.

In this study, personality is examined as a predictor of managerial creative problem solving: On one hand, based on previous research on general divergent thinking (e.g. Ma, 2009), it is hypothesized that managerial divergent thinking is predicted by high openness to experience and low agreeableness. On the other hand, because efficient people management involves generating satisfying and trustful social interactions, it is hypothesized that convergent-integrative thinking ability is predicted by high agreeableness. In all, 137 adult participants completed two divergent-exploratory thinking managerial tasks and two convergent-integrative thinking managerial task and the Big Five Inventory (John and Srivastava, 1999).

As expected, divergent-exploratory thinking was predicted by openness to experience (r=0.21; p<0.05) and agreeableness (r=−0.22; p<0.05) and the convergent-integrative thinking part of managerial creative problem solving was predicted by agreeableness (r=0.28; p<0.001).

Contrary to most research on managerial creativity (e.g. Scratchley and Hakstian, 2001), the study focuses (and provides measure guidelines) on both divergent and convergent thinking dimensions of creative potential. This study replicates and extends previous results regarding the link between personality (especially agreeableness) and managerial creativity.

Like conflict in general, budgetary conflict is perceived by conflicting parties as a zero-sum game or distributive: one party's gain is the other party's loss. We identify an organizational culture that promotes this view as “traditional.” We propose that changing certain elements of organizational culture is sufficient to produce more integrative, nonzero-sum outcomes. We call this changed organizational culture “empowering.” We propose and test the effects of an empowering organizational culture (EOC) in contrast to the traditional organizational culture (TOC). We hypothesize that an EOC would produce more integrative conflict resolution than the typical TOC. Based on our review of the literature, we identify two elements of the EOC that are essential in producing more integrative solutions to budgetary conflict. The two elements that we simultaneously manipulate are the superior's empowering style (or lack thereof) as reflected in encouragement to freely negotiate, and the superior's intervention process in failed negotiations (a process that encourages the search for integrative solutions and avoids imposed compromises that dampen the desire to negotiate). Using a laboratory experiment, 84 subjects forming 42 dyads negotiated the allocation of discretionary budgets face-to-face. The results of the experiment confirm our hypotheses that the EOC produces more integrative budget negotiation outcomes, greater convergence, and greater satisfaction with the outcome than TOC.

Roger L. Martin, one of the most respected strategists, is questioned by veteran S&L interviewer Brian Leavy. The questions range from the how and why of integrative thinking methodology to academic arguments over resource-based view of strategy.

Martin, co-author with Jennifer Riel of the new book Creating Great Choices, shares the insights they have developed while learning how to guide executives through integrative thinking methodolgy.

The necessary raw materials for an integrative solution are two opposing models. By exposing your model to other models through interaction, together you can utilize pieces of those models to generate a new one.

We see the value of prototyping solutions – expecting to be only partially right with the first prototype and learning a lot from putting the ideas into action, seeing what works and what doesn’t, and improving iteratively.

Martin’s guide to break though thinking shares the insights he has learned from working with brilliant CEOs and others who have sought to find a better solution to a dilemma or paradox than the unsatisfactory solutions confronting them.

Although research attention has been given to the modelling process for simultaneous demand‐output management in manufacturing systems, little interest has been demonstrated in service organisations despite the fact that such organisations face unique conditions that further complicate the demand‐output management issue. In response to this lack of emphasis, we review the relevant research from both marketing and operations management and present a cost‐effectiveness model for balancing demand and service output.

In the past 100 years production management has evolved from a set of heuristic ideas to a portfolio of somewhat developed concepts and principles. “Just‐in‐time” and “total quality management” integrate most of the modern concepts and principles in the field. Furthermore, seminal studies carried out within production, such as the Gilbreth/Taylor, Hawthorne and Tavistock studies, have given significant contribution to the evolution of management theory. This paper presents the context of production management evolution and assesses the application of some heuristic production approaches within construction sites of Brazil and England. The study revealed that, although the production management theory evolved significantly, construction practices do not apply the theory in a systemic and comprehensive manner. Clearly, lack of motivation and poor instruments for enabling “learning” are the central cause of this problem.

This research has the following specific objectives: provide an overview of the literature addressing operational excellence (OE) and OE in emerging countries; propose an integrative framework of OE attributes; and propose future research directions for the OE literature.

To remain competitive in industry, many organizations are implementing OE initiatives. However, achieving OE in emerging markets has been a pressing challenge due to the scarce knowledge on how it works. Through a systematic review of the literature, this study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the concept of OE in emerging countries through the triple bottom line.

This study has found nine attributes of OE based on the three pillars of sustainability or triple bottom line (economic, environmental and social). Four of them were the most cited and served to build the proposed framework. The analysis concludes that most of the studies related to OE in emerging countries have been carried out in Asia. Finally, based on the results obtained from the literature review, six points of future research are proposed based on three research directions: OE in emerging countries, active participation by employees and culture generation and finally, research methods.

The gap that is filled in this study is that some authors have studied the application of OE in emerging countries, specifically on the Asian continent. In those cases, the literature is either oriented to describing OE from different perspectives or to its application in different companies, some of which are emerging countries. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no study that describes the specific and complete aspects that make up a model of OE and which can show how this model can be applied in emerging countries.

Laser systems are becoming more and more a commodity in many fields of application and this is driving a strong trend towards increasingly efficient production technologies and miniaturized products. A central aspect of laser production is the assembly where the majority of cost is due to manual operations. Resistance soldering of optical components is an upcoming technology for automated assembly, especially for high power laser applications. This technology transfers design and packaging concepts from the electronics industry into photonics. The purpose of this paper is to present recent developments in the field of this soldering technology and to show the first experimental results in combination with robot‐based handling.

Soldering results were examined by resistance measurements, shear testing and optical analysis of the melting zone.

The experiments conducted proved the viability of robot‐based automated resistance soldering of optical components. Analyses of current and voltage profiles gave valuable information for process control possibilities without additional sensors and validated the theoretical considerations of the temperature dependency of material properties. Shear testing underlined the necessity for accurate mechanical contact arrangement and opened fields for further process developments.

Robot‐based resistance soldering of optical components represents a promising joining technology for the automated assembly of laser systems. Existing solutions with mechanical fixtures hamper the miniaturization of optical systems and concurrently increase material and production costs. Manual and semi‐automated gluing of components is an alternative process with significant disadvantages regarding the robustness of the process and the resulting joint connection.