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Despite the increasing world‐wide preference for free market economies, many developing nations (DNs) still have a significant public sector. Egypt, for one, still has about 70 percent of total national investment under the control of State‐owned enterprises (SOEs); quite an improvement over the sixties and early seventies when this ratio was 90 percent (Handussa, 1989). Judging by the rate of change since the declaration of the open‐door policy in 1974, it is wise to assume that SOEs will continue to play a dominant role in the Egyptian economy for the foreseeable future.

The article concerns the decision‐making process involved in determining the strategic need and use of multinational alliances for a specific company. In theory the process is a linear one moving from the situation analysis (company and competitive market) through evaluation of the impact of external and internal situation factors on the alliance entry choice. In practice, however, the process is an emerging one, as is shown in the company experiences described in this paper. In this sense, this study concerns the application of planning decision theory to actual company decision‐making practices.

Globalization and the borderless marketplace have created an opportunity for companies to come together to work on projects that could otherwise not be completed through the efforts of one or two companies acting independently. The formation of virtual enterprise networks combines the advantages of the various core competencies of members of the network to deliver customer satisfaction. Virtual enterprise networks consist of several firms that can be geographically dispersed, and that might be technically disparate in terms of system platforms. Coordination among members of the network and the the transfer of quality products and services among members of the network are the key factors in achieving success. The proposed framework presented in this paper utilizes a multi‐agent model to monitor quality within a virtual enterprise network to ensure that the processes among members run smoothly and efficiently.

Two main approaches to knowledge management (KM) have been followed by early adopters of the principle: the process‐centred approach, that mainly treats KM as a social communication process; and the product‐centred approach, that focuses on knowledge artefacts, their creation, storage and reuse in computer‐based corporate memories. This distinction is evident not only in KM implementations in companies, but also in supporting methodologies and tools. This paper presents the Know‐Net solution that aims to innovatively fuse the process‐centred approach with the product‐centred approach by developing a knowledge asset‐centric design. The Know‐Net solution includes a theoretical framework, a corporate transformation and measurement method and a software tool.

The purpose in this paper is to develop a systematic literature review aiming to reveal innovation opportunities associated with the thematic collaboration and trust in the reverse logistics field.

The authors adopted a parallel analysis approach segregating the systematic literature review papers in two groups at NVivo®, collaboration and trust in the supply chain and collaboration and trust in reverse logistics, aiming to explore in the first group of papers insights for innovation on collaboration and trust in reverse logistics. The content analysis strategy was supported by the knowledge exchange theory described in Gravier et al. (2008).

Reverse logistics is hardly dissociated from broader sustainable supply chain management approaches, which make all considerations on collaboration and trust designed for such approaches valuable and valid for reverse logistics. Collaboration and trust concepts in supply chain and in reverse logistics contexts are quite similar, while collaboration/trust is mandatory for managing networks in sustainable approaches and in reverse logistics, as well. Downstream and upstream, the chain disruptive innovation business models may be developed between focal companies and returns system third-party logistics providers, fourth-party logistics providers or end-customers, in a business-to-customer collaboration approach. Several collaboration technologies are listed in three perspectives: knowledge sharing, knowledge generation and knowledge implementation.

This study uses a specific protocol for the systematic literature review, and due to inclusion and exclusion criteria, other protocols can provide different results. The strategy of analysis under the knowledge exchange perspective may give a type of result different from other perspectives.

This research systematizes the existing knowledge on the collaborations and trust, which is a priority basis for reverse logistics, providing insights to researchers and practitioners in the area and identifying an agenda for future studies.

The purpose of the article is to demonstrate how agency theory has been used to address the dynamics involved in supply chain management. It is also dedicated to suggesting an agenda for future research.

We performed an integrative literature review, based on the process detailed by Botelho et al. (2011), with search filters. The articles were obtained from the Scopus and Web of Science databases using the keywords “supply chain” and “agency theory”, with a subsequent analytical filter for “management”. The search initially identified 205 articles. After two screenings, 56 articles were selected for analysis.

Despite attempts to infer the importance of research on agency theory in supply chain management, its application to the discipline is scarce. Clearly, agency theory provides valuable insights into the relationships in the supply chain. In the studies analyzed, the dynamics of performance, risk, sustainability, dyadic and inter-firm relationships, and supplier management are predominant.

When considering unwanted behaviors throughout the supply chain, agency theory fills the explanatory gaps for these facts. It also proves to be a useful tool to answer mainly the dilemmas of underlying theories, such as transaction cost theory, resource-based view and network theory. Rare are the studies that examine the current state of the application of agency theory in the supply chain literature in the management field.

This roadmap is primarily concerned with the adaptive assembly technology situation in Europe, a topic of particular interest as assembly is often the final process within manufacturing operations. Being the final set of operations on the product, and being traditionally labour‐intensive, assembly has been considerably affected by globalisation. Therefore, unlike most technology roadmaps, this report will not focus solely on particular technologies, but will strive to form a broader perspective on the conditions that may come to influence the opportunities, including political aspects and scientific paradigms. The purpose of this paper is to convey a complete view of the global mechanisms that may come to affect technological breakthroughs, and also present strategies that may better prepare for such a forecast.

The paper describes a technological roadmap.

This paper provides a complete overview of all aspects that may come to affect assembly in Europe within the next 20 years.

The paper gives an original Evolvable Ultra Precision Assembly Systems FP6 project result which will be of general interest for strategic R&D.

This study aims to demonstrate how integration is achieved in an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design by assessing the effect of collaborative cultural dimensions on supply chain collaboration amongst firms in Ghana's downstream petroleum sector. Specifically, the study examined how collectivism, long-term orientation, power symmetry, as well as uncertainty avoidance influence supply chain collaboration. Besides, it also demonstrates how integration is achieved in an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design.

Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, the study employed a partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis of quantitative data (N = 166), followed by a thematic analysis of eight semi-structured interviews to explain how and why the dimensions of collaborative culture impact supply chain collaboration.

The quantitative findings suggest that three out of the four dimensions of culture significantly predict supply chain collaboration. Integrating the quantitative and qualitative findings suggests convergence between the results of the quantitative and qualitative phases of the study as the qualitative results compliment the quantitative findings and offer more nuanced understanding of the cultural mechanisms responsible for successful supply chain collaborations.

The findings provide managers in the downstream petroleum sector with insights into how and why the dimensions of collaborative culture influence supply chain collaboration. These managers should, therefore, build corporate cultures characterized with high levels of long-term orientation, power symmetry and uncertainty avoidance.

Owing to the role of culture in successful supply chain collaborations, this study, through a mixed-methods design, links the dimensions of collaborative culture with supply chain collaboration in the downstream petroleum sector. Moreover, it demonstrates how integration and complementarity are achieved at the study design, methods, as well as the interpretation and reporting levels of an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design.

In the 1990s, companies focused on the design and implementation of their internal business processes to overcome functional barriers. The 2000s are about the integration between enterprises and inter‐enterprise processes, particularly the improvement of supply chain management and customer relationship processes, The major enabler is the Internet, which has resulted in entire networks of e‐business processes across various organizations. To design and implement those processes efficiently and effectively, more and more organizations use available industry standards in the form of reference models, e.g. the supply chain reference model (SCOR), the RosettaNet Standards, or software reference models. Unclear for many enterprises is how to use those standards. This article describes a comprehensive methodology for the use of reference models, to design and implement inter‐enterprise collaborations within value chain networks. The methodology leads to fast and reliable results in value chain improvement. It increases the performance of the implementation procedure and the resulting business processes.

This paper aims to provide insight into how knowledge resources in R & D organizations can be effectively and separately measured for knowledge sharing and transfer. Knowledge is recognized as a durable strategic resource to obtain sustainable competitive advantage.

The paper proposes a theoretical framework integrating an analytic network process (ANP) with a balanced scorecard (BSC) to measure the performance of knowledge resources under value perspective. Four indicators and three knowledge value (KV) components including labor value, technology value and utilization value are discussed. The model construction, problem structuring and calculation procedure for measuring the performance of knowledge resources based on ANP and BSC are demonstrated.

Despite a number of models to assess the performance of knowledge resources being proposed, they highlighted a need for separately measuring under value perspective. With the aim of filling this gap, the main finding of the paper is to clarify relevant issues, providing a better framework for assessment of the performance of knowledge resources.

To handle the dynamic nature of knowledge, the research should take into account more advanced methods to measure the performance of knowledge resources. Both qualitative and quantitative methods should be utilized in future research.

The consequences of measuring the performance of knowledge resources under value perspective may help managers to organize and arrange the separate knowledge resources, improving the knowledge resources exchange between different institutions in R & D organizations.

The main contribution of this paper lies in the development of a comprehensive model, which incorporates diversified issues for conducting the performance of knowledge resources under value perspective.