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The paper aims to analyse the contextual relationship and dependency amongst enablers for lean manufacturing implementation in Bulgarian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

In this study, the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) technique was used to develop a hierarchical structural model for enablers. Also, the interpretive ranking process (IRP) was used to analyse and rank enablers with reference to performance variables. For the ISM approach, a structural self- integration matrix was developed with the help of experts’ suggestions and opinions. Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) analysis was used to analyse the relationship amongst enablers. A total of nine experts were chosen for collecting the primary data in which seven experts belong to the industry and two experts were academicians. The dominant relationship amongst the enablers was analysed through IRP modelling.

A total of 11 enablers were identified for the purpose of this study. The model shows that “leadership and commitment by management”, “human resource management”, “customer relation management”, “supplier relation management” and “information technology system” are the most significant enablers for lean implementation in Bulgarian SMEs as these are positioned at the bottom levels in ISM model. MICMAC analysis shows that five enablers fall in the independent factor, two enablers in linkage factor and four enablers in the dependant factor while there is no enabler in the autonomous factor. ISM and IRP models show that “continuous improvement” is an essential enabler for the successful implementation of lean in Bulgarian SMEs. This study also helps to explain the comparative analysis of ISM and IRP, which indicates that IRP is a more robust modelling approach than ISM, as it incorporates the relationship of enablers with performance variables.

ISM and IRP modelling approaches are based solely on expert opinions and responses. This limitation can be overcome with the help of empirical study.

This study supports the professionals/experts to prioritise and manage enablers at strategic and tactical levels while implementing lean manufacturing practices in Bulgarian SMEs. The models developed in the study will be helpful for practitioners to understand and analyse the interdependence of enablers for lean manufacturing implementation.

This study helps to identify and prioritise enablers that affect lean manufacturing adoption using ISM and IRP approaches. Literature shows that numerous authors have used the ISM approach but the use of IRP approach is limited. The models were developed in the study, totally dependent on data collected from the experts to ensure their real-life validity.

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the methodology of total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) in order to provide interpretation for direct as well as significant transitive linkages in a directed graph.

This study begins by unfolding the concepts and advantages of TISM. The step-by-step methodology of TISM is exemplified by employing it to analyze the mutual dependence among inhibitors of smartphone manufacturing ecosystem development (SMED). Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to the classification analysis is also performed to graphically represent these inhibitors based on their driving power and dependence.

This study highlights the significance of TISM over conventional interpretive structural modeling (ISM). The inhibitors of SMED are explored by reviewing existing literature and obtaining experts’ opinions. TISM is employed to classify these inhibitors in order to devise a five-level hierarchical structure based on their driving power and dependence.

This study facilitates decision makers to take required actions to mitigate these inhibitors. Inhibitors (with strong driving power), which occupy the bottom level in the TISM hierarchy, require more attention from top management and effective monitoring of these inhibitors can assist in achieving the organizations’ goals.

By unfolding the benefits of TISM over ISM, this study is an endeavor to develop insights toward utilization of TISM for modeling inhibitors of SMED. This paper elaborates step-by-step procedure to perform TISM and hence makes it simple for researchers to understand its concepts. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyzes the inhibitors of SMED by utilizing TISM approach.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a total interpretive structural modelling (TSIM) of strategic factors related to performance management in the context of Indian Telecom Service Providers taking dual perspectives in account, i.e. enterprise perspective and subscribers’ perspective.

An evolving performance management framework, i.e. flexible strategy game-card has been taken as the basis to develop the strategic performance management model, where strategic factors have been identified through thematic content analysis and the hierarchical structure of factors has been developed using TISM.

Two total interpretive structural models have been developed, one for enterprise-related strategic factors, and another for subscriber-related strategic factors. These hierarchical structures portray the leading and lagging factors of performance, and showcase that financial performance indicators are the lagging indicators.

This study has implications for both practitioners and academics. For practitioners, it provides an indicative list of strategic factors relevant for Indian telecom companies, which drive better financial results as well as a list of strategic factors that subscribers consider while assessing the performance of telecom operators. For academics, the methodology used provides a mechanism to conduct an exploratory study by identifying the variables of interest and highlighting their interactions through hierarchical structures.

The proposed strategic performance management models developed through qualitative modelling technique is a new effort altogether in the context of Indian telecom operators’. Capturing subscribers’ perspective of firm's performance is neglected in existing performance management literature, and this study makes a contribution in this regard.

Specialty drug development is capital‐intensive and represents a new era for the entire health ecosystem. This “newness” has resulted in below‐par sales performance of these drugs. This paper seeks to explore the intricate relationship of product (or company), salespersons, doctors and consumers (patients) in the given scenario.

The study makes use of grounded theory and total interpretive structural modeling (TISM). Grounded theory is used to explore various factors of cognitive bias in selling specialty drugs. TISM is used to create a hierarchy amongst the factors and interpret the relationships amongst them.

The study proposes a cognitive bias amplification model explaining the phenomenon of cognitive bias in specialty pharmaceutical selling.

The study fills part of the significant research gap and addresses the issues in selling specialty drugs. The cognitive bias amplification model is helpful in providing the starting point for sales‐centric organizations to overcome the cognitive bias affecting salespersons.

Firms have been implementing lean manufacturing to improve their business performances. However, they have difficulties in the implementation due to the many barriers. In view of the lack of research and the importance in understanding them, the purpose of this paper is identify and evaluate the lean barriers with respect to their levels of importance in implementation.

As lean barriers are scattered in the literature and a variety of performance measures are used in practice, an extensive literature review is first carried out to identify the lean barriers and performance measures. A novel ranking technique – interpretive ranking process (IRP) – is adopted in the evaluation. In the IRP-based evaluation approach, a group discussion technique, where five Indian lean experts are involved, is applied to determine the most important lean barriers and performance measures. Several matrices are developed step by step for calculating the ranks of the selected lean barriers. Upon validating the ranks, an IRP-based lean barrier evaluation model is developed.

The IRP-based lean barrier evaluation model can help firms better understand lean barriers and their levels of importance in lean implementation. In the light of this model, to successfully implement lean, firms should provide sufficient management time and training to employees, develop a right culture, develop effective communication, carry out low-cost production, and obtain external funding.

The evaluation results provide the practitioners with a realistic framework to deal with many problems, especially those related to resource allocation, in lean implementation. Based on the framework, practitioners can prioritize lean barriers during implementation in accordance with performances targeted.

This is the first study that provides a comprehensive review of lean barriers available in the literature and evaluates them in accordance with performance measures. The combined use of literature review and experts in the evaluation approach justifies the value of the study.

The concept of third-party logistics service provider (3PLSP) has been considered as an essential organizational philosophy to achieve profits. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and examine the contextual relationship among the critical success factors (CSF) of 3PLSPs practices in the cement manufacturing industry.

In this paper, the total 20 critical selection criteria with nine processes for the 3PLSPs, of an Indian cement manufacturing industry have been identified through an exhaustive literature review and opinions of the experts i.e. academics and industries. Interpretive ranking process (IRP) methodology has been presented to find out the rankings of the individual criteria and the mutual influence in the selection process.

The proposed model establishes the dominance of relationship among identified criteria, which plays a vital role in the 3PLSPs selection process which are experience in similar product, quality of management, information technology capacity, flexibility in operation and delivery, compatibility with the users.

An empirical research approach has not been used to collect primary data to rank different criteria for effective 3PLSPs implementation in the Industry. In this paper, an example of Indian cement industry is presented to show the real world applicability of the proposed model.

This model would help a decision maker to decide the issues related to a selection of 3PLSPs. The third party service provider comprises the use of external companies who controls and delivers logistic activities. The paper discusses very practical issues in an analytical manner, using the case base method.

Diabetes mellitus has become a major world health problem that has unenviable impacts on health of the people including quality of life (QOL) also and in which person’s physical and psychological state, social commitments and relationships and his interaction with the environment is affected. This shows that there is an urgent need for behavior change and considerable educational strategies for proper management and rehabilitation (Reddy, 2000). This research has identified and ranked the significant factors which affect the QOL in diabetic patients in India. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, nine factors which affect the QOL in diabetic patients in India have been identified through review of the literature and evaluated by total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) approach, i.e. an extended version of ISM. In this approach, interpretations of the interrelationship among factors have been discussed. Therefore, TISM approach has been used to develop the model and the mutual interactions among these factors.

The results of the model and MICMAC analysis indicate that diet restriction, body pain and satisfaction with treatment are the top-level factors.

Identification of the factors that have a remarkable effect on the QOL in diabetic patients is very important so that the doctors and other healthcare professionals may handle these factors efficiently and proper rehabilitation can be provided to such patients.

This paper has used an application of the TISM approach to interpret the mutual relationship by using the tool of interpretive matrix and has developed a framework to calculate the drive and the dependence power of factors using MICMAC analysis. The issues related to QOL are extremely important, as they can strongly anticipate a person’s capability to govern his lifestyle with disease like diabetes mellitus and maintain good health in the long run. This shows the urgent requirement of an optimized model which can predict and interpret the relationships among these factors. In this research, the interrelationships among these factors have been developed and interpretations of these interactions have been given to develop a comprehensive model so that QOL of diabetic patients may be improved.

The purpose of this study is to develop a structural model based on total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) approach for analysis of factors influencing sustainable additive manufacturing (AM).

A total of 20 factors influencing sustainable AM are identified on the basis of literature review. Appropriate inputs from experts are obtained and TISM model is developed. Also, cross-impact Matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) analysis is carried out to categorize the factors.

Based on TISM model, “Flexibility in manufacturing”, “Time to develop new product” and “Local availability of technology” are found to be the dominant factors. MICMAC analysis indicates that 10 factors belong to driving and 10 factors belong to dependent category.

In the present study, 20 factors have been considered. In future, additional factors can be considered to deal with technological advancements.

The conduct of the study will enable AM experts to systematically analyze the factors influencing sustainable AM.

The development of structural model for analysis of factors influencing sustainable AM manufacturing is the original contribution of authors.

Companies have been implementing lean manufacturing to improve their business performances. However, many of them have difficulties in the implementation because of various barriers, thus encountering failures. This paper aims to prioritize and analyze the lean barriers for better understanding and interpretation for successful lean implementation.

Extensive literature review has been carried out to identify the lean barriers. Subsequently, total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) has been adopted where lean experts’ inputs have been sought to obtain the self-interaction and reachability matrix. Further, driving power and dependence of lean barriers have been derived, and TISM-based lean barrier model has been developed.

Insufficient management time, insufficient supervisory skills and insufficient senior management skills are the significant barriers with highest driving power and lowest dependence. With low driving power, cost- and funding-related barriers such as cost of the investment, internal funding and external funding are found to be less important barriers.

This model provides a more realistic approach to the problems faced by practitioners during lean implementation. Thus, it provides a roadmap to implement lean by focusing on reducing or eliminating important barriers.

The paper not only provides a TISM-based model of contextual relationships among lean barriers but also describes the validation of this model.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritize the lean implementation (LI) barriers in the context of labor intensive Indian ceramic industries through a statistically reliable and validated model.

In this study, LI barriers are identified through a comprehensive review of relevant literature and discussions held with academicians/practitioners. Identified barriers, thereafter, are evaluated with Cronbach's alpha values using a statistical tool. The interpretive ranking process (IRP) methodology is applied for ranking of the barriers with reference to the measurable performance indicators.

The study identified highly relevant barriers of Indian ceramic industries. Further, these barriers were compared with performance measures through a cross-interaction matrix developed in the IRP model. The model highlights the analysis of dominance relationship of different barriers. Moreover, the result shows that top management commitment and leadership is at the top of the model, followed by lack of training opportunity and skills, and resistance to change and adopt innovations indicating their strongest driving power in LI.

This model may enable the firms to understand the LI barriers and come up with sensible implementation program. Further, the correlation results among the barriers will provide insights in mitigating the hurdles of lean manufacturing (LM) implementation in the industries.

This study empirically develops a model through the IRP for the barriers in LM implementation. From the reported literature, it appears that the application of IRP is very rare in ceramic industries in India. The analysis and prioritization of LI barriers may help practitioners to plan strategies to implement lean in a selected domain.