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Organizational development and change may be initiated from two different starting points. A diagnostic approach begins with an examination of problems to assess and correct dysfunction. In contrast, the Appreciative Inquiry approach begins by identifying an organization’s strengths as resources for change. An experimental study was conducted to compare the processes and outcomes that arise during the first phase of each approach. Results show that both approaches lead to different but favorable and complementary outcomes. Both participant gender and the gender construction of the dyads in which individuals participated moderate these effects in unexpected ways. The implications for understanding the processes by which both methods work, and the potential for combining them, are discussed

This study aims to provide a comprehensive explanation of the linkage between premium segments and product innovation. While previous literature confirms that product innovation triggers premium segment emergence, and vice versa, there is no satisfactory explanation regarding the underlying mechanisms that drive the mutual shaping of premium segments and product innovation. This paper attempts to address this gap in literature.

This study employs a cognitive model of technology trajectories and empirically examines the Japanese rice cooker market using a mixed-methods approach. The methods used consist of content analyses of newspaper articles and press releases and case analyses of manufacturers' new product development.

Content analyses show the emergence of a premium segment within the Japanese rice cooker market as well as a simultaneous change in technology trajectories. Case analyses subsequently reveal the mechanisms that link the premium segment emergence and technology trajectory changes. The analyses also explore this linkage in detail; market actors' technological frames and interpretation processes mediate the mutual shaping of the premium segment and product innovations.

This study presents quantitative evidence indicating the emergence of a premium segment and changes in technology trajectories. It provides a qualitative explanation for the linkage between these two phenomena, which may serve as a viable foundation for future research in premium strategy.

Training as an important source of dynamic capabilities (DC) is important to the performance of sports’ organisations (SO) both to athletes and to non-athletic staff. There are a variety of training delivery methods (TDMs). The purpose of this study is to determine from a set of six TDMs which one is considered to be the most suitable to enhance performance of SO.

Based on the DC theory, a cross-sectional survey from a sample of 554 workers was used to assess which TDM is considered to be the most efficient and presents higher efficacy, according to the preferences and perception of the staff.

It was concluded that: “on-the-job training” is considered to be the preferred and most effective TDM; formal/informal coaching is the second choice, in terms of perceived effectiveness and “online learning” is considered the least effective TDM. TDM’s preferences and results’ perceptions do not change according to differentiating issues such as gender, educational level of trainees or even hierarchical position.

The present study adopted a cross-sectional survey where relationships and correlations were developed continuously. Although difficult to obtain, it would have been advisable to use a survey based on longitudinal data. Results should only be considered for the purposes of the present sample, although it may be considered that they are generalizable to similar organisations and some preliminary results are raised that worth being analysed further.

The outcomes of this study will help managers of SO, according to the situation to be addressed, to choose the best TDM for their non-athletic staff, the ones that will best support their process of continuous improvement and show the best results in terms of renewal of their DC and resources.

This study highlights the training process as a source of DC contributing to overall organisation’s performance and competitive advantage. It enlarges knowledge on SO, from the pure athletic view to the managerial point of view, and operationalises training to decide the most adequate TDM to improve DC and support the success of SO. Considering that it is usually difficult to measure the concrete results of training on the organisational performance, this is also an important field of study for the management theory in the domain of strategy and human resources because the bridge considered here has not been much developed for a long time.

Entrepreneurial identity involves identifying and exploiting opportunities to create value and wealth. Entrepreneurship contributes mainly to a firm’s efforts be exploited in a marketplace. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the entrepreneurial social identities identified by Fauchart and Gruber (2011) and three primary stakeholders: investors, customers and employees.

Data were collected through online questionnaires from entrepreneurs who had created their own new venture in Spain. The results were analysed using partial least squares technique (PLS-SEM) (Fornell and Cha, 1994) with Smart PLS 3.0 (Ringle et al., 2015).

The results show that the identities defined as Darwinian and Communitarian have a positive effect on profits and growth in sales, which serve to create value for investors and customers. The effect is not significant, however, when these identities are connected to job creation to create value for employees. Further, the multi-group analysis performed shows that this relationship differs significantly based on gender.

The main limitation is that this research does not include relevant stakeholders like sponsors or project managers. The next step is to expand this research to this kind of stakeholders.

The research assists gender entrepreneurial social identity and business performance under the impact on primary stakeholders.

This research has the potential to analyse the entrepreneurial social identities for their contribution to create value and wealth.

The authors’ main contributions are to have based the study on the relationship between entrepreneurial social identity and business performance and their impact on primary stakeholders and to have analysed the differences on gender entrepreneurial social identity and business performance and their impact on primary stakeholders.

To analyse the implicit relationships among enabler agents of the European excellence model to serve as a framework for the management and improvement of the quality in higher education institutions.

The hypotheses set out are based on the structure and meaning of the EFQM model and a review of the TQM literature. The empirical study was developed in 111 Spanish public university centres, and used the partial least squares (PLS) technique to test these hypotheses.

The results achieved support the relationships hypothesized and indicate the role of enabler agents as a basis for establishing a management model that leads universities towards excellence.

The main limitation is related to the notion of causality. Our study has considered a soft modelling approach directed more towards prediction than causality.

The role of senior management stands out among the key activities. The top management leads the excellence development of key processes in the university through appropriate leadership, strategy formulation, establishment of partnerships, resource allocation, and human resources management.

The current work is one of the first studies dealing with the testing of implicit relationships set out by the EFQM model among enablers. The comprehension of these relationships provides a guide to implement, develop, assess and improve higher education institutions.

This paper aims to present the Modelery, a platform for collaborative repository to support model-based software development. The Modelery is a Web platform, composed both by a Web page and Web services for interoperability.

By performing a study in the existing platforms, it was possible to achieve a set of issues to tackle. The issues enabled the possibility to define a set of requirements that allowed the authors to design a new platform, and to perform a model-driven software development process, which started from the requirements until reaching the final software solution.

With this work, it was possible to perform a survey on the currently available artifacts repositories, categorize them and identify their shortcomings. This was essential to define the set of requirements for a new platform to overcome the identified issues. This process leads to a platform able to improve the currently available solutions, and validated in the scientific community. In this paper, the authors also explore the applications of the repository. First, they use the Modelery to replace an older model’s repository. Second, they have enabled the communication between other tools and the Modelery via Web services.

This work presents a new Web repository for software artifacts aimed at supporting researchers and software developers. The presented platform is an improvement over other platforms on the integration of artifacts repository, social functionalities and scientific publications integration. The authors conclude this paper by comparing the achieved platform in terms of functionalities, against the other analyzed platforms.

In Spain, recent experiences by publishing houses are related to the new market of electronic books and they will change the current publishing scene in no time. The paper aims to discuss some of them and to give an outlook of future developments in the sector and in the libraries.

In order to develop the current situation of electronic publishing and the research on the initiatives of production and sales of electronic books, the authors used statistical and business sources, as well as bibliographic and reference databases. They assessed the experiences that have been developed in the libraries regarding the lending and use of electronic books, by means of a survey that considers these points.

There are several working experiences with electronic books, mainly through the subscription of collections in university and research libraries. However, the latest innovation is represented by the appearance of initiatives for the production and creation of publishing contents in Spain. The publication of electronic books in Spain has gone from being a mid‐term possibility, calmly accepted by the publishing sector, to being an unstoppable reality that has forced the main actors in this field to take their positions and to adopt immediate initiatives.

This is the first time that an analysis of the sector of electronic books in Spain and their implications for library and publishing sector is done.

To understand how organizations, public or private, must increase their productivity perception (PP), independently of the sector. This article aims to analyze PP in the digital transformation (DT) process to determine how it is affected by technostress (TS) and work engagement (WE), two concepts that seem to be forces opposing PP.

The authors use data from a questionnaire addressed to personnel in two organizations (public and private). The analysis applies partial least squares technique to the 505 valid responses obtained from these organizations. This analysis is based not on representativeness but on uniqueness.

The results suggest a positive, significant relationship between DT and PP. This article integrates DT and its effects on aspects of people's health, PP and WE. The model thus includes interactions of technology with human elements. In both business and administrative environments, PP is key to optimizing resources and survival of organizations.

DT processes are different and complex because every organization is different. The authors recommend expanding this study to other sectors in both spheres, public and private. Aligning the objectives of the institutions for aid with DT is also quite complicated.

This study contributes to improving participating organizations. It also provides government institutions with a clear foundation from which to encourage actions that promote the health and WE of their workforce without reducing productivity. In addition, this study adds novelty to the research line.

The authors have deepened this line of research by developing fuller knowledge of the relationships among novel and necessary variables in organizations. The authors provide complementary, different and inspiring value in addressing this line of research.

The purpose of this study is to compare different models integrating the TOC and Lean approaches.

The models of reference were identified through a comprehensive literature review. A qualitative and comparative analysis was carried out by pointing out the strengths, weaknesses and gaps of models integrating the TOC and Lean based on the production system requirements.

The findings indicate that these models can be improved by introducing aspects related to the system structure such as main key performance indicators, type of shop layout and performance metrics to evaluate the improvements implemented in the production system. The results provided evidence that the TOC and Lean are complementary approaches, and the individual gaps of each approach seem to be, in the most part, offset by the virtues of the other.

This study enables decision makers and industrial managers to evaluate the practices adopted in the production environment, as well as the use of the different set of continuous improvement practices. This article also minimizes the literature gap regarding whether and how integrated Lean and TOC approach can be used in the firms.

This study contributes to the body of literature on Lean by comparing three different models integrating Lean and the TOC. Furthermore, a research agenda is suggested for future research aimed at developing new models integrating both approaches, aiming to increase the competitiveness of the production systems.

Señor Ruiz‐Morales emphasized at the outset the diversity of the economy of Spain. Not only was Spain cut off from the rest of the European continent by the Pyrenees, but land communications between one region of Spain and another were greatly handicapped by the mountainous nature of the country. The centres of both industrial and agricultural activity lay along the coastal belt, from Bilbao in the north to Barcelona in the south. In the centre was the meseta, the high plateau, dominated by Madrid. In the case of agriculture it was important to distinguish between the land distribution of the south (on the latifundia system) and the very small holdings (minifundia) of the north. Crop growing was concentrated in the valleys and the semi‐tropical climate of the south enabled Spain to export citrus fruits. Most of Spain's mines had been worked for a long time and were nearly exhausted. The country's deficiency was in two vital sources of power—coal and oil. Hydro‐power was, however, being utilized in the Pyrenees (for the Barcelona industrial region) and where the Douro and the Tagus dropped into Portugal. In the early ‘thirties Spain had a considerable gold reserve, but this had been lost to Russia, for the gold had been sent to that country at the time of the Spanish Civil War. Foreign aid was providing an important incentive to economic progress.