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The aim of this study is to increase the understanding of collaborative relationships and assess according to the project size, the influence of the contributory factors in shaping collaboration network structure in projects developed in global supply chains (GSC).

The paper used a case study methodology applied to eight global projects developed by an Austrian company leader in global market intra-logistics solutions and warehouse automation. The cases were studied by two approaches in network analysis. First, visual and descriptive analysis to describe structural aspects of the network. Second, stochastic network analysis to evaluate the influence of contributory factors in the structure of the collaboration network.

The results evidence that independently of the project size and project manager influence, project team roles (PTR) who have a reciprocal communication among other PTR tend to have a higher collaboration intensity (CI). Additionally, the results highlight the influence of the project manager in shaping the collaboration network in standard projects (STP) and small projects (SMP). According to the project size, the results show that the PTR that form complete triangles or cluster or who communicate frequently among each other tend to have a high CI, being more evident these tendencies in large-scale projects than STP and SMP.

This research provides a framework to identify the key actors and contributory factors in shaping collaborative relationships in GSC. The findings could be used to support the decision-making process and formulation strategies for effective collaborative relationship management in GSC.

The purpose of this paper is to review the relevant literature in order to identify trends and suggest some possible directions for future research in the framework of humanitarian aid distribution logistics with accessibility constraints.

The authors developed a systematic literature review to study the state of the art on distribution logistics considering accessibility constraints. The electronic databases used were Web of science, Scopus, Science Direct, Jstor, Emerald, EBSCO, Scielo and Redalyc. As a result, 49 articles were reviewed in detail.

This study identified some gaps, as well as some research opportunities. The main conclusions are the need for further studies on the interrelationships and hierarchies of multiple actors, explore intermodality, transshipment options and redistribution relief goods to avoid severe shortages in some nodes and excess inventory in others, studies of the vulnerability of transport networks, correlational analysis of road failures and other future lines.

The bibliography is limited to peer-reviewed academic journals due to their academic relevance, accessibility and ease of searching. Most of the studies included in the review were conducted in high-income countries, which may limit the generalizability of the results to low-income countries. However, the authors focused on databases covering important journals on humanitarian logistics.

This paper contextualises and synthesises research into humanitarian aid distribution logistics with accessibility constrains, highlights key themes and suggests areas for further research.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the access of students to higher education has presented an extraordinary growth over the past fifteen years. This rapid growth has presented a challenge for increasing the system resources and capabilities while maintaining its quality. As a result, the networked universities (NUs) organized themselves as a collaborative network, and they have become an interesting model for facing the complexity driven by globalization, rapidly changing technology, dynamic growth of knowledge and highly specialized areas of expertise. In this article, we studied the NU named Red Universitaria Mutis (Red Mutis) with the aim of characterizing the collaboration and integration structure of the network.

Network analytic methods (visual analysis, positional analysis and a stochastic network method) were used to characterize the organizational structure and robustness of the network, and to identify what variables or structural tendencies are related to the likelihood that specific areas of a university would collaborate.

Red Mutis is a good example of regional NUs that could take advantage of the strengths, partnerships, information and knowledge of the regional and international universities that form the network. Analyses showed that Red Mutis has a differentiated structure consisting of academic and non-academic university areas with a vertical coordination (by steering and management) of the different university areas.

The methodology could be used as a framework to analyze and strengthen other strategic alliances between universities and as a model for the development of other NU in local and global contexts.

Overweight, obesity, and physical inactivity have in recent years become an important public health problem worldwide. Investigations that study obesity using a systemic approach in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are limited. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to study the nutritional stages dynamics within the Colombian urban population.

The authors used a population-level systems dynamics (SD) model that captures the transitions of population by body mass index (BMI) categories. The authors proposed a heuristic to estimate the transference rates (TRs) between BMI categories using data from the Colombian Demographic and Health Survey 2005 and 2010.

The Colombian urban population is moving to overweight and obese categories. The TRs from not overweight to overweight and from overweight to obese (0.0076 and 0.0054, respectively) are higher than the TRs from obese to overweight and from overweight to not-overweight (1.025×10e−7 and 3.47×10e−7, respectively). The simulation results show that the prevalences of overweight and obesity will increase by 6.2 and 7.5 percent by 2015, and by 13.4 and 18.9 percent by 2030, respectively.

Investigations that study obesity using a systemic approach in LMICs are limited. A SD model was proposed to examine changes in the population’s nutritional stages using population accumulation structures by BMI categories. The authors propose a heuristic to estimate the TRs of individuals between BMI categories. The proposed model can be used to study the effects of policy interventions to prevent overweight and obesity. The authors analyze a few policy intervention strategies.

Taking as reference a sample of around a hundred biographical materials on entrepreneurs in Mexico and Colombia, the purpose of this chapter is dual. Both to show the relevance and varied modalities that the biographical approach has enjoyed in business history research since the 1990s, and to display the intrinsic potential this modality of scholarship entails for entrepreneurship endeavors. In particular, it discusses the prospects to incorporate this body of empirical works into the large Latin American audience attending undergraduate, graduate and executive education programs in business, economic history and related fields. The chapter is organized into three sections. The first two are devoted to illustrate relevant patterns in the entrepreneurial trajectory of individuals and entrepreneurial families studied in each of the two countries under consideration. The last section identifies some conceptual issues that may impact current debates on Latin American business development as exemplified in recent business and economic history journal venues and scholarly conferences.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of layer thickness, aspect ratio, part thickness and build orientation on distortion to have a better understanding of its behavior in material jetting technology.

Specimens with two layer thicknesses (14 and 28 µm) were printed in two aspect ratios (2:1) and (10:1), four thickness values (1, 2, 3 and 4 mm) and three build orientations (45d, XY and YX) and scanned with a wide-area 3D surface scanner to quantify distortion. The material used to build the test specimens was a commercially available resin, VeroWhitePlus RGD835.

The results of this study showed that all printed specimens by material jetting 3D printers had some level of distortion. The 1-mm thickness specimens, for both layer thicknesses of 14 µm and 28 µm, showed a wide range of anomalies including reverse coil set (RCS), reverse cross bow (RCB), cross bow (CB), wavy edge (WE) and some moderate twisting (T). Similar occurrences were observed for the 2-mm thickness specimens as there were RCS, WE, RCB and T anomalies that show the difference between the thinner specimens (1- and 2-mm) with the thicker ones (3- and 4-mm). In both 3- and 4-mm thickness specimens, there was more consistency in terms of distortion with mainly RCS and RCB anomalies. In total, six different types of flatness anomalies were found to occur with the following incidences: reverse coil set (91 specimens, 63.19%), reverse cross bow (50 specimens, 34.72%), wavy edge (23 specimens, 15.97%), twist (19 specimens, 12.50%), coil set (11 specimens, 7.64%) and cross bow (7 specimens, 4.86%).

This study expands the research on how the preprocess parameters such as layer thickness and build orientation and the geometrical parameters such as part thickness and aspect ratio cause dimensional distortion. Distortion is a pervasive consequence of the curing process in photopolymerization and explores one of the most common defects that come across in polymeric-based additive manufacturing. In addition to the characterization of the type and magnitude of distortion, the contributions of this work also include establishing the foundation for design guidelines aiming at minimizing distortion in material jetting.

The present study is an empirical evaluation of job satisfaction among the managers involved in the oil industry in Kuwait. The study was conducted on 153 full‐time managers selected from three different oil companies. Mean student's t‐test, Scheffe test, and One‐Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were employed to analyze the data. The result indicates that there were significant differences found with regard to age, years of experience, managerial rank, and education.

This chapter is intended to present the onset, evolution, and decline of Compañía Minera El Zancudo, considered the largest Colombian company in the nineteenth century. Additionally, the chapter will examine its role in both the development of manufacturing industries and the introduction of modern capitalism in the country.

The case is based on secondary information collected according to a documentary research method in which the authors selected, categorized, interpreted, and confronted different sources concerning El Zancudo.

The inception and evolution of El Zancudo involved local and foreign knowledge, techniques, and capital investments that contributed to the company growing to the point of reaching the unprecedented figure of 1,350 workers in the year 1890. Its transition from a failed local mine to a prosperous and intricate business group is full of referrals and links to foreign investment, knowledge transfer, industrial development, and an orientation toward entrepreneurship that contributed to the understanding of subsequent enterprises not only in the Antioquia region but also across the entire country.

This case study was written using limited reliable secondary sources about El Zancudo. Other significant Colombian companies in the nineteenth century (Ferrería de Pacho, Ferrería de Amagá, Empresa Textilera de Samacá, and Cervecería Bavaria) and their links to El Zancudo were mentioned but not deeply analyzed in this chapter.

The clear-cut causes that led El Zacudo to close its operations within the first decades of the twentieth century are worthy of discussion, not only by scholars and business practitioners, but also by policy makers in order to understand the phenomenon and possibly prevent existing companies from failing in a similar manner.

This case brings together the scattered literature on El Zancudo and analyzes the drivers and consequences of both its rise and fall, taking into consideration the specific historical, political, and economic contexts, furthermore, it establishes some linkages between this case and other companies under similar situations.