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Technology has become an integral part of many businesses and, over time, new technology is deployed for business transformation process. It can come in the form of tools and its assimilation process is context sensitive. This paper invokes an empirical approach to design an ABC template and illustrates how it can be used as a tool for easy assimilation in an SME contextual environment. The approach uses the PROMISE conceptual framework as an interactive platform to exploit different best practices as tools for implementation. The assimilation process illustrated in the case study has been quite successful in a number of aspects, exhibiting an encouraging result valuable for further investigation. It is regarded as the first step in developing the necessary competence to tackle future SME transformation. Furthermore, the implications addressed are likely to be useful to managers who have the initiative for business process transformation and to academia looking for a promising area for future research.

To improve organizational performance and sustain a competitive advantage many Australian businesses have begun to embrace e‐commerce. For example, businesses from the automotive, banking, insurance and retail industries have been able to leverage the benefits of information and communication technologies. Yet, those from the construction industry have been slow, perhaps even reluctant, to implement information and communication technologies to support ecommerce. Thus, this paper aims to determine the barriers that small‐medium sized contractors are experiencing when confronted with the need to implement e‐commerce to sustain their competitiveness. Unstructured interviews were undertaken with managers from 20 small‐medium sized contractors from the State of Victoria in Australia, which had annual turnovers ranging from $1‐50 million. The financial, organizational, technical and human barriers that were identified from findings are presented and discussed. The paper concludes by proposing strategies that small‐medium sized contractors may adopt if they to leverage the benefits of e‐commerce.

This paper aims to give a brief review on behavioral economics and behavioral finance and discusses some of the previous research on agents' utility functions, applicable risk measures, diversification strategies and portfolio optimization.

The authors also cover related disciplines such as trading rules, contagion and various econometric aspects.

While scholars could first develop theoretical models in behavioral economics and behavioral finance, they subsequently may develop corresponding statistical and econometric models, this finally includes simulation studies to examine whether the estimators or statistics have good power and size. This all helps us to better understand financial and economic decision-making from a descriptive standpoint.

The research paper is original.

This paper aims to propose a novel active SLAM framework to realize avoid obstacles and finish the autonomous navigation in indoor environment.

The improved fuzzy optimized Q-Learning (FOQL) algorithm is used to solve the avoidance obstacles problem of the robot in the environment. To reduce the motion deviation of the robot, fractional controller is designed. The localization of the robot is based on FastSLAM algorithm.

Simulation results of avoiding obstacles using traditional Q-learning algorithm, optimized Q-learning algorithm and FOQL algorithm are compared. The simulation results show that the improved FOQL algorithm has a faster learning speed than other two algorithms. To verify the simulation result, the FOQL algorithm is implemented on a NAO robot and the experimental results demonstrate that the improved fuzzy optimized Q-Learning obstacle avoidance algorithm is feasible and effective.

The improved fuzzy optimized Q-Learning (FOQL) algorithm is used to solve the avoidance obstacles problem of the robot in the environment. To reduce the motion deviation of the robot, fractional controller is designed. To verify the simulation result, the FOQL algorithm is implemented on a NAO robot and the experimental results demonstrate that the improved fuzzy optimized Q-Learning obstacle avoidance algorithm is feasible and effective.

Incineration has become increasingly important in many large cities around the world because of fast urbanization and population growth. The benefits of energy production and large reduction in the waste volume to landfills also contribute to its growing adaptation for solid waste management for these cities. At the same time, the environmental impact of the pollutant gases emitted from the incineration process is a common concern for various stakeholders which must be properly addressed. To minimize the pollutant gas emission levels, as well as maximize the energy efficiency, it is critically important to optimize the combustion performance of an incinerator freeboard which would require the development of reliable approaches based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. A critical task in the CFD modeling of an incinerator furnace requires the specification of waste characteristics along the moving grate as boundary conditions, which is not available in standard CFD packages at present. This study aims to address this gap by developing a numerical incinerator waste bed model.

A one-dimensional Lagrangian model for the incineration waste bed has been developed, which can be coupled to the furnace CFD model. The changes in bed mass due to drying, pyrolysis, devolatilization and char oxidation are all included in the model. The mass and concentration of gases produced in these processes through reactions are also predicted. The one-dimensional unsteady energy equations of solid and gas phases, which account for the furnace radiation, conduction, convection and heat of reactions, are solved by the control volume method.

The Lagrangian model is validated by comparing its prediction with the experimental data in the literature. The predicted waste bed height reduction, temperature profile and gas concentration are in reasonable agreement with the observations.

The simplicity and efficiency of the model makes it ideally suitable to be used for coupling with the computational furnace model to be developed in future (so as to optimize incinerator designs).

This paper assesses the environment of legitimacy by determining the role of institutional quality and policy uncertainty on the performance of five major South Asian stock markets (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal) using 21 years data from 2000 to 2020. The focus of this study is to approach the issue of the environment of legitimacy that leads to sustained market returns.

Panel cointegration tests of Kao and Pedroni are applied, and the Dynamic Panel Vector Autoregressive (PVAR) model is used to determine the estimates.

ADF P-Values of both Kao and Pedroni tests show that the panels are cointegrated; the statistical significance of the results of the Kao and Pedroni panel cointegration test confirms cointegration among the variables. After determining the most appropriate lag, the analysis is done using PVAR. The results indicate that institutional quality, policy uncertainty, and GDP positively affect stock market return. Meanwhile, government actions and inflation negatively affect stock market returns. On the other hand, stock market return positively affects institutional quality, government action, policy uncertainty, and GDP. While stock market return negatively affects inflation.

The sample is taken only from a limited number of South Asian countries, and the period is also limited to 21 years.

Based on our research findings, we have identified several policy implications recommended to enhance and sustain the performance of stock markets.

This paper uses a unique analytical tool, which gives a better insight into the problem. The value of this work lies in its findings, which also have practical implications and theoretical significance.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the radio frequency identification (RFID) strategic value attributes (RFIDSVAs) mechanism selections preferences and also integration of RFID tags with technology coordination tools (IRTWTCTs) alternatives ranking performance decisions in supply chain management (SCM). RFID-enabled techno-economic feasibility decisions are enhancing the SC visibility in apparel supply chains (ASCs). The RFIDSVAs mechanism selections have performed significant agility to strategic competitive advantages, namely, inventory visibility, multi-tags ownership transfer within trusted third party, etc.

Fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) and FAHP-fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (FTOPSIS) approaches have been used to evaluate the quantitative assessment of RFIDSVA mechanisms selection decision based on weight priority orders and IRTWTCTs alternatives selection in ASC networks. The comparison of FAHP and FAHP-FTOPSIS approaches to evaluate the integrated framework develop in RFIDSVAs mechanisms and IRTWTCTs alternatives selection decisions in Indian multi-tier ASC networks.

The result found that the FAHP-FTOPSIS approaches have used to prioritizing the RFIDSVA mechanism selection weights and also identify the IRTWTCTs alternatives ranking preferences order in apparel SCM. The comparison between the FAHP and FAHP-FTOPSIS approach to quantitative assessments from RFIDSVA mechanisms and IRTWTCTs alternatives selection decisions, which enable them SC agility potential across multi-tier visibility in ASC networks. ASC stakeholders can be benefited by techno-economic feasibility decisions, RFID-enabled shop floor activities, multi-tags ownerships transfer in SCs and knowledge-based cryptography tags/items separation in SCs.

The research work has considered only five RFIDSVA mechanisms and also three integration of RFIDTWTCTs alternatives in multi-tier ASC. The strategic competitive advantages are achieved by RFID-enabled break-even tags price decisions and also techno-economic feasibility decision by contractual design multi-tier SC stakeholder’s involvements.

The pilot project study explores that the quantitative assessment decision has based on RFID-enable techno-economic feasibility in ASCs. Stakeholders can be benefited by inventory control of the financial losses, reducing the inventory inaccuracies and multi-tags ownership transfer within trusted third-party traceability in ASC networks.

This study explores the RFID-enabled apparel SC process and activities visibility (natural fibre’s fibre producer, fibre dyeing producer, yarn spinning producer, knitting and finishing producer).

The revolution in information technology and the changes in political and social environments during the last two decades have created a very competitive global market. In order to remain competitive, business organizations have focused on innovative techniques for product and process designs. Owing to limited resources, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need to work harder than large corporations in order to survive in a situation of ever‐increasing competition. Considering the importance of elements of computer‐integrated manufacturing (CIM), a framework for the implementation of CIM in SMEs has been developed with the help of a survey conducted in a randomly selected group of 24 SMEs. Also highlights the issues of human resource in the implementation of CIM in SMEs. Finally, presents future research directions.

In 2001, the US moved to regulate internal control reporting by management and auditors. While some jurisdictions have followed the lead of the US, many others have not. An important question, therefore, is the relevance of internal control to stakeholders. The more specific issue of the benefits of US-style regulation of internal control reporting is also topical. We review studies on the determinants of internal control quality and its economic consequences for stakeholders including investors, creditors, managers, auditors and financial analysts. We extend previous reviews by focusing on US studies published since 2013 as well as all non-US studies investigating IC quality including countries regulating IC disclosure as well as unregulated settings and both developed and developing economies. In doing so, we identify research questions where evidence remains mixed and new directions in which there are research opportunities.

Three main insights arise from our analysis. First, evidence on the economic consequences of internal control quality suggests that the quality of internal control can have a significant effect on decision making by users of financial information. Second, the results of research on the empirical association between ownership structure, certain board characteristics and internal control quality is generally mixed. Empirical evidence concerning the association between audit committee characteristics and internal control quality generally supports a positive and significant association. Finally, while studies in non-US jurisdictions are increasing, opportunities remain to explore the determinants and consequences of internal control in other jurisdictions. Our review provides evidence for policy makers of whether there are benefits from requiring management and auditors to report on internal control over financial reporting.